The Rogue Umpqua Divide - Sunday

On Sunday Mickey and I had a plan to do some hiking up near Union Creek and to have Pie at Beckie's Restaurant....It turned into quite a drive, and we ended up in the North Umpqua Watershed, and we were hoping to 'do' Toketee Falls....We got there and the trail was shut down...so we visited Whitehorse Falls and Clearwater Falls....It was so worth the drive, plus seeing the beautiful spire of Mount Thielsen as well!!!! and I got my pie!!! actually I got MY pie and most of Mickey's pie too!!!!

The Rogue River - Early morning with the sun coming up over a ridge.

Ethereal - a light hazy fog sitting a-top a pasture near a beautiful pond.

Mount Thielsen - Rogue Umpqua Divide

Whitehorse Falls

Below the platform at Whtiehorse Falls. This was such a beautiful place.

There were picnic tables and trails leading down next to the falls.

A great place to bring your family or a romantic rendezvous!!!!!

Rattlesnake Rock - visible from highway 138 along the Umpqua River.

The Old Man - Also visible from highway 138, North Umpqua River Road.

Vine Maple

Above Whitehorse Falls

Mickey and I at Clearwater Falls

Taken with Mickey's IPhone at Whitehorse Falls

Mickey showing me the reproductive parts of a fern....always the TEACHER!!!

http://amerfernsoc.org/lernfrnl.html

The Sporangia are the reproductive structures of the ferns and fern allies. They are miniature sacks or capsules that produce the dustlike spores that are the "seeds" by which ferns are propagated. Several sporangia grouped together are called a Sorus. The arrangement of sporangia varies greatly in ferns. Most ferns that we would see as we walk through the forest would have their sporangia on the underside of the frond, arranged in an organized pattern usually associated with veins in the pinnule (leaf). Many times (but not always) the ferns provide a protective covering for the Sorus called an Indusium.

Hah! Well there you have it.....

Pacific Yew - The Tree that fights Cancer...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxus_brevifolia

The creek up above Clearwater falls was soooooo peaceful and still - perfect as a reflection pond!

A little Brown Creeper - look closely

Western White Pine - Cone

Clearwater Falls

Douglas Fir - Pseudotsuga menziesii

Trametes versicolor- Turkey Tail Bracket

We saw several of these, mostly ones growing on decaying Fir trees!!!!

The American Dipper aka Water Ouzel - This is one interesting little grey bird....read what Wikipedia has to say about it!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dipper

The first and last place to EAT on our stop....Beckie's Restaurant
We had a really yummy breakfast there, then stopped on the way back for PIE!!!! I had Huckleberry Pie which you can only get in season, and Mickey had Chocolate pie....well she had SOME of her chocolate pie...I ate the rest of it!!!!....and lots of BLACK coffee...mmmmmm

A Hollyhock in my flower garden, with a honey bee. If you click on the picture and look closely you will see a light dusting of pollen on that bee's body.

Here is a crockpot full of chicken tomato soup/stew for dinner tonight. I thought about just making some tomato soup with all the different tomatoes we have, but I had some leftover chicken breasts, and zucchini, and onions....and well it seemed like it has been getting cooler in the evenings and it would be good! Going to make some Corn bread to go with it...

We have an obscene amount of apples this year, so we cored, peeled and sliced about 9 cups of apples to make this apple cobbler/crisp...the kids will like it with cool whip on it...and the adults with vanilla ice cream!!!

Check out the beautiful colors from a few veggies from our garden! Green Bell Peppers, Golden Pear Tomatoes, Red Chili peppers and Red slicing tomatoes!!! I made some fresh Salsa today and included these ingredients, along with onions and garlic and CILANTRO from the garden too!!!

a little bit of weekend...

Saturday... 4:45 I got up to make lunch for my youngest son, he is now working at one of the white water companies that caters to the local river - Rogue Wilderness http://www.wildrogue.com/ His official job is "boat boy"...he does some shuttles for them, and stacks equipment. He likes having a job, and he is really enjoying this!....so the reason I was up so early, was I was driving over to Klamath Falls to take a horse trailer over to put it on consignment with Frontier Trailer Sales http://www.frontier-trailersales.com/ Here I am 52 years old and I've never towed a trailer before, so luckily my son helped me hook the trailer up the night before to my 4 runner. Driving down the driveway I was hearing all these new sounds and feeling the jerking of the trailer behind me - I was a bit freaked out (fear of the unknown) I headed down the road....finally moving onto the freeway south toward medford before heading east over the mountain pass. I think it was about Central Point before I started to really relax, and I turned up the tunes and just enjoyed the trip. As you can see by the pictures that I took through the front window of my truck with my digital canon rebel (one hand on the steering wheel, one hand on the camera, I pretty much felt like I could tow a trailer. Now if there would have been a horse in it, I probably would have still been a little bit intimidated!!!!! hah!

