Hiking

Moore Park Monday and OC&E Trail Tuesday


No Snow Plow Needed

Today to celebrate the first day of summer we rode our mountain bikes 9 miles1 on a section of the OC&E Woods Line State Trail, a 109-mile rail to trail State Park. We have walked or rod bike ridden the first paved 10 miles of the trail before, but this is the first time for riding on the first bit of the unpaved 100 miles section going east out of town.

Yesterday we did our usual walk along the trails of our favorite Klamath Falls park for Moore Park Monday.

7.3 miles to Moore Park for Moore Park Monday.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 34

 

Olene

They are forecasting 1-3 inches of snow for us tomorrow and this afternoon was sunny and forty, so we thought we better get out and enjoy it. We decided to venture a whole 10 miles from home and take a walk along a section of the OC&E Trail that we hadn’t explored yet. To make the flat walk more palatable I downloaded some caches to look for along the way.

Turns out we were not the only ones with this idea. As we pulled into the parking spot there was a horse trailer and another car already there. There were two horses and riders just coming back, but the car driver and family was getting ready to go for a walk. As we changed into hiking boots another car pulled in with a fellow and his canine companion.

The trailhead there is “decorated” with a retired train snow plow car that had a cache so we went there first. By the time we found and logged the cache the folks in the parking had started on their way, but as we started on the trail proper we could see one man coming back. By the time we passed him we missed the first cache, but found a side trail that headed up the hill to cache #2.

That cache was a sneaky two-parter that we couldn’t find the second part on, so we had to DNF it. The walk up was worth it for the view, see the above photo. The next one was even higher up the hill and was an easy find. From there we headed back down hill to cache number four, which turned into another DNF. We spent 10 minutes wandering in circles using my phone and the GPSr to no avail. We didn’t even try the next cache on our track, it was on the way downhill we planned on taking, but gave up after noticing the trail required a very steep drop. So we took an easier slope back down towards the OC&E, before climbing back up a bit for one last cache. While I was still figuring where to start looking, Donna cried, “I found it.”

A couple hours in the sun, 2-1/4 miles traveled, 700′ of it up hill, and 3 of 5 caches found, all in all a very pleasant January afternoon in Olene, Oregon.

2 Weeks In

Today was the two week anniversary of us occupying 1025 Pacific Terrace and have technically owned for 6 days. We are still awaiting the arrival of our washer, dyer and fridge. They were supposed to be here last Friday, but I got a voicemail message Thursday that there was a “shipping delay” and the items wouldn’t be here until next Saturday, January 4th. Tomorrow we have someone coming over to give us an estimate on a new roof.

The Miata is still in transit somewhere, but no word on an ETA. We now know our household goods are at least on a truck, because Mayflower hit the charge card for the $5,000 deposit. Their original estimate on transit was 10-12 days, so we should have less than 2 weeks to wait at this point. It is time to start thinking about driver’s licenses and registering to vote to make us official Oregonians.

Took a little walk this afternoon that included about 3/4 mile of trails that reside up above our neighborhood. We were going to wear just sneakers, but at the last minute switched to our hiking boots. It was a good call as the trail was sneaky muddy. It didn’t look like it, but it was wet and slippery and slowly built up a heavy layer on the bottom of the boots making walking difficult. Even with scraping on rocks and walking on sidewalks the mile back, both pair of boots are still so muddy they are sitting in the garage awaiting the next sunny day for cleaning.

It is a long way off, but last night we started planning for spring. Not only thinking about next years Moss Motoring Challenge, but maybe repeating our South Carolina Post Office Extravaganza here in the Beaver State. I found a list of the population of the 355 cities in the state ranging from Portland at 653,115 down to Greenhorn at 10. In South Carolina I used the USPS site and located post offices in a 25 mile radii, but here in Oregon most of the towns big enough to have a PO are much farther apart than that. Then I got lucky and found a website called Postal Locations which appears to list every town with a post office. From my calculations this state has about 378 Post Offices in it 98,466 square miles compared to South Carolina’s 454 in 32,020. Probably going to take us a lot longer than the approximately 4 years it took to do South Carolina.

Enchanted Forest

We had planned a hike along the Lime Kiln Trail with the whole family, but when Donna and I arrived at the Morrison Manse in Granite Falls, the only two folks that were up and raring to go were Donna’s older brother and the oldest niece. The rest stayed up ’til after midnight with the neighborhood crew lighting off fireworks.

So 9-year old Maddie directed us to the trail head not too far out of town, acted as hike leader and guide to the interpretation of forest scenery as everyday fairy objects.

Watch for Indians

Cherokee

While walking along the Island Ford Road near Ninety Six, SC always be on the lookout for the Cherokee.

The Mother Road?

The Mother Road

Went for a little walk in Hitchcock Woods on Sunday and stumbled on this trail. Most of the other trails in the woods have names derived from the early days of the city’s Winter Colony and equestrian themes, but this one…?…decidedly modern and automotive. The sign is relatively new (first time we’ve noticed it, but then we usually come in a different entrance) judging by its patina.

I don’t know who gets the honor of naming the trails in the woods, but this person has a sense of humor. Both because Hitchcock Woods is a horse riders paradise where no motorized traffic is allowed and this is a short connector trail very unlike its US highway equivalent.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 135