Our Latest, Greatest, Waterfall Adventure

It was very hot Wednesday afternoon. I was tired of working in the garden. Johnny was willing to take off to look for the latest waterfall we had heard about... just up the road a piece (about 11 miles). And so off we went after feeding the baby goats their mid-day bottles a little early.

We followed our 1988 Oregon State Forestry map, which is outdated of course, but we did pretty well except for one wrong turn which quickly became unpassable with a tree blocking the road. I walked ahead to see if I could find a marker to tell us where we were while Johnny took a little nap in the van. Happily, I soon saw an orange ribbon tied to a tree with a well worn path leading into the woods and more marking ribbons. I followed the ribbons to this:

It told us that we were in Section 11. By our map, we knew we should be in Section 10 to find the waterfall. The nail with ribbons told us we were in the upper left portion of Section 11 which put us very close to Section 10. So Johnny backed out to where we had turned and on we went, with a small alder to drive across but nothing major blocking our route.

Soon we came to a Ruffed Grouse standing by the side of the road. Always a good omen.

After one major intersection where the map told us to go left (I hoped), we hit a road full of elephant traps which told us we were on National Forest Service land. Instead of culverts, the FS drains water away from their old logging roads by digging ditches that we have to bounce in and out of. Farther along, we ran out of elephant traps and saw signs for a logging sale by the Oregon State Forestry, which meant we were close to our destination... an old logging landing at the top of a knoll in Oregon Forestry land.

Before we arrived at the landing, we hit some serious barricades where feeder streams ran down to the Little Nestucca River, which is where our waterfall awaited us. The streams were well protected by dirt berms on both sides that were barely walkable, much less driveable. So we parked and walked.

And walked and walked. Eventually, we hit a barricade of tree roots that was blocking the road we had been on. They were blocking access from a road beyond. Where that road came from, we don't know. Probably from Hwy 18 and through Miami Corp. land, which is usually all gated off. I took this photo on our way back, thus the nice gravel road in the foreground.

Eventually, the nice gravel road petered out and young alders were growing all over it. We pressed onward until we came to the old landing, which we could tell was the old landing because the forest dropped off steeply to the right, hopefully to the Little Nestucca River, and ahead, probably to Fall Creek. I could hear rushing water straight ahead so forged onward and downward through the woods and brush and fallen logs with Johnny insisting I was going the wrong way. But I didn't care. I heard a waterfall and I was going for it! He gave up and followed.

Soon we could see water far below. There was a waterfall, but not a big one. We dubbed it Fall Creek Falls. With leaves budding out, it was impossible to get a clear photo no matter how close we got. If you look carefully, you can almost see that the water is also falling on our side of the log that is heading down the cascading falls in the middle of the creek. No way to tell from this height how tall the falls really is, but I doubt more than ten feet. However, I hope to go back next winter when the leaves are gone and get a better view.

Our goal, however, was the Little Nestucca River falls so we pressed onward, Johnny leading the way through and over downfalls and brush and trees. Here and there were signs of early 1900s era logging of giant trees, with giant cables around their now rotting bases.

Finally we came to the junction of Fall Creek and the Little Nestucca. We could hear a falls and see a little one on the Little Nestucca just before it was joined by Fall Creek. But a short distance beyond where the creeks came together, the water disappeared entirely, reappearing in the distance, far below. The waterfall!!

a little falls on the Little Nestucca before Fall Creek joins it

At this point, we realized we had to cross either the Little Nestucca (wide) or Fall Creek (full of criss-crossing downed logs) to get below the falls where we could see it. So we made our way across Fall Creek. I should have taken photos of that mess but I was too engrossed in trying to stay upright.

Eventually, we arrived on the other side, which was still full of downed trees, and clambered downhill to where we could see the first drop. Wow! Johnny and I separated then as I wanted to get a photo of the entire falls. He wanted to get below the first drop to see how high it was. I guess. Actually, I had no idea where he was going and he had no idea where I was going. We were both just excitedly going to our separate destinations.

Never have I seen such a mishmash of downed trees and logs. I crawled along one to reach a point where I could see the bottom two cascades but the top drop had mostly disappeared. I needed to be farther toward the middle of the stream. I guess I didn't take a photo from there, so determined was I to get the whole falls in view.


