Cow Creek Tour Route

Scrabble Queen was surfing the net at Travel Oregon dot Com and came upon this great scenic drive.

"The Cow Creek Tour Route is a refreshing break from the steady highway pace; this 45-mile detour wanders with Cow Creek as it dips through the Coast mountain range. The route is spread with quaint farms and ranches, stately forests, massive rock outcroppings, and spring waterfalls. Depending on the season, you can absorb the plethora of wildflowers or the bright reds and yellows of autumn."

So off we went north on I5 and took off at the Riddle exit 103 and headed west.


I was a little slow getting this picture of a turtle on a rock. When I first walked down this trail to the river after pulling over the Musemobile. At first there were four turtles three that too fast for ol' slow poke.

The Cow creek is beautiful here. Very clear with a touch of tannin gold.


There were shallow turbulent waters and deep smooth sections as well.

In some places even the rocks were smooth.


Further along we came to a sign letting us know these were Salmon Spawning Beds. Scrabble Queen even saw one (she thinks) near the sign. She may even have seen a bear laying on a rock at creek's edge.

All I saw was this bumble bee on a thistle.


All along the creek were bridges some for cars and others for trains.

With all the trees in the background the water looked green from the scattered light as opposed to blue that I've gotten with clear sky above.


No, this tree is not painted it's a Pacific Madrone or sometimes called a Strawberry Tree. The bark is a greyish brown but when it sheds it's a beautiful smooth red. The leaves look a lot like a Rhododendron and it is a distant cousin of the same family (Heath) of vegetation.

I thought I'd thrown in a picture of the Musemobile in hopes Winnebago will sponsor a cross country venture (hint) but I think they never surfed my site to know I've been doing this a few years.

So here is the first railroad bridge. There is a guy in the lower left of the picture with a black sleeveless shirt who was (I think) panning for gold with some kind of pump gadget.

I loved this railroad bridge and tunnel a few miles further along the creek. It was built in 1905.

So I walked the tracks.

Overlooking the river I got a good shot of the grass we has seen all along in the creek.

I even went into the tunnel and looked back at the bridge.


It was spooky in the tunnel and I took this picture more to show the water dripping. I couldn't tell what the paper was under the drip until I downloaded the picture on my PC. Talk about spooky, it was a Eugene Register Guard and blowing it up it was from October 20, 2006 - MY BIRTHDAY. Yikes and that was the day Super Putter got a Hole-In-One on the 5th hole at Middlefield Golf course. Double Yikes!!!!


I set the camera on the ground for an available light picture and could see the light at the end of the tunnel.


Fortunately it wasn't a train but I did make a special spooky picture of the tunnel for any horror movie fans who read this blog.


Then there was the proverbial car on the tracks a little further down the road.

There was a curious sign about pioneer graves that no one knows where the graves are. I think I'll put up a "Martian Landing Zone" sign at my house and charge admission to the back yard. If anyone asks I tell them "I don't know where the landing zone really is only that is somewhere around here."


Another Pacific Madrone stand of trees, just beautiful.


~Free Range Turkeys~ No Bull they really are free range turkeys.


I was wrong there is Bull almost in the same range as the turkeys.

Scrabble Score - Scrabble Queen 397 ~ The humbled Contender 375

Quote of the Day -

"Pacific madrone's fruit is as "a globose, orange, semi-fleshy, glandular-coated drupaceous berry one-third to one-half inch long." Once fermented, it will cause inebriation in the birds which eat it."~ Richard J. Preston, Jr. from an article in "North American Trees"

Salem Saturday Market (Salem, Oregon)

We thought we would hit a different Saturday Market this weekend so we drove up to Salem, Oregon our state's capitol city.


Before we left I snapped a shot of one of our day lilies.


As we arrived in Salem I got a good shot of something else red a cool hot rod.


While the Eugene market has someone protesting this or that or promoting hemp as the next great salvation of the world, in Salem this is the closest thing to "far out" I saw at the market was this poster. Might be a good place to go next time you surf the web.


Of course there were the usual flowers and they are my favorite subjects to shoot at close range.


They are usually colorful and normally don't get odd looks on their faces when I snap a photograph


The veggies are pretty good at standing still like the purple cabbage and ...

.. Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea Gongylodes Group) is a low, stout cultivar of the cabbage which has been selected for its swollen, nearly spherical, Sputnik-like shape. The name comes from the German Kohl ("cabbage") plus Rabi ("turnip"), because the swollen stem resembles the latter.


Ceramic Boot planters are pretty unusual and I think these are made to be painted. They are unusual but I can't imaging what I'd do with one.


