FALL 2022

Fall has finally arrived.   There is the sound of crickets all night, the cool morning air with the earthy smells associated with the recent fall rains and best of all the low fire danger.   It always seems like such a great milestone has been reached after making it through another dry, hot summer, especially in August, which seems to be the longest month of the year to get through.   With the extended spring rains this year summer was not as bad as the last few that started in May with temperatures in the 90's.    

Now to prepare for winter by getting the firewood under cover, finish up some exterior painting that is long overdue, clean out rain gutters, pick apples before the deer eat them all and much more.   Don't have to worry about putting the vegetable garden to bed, critters did that for me by eating it all by the end of August.  Sometimes I wonder why I bother with it, but I'm sure by the time next spring arrives next year I will do it all again.  

DANGERIOUS WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS

My only encounter with any dangerous wildlife in the years I worked for the Forest Service was my first summer of 1969 on the Modoc National Forest.    A badger ran along side my pickup truck trying to bite the front tire as I was driving slowly on a forest road.   In all my remaining years until my retirement in 1995 nothing, not even with the bears of Alaska.   

Since living on this forested property for the last 16 years, I've had a close encounter with a cougar and a mad mother hen turkey.   

Sep 22, 2022

WILDFIRES ON REBURNED AREAS

 Do you ever wonder if there is anything left out there to burn after all the fires over the last decade(s)?   

A few weeks ago I drove up to Oakridge to inquire about camping at Waldo Lake.   I was informed by the Forest Service that Waldo Lake was closed to the public due to the Cedar Creek Fire as it was spreading around the north end of the lake.   Knowing this area north of the lake burned 10 years ago, I asked what the fuel load was on the old burned over area.    Looking at a map on the wall at the Middle Fork Ranger Station I was told that the regrowth of under brush and old burned trees had fallen to the ground adding to the fuel load creating another catastrophic fire that eventually burned into the many campgrounds on the east side of the lake.    I'm not sure what the answer is on how to manage these burned over areas.   It might depend on site specific conditions, such as protection of communities, recreation facilities, road systems and other improvements.  My son informs me the Forest Service is removing many of the dead trees from the Caldor Fire that burned into the forests near South Lake Tahoe as a prevention measure to future fires in an urban area.    Highway 50 leading up to South Lake Tahoe from Sacramento is having all burned trees that are a hazard removed by Caltrans.    This is also true along I-5 going through the mountains of northern California from recent fires.    Locally we can see it up the North Umpqua Highway.

Fire has always been part of the ecosystem and may become more frequent on burned over areas with time, especially with a warming climate.    Will these burned over areas ever recover to what they once were? 

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Today Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96.   For some unexplainable reason I found this upsetting and felt a sense of loss.   She always impressed me as a steady, solid, non emotional person no matter the circumstances.   Over her life time she was a witness  to World War II, the decline of the British Empire, family scandals' and dysfunctions.    After getting out of the Army In 1968 I accompanied my grandmother to Canada to visit some family members.    We spent a night or two in a hotel in Edmonton, Alberta.   While riding in a hotel elevator I over heard two men talking about how Canada was attached to the Queen and comparing how the United States had no such attachment or anchor.   Back then the Dominion of Canada was a commonwealth nation to Great Britain when the Union Jack was part of its flag.   The Queen did not rule Canada as they had their own prime minister and parliament.    I think it was the tradition of being connected to the Queen and sense of belonging to a family, a royal family at that those men in the elevator were talking about.    Is this tradition still important in a changing world of political division, environmental disasters and economic instability?    Was it a loss of tradition I felt today?

THE END OF AUGUST 2022

We have finally come to the end of another forgetful August feeling neglected that the annual tradition of smoke filled skies would pass us by.   But, last night the haze and smoke moved into the valleys of the Umpqua making our summer complete.    How long it will last is anybody's guess depending on when the Fall rains return.     

PEPPERS & TOMATOES

Picked a variety of peppers and tomatoes from the UCC garden plots that Kasey and Janice started.  Spent a good part of this afternoon making salsa, including onion, parsley, squash, kale, garlic, some lime juice in addition to the many peppers and tomatoes.   Could be a wild night.  

