Alsea Falls and Yumm!

Yesterday Ben and I drove down to Alsea Falls, about an hour south of Corvallis. Perhaps since we recently visited Silver Falls State Park, I wasn't that impressed with Alsea Falls. However, another trail led to Green Peak Falls, which was lovely. The trail was much quieter than Alsea Falls, winding through old growth trees and alongside the river. At one point, we lost the trail at a campground and met another group of hikers wandering around trying to find the trail. Eventually, we found it, complete with numerous bear tracks. I wasn't entirely sure they were bear tracks until Ben pointed out that whoever had made the tracks had torn up a huge, rotten tree trying to dig out bugs. That confirmed it.

Green Peak Falls

Since it was Memorial Day weekend, we encountered the requisite hotdog-eating, stereo-blasting, screaming-children crowds, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Oregon at its loudest is still placid compared to the crowds that hit the Connecticut shoreline each summer.
Back in Corvallis, Ben and I went to Café Yumm! for dinner. We both downed a huge bowl of beans, rice, and mysterious special sauce in moments. We came to the realization that we both belong to the 90% of the population who immediately become addicted to Yumm! sauce. We bought black beans, brown rice, avocados, sour cream, cheese, salsa, black olives, and cilantro -- plus a huge bottle of Yumm! sauce from Café Yumm! -- and now we've been subsisting on it for two days.

Yumm!

Normally, I only eat beans and brown rice at gunpoint, but the mysterious sauce turns the whole experience into something else entirely. I can't explain it!

Cute Creature of the Day

I think I've caught Ben's cold, but that didn't prevent us from taking a short walk in McDonald Forest. I found a Pacific Sideband snail who was pretty neat (they fire love darts at each other when courting!), but the award for cutest creature goes to the Pacific chorus frog that Ben found nestled on a fern:

The flower I found last week that looked like purple asparagus has blossomed. Turns out it's spotted coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata), an orchid that parasitizes fungi! It's kind of hard to see in this photo, but each tiny flower is a perfect little orchid.

Regret

Every time I bring home strawberries from the farmers' market, Tiny Weasel rues the day she became an obligate carnivore.

Peavy Arboretum and Firehouse Café

Today was our last day off before Ben returns to the hospital for a stretch and I return to my various editing and writing responsibilities. This afternoon we hiked around Peavy Arboretum, where the wildflowers are in full bloom. We saw a ton of gorgeous purple Oregon irises along with these flowers, which I could not identify (gotta get a plant book!):

After our hike, we paid a visit to the Firehouse #5 Café, which is located right at the northernmost trailhead for Peavy. The "potato smiles" were adorable until you took a bite and returned for more ketchup, then they just became grisly.

The food was so-so, but I'm still happy to have found the place since it's the closet thing to a diner I've seen since leaving Connecticut. Plus, they have bacon waffles! We'll be back.

Sci-fi and Old Growth

Wednesday is now my day to work on fiction. Science-fiction, that is. While I have a number of partially completed novels, one of them is my favorite -- and it's almost complete. Sadly, it's novella-length which means it might be harder to publish, but we'll see.
After getting home from my writers' group, I made a delicious scallion/spinach/jalapeño/mushrooms/fake cheese quesadilla and then headed back to the Old Growth Trail with Ben as the sun set. I think I can safely say it's our favorite trail in Corvallis now, half due to its immensely large trees, half because it's covered in moss, and well, it wins an extra half just because it's awesome.

Elves and Fairies in McDonald Forest

Today Ben and I headed back to McDonald Forest and hiked the brand-new New Growth Trail as well as the Old Growth Trail. I found something that looked like purple asparagus on the New Growth Trail:

then found a compressed elfin saddle on the Old Growth Trail:

and then continued the theme of elves and fairies with this fairy slipper orchid (Calypso bulbosa):

and finally got a photo of the wild ginger that we found on last Friday's Wildflower Walk. Since Ben has better luck with the macro setting on my camera, some of these photos are by him (the best ones).

The I-5 Constructicon

Near Exit 244 on the way up to Portland:

One Hike, Many Games

For a couple of people who moved here a month and a half ago, today and the next few days have shaped up to be pretty social. Today Ben and I joined the Sierra Club for a wildflower walk along the Old Growth Trail at McDonald Forest. I learned (and might even remember) the names of a number of plants, including wild ginger which has a really unusual flower (I'll take a pic next time I see one). I did manage to get a photo of our group leader, Lon Otterby, triumphantly holding up a rough-skinned newt. Finally, a mad rush home (sorry we didn't say goodbye and thanks for the hike!) as we realized that seven people would be arriving shortly at our home for a night of board games. Turns out the number had increased to nine, only two who we'd met before, but it worked out surprisingly well and we plan to do it again (thanks, meetup.com!). Tomorrow, Portland! Sunday, more games for Ben (I hope to get some work done); and then Monday we're going to visit a couple of Ben's coworkers out at a cabin in the woods. Oregon is filled with welcoming, friendly people!

Lon Otterby, and a newt who chose to remain anonymous.

