Ashland and rain

Actually, the weather has been ok. The rain has mostly been drizzly, with short periods of heavier downpours. Today, we hiked all over Lithia Park, a fine cith park next to a fairly large stream. Oaks, big leaf maples, ponderosa pines were everywhere. Kate saw a belted kingfisher fly over the river. I missed it, but I know they are here. Tomorrow, we may try to get to Siskiyou Mountain Park, depending on weather.

This town is a mixture of science oriented folks ( Scienceworks Museum is similar to S.F.s Exploratorium, ut lots smaller. We also enjoyed the nature center in town. There is also an affluent/New Ageey feel to things. Heard on the street today: ! told her to ground her life by focusing on the Ancient Feng Shui masters. (huh???) There are flyers for groups where you can explore your ancestor's relationship to the constellations and how this effects your ability to love, and some attention paid to a spiritual master who apparently vouaged to earth from the Pleides. I'm lost here, but still enjoy the town.

Oh yes, restaurants are expensive, Many offer steak dinners in the $39 range. Most also have some veggie options, like rice and risotto for $18, We're doing fine cooking in the house where we are staying.

We are in another Air B&B. Our hostess, Andrea is visiting her family. Her husband, Josh cooks gourmet breakfasts. We share travel tales...he lived on a kibbutz in Israel where when you took your cloathes to the laundry, you often got a whole other set of cloathes in return. He has other great stories. My favoriite is how he was in Ireland for Christmas, and was going to catch a plane. the next day. There were no hotels, the airport was closed so he couldn't sleep there. He stood in front kof a churgh with s sign saying he needed a place to stay. A family took him in and gave him too much to drink... but an experience and then some.

We hope to hike tomorrow if it's not raining... check in.

Hi from Ashland

We hiked all over the mountain trails of Eugene yesterday. Incredibly fine hiking areas... oaks, maples,doug fits covered with lichens (especially Old Man's Beard, which hangs down, literally, like a beard! the trees in Oregon often have sword ferns growing from their trunks... my guess is that enough lichens die that they provide organic matter where the ferns can thrive.There were nore fungi than I recognize. My favorites were snmall yellow ones that look like little gilled shells growing from the sides of trees.There were many conks, large, woody looking polypores growing from dead trunks. I did recognize witches' butter, a yellow jelly fungus (it does look like jelly!) growing from tree trunks. Jelly fungi parasatize other fungi, fascinating and weird.

Eugene is a friendly enough place, with great trails. The presence of some fine bookstores indicated that it has a very literaqte population. We found it to be a bit sprawling and car gongested. But a nice place to pas through from time to time.

We're now in Ashland, a friendly and pretty town in the Siskiyou Mountains. More to come!

hmmm...

When we first got to Eugene, I heard one young dude on the bus tell another, "My friend in Australia inherited $57,000, and blew it all in two months on cocaine, heroine and prostitutes." He went on to describe a recent drug experience, one where he had difficulty breathing and said, "People think I am a junkie and dealer, but I'm not. The other dude, nearly sient, watched him and kept his I-phone earphones in his ears. I watched and thought, "Is this where we want to be?"

This town is, indeed, a mixed bag. There are very nice hiking trails, again, by the Williamette River. Some places are woodsy and very wild. One part of the trail we followed yesterday had a large sculpture of the sun, with small models of the planets at the proportionally right distance. A Great Blue Heron waded in a pond, surrounded by swimming mallards.

Yesterday we visited the Cascade Raptor Center. A really wonderful place, with many rescued raptors, from screech owls to golden and bald eagles. They stress enrichment for the birds, and give them perches at different levels and of different textures.. They do have an educational program and not enough staff (I know all about it). Puck, their kestrel (small falcon) used to live at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, where I do a lot of teaching. WE had good discussions with the volunteers and a staff person, and were very impressed!

Downtown is car congested and unpleasant, blocks of uninteresting businesses. There doesn't seem to be a real center to this town, no central place where people can gather and find community. We'll see, we need to look more.
Today we are going to an Occupy Eugene Christmas potluck. We don't know what to expect. The occupy movement was evicted the other night; apparently some people came from Portland, etc. and tried to confront the cops. It reminds us of the politically rigid situation back in the Bay Area, which neither of us is comfortable with. The Occupy Eugene website has comments saying that the main group is elitist and unfriendly. We man not spend much time at this gathering, then again it may be different from what we expect.

A touch of the Christmas blues may be effecting me... but on the whole, this feels more like a small city than a laid-back, friendly community like Corvallis, where we were both quite comfortable. We'll see, though, we're here for another day and a half.

Have a good holiday, more to come.

Happy Solstice.

Today we took a long hike to Bald Hill, a lovely, wooded park outsidee of Corvalis. We had to wall through an agricultural research area where we met a black llama who came to the fence to watch us... the tag around his neck said his name is "Mystery Man". It was a cold, foggy day, but this is nice... the chill takes you to your winter soul. We crossed a covered bridge and hiked on Bald Hill, where oaks are covered with damp lichens, and wild fungi emerged from the soil. Robins were dashing among berry producing shrubs, feasting. A red shouldered hawk called, "Pyou! Pyou!Pyou!" while a stellar's jay offered its hoarse imitation of a red tailed hawk, "Pyoooooouuuuuuu!!!!" The Oregon Coastal Mountains were wrapped in fog. As we hiked back to town, several hundred dusky geese flew overhead, calling.

We had dinner at a small place called Happy Planet. Kate enjoyed a Che Guevera Burrito.... plantains, sweet potatoes and spices... very nice. I had a Soylent Green bowl... kale and spinach on quinoa, with shitake mnushroom sauce. Yum! It was a really funky place, with posters of Robert Crumb's cartoons (including Mr. natural and Flakey Floont.) Far out!

WE passed a brewery that had Figgy Pudding Ale... too much to resist. It was dark and spicy... I can't say it tasted like like figs, but it was quite good. I got into a long conversation about beer with another customer... I know little about beer but enjoy it. This is the kind of town where this happens.

Enjoy the longest night!

on the road again...

Ok, I'll be quick... we're in Orfegon for a while, exploring some communities here.The train ride from the Bay Area is amazing... being on the train all night is one of the most soothing things in life, We woke in the Cascades... dawn over high, snowy volcanic peaks...
the forests on the east side are dryer, with lodgepole and ponderosa pines. West side, which gets more rain is lusher, tall, douglas firs. I spotted fisher tracks in the snow (a large weasle).

Corvalis, Oregon is a cofortable and very interesting town. There are hiking trails along the WIlliamette river that we followed today... nice forests of cottonwood, maple, oak, Douglas fir. We nearly got a shot of a woodpecker on a cottonwood. There are immense flocks of geese migrating in v- shaped formations. They seem too small for Canada geese, and their call is different... a mystery I'll try to solve.

Socially, this town is very intriguing. There is a peace vigil that has met every evening for ten years... the folks remembered us from our last visit two years ago. Friendly, dedicated folks, we may spend more time there tomorrow. There is an environmental center, and an Occupy movement that is targetting the possibility of post offices closing. Book stores abound, and there are theatres with good movies. Town is quiet, it is the holidays, but this is when educators get to travel...

Quick description here, more to come. We are here until Thursday.