Going nowhere

Looking out at "downtown" Eugene from near our house

We stayed home this weekend. Two soccer games and a swim meet, along with an Earth Day event at the Cascades Raptor Center and a concert at Hult Center made it a tad difficult to get out and explore. On Sunday morning I went for a walk around the neighborhood which, for me, means anything within about five miles. It was nice to hang at home a bit. I am off to Seattle for work Tuesday.

Oregon Natural Desert Association Annual Members' Meeting

Morning light - near Hancock Field Station

I spent last weekend at the Hancock Field Station in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. We were there for the annual ONDA members meeting. About 100 of us paid money to spend the day working like dogs to remove obsolete fencing from the Pine Creek Conservation Area. Great fun and a great group of folks. The weather was perfect - 70's to low 80's during the day and freezing temps at night. It was great to get back out to the east side. While I love the mountains, especially the alpine-timberline zone, and I truly enjoy the coast, I NEED to get to the high desert on a regular basis for my sanity. Great therapy!

Baby gin

Cape Arago/Shore Acres/South Slough for Easter

Shore Acres

We usually try to get out for a camping trip somewhere over Easter weekend. This year we headed south a bit, and west, to the Charleston area and Bastendorff County Park. From here we could bike to Shore Acres as well as the South Slough/Charleston area: and we did both. Great weather Friday and mostly good Saturday. This is a spectacular stretch of coast and it was nice not to have to share it with many others. My first trip to the South Slough Discovery Center - well worth it (even if it is free). Easter morning was a bit blustery but we celebrated with the traditional campsite Easter egg hunt and a trip to Cape Arago for some beach combing. Good to get out.

South Slough

Near Cape Arago

The Oregon Great Basin

Looking north somewhere between Christmas Valley and Wagontire

I arrived home from Kansas late Wednesday night, went to work Thursday, and headed out again with a friend after work that day. Our destination; Oregon's Great Basin country. We spent a night east of Christmas Valley (which is a hellhole) out in the desert with a billion stars. Great way to start off a weekend. The next day we moved camp to the northern Abert Rim area and spent the day hiking up Juniper Mountain. Enjoyed a beautiful sunset that evening and explored some canyons the next day. We also saw the namesake of Valley Falls to the south of Abert Lake. A 15 foot water fall on the Chewaucan River as it drops into the lake. Somehow I'd never noticed that - something about a 2,000' sheer fault block cliff that takes your attention away from the immediate vicinity. The winds picked up that afternoon and made Abert Rim a bit stormy for us so we headed north and explored the Silver Creek drainage to the northwest of Burns. Nice to see some new stuff - and great to get out.

The northern stretches of Abert Rim

Petroglyphs along Rabbit Creek

Sunset in the Great Basin

We ARE in Kansas now

On the campus at KSU

A business trip gave me the opportunity to visit a place I had never been before; Manhattan, Kansas. In fact, I had never set foot in Kansas. Couldn't pass up a new state. Some observations: The eastern part of Kansas is not as flat as I expected. It was also not any where near springlike in late March. Total annual rainfall when I arrived was about 2 inches. The place was barren, dry, and a bit grim to be honest. No smiley sunflowers and green fields. Also, Manhattan, though it is a college town with Kansas State University, is a pretty dull town. The campus area was surrounded mostly by strip commercial development and it took me a long time to find - and walk to - what's left of the downtown. I must admit a little disappointment. Still, I got to ride a shuttle van from Kansas City to here and saw some interesting countryside, nice stone structures, wide open spaces, and an obvious pride in history here. And it beat hanging out in my cubicle.