Big Sky Country: Scenery

I have just remembered that I didn't ever finish blogging about Clay's trip to Montana in September. Wow! That's a "senior moment" -- how embarrassing. I had the photos all ready and everything. Now I've forgotten what Clay told me to say about each of them. (Maybe I should wake him up and ask him to describe them to me again? No, that's a bad idea. I'll just guess, and he can correct me later.)

The mountains in the distance are "Pilot" and "Index" -- these are Clay's favorite mountains. He takes numerous pictures of them every time he goes to Montana. We have 30 years worth of pictures of these mountains. They haven't changed much, but he still keeps taking more pictures of them. :)



Here they are a little bit closer.



(some lake in some valley from some high point above it)

Clay and Ed hiked through part of the area that ended up getting burned in 1988, the year of the huge Yellowstone fires. There isn't a trail to follow any more.

Interesting geologic feature.

Clay liked the red color of these cliffs.

Looking out from a high vantage point.

Pretty wildflowers.

He suggested that we could use this for our vacation home. I said no thanks!

The view from the family cabin out across "the meadow."



And the view looking back at the cabin (the green roof in the center of the picture).

It was nearly 10:00 p.m. when Clay took this picture. He put the camera on a tripod so he could have the shutter open for a longer period of time. It almost looks like daytime. (Notice the Big Dipper).

From the airplane on the way home.

;)

Fall Foliage

I was going to call this post "A Dead End Day" because we kept running into little "snags" all day long, but we really did have a nice day, so I decided that title was too harsh. I'll explain a little better as I go along.

These first three pictures were taken at home the day before our little trip up the McKenzie to see the fall foliage. I had looked out the front door Friday afternoon and noticed how beautiful the leaves were on our vine maples with the sun shining down on them. So I took a few pictures (I got some strange looks from several of our neighbors as they saw me out in the front yard pointing my camera up at the trees).


Blue skies and sunshine will become quite rare here in the next few months, so we have to enjoy it while we have it.


There was quite a variety of colors just on a single tree.

On Saturday, we headed up Highway 126. Clay's plan was to pick up a CD guided tour of the Aufderheide National Scenic Byway at the McKenzie Ranger Station. (You listen to the CD as you drive this road, and supposedly it points out all the attractions to stop and see). This scenic byway "meanders for 54 miles through the foothills of the Cascade, first following the South Fork McKenzie River (and Cougar Reservoir) and then following the North Fork of the Middle Fork Willamette River." (Sidenote: Does anybody besides me think the rivers are named a bit oddly in Oregon, i.e. "the North Fork of the Middle Fork"??)

Anyway, we discovered that the Ranger Station isn't open on Saturdays this time of year, so no CD guided tour (1st dead end). We pulled out a detailed map of the area and looked at the route, trying to plan where to stop and eat lunch, and what hiking trails we were interested in.

Before we reached the turnoff for the scenic byway, we stopped to take pictures of the McKenzie River at a picturesque spot, complete with covered bridge.

I know this picture is a lot like the first one, but I couldn't decide which one I liked best so I used both of them.

This is the part of the river that fills Cougar Reservoir.

And this is Cougar Reservoir.

This is further up the road from the dam. The reservoir is drained down quite a bit this time of year. Not quite as picturesque, but it was interesting to see the tree stumps, etc. that are usually covered by water, although it would have made a much better picture of the reflections of the trees if the water hadn't been so low.


We headed further along the scenic byway, and got to the place where we planned to eat lunch and go hiking -- Roaring River Campground. We found out that it was closed (2nd dead end).

Just past it was a forest service road, so we went up it just a little ways, parked the truck and walked up an old logging road, hoping to get in a nice little hike through the forest. It was pleasant, but it ended in less than half a mile (3rd dead end).

Clay saw an "improved gravel road" on the map called the Roaring Ridge road, so we decided to explore that, hoping to get a nice scenic view from the top of the ridge. The drive was okay, kinda pretty (although there was a predominance of yellow foliage all day, and not much of any other colors). Anyway, we got all the way to the top without finding much of a "lookout point" -- and hit a dead end, of course. The road just ended in a small clearing at the top, where a truck was parked and a guy was standing there holding a gun. (Yes, we spent the whole day wandering around the mountains during deer hunting season!! Not the best idea in the world -- we decided we need to buy some bright orange vests if we plan on hiking during hunting season.)

