The visit that almost wiped me out

I’ve now recovered, but at the end of May my friend Jane from Canada visited, and while I thought I was doing quite well while she was here, once I dropped her off in Eugene and got back home, I collapsed into slug mode for three days, and then gradually recovered. And only today realized “Hm-m, I did no blogging of any of that. I will regret that in coming years. I have pictures. Let me rectify that situation forthwith.” [Later addendum: it ended up not being forthwith, but at least is now done.]

I picked her up in Portland on a Wednesday, and dropped her off at the airport in Eugene the following Thursday. In between, I tried to show her as much of Oregon as possible in a week. She’s younger than I (only four years, but still), and stays in better shape (eats healthier, plays tennis regularly), so I was more worried about being able to keep up with her than wearing her out, and in the end did OK. (Although recently learned that I may have worn her out more than I thought–apparently she too collapsed from exhaustion when she got home. Though her total trip included other parts that didn’t include me, so she had more reason to be exhausted than I did.)

Anyway, I shall do this post in parts.

Part 1: Traveling to pick her up.

Camped on the way up to get her, the first night at a CG I regularly use near Eugene. They were gearing up for Memorial Day weekend, but had plenty of room the preceding Monday. It was a chance to try out the new tie-out and crate arrangement for Scamp–it was her first camping experience at a typical “civilized” CG where critters cannot be allowed to run free at all, and it all worked well. We met this woman, who had a dog just the right size for Scamp to play with, as you can see. (If you look closely, you can just see one of Scamp’s hind feet behind the woman.)

I can’t imagine wanting to be in this campground on a busy weekend, but on the weeknights I’ve been there, it’s lovely. I cheated and let Scamp off leash, and she enjoyed running free while I appreciated the cloudscapes.

From there, I went up to a new-to-me state park, Milo McIver. (The name rings very faint bells of familiarity for me, so Mom may have taken me and my brother there once or twice in our youths, but it still counts as new to me.) It’s up near Portland, very close to where Jane and I were to meet up, and it’s wonderful. Again, no a place for a person like me to go on a busy weekend, which I expect all summer weekends are given how close it is to Portland, but I was very glad to have had a short drive to get there so I could explore and enjoy it a bit once we arrived.

Our campsite.

A meadow discovered while walking Scamp. It’s still part of the campground, but not much used currently I don’t think. It appears to be part of an old section that’s been repurposed, as they say these days.

The next morning I again had some time to spare, so explored some other sections of the park. I think this is the Clackamas river.

We did a fair amount of hiking around there, but I didn’t get a lot of pictures.

Part 2: Picking Jane up and getting back home

With only a normal amount of “I’m here, where are you?” confusion, we connected at the Clackamas Town Center shopping center, had lunch, did a bit of essential shopping, and headed for Silver Falls State Park. It was a bit cloudy and threatening showers when we got there, but we managed to get camp set up before any rain came. We had planned for a hot meal, but in my zeal to be properly prepared for camping for two I had switched my little one-burner propane camp stove for a two-burner stove I used to use. But I had forgotten that the two-burner needed its very own regulator. Which I did not have along. It took me awhile to give up on making it work, but eventually I realized what the problem was and we had sandwiches instead. I must say that Jane did very well, considering she hadn’t been camping in decades, especially since she also had to deal with me at my hungry and therefore grumpy . . . not-best, shall we say. I tried not to snarl at her, but I know I’m not easy to be around when I’m snarling at myself or the world in general, and she was very patient with me.

After supper, we walked up so she could get a look at the falls. Sorry about the poor focus, but otherwise I like the picture so here it is.

The park has an unfortunate (from my point of view) but probably necessary policy of not allowing dogs on any of the trails near the falls, so I had tied Scamp up near the entrance to the trails. When we got back to her, having been gone at most 15 minutes, she had collected quite a crowd of people, apparently worried about her welfare. One young man called out asking if she was our dog; when I called back “yes”, he chose to take me to task for leaving her there. Which did not go over well with me. I’ll leave it at that. Honestly, even with the Shibas, who always got a lot of attention when we were out in public, I never worried about leaving them tied up somewhere; but with Scamp and the kind of attention she is getting, I’m actually a bit concerned someone might take her. I’m thinking of getting an attachment for her collar that reads “Hi. My name is Scamp. I’m fine. My person will be back soon. Thank you for your concern.” Or some such.

The next morning, once we were all packed and loaded, we went back to take the hike down around underneath the falls. Jane had a fancy new camera she’s intent on learning how to use, so she took a lot of pictures. I took quite a few too, but will only include a handful here.

Looking through from behind the falls.

Looking back once past the falls. I wanted to include the sky, and it sorta worked.

I made her pose for this. Revenge for all the shots she included me in. But I think it’s a nice picture.

From the bridge across the creek below the falls.

