Totality

Emma and I just got back from an amazing vacation on Washington's Olympic coast, capped off by an overnight stay in Unity, Oregon, two hours south of La Grande.

Why Unity, a microscopic sagebrush town in the middle of nowhere?



Eclipse.

Oregon has been an eclipse-eclipse-eclipse madhouse for over a year.  So much hype, so much advertising, so many people planning to descend on the state.  Hotels in the path have literally been sold out for a year.

I feel very lucky that this celestial phenomenon happened so close to where I live.  A partial but very nearly complete eclipse would have been visible from my front porch, but I really wanted to see the totality.  I've seen total lunar eclipses several times, but never any sort of solar eclipse.  There have only been four total solar eclipses crossing North America during my lifetime, and none were remotely close to where I was living.

So Emma and I gave up an extra day at the rainforest and beach and trekked home on Saturday, then yesterday went two more hours south to Unity to be in the path of totality.

It wasn't nearly as much of a madhouse as I feared it would be. The campground (which until a couple months ago had been some guy's cow pasture... yes there were booby traps...) wasn't wall-to-wall rowdy people, and we didn't have any traffic at all on the way there.  On the way back, traffic was a little slow for about 20 miles north of Baker City, but that was only because there was construction and the highway was down to one lane.  I was glad that we only had to go as far as La Grande, though.  After we got home, I saw reports of the main highways north into Washington being clogged with stop and go traffic for miles and miles and miles.

As for the eclipse itself, well, it was amazing.  To actually see something like that is just incredible.

I really don't have big enough words to describe that feeling when it started getting darker and darker, and the birds stopped singing.  We watched the moon take a bite out of the sun, and then it was dark and the hazy mist of the corona was flaring out around the darkness of the moon.  I saw Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus.  I saw a solar prominence, a great gout of plasma erupting into space. Something I wasn't expecting, but which makes total sense, was that the air temperature dropped about 10 degrees during the height of the eclipse.  It was enough of a drop that I put my fleece jacket back on.  The the sun started coming back, and I saw the diamond-ring effect.  Then the birds started chirping again, and it started to warm up, and the moon glided away.

I sat there for the whole thing, from when the first wee little bite went out of the sun at 9:09 until it was completely whole again at 11:46.  For 2 minutes and 6 seconds in the middle, there was totality.

I can't even imagine what an eclipse must have been like to ancient people who didn't know what was going on.  I feel incredibly lucky to have seen it.

Giving thanks

Emma was with her dad for Thanksgiving Day this year, so I was on my own.  I celebrated the holiday by going for a hike and making a pizza when I got home.

I went to one of my favorite places, Catherine Creek State Park, about half an hour from my house.



Over the river and through the woods...



It was a lovely day, about 30 degrees out and no wind.  This is such a pretty half-mile path between the bridges over the creek.



I walked the mile there and back, and wasn't ready to go home, so I walked the other way up to the top of the hill as well.  That's a bit more of an effort, but the woods were so beautiful.

Even though I got out there at 1:00, the days are so short now that the sky was starting to turn sunset colors.  It was fully dark by the time I got home at 4:30.  Less than a month left until we turn the corner into longer days.

I am so grateful that I live in a place where I can just go walk in the woods for a couple hours, enjoy the silence, and breathe the free air.  I didn't see anyone else during the entire three hours I was hiking.

I am grateful that I feel safe.

I am grateful that I have food and water and a roof over my head.

I am grateful that I have a good job, albeit sometimes a frustrating and overwhelming one, that keeps the bills paid and the savings growing while allowing for hobbies and other non-necessities.

Most of all, I am grateful for Emma, who is my joy and is growing into a beautiful young woman.

Wallowa Lake day trip

Emma and I went on another adventure today, this time over to Wallowa Lake.  We were originally going to camp there for the entire weekend, but I didn't plan ahead enough and there weren't any campsites left by the time I called, but it worked out better that way.  Upon sober reflection, I realized that I really didn't want to spend the Fourth of July weekend at Wallowa Lake State Park, with all the drunken revelers.

So we went over just for the day, after the main rush of the holiday weekend was over, and had a lovely day.  We had the day use area to ourselves, and cooked hot dogs on sticks, and s'mores, and had a nice little picnic.  Emma built the fire and had a great time.

After lunch, we went on a short hike up the West Fork Wallowa River, and got a geocache on the way back.

Another spectacular view, overlooking Wallowa Falls.



This made the protective mama in me a little nervous:



The wildflowers were very pretty. These are common harebell (Campanula rotundifolia).



And the Lewis' mock-orange (Philadelphus lewisii) was in full bloom.  We smelled this before we saw it, a delicious waft of jasmine scent.



We hiked out by the forest trail, and back by the river.  Emma dunked her head in the water because it was so hot, but then she was cold and she enjoyed the feel of a smooth sun-baked river stone on her cheek.