Still looking for a nice hiking trail, we headed up the road to "Skookum Creek Campground."

This looked like a nice place for camping, if you don't mind roughing it a bit. There are several little lakes to hike into, and the trail was nice. It was getting kind of late in the afternoon, so it was hard to get any good pictures because the lighting just wasn't right.

We hiked to Lower Erma Bell Lake, which was 1-3/4 miles from the trailhead. We'd like to come here again and explore a little further.

I think this is a pretty good picture of my best friend.

Houseguests

We've had 3 houseguests for a week or so, and despite Benjamin Franklin's assertion that "Fish and visitors stink after three days," we're willing to have them stay as long as they want. They're very quiet, don't eat much, get along well with each other, don't make big messes, and haven't caused us any trouble at all (they really don't stink either).

So obviously they are not human beings.




Here are Sokka and Zuko....


....and this is Aang.

They are named after characters from the animated television series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" -- which I have never seen, so I hope I got their names correct.

They take turns nicely on their exercise wheel -- I haven't heard a single argument!


They belong to Melissa, but we are hosting them for a while for a couple of reasons. First, she needed to request some work done on their apartment, and since they're not supposed to have pets, it's best that the gerbils are gone at that time. And second, Danica loves them a little too much, but isn't quite old enough to know what is or isn't good for them. For example, she tried to give them a "bath" in the plastic storage container they live in, and they could have drowned (they're desert animals and take "sand baths" to get clean).


They're fairly friendly, and don't really bite (just sometimes a little nibble that doesn't hurt), and they move really fast. They love chewing on things, and can completely break down a toilet paper tube or paper towel tube in an amazingly short period of time.

Duck Race

Yesterday we went to a duck race.


Not this kind of duck race......



....Not even this kind of duck race.



It was this kind of a duck race.



Here are some of the racers -- rarin' to go! I'm not sure which one is our little quacker, whom we affectionately refer to as "#107170". Unfortunately, he was not a winner, but we love him anyway!



Here is the (rather scary looking) official duck race mascot.



AND THEY'RE OFF!

Being dumped out of a garbage dumpster seems a little undignified to me, but I guess it's the fairest way to get more than 60,000 contestants into the race at the same time. :)
I got this picture off the internet, as we were not present at the start of the race.


Our first view of them coming around the bend of the river.



Here are a few as they pass under the bridge where we're watching.



Unfortunately, many of the timid ones head for the calmer waters along the shoreline. The really competitive ones go straight for the rapids!



Clay thinks this one is going to be the winner because it's so far out ahead of the rest.



They're heading for the finish line, which you can see just to the right of that center bridge piling.




I think this is a picture of the finish line of last year's race. I understand that the winners are the first ones into the clear plastic funnel/box in the middle. Then the rest just get scooped up by nets, and boxed up to head out to their next race, somewhere else in the USA. Duck races are popular fund raisers.



Volunteers monitor the river to make sure no ducks get away.



They also had other activities for children there at the park near the finish line. Danica became a butterfly with the face painting. We think she looks like a comic book super hero. Neil thought she looked like a professional wrestler!

Soccer Player

I know Melissa has already done a blog on Danica's "Tot Soccer" class, but since Clay and I were able to take her to her most recent class (and we can't resist taking pictures), I thought I could get away with doing a similar post. Clay was mostly taking movies, but I haven't figured out how to manipulate them yet, so here are a few still photos.

Isn't she cute in her soccer outfit?



She had great enthusiasm. All the kids had plenty of energy! One little boy in her group spent a lot of time running away for the young "coaches" to chase after him. And another little boy delighted in kicking over the cones that had just been set up for them to dribble through.



Their youth coaches were very young! Some of them seemed more inclined towards goofing off, but the two in charge of Danica's group of 6 seemed to pretty much stay on track.



Stickers are a great reward for 4-year-olds.....



....but also somewhat of a distraction (Danica kept checking to make sure hers were still on her forehead!).



They practiced dribbling.



She was pretty good at doing what she was supposed to be doing (at least when she understood what she was being asked to do), but she did have a major meltdown when one of the adult leaders took off with her ball to demonstrate some dribbling moves. Even though there were dozens of exactly the same balls, Danica knew which one was "hers" and she wanted it back! She would accept no substitutes, and wasn't happy until she got hers back.


On the way home she talked about what a great soccer player she will become some day. I think I'll become a soccer fan.