From Silver Falls we headed to Champoeg State Heritage Area, a relatively short hop. I had been feeling rather stupid about the order in which we did these–Champoeg is a bit north of Silver Falls, so we backtracked some–but as it turned out, it was perfect. The weather cleared up, and the openness of Champoeg made a nice contrast to the enclosed, forested CG at Silver Falls. Jane grew up as a kid on the plains of Canada, so she likes open vistas, and Champoeg made her feel comfortable. Setting up camp went quicker–she was a fast learner–and we had time to relax afterwards. With technology.

Again after supper–also sandwiches–we walked awhile, but I neglected to take any pictures.

Part 3: Home

The next day we got going expeditiously, since it’s a longer drive from there home than we had the previous two days. We stopped to see the elk near Dean’s Creek and had lunch by the river in Reedsport.

Once home, we had supper at one of our local pizza places. I really like this picture of Jane, taken there.

The next day was rainy, which gave us just the excuse we needed to have a down day. Jane was as ready for it as I was–apparently she hadn’t been sleeping well before meeting up with me, and while she enjoyed the camping and said she slept well in the tent, I think it was a relief to her to have her own bedroom with (almost) en suite bathroom. So we just lazed around the house. Scamp included. Though I did manage to walk her in the morning.

Part 4: Sunday and Monday

The next day dawned sunny and warm, and we headed over to Bandon. I took her over to the walk along the cliffs first. This picture isn’t from that day–I forgot to take any pictures there–but it’s a nice picture and you get the idea.

From there we went into Old Town and wandered around awhile. My strongest memory of that part is that we saw at least three other Aussies, one standard and two minis. I swear, until I got Scamp I never saw any around here–now they seem to be everywhere. Though to be fair, I mostly hear about them, not see them. We had lunch at The Loft, which met even her internationally-honed standards, and headed out to Seven Devils beach, my favorite walking beach..

It was windy–as it usually is on the Oregon coast this time of year–so we walked into the wind on our way out, which took us in the direction of the rocks.

I was getting tired by then, but wanted Jane to see the cliffs further down, so she walked on while Scamp and I waited at the rocks. After awhile I wandered around and took a few pictures of this formation, which looks to me like a collaboration between nature and some human.

If there was human intervention, it was someone–or maybe a couple of someones–youthful–those rocks would be very heavy to move. On the other hand–I was having trouble envisioning water moving the rocks into position on the flat rock either, for the same reason.

Jane took the following and sent it to me (duh–it’s of me). I do prefer pictures of my back to my front these days.

Monday was in some ways less active, though I was beginning to flag. We took our time getting out, and went in to Charleston for lunch, where we tried a restaurant I hadn’t tried before–and won’t again. The food wasn’t awful, but mediocre at best. We then went to South Slough, and I tried to do too much, but we were pinched for time–we needed to get home by three–so we couldn’t savor or explore. And the day was cloudy, so I felt she didn’t get the full experience. But there were a lot of wild rhodies in bloom along the trail, and it is a nice forest walk in any case. I took only two pictures that day–which says something about my lack of energy.

The reason we needed to get home was that Jane had offered to cook spanakopita for me, and suggested I might want to invite guests because her recipe makes quite a lot. So I had invited Cathy and my new neighbors at the end of the street. I was exhausted, so I went upstairs to rest while she cooked. I did manage to come down and help get things together eventually, but mostly I was pretty out of it. Jane, however, perceived my state and took over as hostess, and did a great job. Which was important, because it was the first time Cathy and neighbors had met each other, so some social skills–never my strong suit and at very low ebb in me that night–were needed. But according to later conversations I’ve had with all concerned, everyone enjoyed themselves in spite of my mental absenteeism. And of course the good food helped.

Part 5: Tuesday, kayak day

One of the activities I had planned was taking Jane kayaking, which she had never done but was game to try. Eel lake is an excellent spot for beginners, so that’s where I had decided to take her, which is about a 45 minute drive from the house. Given how I felt the night before, I wasn’t sure I’d have the energy for it–it was a fairly major excursion, what with loading two kayaks and the gear and getting to the lake early enough to beat the wind, then unloading and getting both kayaks into the water, including the one that has to be pumped up. But I must have slept well, because I woke up feeling good, and loaded things up while she was doing her morning routine, and we got off in good time. I’m really glad we managed it, because it turned out to be a total success.

Once we had the kayaks in the water, I demonstrated how to get in from the dock, which involves an undignified final “whump” as one allows gravity to deposit one in the proper position. I think she had hoped to avoid that, but resigned herself to its inevitability. I tried taking Scamp, but she was somewhat freaked out by the whole thing, so I took her back to the van, and we took off for a short paddle, staying fairly close to shore.

Jane had been worried about whether or not she’d be able to paddle, but she did fine. As I had known she would. I gave her almost no tutelage; I think I showed her the correct way to hold the paddle, and she took it from there. (I included the rhodie picture because it’s the first time I’ve caught them in bloom there–they usually just blend in with the general greenness.)

I was starting to get hungry, so we went back to the van for lunch. One of the things I’m appreciating more and more is the value of the van for day trips–it’s so nice to have all the necessary comforts along. Anyway, thus refreshed, we decided we both had energy for another paddle, which was even nicer because by then the sun had come out.