After the hike, we went down to the beach for a while and had a swim.



The water felt great.



It was getting late, though, and we were tired and hungry.  We headed home, getting a couple geocaches on the way, and stopped off for dinner at the Terminal Gravity Brewery and Pub, in Enterprise.  This is somewhat ironic because I don't drink beer, but they have great food too.

Chicken sandwich for Emma, veggie burger for me.  Yum.  Smiling faces all around.

Black Lake hike

Emma and I went on a little hike yesterday, up to the Anthony Lakes Basin.  La Grande was a sticky, miserable 105° F, so getting up into the relatively cooler mountains sounded like a good idea. Our target was Black Lake, which is only a mile or so from the parking area.

Emma was somewhat reluctant and whiny about hiking, but once we were actually out there she had a blast.



The first stop along the trail was Lilypad Lake.  This is such a pretty spot.



We spent a little while looking at the trout and dragonflies and lilypads and balance-beam logs.



This dragonfly, a pale snaketail (Ophiogomphus severus), was very cooperative for a portrait.





Once we left Lilypad Lake, the trail went uphill for a while, then leveled out as we started to approach Black Lake.  The outflow stream from the lake trickles through a very pretty meadow that was stuffed with these Sierra bog orchids (Platanthera dilatata var. leuchostachys),



and these elephant's head flowers (Pedicularis groenlandica).



We continued along the path, then Emma went around a corner and stopped short.  She backed up a couple steps and bumped into me, and said "Mommmmm!  There's a GOAT!  What do we do?!?"

Sure enough, there was a big female mountain goat on the path about 50 feet up ahead.

We excitedly stepped off the path behind a convenient big tree, and watched to see what she would do, and I grabbed my phone (camera).  She ambled down the path toward us, very curious to see what we were doing.



She stopped about five feet from me (Emma was about 10 feet further back), and just looked at me.



She wasn't aggressive at all, thank goodness, and fairly quickly turned around and went back the way she came, and went up off the path into a jumble of rocks.

I hadn't realized how big a full grown mountain goat is. It was pretty cool to see one up close.  And I'm very proud of Emma for not freaking out.  She's so skittish about bears, wolves, mountain lions, bees, snakes and other assorted wildlife that this felt like a triumph.

After the goat left, we continued on and finally made it to Black Lake and walked part of the way around it.  It's so pretty, and I feel so lucky to live in this area.



We didn't stay long, though, because the mosquitos were draining us dry.



The hike ended up being about three miles by the time we stopped off at Lilypad Lake again on the way back, and walked a little way around Anthony Lake at the head of the trail. Such a fun day!

Days in the Sagebrush

I spent a total of six long days over the past two weeks surveying a 500-acre tract of land for ground squirrels.  It was beastly hot, dry, snakey, and wonderful.  I'm glad it's over, but I really enjoyed it.

There is so much solitude in open sagebrush country.



This area is on the bluffs overlooking the Columbia River, with views of huge wind farms.  The first thing I saw as I drove up to the site was this pronghorn antelope.  He followed me around for the better part of two days, keeping just within sight and making sure I wasn't doing anything untoward.



The wildflowers are mostly done up there now, and everything was very dry, but the sagebrush mariposa lilies (Calochortus macrocarpus) were in full bloom.



The purple sage (Salvia dorrii) was past peak bloom, but still very pretty.  When this plant is covered in flowers, it's an amazing sight.



And these little daisies were everywhere.  I think (but am not sure) that this is threadleaf fleabane (Erigeron filifolius).  Very cheerful.



So much openness.



I was completely enthralled with the wind-waves in the dry grass.



Oh, and I mentioned the snake factor?  I walked two sets of transects on this 500 acres, every 50 meters in one direction, then every 50 meters in the perpendicular direction to make a grid.  This added up to almost 60 miles in six days, and I saw a total of 32 rattlesnakes.  Talk about heebie-jeebies.



I have snake-proof boots now, and they are my new best friends.

Also, they are SUPER-SWANK!

(Please note that I did not wear shorts in the field.  That was just for photographic purposes, to show off the stylin' boots.)

Emma and I went for an Easter hike at Phillips Lake, which is a man-made reservoir on the Powder River, about 45 miles south of La Grande.

Even though we only hiked about three miles round trip, it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, and we got a geocache to boot!



I love this time of year, when the valleys and lower slopes are green and flowery, while the tops of the mountains are still snow covered.  The peaks north of the lake are the Elkhorn Mountains.  We will be hiking along the tops of those mountains later this summer.

Emma's doing a unit in school about forests and plants, and one of her assignments is to create a photographic plant collection, so she spent some time looking for flowers and getting pictures. She had a ball.



I cannot even express how glad I am that she likes doing the same sort of thing that I do. I love my girl and we love being outside.



