Sunday

I miss having breakfast with friends in Corvallis on Sundays, although I don’t miss the place we met. I also miss the Sunday Oregonian, which the Oregonian does not deliver anywhere close. Maybe they should call themselves the “Western Oregonian” if they aren’t going to serve Eastern Oregon! Evidently there is an Eastern Oregonian, but go figure: they don’t deliver down the 395 corridor either! I guess this means we are really “out in the sticks.”

As far as I know, the nearest movie house is either Baker or La Grande, both two hours away through the mountains. So Gene and I don’t get to go to the movies anymore for a date. Instead, we are starting to spend Sundays exploring the area. Last week, we sort of fell into exploring, so I didn’t take my camera. I won’t do that again. I missed a shot of a Ruffled Grouse, a first sighting for me. This week, we set out to find a ranch we are visiting after dark later in the week, then explore some of the other county roads between Long Creek and Monument along highway 402.

Dropping down to Monument

Around here, the rule of thumb is don’t drive after dark. There’s good reason for that. First, there are many more deer and elk moving around and they move farther to get to water. Then, there’s the fact that the roads are all narrow with little or no shoulder and finally, all of the roads out of Long Creek to anywhere are mountainous. The drop to Monument from Long Creek is 1,170 feet. That drops occurs in two little three to four mile twisty descents with sheer drop offs and incredible views. I once drove a small motor home down this road, but I was younger then.  We found the place we were looking for on our first county road, and along the way, stopped to gather some Juniper branches with their gorgeous blue berries. This season, the trees are so loaded, they look blue on the hillsides. Of course, now the ranchers are all thinning their juniper because it is taking over and it drinks a lot of water per day.

Juniper

Gene says they’ve gotten out of control from the clear cutting of the other conifers. Now, ranchers around here are taking steps to re-balance their forests, so most hill sides are a mix of Pine, White and Douglas Fir, Tamarack and Spruce with some Juniper thrown in. Juniper is hell on chainsaws unless it’s dry and does not burn well unless it is completely dry. There is one fellow out in John Day that is building an entire log cabin out of it for somebody in Florida. The logs are streaked with blue nearly the color of the berries and it is really beautiful, but for the most part, it appears to be good for nothing except fence posts. Speaking of fence posts, I’ve noticed that the ranchers keep their junipers along the fence lines. This is because they attache their fences to the trees. The ground is either really great or really rocky, so often, fence posts can’t be sunk in the ground. Instead, they are either nailed or braced to a juniper, or they are braced with an extra post or an anchor of rocks.

One of the reasons we chose to go 402 to Monument was that the chickens are molting, thus, no eggs, and sadly, our little Long Creek store closed for good this week. Thank goodness for Boyer’s Cash Store in Monument. It sells literally anything we might need quickly, except for the Sunday Oregonian.

Boyer's Cash Store in Monument

They actually take cards now, but it’s been in the same family for two generations and they aren’t going to change the name now. It’s a very cool store that is important to all of us, so if you are in the area, stop in and spend some dough. After we purchased our eggs and a few other not so necessary items such as candy and Jones soda, we decided that it was the better part of valor to stop at the Monument Riverside Park to allow Pax, the dense-brained dog a chance to stretch his legs and me a chance to get a closer look at the stunning yellow poplars along the river.  It’s pretty clear to me that the folks in Monument really care about their park. It is a little jewel. Even the pit toilets are clean.

Pax adds his handsome profile to the scenery

But really, it was the scenery that left me snapping photos right and left. Pax was a good boy for a change and followed right along, even exploring the river a bit. I could not get him to actually swim without his competitive brother, Buck to egg him on. Still, it was just a beautiful day and every turn revealed a new wonder. I’d love to have a camera with zoom so that I could show you all the huge flock of wild turkeys calmly grazing across the river. Pax did not even see them, or he would have probably swam right over to investigate. It is really amazing to me to see wild turkeys as they were endangered when I was young. Now they are flourishing everywhere here in Oregon and give promise of an excellent food source if need be.

On our ascent, we took another county road I’ve been itching to go on. Co. Rd. #9 cuts south over the west shoulder of Long Creek Mountain to Fox. It starts out off of 402 through a well cared for ranch, then takes a turn through a section of the Malheur Forest. It is a nice mix and looks to be in fairly good shape, although there is some deadwood due to disease or pests; probably Bark Beetle, says Gene. We saw one creek with water and several running springs. That is pretty unusual this time of year, so the area looks to be well supplied with water year round. Once we began to drop into the valley, we started seeing “archeologically significant” abandoned buildings. The term, “archaeologically significant” was probably brought into existence to control people like my mother and I, who used to wander all over the countryside exploring abandoned buildings for interesting things. We being ranch folks ourselves, were always respectful, but those were different times and I’m guessing with many folks like mom and me running around on the homestead, ranchers and farmers just got tired of it.

A homestead on Long Creek Mountain

But there are still picture opportunities like the little homestead with gold leaved shrubs and a lovely little grove of crab apple trees we came upon on the lower southwest shoulder of Long Creek Mountain looking out over Fox Valley. I always wonder about the folks who built these now abandoned places. I imagine how they might have decided to have the door look out over the valley and how they might have stood there and watched the seasons pass in the crab apple grove or the clouds scud across the great expanse of sky cupped in the valley.  I wonder if they had to leave and if it broke their hearts when they did. It surely would break mine. Although, the people of this homestead may likely have offspring still working the area since these ranches tend to stay in families. The ranchers really care about the environment over here too. We came across a fine example just down from the homestead. There, we saw Fox Creek completely fenced off to protect it from the cattle and help with rebuilding habitat for fish. This is a pretty serious investment for ranchers, as fencing is not cheap or easy in these parts. I am truly impressed and challenge some of my friends in the Willamette Valley to pause the next time they are tempted to make sweeping generalizations about ranchers not being environmentalists! You can see pictures of this and other scenes in my photos. Just click on the link in the sidebar.