That proved to be challenging. I could see where I needed to be but getting there was exciting. Half an hour later, I arrived on a log going all the way across the stream. I did not have nerve enough to crawl along it so stayed near the root wad on the bank.  In the second photo, you can see Johnny in his orange vest way up at the base of the top drop.

And here he is, zoomed in.

He could not see the bottom drop from where he was.

But here is what he could see. (He took this photo).

Eventually, we agreed by boops and hand signals that we needed to start back. I hated to leave this gorgeous waterfall but I would also have hated to be stuck in that jungle after dark. This time I took a lower, more direct route up, steeper but with less tangled logs to get through.  We made our way back over Fall Creek and decided to follow the Little Nestucca a ways and then head up to our logging road. That may have been a mistake. It got very brushy on the way up. So brushy, with stickery salmon berry everywhere, that we resorted in some places to crawling through on our hands and knees. Johnny was behind me part of the time and took this photo of me making my way upward under the mess.

It was a relief to get back up to the road. We hope to do it again next winter but by following a feeder stream down to the Little Nestucca in hopes the going is easier.

But, difficult as the hike was, the beautiful Little Nestucca Falls was worth the trouble.

Death of a Computer

About two weeks ago, my computer sputtered and died. Our good friend and computer whiz, Matt Huegli, kept it going long enough for me to get my monthly column sent. After much discussion and deliberation, we decided I should get a new computer and Windows 10. I am a virtual Luddite so anything technological is beyond me. However, Matt has tried hard to make my new computer, which arrived a few days ago, as much like my old XP as he could. But I am still in a steep learning curve. The photo program is different; the photo editing program is different; the new Word is different; the new Excel is different. All these upgrades leave me terror struck.

But life goes on, even when the computer doesn't. I have been gardening, writing letters longhand, and enjoying life without a computer. However, I missed being able to record my photos of various goings on with this blog. So here is a little catching up... of mostly baby goats.


I'll start with a waterfall excursion from last week. Cosper Creek Falls is just a few miles up the road from us. Since I'm bottle feeding baby goats three times a day, I can't go far or long. I liked this photo so well that Matt made it my start page on my new computer. More about this falls is on my waterfall project blog page  http://ourwaterfallproject.blogspot.com/2016/04/cosper-creek-falls-and-kissing-rock.html

I also took lots of photos of our blooming crab apple and pear and apple trees... spectacular this year. But those photos I have not gone through yet so I'll save them for an entire Beautiful Spring blog post later... when I work up the courage to wrestle with the photo editing program again...

Mostly I took photos of baby goats.

the three wethers

Cindy Lou and her baby, Cleopatra, the newest kid on the farm

 Here is Cleopatra, peeking out from one of her hiding places.

BB Gold, the oldest kid, our only other doeling besides Cleopatra

One of the handsome spotted wethers with BB Gold (Goldilocks) behind him.

I took lots of photos of neighbor children loving up baby goats, just yesterday.

Presley

Tice

Malachi

Kizer

Before they played with the baby goats, the children played the feather game with our swallows.

I did not get good photos of this. But the swallows had a great time diving after the white feathers that friend Velta saves for me from her molting geese each year. And the kids and their mom had a great time watching the swallows do aerial acrobatics while trying to steal feathers from each other so they could take the captured feathers into their own nest gourds.

Between morning chores and afternoon bottle feeding last Saturday, I dashed off to Miller Woods and their Earth Day celebration to catch friend Karen Hoyt's Birds of Prey demonstration. She does a great job spreading information to children and their parents about our resident hawks and owls, with the help of her educational birds that, because of various injuries, cannot survive in the wild.

Great Horned Owl and Karen

Peregrine Falcon

And so, life goes on... It was actually rather nice, although a mite stressful at times, to be without a computer. But I'm glad to be back and able to post photos to my blog.

Johnny is now without a cell phone as his died suddenly yesterday. But he thinks it just needs a new battery. Hopefully, in some dusty corner of some warehouse, batteries for our ancient cell phones still exist. How strange that we have become dependent on these electronic devices that we lived happily without for many, many years.

Farm Life is Not All Sunshine and Flowers

March went out with a bang. That was the sound of another truck hitting the side of my truck. And that was one of the least unpleasant things to happen in one week of March, the week that Johnny happened to be out of town. A goat died, several kids from other does were born dead, then my computer died, and, as aforementioned, someone hit my truck as I was pulling out of the feed store parking lot.