The wildflowers are in full swing, and the slopes were covered.  This wallflower daggerpod is a new one for me, Phoenicaulis cheiranthoides.  Very pretty.

Along the way, Emma spied a branch floating in the lake, and had to go check it out.



Then she had to "rescue" it.



And then she had to haul it somewhere.



But where?



Ah!  It had to go ALL the way up the beach to our dinner spot at the base of the bluff .  Success! She's so funny.

So this is where Emma and I had Easter Dinner, a dehydrated hiking meal I made (spaghetti and meat sauce), satsumas, and trail mix.  Not exactly traditional Easter fare, but it was fantastic.  We sat on the beach, listened to the loons calling, and watched the changing light on the mountains and lake.



(Note, please, the rescued branch.)

We finally had to head back, and Emma decided that she wanted to carry the backpack for the mile and a half back to the car.  This is my day pack, 28 liter size, and is a great fit for her.  This will work out perfectly when we go backpacking this summer.  She'll be able to carry her own sleeping bag, clothes, water, and snacks.



It was a really, really great day.

I gave my new-ish tent a test pitch in the pouring rain last night, because it's been far too long since I've been camping and I couldn't stand it any more.



This is only the second time I've used this tent, a sad situation that obviously must be remedied by many camping trips with Emma this summer.  I've never had it out in the rain, so this was a good chance to see if it leaks.  I also used my new down sleeping bag for the first time, so I was a little nervous about the rain. Wet down is fairly useless.

When I got up at 7am the temp was about 36 according to my little thermometer and there was some ice on the grass, but I woke up cozy, toasty, and dry!

So yes, it was just a tent in the yard and wasn't really camping.  But... I was outside and got to fall asleep listening to the rain on the tent roof, and the wind, and the creek.

It was the best night's sleep I've had in a while- I slept 10 hours!

Another great hike this weekend.  Today, we climbed Mt. Ireland, in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest south of La Grande.  Are you seeing a theme here?  The Wallowa Whitman National Forest is amazingly awesome.

Anyway, here's the view of Mt. Ireland, from about a half mile up the trail from the trailhead.  We climbed ALL THE WAY UP THERE!



It was about three and a half miles from the car to the peak, and it was such a glorious day to be hiking.  Sunny and about 75 degrees, and the vegetation is just starting to look like fall.  The views were amazing.



Plus, this was also a geocaching adventure, and I found my 500th cache!



There's a fire tower at the top of the mountain, and we had a nice visit with Andy, the lookout this year.  He's up there all alone all summer, with only the occasional random visitor climbing up the mountain.  Talk about solitude.



But can you imagine having this view for three months?  This picture was taken looking north from the fire tower to Baldy Lake and the North Fork John Day Wilderness.



It was a somewhat hard hike, gaining 2,300 feet in elevation over three and a half miles.  It took us right around 6 hours round trip, including almost an hour at the top of the mountain.



What an amazing place.  What an amazing day.

Last Thursday's mail brought me a new toy: a tent!  I've wanted a light tent for ages, one that I could use for backpacking as opposed to just car-camping.  I have a tent, but it weighs seven pounds.



This is a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2, and it only weighs 3.4 pounds!  That might not sound like much of a difference, but trust me, when it's on your back and the campsite is a mile or more away, it is huge.

So my new tent (and also new trekking poles) precipitated an adventure yesterday.  My friend Anne has also gotten some new gear recently, so we went backpacking!

Here I am all geared up and ready to hike.



I haven't used this backpack or been backpacking for years.  Probably 15 years.  And you know what?  I did it!  I carried everything I needed for an overnight camping trip on my back.  Tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, food, stove and fuel, cook kit, water filter, everything.  And Anne carried all her stuff.

I'm quite proud of us.

We hiked in to Crawfish Lake, in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest near where we went on our last big hike.  It was only 1.3 miles in from the southern trailhead, but it was mainly uphill to get to the lake.  It took us an hour to hike it.

It was worth it.  It's a lovely spot.




The new tent (shown here before I put on the rainfly) snuggled into the edge of the woods perfectly.  Set up was easy and quick, and I like how much mesh there is on the top of the tent.  I got the two-person model rather than the one-person so that Emma and I will be able to use it together, and it felt cavernous with just me in it last night.  Tons of room for one person.



Since yesterday was a work day for me, we didn't start hiking until fairly late.  We set up our tents and cooked dinner right away when we got to the lake.  There was a convenient log in front of the tents that served as a bench.



By the time we were done with dinner and a mug of hot tea (tea in the woods is the BEST), it was starting to get dark, so we hung our food from a bear line and settled down to watch the bats and stars come out.



It was wonderful.  I headed to bed about 9:30, and slept great all the way until 6:30 this morning.  I love camping.