Trout Lake

Four years ago we rode the Mt. Adams Country Bicycle Tour out of Trout Lake, WA, about 1.5 hours from Portland. It's a Century ride (100 miles), but nicely split into two loops of about 50 miles each, which allowed me to tackle just half the ride while Chris and friends completed the entire route. It's a pretty ride and I vowed to go back, but never did. Another ride -- the Mountain Lakes Challenge out of Ashland, OR -- occurred on the same weekend as the Mt. Adams ride in each of the next two years, and we'd chosen the Ashland ride instead.

This weekend we returned to Trout Lake to ride the "Forrest Loop" section of the Mt. Adams ride. The "Forrest Loop" begins with a 14.5 mile climb of about 2,000 feet, followed by a long downhill, a 10-mile climb, then another long downhill back to Trout Lake. This year's official Mt. Adams ride isn't scheduled until June 28th but we thought we'd get part of it done early.

All went as planned during the first climb.....

View of Mt. Adams

 ....until we reached the top of the climb. Snow! I guess there's a good reason why the official ride isn't scheduled for another month.

Skinny tires meet their match

After some reconnaissance we determined that, indeed, it was not possible to continue. We turned around for a fun 15 mile downhill cruise. Then we rode a few extra miles on part of the valley loop, which is lower in elevation and free of all weather obstacles.

Mt. Adams straight ahead

Mt. Adams in the distance
Great rural roads

Lefty

A few years ago while driving through the neighborhood I saw a crow get caught on the front bumper of a car that was coming toward me. You always expect birds to move away in time but I guess sometimes they get greedy, and don't. The car was moving slowly enough that the crow was able to extricate himself from it and fly away.

Some days later I noticed a crow with a drooping left wing scrounging around the neighborhood. I assumed it was our same greedy friend. I kept seeing this bird, easily identifiable because of its wing. Our block was part of its regular territory. I figured if he was part of the neighborhood he needed a name. Hence, Lefty.

Always a softie for an injured animal, I decided that any bird so low on the Darwinian ladder that it would stand for too long in the street snacking on roadkill and get itself hit by a car, needed my help to survive. So I started feeding him scraps. It didn't take long before Lefty and his/her mate started hanging out in our trees waiting for me to come home or to step outside. Sometimes they didn't wait; they would start a racket in front of the house, cawing cawing loudly in the trees.

Lefty's Favorite Recipe:
   * Bring pot of water to boil; cook 3/4 pound angel hair pasta; in large pan, bring 1 cup of 1/2 'n 1/2 to a boil, then set burner to warm; add cooked pasta to pan; mix in 8 oz smoked salmon (with skin removed) and diced chives; add pepper to taste. Give smoked salmon skin to Lefty.

He also enjoys leftover roast chicken and does appreciate a taste of fresh salmon when available.

When we left for Tucson this winter I wondered if Lefty and his mate would still be here when we returned. Well, Lefty is still here, but not his mate. I wonder what happened to Mate. And Lefty does not look so well. Perhaps he misses his buddy. Anyway, we picked up where we left off, much to the chagrin of some robins who have a young family in our laurel bushes. They chase him away frequently. But today he was able to pick up a few snacks before the robins attacked.

the orange and the coke is mine; the chicken is Lefty's

got it!

Blues & Greens

May is a sweet spot month in Oregon. Days with sun start overtaking days with rain. Everything grows full-speed ahead. Fresh blues and greens predominate the landscape. This guy and his flock added their own color to our Sunday ride. We're not in Tucson anymore, Toto.

Tucson Wrap It Up for 2014

We arrived home Saturday to a soggy welcome. But the temperature is 25-30 degrees cooler compared to Tucson (which hit the 100 degree mark the day we left) and that's okay with me.

For the drive home we opted to skip the freeway and take an alternative route that promised nearly the same driving time (22 hours). We were a little nervous about dealing with mostly two-lane roads on an already long drive but the traffic turned out not to be a problem. I think it's still too early in the season for the camper crowd. The bonus was lots of never-before-seen scenery for us and a lot less tedious drive than the highway. We took a northwesterly route up Arizona, shimmied along the western edge of Nevada, clipped the northeastern corner of California, and popped into Oregon at the southern border at just about in the middle of the state.

I found Nevada the most interesting because other than occasional forays to Death Valley and a side trip one time to Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area (near Las Vegas) I've never spent much time there. Highlights included: Shady Lady Ranch Brothel; the far-as-the-eye-can-see 2,427 army depot reserve ammunition storage bunkers "to be used after the first 30 days of a major conflict"; Walker Lake, the second largest lake in Nevada (20 miles long), now mostly devoid of fish after years of upstream irrigation has reduced water flow into the lake leaving too much mineral concentration for fish to survive. It's practically a dead lake (you can see large concentrations of salt along its edges) but there's always a sucker: "Premium Lakefront Homesite...Rare dockable lakefront land from only $69,000...40% discount.... perfect for all water sports and fishing"; and, saving the best for last, amazing colors on the hills of the Paiute Indian Reservation at sunset.

Now that we're back in Portland it's time to look to the future and forget about the past. Except there are a few more pictures to post. I'll make it quick:

Gila Monster:
I spent three months hoping to see a Gila but leave it to Chris to come across one while he was mountain biking. The Gila is the only venomous lizard in the U.S.  It hibernates underground most of the year, coming out to snack on eggs of ground nesting birds when the weather warms up in spring. I read that Gila Monsters rarely bite humans but, when they do, they tend not to let go. Now that would make for an interesting visit to the emergency room.

Chris spies a Gila Monster

Big Horned Owl
Ok, it's no Gila, but I thought this was kind of cool. I was making dinner and heard a bird-like racket outside. I looked around and saw that in a tree there was a lot of commotion and what appeared to be a gargantuan bird; I could only see massive black wings flapping under the branches and heard what sounded like some birds have a really heated discussion. I went over to the tree and saw this owl sitting on a branch, pretty much ignoring two of the biggest damn Ravens (aka Crows) that I have ever seen. The two Ravens were extremely unhappy with the owl, for no particular reason that I could discern. They flew in and out of the tree, dive bombing him and trying to chase him off. The funny thing was, the owl completely ignored them except to sometimes open it's mouth at them in what I guess was sort of a defensive move. Still flustered, the ravens eventually left. That owl was Stoic.

Cool Hand Luke Owl

Sedona
A few weeks before leaving Tucson Chris went to Sedona for a weekend of mountain biking. Since we don't have a ready-made cat sitter in Tucson, I agreed to stay in Tucson with Smudge while Chris enjoyed red rock country. Next year, I find a cat sitter!

And that's it for another year. Hope to see you again next year, Tucson!