Here is my dented truck.

It will be three or four weeks, the collision service tells me, before the parts come in. That's okay, I don't need to drive it. And the other guy's insurance company is going to pay for fixing it.

The two baby goats I'm bottle feeding (because their mother died during the Horrible Week) are adorable, and have already visited my friend Marilyn in a senior center, plus entertained numerous small children visiting here at the farm.

And, although it rained all of the Bad Week, it has been sunny for the last week and flowers are blooming.

With Johnny home and the weather good, we opted to spend a day hiking down to Bible Creek Falls on the last day of March. It was a steep climb and the falls very difficult to see in totality because the creek turns a corner on its way down, plus is at the bottom of a very steep gorge. But we did get some photos. More are on my waterfall blog.


http://ourwaterfallproject.blogspot.com/2016/04/bible-creek-falls.html

And, after several weeks of only being able to read email for a few minutes a day before the computer died again, today it has behaved itself long enough for me to write this blog and the waterfall blog. And it allowed me to send my monthly humor column to United Caprine News. However, it is a very old computer and will die again soon, so a new one is on order.

And so life on the farm goes on... sometimes with a few bumps along the way.

It's Spring!

According to the calendar, this is the first day of Spring. However, yesterday was pretty spring-like, too. And we've been busy on the farm with spring chores, even in the rain... Johnny making ditches to run the rainfall off the driveway plus a hundred other projects, me digging weeds and deadheading daffodils plus a hundred other projects. I figured out I could have daffodils blooming for many months if I planted all different kinds. But I didn't think about the fact that I would then be deadheading daffodils for months and months. Here are some of the varieties in bloom now...

The path to the shop is full of daffodils and primroses.

Even the grapes at the back of the woodshed are lined with daffodils. Look at all that wood Johnny has stored up!

Spring on the farm means baby goats, too. Well, one baby goat so far, born March 8... more coming soon.

Here she is brand new

And today, exploring with mom

Lots of pen cleaning and hoof trimming and udder clipping in this soggy weather... but we don't just work on the farm every day. Once in awhile we go hunting for waterfalls (stories in previous post and also in Waterfalls blog). And March is the last month we do winter raptor surveys. It's been tricky fitting them in during cooperative weather. We did the Grand Ronde route early, on March 3rd. Finally did the North Santiam route last Thursday, March 17, St. Pat's Day. It was a lovely, mostly sunny day... with lots of snow still in the mountains. Here is Mt. Jefferson...

Mt. Jefferson

I didn't take many other photos on the route, but this cormorant in the reflection of tree trunks caught my eye.

Double-crested Cormorant at Lyons City Park

  And I was excited to find a Say's Phoebe!

Say's Phoebe near Gates and my late dad's ranch

 
The mountains we can see from our farm still have snow on this first day of spring while our fields are green with fast-growing grass.

When it rains too hard, I work on Still Life in the Goat Lane, the third in my Goat Lane series of humor books. It's been a long time in the works, but I am making progress... when it rains, which it usually does in western Oregon... in fall, winter... and in floriferous, beautiful Spring.

Adding a spectacular footnote to this first day of spring, one of our night-blooming epiphytes opened this evening, spreading its perfume through the "jungle" (our jungle room greenhouse).

Serendipity

Serendipity, according to my dictionary, is "the faculty of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for". That certainly describes our drive into the hills yesterday. The plan was simply to map out the roads that had confused us on our February search for Burton Creek Falls. New roads and new road numbers... plus old, familiar roads blocked off... had confused us. Since then, Johnny acquired a map from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde forestry office, since most of the territory we were exploring is now tribal land. The map was created for tribal members to locate firewood cutting areas and has many of the roads numbered. With the help of the map, we were able to wind our way up to the headwaters of Burton Creek.

It was then that serendipity took over. We managed to stay on what is now called the 770 road until it forked with the 700, and then, mysteriously, that road forked with the 750, a road that had been blockaded when we drove up there in February. This time, it was not. We drove up the 750 until we came to what we believed to be Burton Creek and stopped to check the map. The gravel road bent left and a sign said that was 770A, which the map said would dead end eventually, after leaving tribal land. An old unused logging road took off to the right, following what we believed was Burton Creek. I jokingly told Johnny "Well, I could just walk down the creek until I come to a waterfall." Johnny said, also jokingly (I hope), "You do that. I'll pick you up at the Wildwood Cafe in Willamina."