This time we headed across the lake, into a finger I hadn’t explored before. The wind had started kicking up a bit, but wasn’t too bad, and once we got to the inlet we were shielded from it. It was altogether lovely. We just dinked around over there awhile, kicking back and enjoying the peace and the surroundings.

The wind was somewhat in our faces on the way back to the dock, and I was a bit concerned for Jane, who claims to have not much muscle in her arms. You can’t stop and rest in these conditions. But she did fine. I documented her progress so she could prove to her son that she had done it :-).

Jane enjoyed the experience enough that she was talking like she might explore doing some kayaking with her son and his wife back home. Next time I pass through Barrie, Ontario I’ll have my inflatable with me–we’ll see if she has done any kayaking and has a place to take me.

We got home in time for wine, which we had on the deck since it was nice and sunny. She went more for soaking up the sun than I did–I stuck to my usual shady spot. And we took pictures of each other and shared them. A lovely end to a lovely day.

I actually kinda like this picture of myself. I think she caught me pausing to look up at the sky, appreciating my house and environment, which is something I often do during wine on the deck, so it captures more than just my bare feet 😋

Part 6: Last full day

Another cloudy morning, so we took it easy in the morning, had lunch at home, then headed over to Cape Arago/Shore Acres. First we walked the clifftop trail. The ocean wasn’t at its best, but it’s always beautiful. I think she was getting a bit tired of obsessing about taking pictures on all our outings–that happens when you have a camera with you, especially a new one–to say nothing of hauling the weight along, but I told her she’d regret it if she didn’t take it, so she did. I must have hundreds of pictures along there, so didn’t take too many that day, but here are a few.

I tried to catch some of Jane . . .

. . . and of Scamp. First, checking out a flower I was trying to get a picture of.

Then taking advantage of a quiet moment to get a full-face shot.

Scamp scared both of us more than once with how close to the edge she got.

And this tree clinging on for dear life shows why it’s scary, even though Scamp hardly weighs enough to cause a collapse.

We took the shortcut back to the car and drove up to Shore Acres, because of their rule of “no dogs outside cars”. The gardens were beautiful, even though many of the beds hadn’t been planted and only the rhodies were showing off much. And they were beginning to decline. But still. I concentrated on close-ups.

The rose garden was closed, but at that time of year probably nothing much was in bloom anyway.

And of course we then stopped to see the seals/sea lions.

Jane wanted to take me out to dinner on our last night, which for me means Lord Bennett’s in Bandon, so since Whiskey Run is practically on the way between Cape Arago and Bandon, we stopped there and walked into the wind toward the rocks. It’s not all that far to the rocks, and the tide was high enough that we had the perfect excuse not to go any further. Most of these were taken on the way back, downwind. It amused me to see the wind parting the fur around Scamp’s butt, and I kept trying to get a picture of it, but don’t think I quite captured the effect.

We had an excellent meal at Lord Bennett’s (of course–I have literally never had a single dish, let along meal, there that wasn’t excellent. I even love their vegetables.) I made Jane spot Face Rock–it’s a challenge to see it the first time, but once you’ve spotted it, impossible to NOT see it.

And home to bed, where neither of us slept all that well.

Part 7: End of the visit, back to reality for me

Jane had a plane to catch in Eugene around three, which meant getting her to the airport by 1:00 or 1:30, so we got going early (for us) in the morning. Even at this point I was still aiming for maximum exposure to Oregon’s charms for her, so we took a different road up than we had coming down. I also somewhat spontaneously stopped at one the Oregon Dunes day use area, hiked her up the trail until she could see the dunes and set foot on them, and then went back to the car because we were both feeling the time pressure. There was a virtual forest of wild rhodies in bloom there–I’ve never seen so many in one place. I tried to get a picture, but was not successful in capturing the effect. The panorama shot hardly shows most of them, and the closer shot missed the effect of so many throughout the forest. So use your imagination.

I was hungry by the time we got to the airport. I had thought maybe I’d go in with her and we could have lunch together, but was too hungry to cope with even Eugene’s level of parking and airport stress, so just dropped Jane off with the obligatory (my insistence) hug and headed for my campground, which is less than 4 miles from the airport. Very convenient.

Because we were there so early, I got to enjoy the CG even more this time than on the way up. And began relaxing and winding down from our busy week.

For the first time, while on our morning walk by the lake, I got busted for having Scamp off leash. We were out early, with no one else around, so I figured we were safe, but then a park guy who was checking on the trash cans came by on his golf cart . . . . She and I had the same feelings about putting her back on, though we complied quietly.

Now that I’ve finished writing this up (which has taken me 2-3 weeks to complete), I can understand more why I was so tired when I got home. It sounds like a lot, put all together like this. It might have tired me out even in my younger days, though I don’t think recovery would have taken so long. I began to be alarmed after a few days of doing nothing, however, and forced myself to get back to a more normal level of activity.

But now it’s time to get ready for the rest of the summer . . . .