With a full day ahead of us and beautiful weather encouraging us, Ridley and I made our way to the coast to spend the day playing in the sand and chasing waves. With a full bag of his construction trucks, we set to work building our construction site with hills, pits, and roads connecting them all. At one point, Ridley found a crab pincher that he thought was pretty cool; I had to agree!
Little Adventures
Little Adventure: Campfire Lunch in the Woods
We set out to explore a new area of the Willamette National Forest just north of Westfir. I'd been up there once before, and Ridley had never been, so it felt like a great area to spend the day. As soon as we got off the paved road and onto the gravel, I let Ridley get up in the front seat next to me. We never go more than 10-15 mph. As we drove deeper into the woods, we came across a few great viewpoints of the mountains that I would like to get back to at some point.
We didn't have much of a plan other than exploring new areas we've never been, but I did have a small destination in mind. It was a little blip on the map that I was hoping would be a great destination. Unfortunately, it was only a rock outcropping for rock climbers to practice on so we kept going. Not too far away we found a little no-name lake that we stopped at for lunch. There we found a fire pit and a healthy amount of firewood left over from the last visitor, so we made a little fire to enjoy while we ate.
Little Adventures : From Rain to Snow
Ridley and I headed out this morning to explore the Fall Creek State Recreation Area. To the best of my memory, I had never been out quite that far, I know I've been close as a kid to fish in the middle fork of the Willamette, but never up Fall Creek. The weather was pretty rainy to begin the adventure, not great for hiking with a little one, but good for quick snaps out the truck of the low hanging clouds. I let Ridley bring his Leappad educational tablet, and I would hear him giggling every now and again from the back, it made me smile.
After pulling over a few times around Fall Creek Lake, we headed up Big Fall Creek road following Murphy Creek. There was a location I had seen where a forest fire came through killing most of the trees but a vast amount of them stayed standing like light poles. I would guess the fire came through 7-10 years ago based on the new undergrowth. We put around for a while with Ridley driving his monster truck over the trail, but the rain picked up again, and we decided to head out and head up.
When we drive on old logging roads, I let Ridley sit up front with me. We never get over 15 miles an hour, and since the name of the game is to find photos, we often drive much slower. At this point, we put away the LeapPad, and I get Ridley's snacks out, and the adventure begins. Halfway up a few deer ran across the road and Ridley called them Ding-a-lings (a family term for dummies) because they ran across the path in front of us.
We continued upward and eventually found ourselves in the snow. At first, it was a few patches here and there but ultimately got pretty thick. I tend to try to get up as high as we can hoping to find an elevated viewpoint, but this time it was working against us, we just got into deeper and deeper snow. Now it was nothing crazy, but I'm new to 4x4'n and don't have much recovery gear, to boot my partner in crime is only four years old, so I try to keep it pretty safe. Once my "spidey-sense" kicked in, I decided to turn around and a good thing I did. Within 10 feet of me turning around, I nearly got stuck in a foot of snow in 4-low with the diff locked. Of course, we made it out just fine, but it was a lesson to me to follow my gut and that I also need some better recovery gear.
Little Adventures : Elijah Bristow SP
After driving past more times than I can count, I finally decided it was time to explore the local state park. I recently was reading about the history of the area and found out this park is named after one of the original pioneers of the southern Willamette Valley. That peaked my interest, so Ridley and I went out to explore it.
We got there mid-morning and it being a Monday, we nearly had the place to ourselves. Ridley's hiking legs are still pretty small, so we stuck to a one-mile loop through the forest by the river. The weather was cold, but the light was coming through the trees was incredibly beautiful. Portions of the trail are mixed use for hikers, mountains bikes, and even horses.
We passed by a few swamping ponds with some of the stillest water I've seen. I would love to come back and photograph it in some thick fog. We made our way down to the river and spent a good time throwing rocks into the water making up fun names our silly throws. I don't know why it's taken me so long to get there, but I'll be back.
Little Adventures : A Place in the Woods
A ghost town is a wrong word to describe it because there isn't much left, but it's a special place in the woods. In the late 19th and early 20th century, there was a little logging town in the Mohawk Valley called Wendling. It no longer exists, the cost of logging became too high, so the company moved out taking the town with them. Before that, my great grandparents lived there raising their family; where my grandfather and his siblings grew up. My grandfather started his life here and is now the final place where he and his wife.
Recently I went up to Wendling with my Son. Not long before that I went up with my video camera to make a tribute video and discovered a vast amount of structures I wasn't aware were there. With this new knowledge, I let my son "lead" our exploration of the area. We spent the morning looking at all the different remains of the once thriving tow.