So....this is Mount McLoughlin as I'm driving east on highway 140 (Lake of the Woods highway)

As you can see the sun was just popping up over the hills and boy was it a beautiful morning!!!

After I arrived at Frontier Trailer I saw a great photo op....morning light always appeals to me, it generates an ethereal gleam to things even if they're not damp with morning dew. I signed a few papers, and I was on my way! Down the road headed toward the cabin....

After driving a little ways I was tempted by a pasture with water running through it - I thought to myself "There is sure to be a few birds for me to photograph!" Lo and behold there was a solitary Killdeer. I am sure he didn't relish me taking pictures of him, but he posed so nicely!!!

I chanced upon this butterfly and I haven't had a chance to identify it, so those of you biology types -if you just "KNOW" what it is by sight, you can always email me and I will label it and give you credit! :-)

Down the road a bit more and I chanced upon a pair of beautiful old Percheron Geldings. These old boys were truly bothered by flies, one constantly shaking his beautifully maned head, while the other, pictured here stood stock still! They were a matched team for sure, and how I ached to be able to brush their manes and tails.

I arrived at the cabin and left my camera bag in the car. It was just a chance for me to drop off some new handspun yarn for weaving, to check for mice in the traps (I caught one! ICK!) and to sit outside on the deck for a few minutes to listen to the geese. It's that time of year when the birds start moving again. I can hardly wait for late Autumn to see this years migration!I locked up the cabin and got back onto the road, driving back the way I came so I could stop at the Running Y stables to look at the big draft horses in the corrals...

This boy was sooooo beautiful and I love Gray horses! They have several sets of draft horses that they use for the wagon rides, http://www.runningy.com/Amenities/Amenities.aspx?page=AM-Ranch-Corrals but I thought he was the prettiest of all of them. They had already turned their riding horses out for the evening, so I couldn't get close to them for a good shot...darn! It was a really great day, a beautiful drive to Central Oregon and I arrived home to a barbecue that had already started. Lots of great food steak, hamburgers, hot dogs on the grill, grapes and tomatoes from the garden, pork and beans.... - my sister in law brought a potato salad and some 'killer' brownies that surely finished us all off! Afterwards my husband took his grand-daughter and her cousin on a 'pony ride' on our paint mare 'ZuZu'...ZU was good natured about it, although I think she was a bit leary about the little tiny girls since in the past we've only had adults on her. We gave the horses apples, picked veggies and fruit from the garden and got in right before sundown.

Just got back from another awesome week at The Yamsi Ranch http://www.yamsiflyfishing.com/ (John and Jerri Hyde) in Chiloquin! They hosted the annual Ranch Roping Clinic. The Clinician was Scott Grosskopf of Montana. http://www.buckaroobusinesses.net/ Each year Scott gives a 3 day Ranch Roping clinic. There is a horsemanship day, then the students learn how to 'build' a loop with a rope and learn the techniques of throwing fancy loops on 'dummies', then the students get to try it on live steers! The basic idea of ranch roping is learning how to throw loops on cattle out on the range for the purpose of medical treatment...usually there is a cowboy to throw the head loop, one to throw the heel loop and the third cowboy would dis-mount and doctor the animal if needs be. He does teach how to catch a cow to doctor it, even if you are alone. The approach is always quiet, and the cowboys are taught proper technique so as not to harm the animals. On the 4th day, there is a competition for Novice and Open ropers and cowboys generally come from all over. It is a timed events, and bonus points are given for fancy head loops and fancy heel loops. There are always fine horses to see, and many good kind people to meet and talk to. They have a Cowboy Church in the morning on Sunday before the Roping competition, given by Leroy and Reda Cowart of Slash Lazy U Ministries. Yamsi Ranch is host to fly fishing clinics as well as "Ride the West" - which is a horse and mule trail ride and camp out.

.... each time I'm up there I always have 'birding' opportunities too!!! This time John showed me a male and female Crossbill. I didn't have good enough lighting to take a picture, but they are sure a beautiful and interesting bird to see!Scott Grosskopf moving the head loop to the front feet of a steer.

A Cowboy connects with a head loop to a large steer.

A mama duck and her ducklings. This seemed late in the season, but this pond is at higher altitude and it wasn't until I was almost at the edge of the pond that she moved out away from me. I think she scared me, more than I scared her!


This is my favorite part of the drive up to Yamsi Ranch. It is about milepost 13 up the Williamson River Road. There are some beautiful views (morning is the best!) of the mountain range and of course forest for as far as the eye can see.

John attempting to rope a pony for the farrier to work on.

Tools of the trade...

Cowboy finery...

John mounted on a beautiful black quarter horse, bred on their ranch. Yamsi Ranch breeds quarters horses, raises natural beef and they also do some really fine silver smithing!

Callie and her mom Jerri Hyde sharing a moment while Callie saddles up a mount. This is also one of horses bred on their ranch! Jerri does the horse breeding...look how beautiful that palomino horse is!!!!!!!!