There are days and hikes that sometimes never go as planned. Today was one such that we both wish could have been a do-over at some other place. Being brand new to the area, we still don't know where to hike and we are finding that you can't get from point A to point B with any speed. There is no road infrastructure here so even though we should be only minutes from the Coastal Range, all drives are at least an hour and with about a four-hour window between dog walks, there is no profit in driving over two hours just to walk about two hours.
Making the best of a difficult situation, Ann randomly picked a destination called Willamette Mission State Park near Keizer, about 45 minutes from the house. The site of the first mission in the Oregon territory, the park is also home to one of the largest cottonwood trees in the country, if not the largest. Some historical sites and an awesome tree? Not exactly the mountains, but it could work for a quick flat-land hike.
On approaching the park, however, things started to go really south. First, there was a long line of cars and school buses at the entrance. We would get into the park to find dozens and dozens of school buses, hundreds of cars, and pack after pack of high school kids. Awesome! We spotted a ranger, asked her what was going on, and ultimately bummed a trail map from her after finding out that it was a local high school cross country meet that had all of the more interesting part of the park closed to the public. We almost turned around. We should have turned around.
Trying to make lemonade from our lemons, we headed south up the river along the riverside path that wound in and out of the woods and grasses. Soon enough, we had got away from the crowd, but the hiking was dull and uninteresting.
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| Stones Along the River Bank |
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| Fox Sparrow in the Grass |
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| Slough on the Willamette River |
The further upriver we got, the wilder it got and as we skirted along a little slough shooting off the river proper, I heard a bald eagle give its signature call. I looked up to see one cruising the far side of the treeline along a pasture when another came across the river to join it. Soon enough, a large hawk joined the group and started harassing the eagles.
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| Bald Eagle, One of a Pair |
Just after this and about 2.5 miles into our 4.5-mile hike, I heard Ann scream like I have never heard her scream before. She was crying and slapping at things I couldn't see and it took me a few seconds to understand that she was being stung by some insect. I went over to grab her by the hand to try to get her to run away down the path when all of a sudden, my leg felt like someone had shot a flaming hot nail from a nail gun into it. She would be stung four times and I would be stung three times before I could get her to run with me down the trail. When we got safely away, I found a dead yellow jacket in her shirt. We were in intense pain for the next 30 minutes and would not be pain- and itch-free for a week. Damn, those things hurt!
Needless to say, our day was pretty much ruined and we finished the remainder of our walk without a lot of enthusiasm.
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| Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare |
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| Purple Jimsonweed, Datura stramonium |
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| White Jimsonweed |
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| Jimsonweed Seed Pod |
All along the hike, we kept spotting a plant that looks like a
Lonicera with white berries that resembles Doll's Eyes back east. It turns out to be Common Snowberry.
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| Snowberry, Symphoricarpos albus |
All in all, a pretty miserable experience and not great hiking.
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