I started down the road. A little sign at the start of the road said 770B. I had not walked 20 paces when I heard the noisy, boulder strewn creek far below grow considerably noisier. I found a break in the trees where I could look down... and saw the creek drop out of sight. Must be the waterfall!! I hollered at Johnny, who was in the van studying maps, to bring me one of the two-way radios as I was sure I'd found the falls. We met part way back to the van and I grabbed the radio and the long tape measure and hurried off up the road while he gathered together his measuring stuff and put on boots. Not far beyond where the creek dropped out of sight I found another viewpoint and there was the waterfall. So beautiful and such a serendipitous surprise!!

I clambered down the steep bank to the top of the falls and tried to drop my measuring tape down as I'd done at Yoncalla Falls. It worked great on the vertical Yoncalla. It did not work here where the water bounced over rocks with bushes reaching out to grab my tape. After several tries to untangle the tape from bushes, the water grabbed the tape and unreeled the whole 165 feet from my hands. The falls was not that high. I had no idea where the end of the tape was. Clearly, this was not the way to measure this falls. Johnny arrived and helped me reel the whole thing back in, jerking it free from boulders periodically.

We retreated up the bank and descended again at a point farther downstream where he could get a clear view first of the top of the falls, then the bottom of the falls, using his clinometer to find those points.

 
We then measured the distance between those two points (with me standing at one and he at the other) and he used that distance along with the angle between us (or something) to figure out how high the falls were. His figurings came out with 35.5 feet.

I just took a lot of photos.

What a beautiful spot! And so close to a road (well, a logging road to nowhere). We then hiked down the old road to find where tribal land ended and Hampton Lumber Company land began since we were not sure from the map whose land the falls was on. Johnny found an old gate post that he believes was where Hampton Land began, giving the falls to the tribe.

We were so excited about this serendipitous turn of events, that we decided to drive on to see if 770A really did dead-end, but it soon became too muddy to continue. We turned around and headed back to the 750, the 700, and then out to Coast Creek Rd. toward Willamina.

The promised rain had not yet arrived so we opted to hike a logging road up Gilbert Creek, or what we thought was Gilbert Creek, to look for the falls we had not found in February. What we had found on that trip was an unmarked falls flowing into Coast Creek (story on my Waterfalls blog). After hiking over a mile this day up what turned out to be Canada Creek, not Gilbert Creek, we gave up and hiked back to the van and on down Coast Creek Road. That's when the second serendipitous event of the day occurred.

We drove past a house that Johnny thought should have a waterfall behind it because of the steep hill and the creek that appeared, just beyond that house, flowing under the road  (Gilbert Creek, as it turned out). Two men were standing in the driveway of that house. As we passed, one hollered "Johnny Fink!"

We assumed he knew Johnny so we backed up to talk to him. He wanted to know who Johnny Fink was and what a Roustmobile was (since those words are painted on the side of the van). Johnny explained that a Roustmobile is what a Roustabout drives and he was a roustabout... because he did odd jobs plus roofing. The guy introduced himself as Harold Miller and asked if we lived up Coast Creek Road. We said no, we lived on the other side of Spirit Mountain and were just out looking for waterfalls. We had heard about Gilbert Creek Falls but could not find it.

"The only way you can see it is behind my house... or from my living room," said Harold. And then he invited us to drive in and walk back to see the falls while he and his friend walked up the road a piece. When they came back, he said we could go in and see the falls from his living room.

We thanked him profusely and drove in, then walked behind his house to the spectacular, beautiful waterfall. Whether from excitement or fatigue, my camera shook and I mostly got blurry photos.

The best one is probably of Johnny standing a few feet in front of the falls.

I took a photo from there of Harold's house, that he built himself, with a clear view of the falls. We did not go inside and my close-ups of the house are very blurry. Under the deck was a slew of old John Deere tractors.

Although this photo is awful, you can sort of see the tractors. In talking to Harold later, we found out he has over a hundred John Deeres stashed here and there around the valley.

Although this falls is on private property and posted, Harold was quite friendly and welcoming to us. We could not have seen this falls without the chance meeting and his permission We thanked him again and, as the promised rain finally arrived, drove home through Willamina.

A serendipitous day, indeed.