Beating the Heat

The Sprout Swimming at Bunch Bar

The forecast for the weekend was HOT so we planned to visit Bunch Bar on the Umpqua River just past Elkton. The bar is a place where the water is shallow and swift with great slack-water on the the sides giving little people a safe place to play. 

On the way down we dropped into the Elkton Community Education Center. The center has a butterfly pavilion and garden among its varied attractions. In 2005 Sunset magazine selected the center as “one of the five best places to see butterflies".

The center has more than that to offer though. An amphitheater, Botanical gardens, native plant nursery, community library, cafe are among the many offerings of the center. They are also constructing a replica of Fort Umpqua.  

The Bean Himself in the
Butterfly Pavilion

The Sprout & The Bean Himself @
The Elkton Communty Education  Center 

The center's gardens also have several rows of berry bushes. A sign declares that visitors are welcome to eat the berries but requests that you leave some for the visitors that will be coming after you. This made The Bean's day. He is a berry lover and could have stayed all day looking for the perfect berry. Actually he didn't have to look very long before he found the biggest blueberry that I have ever seen. He spoke about it often throughout the day amazed by his good luck. 

"Dad, that berry was So Good!"

The Sprout in the ECEC Library

Gunsight Mountain?

View at EasyCaptures.com

Gunsight is actually an old quarry on a portion of  a land feature named Eagle Rock. Friends call this particular spot Gunsight...more on that later.

We had hoped to get further away from town but had to many To Do's to accomplish before we could get going. I had read about the area on a geocache page and knew it was closer in so we decided to give it a shot. We headed up for the cache along the former road that is now well on its way to being reclaimed by nature. The hike was a nice one with one good viewpoint looking back out over Dexter Lake and the valley. This alone would have been worthy of a cache but we didn't know what waited. We expected another "normal" viewpoint. This location was so much more than we expected. When we stepped into the bowl near the cache location it was like stepping into another world.
The flora changed. The world went silent. Echos off the cliff face bounced back in staccato bursts. There were succulents in bloom everywhere and the sunlight off the jagged rock face to the east was beautiful and that was all before we got to the view.

Later when we were showing photos to some friends and talking about the location one of them recognized the location even though he had never been to the top. He said he and other friends call it Gunsight Mountain because when you are traveling west on 58 it looks like you are looking at a sight down the end of a gun barrel. He also said there is a "famous" rock climbing photo/poster that features the location looking back down on the valley with a climber hanging onto the rock face with the same view down the valley to the east.
We came prepared with a snack and spent some extra time taking in the wonder of this area. Before we left we heard a train whistle and The Bean Himself and Mr. Bean had the joy of watching the long train pass by in the distance before we headed back down.

The Sprout enjoyed the trail as long as the weeds and plants were not taller than her but needed to be carried much of the way up...she did good for a four year old and walked, ran, and galloped (she was a horse today) almost all of the way back down the trail. The Bean Himself was a hiking machine and encouraged us to push on to the top when some of the groups enthusiasm waned. Our GPS receivers track log showed us going just a bit over four miles round trip from the parking area and back.

 

Day 3 TheBeanTeam celebrates 15 Years of Bean Teaming

Heading Home:

What a relaxing time we have had. Mr. Bean again rose early to explore. Once out and about he found he had forgotten his GPS receiver and opted for a walk on Agate Beach of  Tseriadun State Recreation Area. Minus the heavy winds of yesterday the beach was perfect. Pelicans diving for food and proof everywhere of why the beach is named for the agate. After ambling for a bit it was time for getting things together for the trip home.

Agate Beach

Pelican Breakfast Ritual

We packed up, checked, then checked again the rental house to make sure everything was ship shape then headed north. Our first stop was to revisit Agate Beach for Mrs. Bean's benefit. The weather was perfect for walking. We were able to gather several agates for the kids. The agates were the best thing we brought back for them in their thinking and they spent a long time pouring over the rocks and selecting one at a time at the kitchen table when we arrived home.









After the beach walk we headed over to Cape Blanco where we toured the lighthouse and did some hiking. The wind was fierce but once you got into the trees and brush it was tolerable.  We actually grabbed quite a few geocaches along the trails today bringing our weekend total to 14.

Lighthouse Stairway

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

Alpha Romeo in Florence Old Town

After a pleasant morning of hiking beaches and shoreline we made a run to Florence where we bought gifts for friends at the open air market near the docks and walked through old town down to the new Veterans Memorial  near the Siuslaw Bridge. While here we saw something that you don't witness everyday. A guy pushing a pig in a stroller. Odd that, eh? Anyhow Florence's Old Town was pleasant end to our celebration of 15 years together. Now on to the next 15 and beyond. 

The guy had a sign that read
"Walkin' across America"

Day 2 TheBeanTeam celebrates 15 Years of Bean Teaming

Mr. Bean woke up early to do some sightseeing and benchmarking while Mrs. Bean slept in a bit. She never gets to do the sleeping in thing so it is a true vacation whenever it happens.

The Port Orford dock had many benchmarks listed in a relativity small area so I headed there to see what I could find. I was able to locate only  of the marks around the dock because the dock had been rebuilt in the early 2000's either destroying or covering over many of the marks. Still the four finds were fun and unique with views of the ocean that were stunning. One fascinating thing about this dock is that all of the fishing fleet's boats are lifted out of the water each night and stored on the dock itself. A huge crane using a sling bring each boat out of the water after each excursion. The Port of Port Orford web site claims this is the only "dolly dock" on the west coast.

After a morning of exploration I headed back to the house for breakfast where we planned our day. First we headed over to Battle Rock State Park for a stroll on the beach. After weeks of rain the weather was perfect.

Next we headed over to Port Orford Head State Park where we visited the Port Orford Lifeboat Station museum and hiked every trail available in the area. Stellar views, spring flowers, seals on the rocks below, perfect weather, all a gift to commemorate our 15th year.

After hiking we grabbed a snack and tried for a walk at Tseriadun State Recreation Area on Agate Beach but the wind was whipping the sand up with stinging force so after a  quick geocache find we headed south a bit to see a roadside attraction called Prehistoric Gardens. Actually more interesting in real life than I expected. I always think these kind of places are a bit "cheesy", this one just wasn't as cheesy as I thought it would be.

On a whim we called my brother and he met us for dinner in Bandon. We found six geocaches along the way. The best being the Tseriadun Cache on Agate Beach simple because we enjoyed the container.

After dinner we made our way back to our nest for the night and enjoyed a restful evening and a beautiful sunset.

Day 1 TheBeanTeam celebrates 15 Years of Bean Teaming

On June tenth we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with a trip to the coast. We stayed in Port Orford where we hiked, geocached, walked the beach, visited an off beat roadside attraction and rested.

It was a glorious weekend. We left the kids with friends and took the dog heading out on Thursday after work for a vacation rental house overlooking the Oregon Coastline from a distance.

We stopped for a few brief walks on the trip over to the coast. First we stopped in at Archie Knowles Campground to allow the dog a short walk. Of course we had fired up the GPS to see it there was a geocache before we pulled in. Mrs. Bean made quick work of finding the cache and as soon as we were all refreshed and rested we headed on over to Florence where we turned south.

Mrs. Bean thought she heard something odd with the van so we pulled off to see what the sound was. I couldn't hear it but it happened that we were at the Oregon Dunes Overlook where we enjoyed our first view of the ocean during our trip along a pleasant little boardwalk. We would have liked to take off hiking but  needed to be several hours south before it got to late.

We pulled into Coos Bay and had romantic bite to eat in the parking lot of Fred Meyers. We splurged and got Arby's....hey it was an anniversary trip. Nothing but the best for TheBeanTeam. The rest of the trip was quick and uneventful and we found our home away from home without trouble where we spent the evening getting settled and unwinding.

Mt June Hike

Today we headed out for a quick hike in the Willamette foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range. It was a perfect day in the 70’s and we just wanted to get out and about. The drive was a bit longer than we anticipated so we got on the trail pretty late in the afternoon. When we were pulling up the last hill to the trailhead we encountered a hiker coming out from the hike we were embarking on. We inquired about the trail and he said “No problem”. Then we said “Well we have kids….” and after he had glanced in the back he said “Don’t expect to summit but the first half of the trail is great, after that the next part is pretty steep” “It’ll be worth it hiking through the forest even if you don’t make it to the summit.”

So we started out without a lot of confidence that we would make it all the way and set a time limit for when we would assess where we were and then decide to either go on or turn back.

Mt June is the site of a former lookout tower that has wonderful views to the north & east and tantalizing glimpses of the valleys to the south and west. The hike has a modest elevation gain of 900 feet in a little over a mile. Round trip is 2.4 miles in beautiful Douglas fir forest. The first .07 miles gains elevation gradually but the final .05 is a steep climb. The rock outcrop of Mount June’s summit is the highest in the area at 4618 feet.

When we reached the junction to the steeper climb we decided that we would continue on for another fifteen minutes then decide if we could summit safely without putting us in danger of being in the woods after dark. We had a pair of headlamps but still didn’t want to be caught after dark with the kids and the dog on a steep back trail. The Bean Himself kept pushing ahead. He really wanted to make the top so we had to ask several times for him to wait. By this time Mr. & Mrs. Bean were switching off packing The Sprout and feeling the effects of the climb. By the time our fifteen minutes were up we had made good time and had reached an overlook to the west that still had a small snow field below it. We rested and then decided to forge ahead and we were glad we did. There is something special about stepping out onto a peak with a spectacular vista spreading out before you. Mt June offers this same wonder with views of Diamond Peak and on clear days many other Cascade peaks. The only one visible today was Diamond Peak in the east and portions of the Calapooya Mountains to the south. Every thing else trailed off into “purple mountains majesty”. We spent time at the summit resting, enjoying the view, taking photos and keeping a tight reign on the kids because of the drop off. We even were able to "find" a benchmark that was located at the peak

About a third of the way down we realized we had left our water bottle at the summit. This really distressed The Sprout who couldn’t fathom leaving something behind that belonged to us, “someone might take it”. Of course if someone makes it up there before us they are welcome to it. The aluminum water bottle left on one of the remaining lookout tower supports is a gift from us to them. We made it down the mountain just after sunset and in the twilight I swung in to grab a photograph of the Dexter Lake Club.

The Dexter Lake Club was made famous as a location featured in the movie Animal House and I wanted to waymark it in a few waymarking categories.

Skinners Butte

Eugene has many great resources for families. One is a great parks system. Tonight we met friends at Skinners Butte Park for dinner and a hike up the butte. Skinners Butte Park was originally a Civilian Conservation Corp (3C's) camp that performed work in Lane County back in the late 1930's. The members of the Corp created most of the infrastructure of the park by planting trees, building rock walls,  picnic benches and this out of place rock chimney. We hiked up to the butte overlook to take in the view of Eugene.
We spent some time enjoying the butte, its views and history then took a different route back down going past the Skinner's Butte Columns. The columns were swarming with climbers today and we took a few extra minutes to watch the climbers make their ascents. Then we headed back over to Riverplay for dinner and a chance for the kids to exert some more energy in the playground.

Geocaching: May 8th

We were in the park for a friends birthday get together and I threw on my canoe just in case we could get out on the water. After the singing and gift giving I offered rides in my canoe. One of our friends kids wanted a ride. It would have been her first canoe ride so we get all set to head out and I make about 5 strokes out into the little bay area there on the east side of the park when off in the distance I see lightning hit the hillside. Well I don't want to have my son and another persons kid out on the water in a lightning storm so I turn around and head back in with thunder rolling across the water from the distance pushing us along. Our friends little girl is apparently afraid.....very afraid of lightning and thunder and was begging me to hurry back to land. Her total canoe ride lasted less than a minute.

I got our kids in the car and waited out the rain story while many of the other kids and parents played Frisbee in the downpour. After some time all of our friends got cold and started packing up and soon we were the only ones left sitting in the parking lot. We were listing to a story on the radio so the kids were fine but finally we put a time limit on our stay. Amazingly it cleared off and in less than ten minutes after our last friend pulled out the rain stopped and glorious sunshine broke through the clouds. It was still a little choppy but The Bean Himself and I headed out to test the water. By the time we got around the point to the little bay where the marina is it was calm again. We paddled around a bit and then Mrs Bean and The Sprout walked over and brought my GPSr along. I knew about the cache around so took the opportunity to go looking for it.

Well we honed in on the basic area and The Bean Himself got out and walked over to where I thought the hide might be. First he picked up a yellow Pennzoil oil bottle. He asked "Could this be the cache"?, Uhm..nope. Then he found it right away. This is where it got interesting. I pulled the canoe up to rocks and he passed me the cache "Swimmer". I put my oar down and opened the container to find it half full of water. Paper and trinkets floating in lake water. So I can't leave it that way and put my hand over one side of the mouth then dump it out over the edge of the canoe using my hand as a strainer of sorts to keep the contents in.

This was only partially effective since a piece of paper and a trinket spilled into the water. "Dad you dropped a frog". Yes, a little frog of the stretchy plastic red variety had slipped past my fingers. So I reached over and grabbed the little guy and in so doing the canoe shifted. "Dad don't sink the canoe, Don't sink the canoe!" It wasn't my intention to sink the canoe but it seemed very likely that this is exactly what was going to happen. The canoe as it tipped within a fingers breadth (really a very small finger) of water pouring over the side had shifted onto some rocks. It was stuck there at an angle with me trying to get it righted with little luck. The canoe seemed determined to go wrong instead of right and I had a few moments of grave concern. Well I finally got my oar and pushed it back. Oh yeah I did get the frog too. Anyhow I made an attempt at signing the log. You'll have to trust me on this one as the marks on the paper don't look much like TheBeanTeam.

I handed the container back to The Bean Himself and he got back in and we headed out across the bay. Three quarters of the way across I asked. "Did you put anything on it to hold it down?" "No." came the reply.....so we turned around and found it again to make sure it was secure. Paddled back to the opposite shore and picked up The Sprout for the return trip around the little point.

We canoed well over a mile and a half. Not bad for a stormy day I guess. Left nothing.....took a weathered yellow Pennzoil bottle.