Southern Oregon Ramble - Fall 2003

-Idleyld Park and Steamboat Inn - Waterfalls! - Foreign Fauna - Driving for Vineyards - With Melpomene, Clio and Thalia - Historic Jacksonville - Up the Rogue - Crater Lake		Heading up the Rogue (An update for last issue. Jeffi remembered the name of the import place which was such great shopping in Jacksonville -- Village Imports on N. 5th. It's medium-sized decorative things, mirrors, vases and end tables, not jewelry and place mats, or couches and beds. Great merchandise, great prices.) On our last day of vacation ,we took off up the Rogue River from Medford toward Crater Lake, congratulating ourselves on leaving the most awe-inspiring part of our vacation until last, even though it was the weather and not us, that made the decision. A call to the ranger station had told us that the weather today was clear and cool with excellent visibility and we thought we could take our boat ride and also drive all the way around the lake before heading home. But first we had two stops to make along the way. The Rogue is another one of those wonderful Oregon rivers that races down out of the mountains to the Pacific (this one emerges at Gold Beach) providing many opportunities for fishing, rafting, hiking and sight-seeing. The highway parallels it for much of its length in this section and it's quite beautiful just to drive by. Even though our time was limited, we all wanted to stop and see the natural bridge where the river disappears into a lava tube and runs underground for 200'. It's an impressive site, very primitive feeling and the river seems much older and more powerful here, because it's so narrowly compressed, I suppose, and also because it's not fished or rafted. On the trail in, we were caught by a wonderful forest smell 6 or 8 times. It was like sweetgrass with a hint of sandalwood and something else all its own, but very strong. And even stronger in the sunlight. It made me want to just breath and breath and I wished my body could hold more air so the scent would pass through me longer. Marvelously invigorating and soothing at the same time. It was clearly from a plant, almost certainly deciduous, but our woodcraft wasn't good enough to determine which one. Nothing by the trail smelled like it up close and getting too intimate with the woods in these parts invites dramatic poison oak. So we just enjoyed. If anyone has a guess about what it might have been, please let me know. Also, we were bound for Beckie's at Union Creek Resort for breakfast (http://www.unioncreekoregon.com/beckies.htm). Beckie's is famous for its huckelberry, blackberry and peach pie (they have lots of other flavors, too). That much we knew. What we didn't know is that it might be the last place on earth to serve reasonable portions. If, for example, you order an egg and a piece of toast, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT YOU GET!!! What a concept! None of this half acres of pancakes or 5-egg omelets with two-potatoes-worth of hashbrowns on the side. Just the food you want perfectly prepared at very reasonable prices. Jeffi and Sheila had breakfast, and I had pie and ice cream (Umpqua, of course). Well, I consider pie and ice cream to be a reasonable breakfast and so did my farming grandfather. Plus, Jeffi and Sheila had pie, too, just no ice cream. The pie was so good, I was tempted to lick the plate (we were in a back booth), but Sheila threatened to take my picture. Beckie's also offered up some interesting local color. All the locals were abuzz about a recent elk-poaching incident and the arrest of an 18-year-old they all knew. It seems he was caught with a dead elk and a .22 rifle, when the license he had was for bow hunting. You are not even allowed to have a rifle in your vehicle with a bow license and apparently this elk had been shot. The coffee-counter wisdom was that if you get caught, it's probably not the first time you've done it. Mostly they thought he would lose his rifle and his hunting rights for life and maybe even do some jail time. The elk had already been confiscated and given to some charitable institution. What was confusing the young waitress (probably a classmate of the perpetrator) was that the whole thing was reported in the Sports section of the paper, not in the Crime Watch. The "guys" didn't seem surprised at all. I'll tell you about Crater Lake itself in the final installment in a day or two. Next