Oregon City/Alder Flat - Week 33 - August 17 - August 23, 2020

An exciting birthday activity happened this week!!!!!  Logan and I went to Alder Flat for the night and for FISHING.

Isn't he raring to go?



On the way up to Alder Flat, while trying to adjust the air conditioning in the car, I barely tapped my phone which was in the holder on the dash, and the phone flipped off and onto the floor.  No problem except that I forgot to get the phone before heading down to the campsite!!!  Grrrr....  I realized the absence of the phone when I wanted to take the first photo of 'Logan The Fisherman'.  So you will have to imagine the following scenes.

Logan crawling up to the top of a big rock
Logan on the top of a small rock in the middle of the river
Logan walking in the water
Logan finding an inch long fish in a tiny pool of water and then 'saving' it by transferring it to the main river .........with predators
Logan  blowing up his mattress and setting out his sleeping bag.
Logan and me eating dinner
Logan learning how to cast a line on a fishing rod
Logan catching his first fish that he all by himself - no help from me


We had a great time - we took the spot that is furthest up river so we were very secluded from all the passers-by.  There were a LOT of people wandering by in groups of two to three.  Mostly they were young, in shorts and bikinis, and tattooed.  We tried to go up river and fish on our first afternoon,but every place we tried to get to was already inhabited by young people lounging in the water or alongside the shore.  By about 7:30 everyone of those interlopers had left and we were finally along in our campground.

It was quite warm, and the first night (the only night) I had to say to myself. "just relax, the temperature will lower and you will fall into a blissful sleep".  Which happened. We were jup at 6:00 and had a great fishing experience.  We caught six fish and kept half.  Logan was very excited!



We left at about 10:00 just as more small groups of people started arriving to spend their day lounging in the sun,  By the time we got to the parking lot there were seven parked cars.  We all suffer from the results of that article in the Oregonian---about five or so years ago -- titled "The Best Swimming Hole on the Clackamas at Alder Flat".

We at lunch at the taco truck in Estacada and were home by about 1:00.  That evening we had fried trout for dinner - Logan loved it!



Natalie's Bridal Shower was on Saturday ate the Isom home.  Bev did all the planning, and kthe event turned out nicely.












She received many nice gifts.  Here she is opening her gift from me - Felco Pruning Shears...she'll be able to cut almost anything!



I worked tons in the woods - mostly spraying ivy but also cutting out salmonberry bushes which are heavily clustered along South Creek.  I must say, this week, I have gone into parts of the woods that likely have never been previously visited by a human.  And even though I have been spraying since mid June, I found places where the ivy was untouched and green, and lovely, and vigorous, and thick...but not any more.

We received nine photo requests for Find a Grave both at Mountain View and St John Catholic Cemetery.'
Sunday dinner was at the Manor.  We celebrated both Ryan's and Shelby"s, and Natalie's
birthday.









Camille got creative with her camera - I think it is a grouper fish or something



Warren made the birthday cake which was also the final test for Natalie's wedding cake for next Friday.



She got to practice cutting the cake with Ryan substituting for Clay.





And she practiced feeding a piece of the cake to her new spouse!





Next will be the BIG one!

Jefferson Park - Week 32 - August 10 - August 16, 2020

Ahhhh - it is mid August and what better time to head up to Jefferson Park to camp at one of the most beautiful places in Oregon?!  There were eight of us - Jessica, Bev, Camille, Kyna, Jenn and McKenzie Isom, Melissa Albiston, and I.  Olga was planning to go, but at the last moment she had to drop out because of a terrible tooth infection and subsequent extraction.

We left at 7am Monday so we could be on the trail by 10:00.  Here we are in all of our clean-ness







There was a big fire in 2018 which caused the closure of Jefferson Park in 2019 - and you could see the devastating results of the fire!





This is the junction with the trail to Triangulation Point



In the full sun, we were really HOT, and the soles of my feet were burning up.  But, the only option was to press forward.

The only good side of the fire is that there were unrestricted views of the mountain.  Previously we couldn't see the mountain because of the pesky trees.





You can see the extent of the fire damage.  It looks like the fires just swooshed up the mountain side...especially in the valleys.



The trail to Jefferson Park is 5 miles long, and at the four mile point, we hiked into luscious green meadows with babbling brooks.









Bev and four others had gone ahead of three of us slower folk and had roamed the tent site area, finding the most perfect spot available.....our favorite site, #6, was already taken, but they found a good one, #17, which was on Bays Lake - that was a first for us as we've always been on the shore of Scout Lake.





And, we got to watch the movie on the mountainside called, "Sunset".



Bright and early Tuesday morning we headed to The Edge of Paradise - my most favoritist place in the whole world.  I think I like it so much because one must scramble cross country and up a very very very steep mountain to get to it.  And, besides that, Kyna, Olga and I discovered it on one trip when we followed surveyors tape that had been tied on to tree branches.  The marked trees led us to a small area where there had been a fire - so we figured the fire fighters had put up the tape.  We explored the area more extensively and kept going uphill and crossed three snow fields - and there we were on the Edge of Paradise.

Here we go - leaving our campsite





Walking past Scout Lake





Heading across a meadow



And in the distance you can see a rock fall on the side of a hill




Right there, between the two little trees is the entrance.





Up we went






Now we're through the really steep part into open mountain meadows.'











Made it!!



We plopped down at the lunch site and enjoyed the view for a couple of hours.





This may be my favorite photo.



Photos all around













Eventually we had to leave - - one last photo of E of P



Back across the meadows







Passed by Favorite Number  6



Next morning - Wednesday -we woke up to a rain shower...."plop plop plop" on our tents.  The sky white with clouds



which got thicker




What to do?  It was cold - I had on all three of the jackets I had brought, and the others were bundled warmly too.  The plan had been to hike to Park Butte, but only three of the eight of us wanted to go.  McKenzie and Melissa had nasty blisters (really nasty ones),  Jenn and Jess didn't want to to Park Butte, and Kyna was cold - - - who wants to sit huddled in one's tent while three others hike to the top of a beautiful place - not as beautiful of E of P.  The decision was made,...we would leave a day early.

We packed up....sniff..





Jenn's tent had a big problem with tent poles.





The hike out was much easier - well, it was all downhill, but there were clouds!!!  We did the five miles in three hours







The alpine flowers were the best ever!



the burned forest didn't bother us much



..and lunch at Poppa Al's was the best