THE LOSS OF AN OLD FRIEND

I received an email from Judy Barceloux, the wife of my old friend Alan Barceloux, informing me he passed away August 12th. Alan had been fighting stage 4 lung cancer for the last five or six months. Alan and I had known each other going back to our days as Boy Scouts in Willows, California in the late 1950's. We had many adventures together exploring the Mendocino National Forest during the summers in our high school years, including backpacking through the Middle Eel Yolla Bolly Wilderness Area. We spent some early mornings hunting ducks and geese in the rice fields south of town during the winter months. In 1966 Alan enlisted in the Air Force for three years during the Vietnam war at the same time I was drafted into the Army for two years. In the Fall of 1969 Alan and I shared an apartment together while we both attended Lassen College in Susanville, California under the GI Bill. Later he attended Chico State University then took over the family auto parts business of Baceloux Brothers Auto Supply in Willows and worked at the NAPA Auto parts store in Orland until he retired. No doubt we drank our fair share of beer together over the years. We kept in touch by email and in many ways Alan was like a brother to me. Whenever Celia and I were visiting family in Chico we would enjoy a meal and have a few beers with Alan and his wife Judy. RIP old friend!

8/16/2022

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

So far this summer we have been spared any smoke, fire threats and record temperatures compared to the last few summers, but anything could still happen over the next two months before the Fall rains arrive.  108 is the highest temperature I have recorded here this summer.  Not as bad as 115 near the end of June last summer.   Last major rainfall was June 13th with 0.65 of inch at my place and only a few drops since then.  August is not my favorite month with hot afternoons preventing me from doing any outdoor work.  The sound of crickets at night is encouraging, a sign of change.   Fall can't get here fast enough for me.  

SIGNS OF GETTING OLD

 With the recent hot weather it has become necessary to retreat indoors in the afternoons when temperatures are pushing or exceeding the triple digits.    Usually during this time I strip down to my t-shirt and shorts, start to read and drift off to sleep.    The other day I had gone off to never, never land and awoke to the sound of the UPS truck driving up to the front of the house.   Waking up in a daze I stumbled out the front door to meet the lady driver before realizing I had no pants on.   She handed me the package looking a little stunned, muttered some words, got back in the truck and quickly departed.    I returned indoors and could only laugh at myself, thinking that poor woman!

THE JET BOAT EXPERIENCE

 This story was told to me by a contract timber faller by the name of Lester (Les) Olson.   Les had been a contract faller for South Coast Lumber Company (SCL) out of Brookings that purchased many timber sales on the Gold Beach Ranger District.    Les and his crew had been responsible for cutting many of the clearcut units on the District over many years from the 1970's through the 80's that had been sold to SCL.

As a timber sale contract administrator on the District from 1979-88, I got to know Les and his crew.  While inspecting his operation for required fire equipment and falling practices Les told me about his recent jet boat trip up the Rogue River with his elderly parents.   He said his dad had a hard time of hearing and spoke loudly, especially in the jet boat with the roar of the engine.    There were very few visible clear cut units from the river, except in certain side drainages where you could look up and see a distant unit ranging in size from 20 to 40 acres.    The jet boats could carry up 20 to 30 people, mostly tourists that had very little knowledge of clearcutting on National Forests at the time.    In one of these side drainages Lester's dad yelled out, "Les did you cut that unit!?" pointing up the hill.    Les looked at his dad in shock placing his index finger over his mouth in hopes his dad would be quiet as many of the people on the boat turned to look at Les in disbelief.    Les said his dad got the message after that, seeing all the heads turning.  

EXCITEMENT AT THE BRUSHY BAR CABIN

On the lower end of the wild and scenic Rogue River trail on the Gold Beach Ranger District is a Forest Service cabin at Brushy Bar.   It was used by Forest Service personnel doing trail work and checking for abandoned camp fires in the various camp sites along the trail.   During the summer of 1986 a seasonal employee by the name of Jeff had the job of patrolling this lower section of  trail and stayed in the cabin.    He had struck up a friendship with a female seasonal employee working on the District.  On her days off sometimes she would hike up the trail to see Jeff, including spending the night.  After one of these nights there was a knock on the door the next morning.  As Jeff opened the door he was greeted by the Forest Supervisor and some of his staff assistants, who had been hiking down the Rogue River trail checking on things.   In the back room of the cabin the young woman could hear the conversation and jumped out a back window to hide in the brush.  The management staff seem to be happy with what they saw and continued on their way down the trail.  Jeff told the story later and thought it was the end of his job as the staff people looked through the cabin having no idea the young woman was hiding outside in the brush.  Jeff thought she was still in the bedroom, maybe hiding under the bed.      