Silver Falls State Park

Trail of Ten Falls: 7 miles, moderate
When Ben and I visited Oregon last September, visiting Silver Falls made us realize how eager we were to move out here. The trail is gorgeous, even before you hike past the falls (five of them are more than 100 feet tall). We like to start out on the Rim Trail, which winds underneath giant, mossy trees that make you feel as if you've shrunk down to bug-size. You first catch a glimpse of North Falls from a distance through the trees -- and then eventually find yourself behind it on a narrow trail that circles the inside of a cavern. Today, the trail was much less slick than before, which I appreciated since I have a (I like to think healthy) fear of slick rock above bottomless drops.
From then on, it's a pleasant wander through the steep-walled canyon, with waterfalls hidden around every bend of Silver Creek. We found an abundance of wildflowers and river otter tracks and slides. At the very end of the hike, taking a break on a bench above South Falls, we were trying to ID a bird when we saw a river otter scurry across the trail behind it, about 100 feet below us. Awesome!

Chai x 2

One of my favorite things about Corvallis comes from the First Alternative Natural Foods Co-op: vegan chai cupcakes (and I'm not vegan). I've paired this with a cup of homemade chai to get me through tonight's articles.
I'd list the recipe for my chai, but it's a continuous work in progress. All I can say is that it contains, in varying amounts: loose black tea, fennel, cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, black peppercorns, and milk. Sometimes I hit the amounts on the nose and it's really good; sometimes I screw up and it tastes like steamed milk. My friend Deep, the source of my chai obsession, used to make it by bringing everything to a boil, but I try to avoid the resulting skin on the top by simmering it until it begins to steam.
If I ever work out the perfect proportions, I'll let you know. Until then, this is still pretty good.

A Long Day

Today seemed like a long day. I did some freelance interviewing, editing, writing; went on a short, muddy hike, and Skyped my friends back in Connecticut. I also finished Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, a book that I enjoyed more than I initially thought I would. In the book, the Earth is encased in a huge membrane that preserves it from the sun's death and suspends it in time while the rest of the universe ages. Mostly it's about how people act when confronted with something that they don't understand. I highly recommend it.

Here's a picture of our sunset today, not as gaudy as the end-of-the-world, our-sun-is-a-Red-Giant sunsets in Spin, but still pretty good:

Sunset off the deck

I Want Out!

Right now, I want to do this more than anything in the entire universe. It's the McKenzie River Trail, a 26-mile mountain bike/hiking trail that follows the McKenzie River in the Cascades and hits some amazing waterfalls, old growth forest, clear blue pools, and lava rock fields. Oh yeah, and hot springs! In three days, Ben gets eight days off and we're gonna go adventuring... maybe here?
This line of thought is seriously interfering with my ability to edit articles -- working from home is great, but keeping myself focused is not easy!
Hopefully in the future I'll have photos of this trail to post; maybe in a week or so??

On Lion's Mane, the Deliciousness Thereof

I have a new favorite food! Today we picked up some lion's mane mushrooms at the farmers' market in the center of town. After soaking it in salt and water, rinsing it, and then wringing the water out of it (yes, apparently that's OK), I sautéed it with butter and peanut oil over medium heat, as instructed by this website. Delicious! The flesh is soft and thread-like, similar to crab meat, and the taste is a bit like lobster, only less fishy. Now I'm even more excited about my mushroom-growing experiment.

YUM!

Things I Do

Yes, Ben, I will drink that tea, eat that Lindt truffle, and play Race for the Galaxy with you.

Dumplings a la Trader Joe's

Wednesday is the day when my new writers' group meets. Just two of us today, but I'm hoping more people will show up in the future. Tonight Ben is at work, and I'm home eating frozen dumplings, courtesy of Trader Joe's. I did, however, make the sauce using a recipe I found online:

Dumpling Sauce
Combine half a cup of water and a half cup of soy sauce
Mix in one tablespoon of sugar and one tablespoon of vinegar
Add one tablespoon of good sesame oil
If you have fresh ginger at home, add some to taste

Delicious veggie dumplings

A Good Day to Be Off-Leash

Wandering Corvallis: 6 miles, easy
After lounging lazily on our sunny deck for awhile, I got my act together and decided to walk to Woodland Meadow Park. Turns out it's mostly a place for dogs to have a blast romping around off-leash with others of their kind, but there's still a nice short hike to be had around the perimeter of the field. The highlight: watching a blade of grass disappear under the earth as a mole (or something similar) pulled it down from below.
Since Woodland Meadow wasn't much of a hike, I walked from there to Witham Hill Natural Area and was rewarded with a much more serene experience. All the people and dogs were at Woodland Meadow; I saw not a single person at Witham Hill. I also became moderately lost and ended up looking down on a field with sheep; you know you're not quite on the right trail when the deer hoof prints outnumber the footprints.
A brown snake crossed my path on the way to Witham Hill, but it moved faster than the speed of me taking out my camera. This Oregon iris was not as wily.

Scrub Jays, Part II

So, apparently peanuts are all that is required to get scrub jays interested in your feeder. Within an hour of putting them out, two scrub jays showed up. And since Spiny Norman has been turning his little nose up at the peanuts I bought for him, this gives me something to do with his stash.

Peanut!

 

Now with Video Capability

Because I've never tried to embed a video into a blog post before, I hereby present a video of Rocky Weasel licking his chops for a full minute: