July 4: Whitewater and Hot Dogs

After a couple of days full of late afternoon thunderstorms, something we had not witnessed in the four years we lived in the Willamette Valley and also something that, perversely, we missed from Virginia, we got a fully sunny forecast for the early part of July 4th. We needed to get out of the house after being cooped up, but last time we were out, Ann messed up her feet pretty badly. I would get in pretty serious trouble if I said "I told you so!" about wearing new shoes on a long walk, so I won't say "I told you so!"

Long and short, we wanted to get out for a little exercise, but walking very far on Ann's bum feet was not in the cards, nor was doing anything with any kind of elevation gain. We decided to head to the Benham Falls East side trail head and make the brief flat walk along the Deschutes River to the falls and back, before heading back home to prepare a July 4th hot dog dinner.

The road to the trailhead/boat launch leaves US 97 at the Lava Lands Visitors Center where I was surprised to see a Forest Service employee manning the entrance gate on a federal holiday. For the four miles from the entrance to the parking area, we played Frogger with the local rodents. Every few hundred yards, another little critter tried to play tag with our tires: Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels, tiny Yellow-pine Chipmunks, and a lone Douglas' Squirrel schlepping a Ponderosa Pine cone across the road.

We arrived early in the morning when there was plenty of parking in the small lot and headed downriver for the short walk to the falls, which we visited about three weeks ago, but from the west side of the river, walking upriver from Dillon Falls. From the parking lot to the falls, we had large amounts of the walk to ourselves, but by the time we reached the falls, people were swarming in from the west side. The walk back was a circus of people, screaming kids, bikes, and general mayhem stemming from the holiday. We were glad to leave the masses behind and head home. As we were leaving, overflow cars from the parking lot lined the entrance road for a good quarter mile.

Yellow Salsify, Tragopogon dubius

Woods Full of Blooming Western Columbine, Aquilegia formosa

American Vetch, Vicia americana

Oxeye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare

Footbridge Crossing from East to West Side

Forget-Me-Nots (Myosotis sp.) Growing on Beaver Dam

Red-Wing Blackbird Protecting His Turf

Raft of Invasive Yellow Iris, Iris pseudacorus
and Blooming Red Osier Dogwood, Cornus sericea

Song Sparrow Serenading Us

More Yellow Iris in Front of
Highly Poisonous Water Hemlock, Cicuta maculata

Sharp-leaved Monkeyflower, Erythranthe decora

River Side Rock Formation

Cliffside Penstemons

Mass of Penstemons

Penstemon Blossom Detail

Riverside Yellow-Pine Chipmunk

Woods' Rose, Rosa woodsii

A St. John's Wort, Hypericum sp.

Diamond Clarkia, Clarkia rhomboidea

One of a Pair of Highly Vocal Ospreys

Sticky Cinquefoil, Drymocallis glandulosa

Mulie Doe on Trail

Beautiful Lupine, Lupinus sp.

Turbulent Water at Head of Benham Falls

Looking Downriver from Top of Benham Falls

Rock Island in Falls

Woodland Pinedrops, Pterospora andromedea

Looking Upriver at Benham Falls

Given the rampant pace of increase in new COVID cases (aren't we done with that sh*t yet?!!?), we decided to stay at home and not brave public spaces with masses of holiday celebrants. In the mid-afternoon, I made us a couple of caipirinhas to set the mood. Later on, I cooked some small potatoes that I made into potato salad (sour cream, bacon, and parsley) and then grilled some hot dogs that we scored earlier in the week just for this little mini-celebration.

Although we don't eat hot dogs very often, when we do, we are questing after a faint memory from our collective childhoods in which a hot dog was a hot dog. It seems that our requirements for hot dogs are modest, yet we cannot find one that really scratches our itches. We want three things: deep flavor, succulence, and above all, that elusive and inimitable snap when you bite in. We got two different kinds from a local farm, a regular dog that was fairly good and one styled a Louisiana Hot that was pretty bad with all manner of fake flavors. Our search for the holy hot dog grail continues.

Caipirinhas 

Hot Dogs and Potato Salad