FLOATING THE ROGUE RIVER

Allen Wilson was a neighbor and friend when we lived on Hunter Creek outside of Gold Beach in the 1980's.   He had been a river guide on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon and few other rivers, including the Rogue River.   To float the Wild and Scenic section of the Rogue River requires a permit between May and October, and sometimes you need to apply a year in advance for the time period you want.   The permit covers a certain number of people in the group and I don't remember the limit.    Allen had a permit for a summer float trip and asked me if I would be interested in going since he had a vacancy in their permit.   The reason for the permit was to insure each party of a place to camp, since there is only so many sand bars available in the wild and scenic portion to spend the night, plus try to make it a wilderness experience without bumper to bumper traffic going down the river.   The permit required all trash and human waste to be removed.  Allen had a bucket that we used to deposit our daily waste into after placing it in plastic bags.   To go up behind a rock to do our business we could see toilet paper and more behind every big rock.   During the high water in the winter all this got flushed down river.  No wonder it was common to get giardia from the Gold Beach water source.   

To start the trip we had to drive over Bear Camp Road toward Grants Pass and check in at the BLM Visitor Center at Rand to be issued a permit to be displayed on the raft.   It was a 3 or 4 day trip down to Foster Bar where we ended our trip.   Allen knew the rough rapids and where we had to pull the raft from the river and portage around, such as Black Bar falls.   On our second or third day we reached the Rogue River Ranch, a national historic site at Marial administered by BLM.   We spent a few hours looking at the ranch and the old house, used as a museum as  I recall.   There is a BLM road coming into the ranch from the north.  Beyond Marial we entered the Siskiyou National Forest where the old Mule Creek Guard Station was utilized by the trail crew that maintained the Rogue River trail.  The last dangerous rapid is at Blossom Bar.   Allen was experienced at getting a raft over this rapid, but many others have tried this, some have failed and some drowned.   This is the upper limit where jet boats coming up river from Gold Beach can go.   Many of these jet boats bring people up to the lodge at Paradise Bar, just below Blossom Bar.   In many ways this is where the wilderness experience ends.  

   

CALIFORNIA HWY 139

State highway 139 goes east out of Susanville into the rocky hills and up onto the high dessert of northeast California.   It was a 67 mile trip between Susanville to the Big Valley Ranger Station in the small town of Adin on the Modoc National Forest.  It was another 20 miles on forest roads through a mixed conifer forest to the Hilton Spike Camp Guard Station where I spent my first summer in 1969 working for the Forest Service on a fire crew.  On my days off I would drive back on Highway 139 to Susanville to visit friends where I was taking a two year forestry course at Lassen College under the GI Bill.   The scenery along this highway consisted of an arid landscape of stage brush and Juniper trees scattered across valleys and hills, mostly utilized as range land for cattle.   There were a few corrals and old barns along the highway with dirt roads leading off to remote ranches, some with gates closing them off  to the public.  Portion of the highway went along the arid east shore of Eagle Lake, the second largest natural lake in California.   The high point of this highway was the Willow Creek campground in the open pine forests of the Modoc National Forest.  One of the only houses along this highway was a white house known as the Willow Creek Guard Station just south of the campground, where a fire patrolman was stationed during the summer months.  The campground is still there, but the station house is gone now.    A few miles after this the highway descended into the Big Valley, an arid valley of cattle ranches with irrigated pastures and hay fields.  I remember very little traffic on this highway.   Sometimes it was like a journey you did not want to end or really cared if you ever arrived at your destination.    

THE MANY ROADS OF DOUGLAS COUNTY

I have lived in Douglas County for over 16 years and probably have only traveled over half the county roads, mostly in the north end of the county.   The best part of driving the back roads is the scenery and not much traffic.   The county roads are well maintained.    It would take a life time and good amount of money with the price of fuel these days to cover all the roads in the county, including all the forest roads on the Umpqua National Forest and the BLM roads.   

Picture is looking north at Tyee Mountain on Melqua Road in Coles Valley.