These bird houses were pretty cool but I already have three that haven't been nested in yet so I decided to pass on them as well.


I had the pleasure of listening to Carra Barratt sing at the outdoor area set aside for eating the variety of food offered in some of the booths. I even bought one of Carra's CDs that were for sale. I listened to it on the way home and really enjoyed the music. She even signed the CD for me. So please go visit her web page (http://myspace.com/carrabarratt) where you can hear three of the songs on the CD. She is a wonderful singer and like Scrabble Queen and I lived in the San Diego area before moving to Portland.


There was a flock of sunflowers at the market and I have a few on this blog. This one has a golden center...


This one is almost black


This one has dual colored petals


then there is this one with a fluffy center,

and finally this one has a button center.


My favorite bloom was this one in muted shades of blue, violet, green and white.

Other than Carra Barratt there were some other musical people there like this young violinist and her mom sitting on the curb.

Then there were the twins that posed for a picture (I think the little boy was their brother but I'm not sure). The tee shirts reminded me of Click and Clack the Tappet brothers on NPR's Car Talk. There closing statement goes like this:
Click says "Don't drive like my brother" to which Clack replies "and don't drive like my brother"


It was cool to see this Rex putting together a "twig" chair. I was always curious how they did that.

OK so we couldn't pass up either the Caramel or Cinnamon Buns (YUMMY!!!)

I did like the colors in these bells but didn't buy one.


This display of Raku ceramics was very nice.

Raku originated in Japan in the 16th century, where raku vessels were and still are used in the traditional tea ceremony. It is a low-fire technique, where bisqued work is quickly heated to red hot temperature and then taken out of the kiln and reduced in wood shavings, newspaper or a similar combustible material. Raku ware is decorated with low-fire glazes, which usually contain a lot of frit. The clays used for this firing technique contain a high percentage of grog, so the work will be able to withstand the high temperature fluctuations, although this doesn't mean that other clays can't be used.

Just for Dr. Red Sox a reminder Oregon is great for fishing and Happy Birthday bro.


Finally I liked the "Grandpa's Place" sign but personally I like the "Precious Place" but would prefer it in Blue.

Scrabble Score - The Scrabble Queen 323 the contender 318

Quote of the Day

"It was a wonderful concert. I was sitting too far away, but I think if I'd been closer I would have cried more and gone into that sort of crazed hero worship zone which probably freaks the hell out of musicians who end up as rock stars. At least musicians who don't have god complexes." ~ Carra Barratt (singer songwriter) from the Web Log at Myspace on seeing a concert by Jeff Tweedy at Spreckles Theater in San Diego.

Boats

Some of these boats are older images like the first four the last six were from the 4th of July celebration at coos bay.

I took this picture at my sisters home on a visit to Texas. I didn't think much of it till I got home and had a chance to fully appreciate it.


This was taken at Florence, Oregon on the Siuslaw River.


Winchester Bay, Oregon Salmon Harbor Marina where we were for the 4th of July fireworks last year.


Last year at Coos bay I got this yellow boat drifting by.


This year I got a picture of the Captain Louie a tug moving the fireworks barge into position.


The Coast Guard was there with a rescue boat like the one we saw save a surfer in Newport, Oregon caught in a terrific rip current. On that occasion the young man was rescued when two coast guard boats and a helicopter arrived 4 minutes after we called 911 on our cell phone. The conditions this small boat braved were unbelievably tough with waves twice the height of the boat.

Another surfer wasn't so lucky in March of this year at the same location.

"A 26-year old surfer overcome by a series of large waves on Yaquina Head near the north end of Newport in Lincoln County died Tuesday afternoon, Oregon State Police (OSP) reported.

The male victim, whose name is being withheld pending notification of his parents who are scheduled to return from a trip outside of the country sometime today, was surfing with two friends when a series of large waves overcame the group. The victim became unresponsive, and one of his friends – men ages 25 and 33 – stayed with him while the other began to return to shore for help, troopers said."

I'm not sure what this little grey boat was but it was cute.


This pirate ship (used in jest) was interesting.


I like the names some people choose for boats. This one is the Seasnail

This tiny boat was actually a Vessel Assist boat. I'm not sure whether it is a Coast Guard boat or a city/county or private venture.

Scrabble Score - Scrabble Queen 301 ~ The Contender 331 (I got seize and Darts both on a triple with the "Z" on a double letter for 90 points) That's the only way I can ever win

Quote of the Day

"The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat. " ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau (11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997) was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, scientist, photographer and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française.