Top of the Falls to You

Last week I hiked two completely different hikes to the tops of two completely different waterfalls. First I hiked to the top of Golden Falls in Golden and Silver Falls State Park west of Coos Bay. It was a 1-mile hike to the top of a 100-foot waterfall, not bad, not bad…

But then I stopped at Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge on my way to an AmeriCorps training. Now if I had known I was going to do the whole 1.2-mile hike to the top of the falls, I may have strapped on my hiking boots. And if I had known Multnomah Falls is actually the second tallest year round waterfall in the nation, I may have abandoned the idea completely. But I didn’t know either of those things at the time. I started up the 0.2-mile hike to the bridge over the lower 69-foot falls, and I just kept going. Besides wanting to move past the cold shower I was receiving on the 45-foot bridge, I had an overwhelming sense that there was a reason to get to the top of this waterfall, a reason to not give up, if only just to know that I had done it.

Well, it turns out Multnomah Falls is 620 feet in height total and a 1.2-mile trail to get there makes that an almost 10% grade. On the other hand, the 1-mile hike I had done earlier that week amounted to a less than 2% grade. No wonder my legs hurt so much more after the second hike.

After the Multnomah Falls hike, I could have really gone for a big cone of ice cream. And if it had been 1919-1924, I could have had just that at the bottom of the falls at “Multnomah Hazelwood” which was a drive-in version of a popular Portland ice cream parlor at the time. Now, there is something to start looking for an antique, linen postcard of.

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View from the top of Golden Falls.

View from the bottom of Multnomah Falls

View from the top of Multnomah Falls

It's A Big Day

From a press release from the EPA today: (Washington, D.C. – April 17, 2009) After a thorough scientific review ordered in 2007 by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed finding Friday that greenhouse gases contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare.

As the proposed endangerment finding states, “In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem. The greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act.”

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson wisely pointed out “This pollution problem has a solution – one that will create millions of green jobs and end our country’s dependence on foreign oil.”

I think this is a huge step forward for the United States. For decades people and communities, and even cities and states, have been taking a stand against global climate change by reducing consumption, growing their own food, biking to work, composting, etc. But now that the federal agency that we look to for environmental guidance has clearly stated that climate change is happening, that humans are causing it, that it poses harm to humans, and that there is a solution - I think we will start to see some bigger and better changes.

In other news: I have created a flickr page where you can see lots of photos of my Oregon adventure. Check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/veggiedoglover

Better Than SeaWorld

I have been having remarkable wildlife sightings recently. One day a couple of weekends ago it was seventy degrees out so my friends and I went down to Bastendorf Beach. We found a sea lion pup on the beach and thought he/she must be stranded. We kept our distance and one of the Marine Biology students with us called their professor. The professor suggested the pup’s mother had left it on the beach and gone in search of food. I was still worried because I thought the mother might have been scared off by the unusual number of people at the beach that day. So, I was glad to hear that when the Marine Bio student went back to the beach, the pup was gone, hopefully back in the ocean munching kelp with its mother.

The next day I was out at Cape Arago for an after-dinner hike and saw a group of California Condors soaring in the skies. On my way to Cape Arago that evening I saw a baby deer trotting along the side of the road.

Last Friday I sat down at a picnic table on the corner of the Charleston inner harbor on my way back from the post office. While sitting there enjoying the fresh air ::pop:: a shiny silver speckled harbor seal floated to the surface. Then ::pop:: ::pop:: two more harbor seals came to the surface farther across the channel. This continued until I had identified at least five individual harbor seals. All the while a seagull was staring at me, thinking I was the true spectacle at that moment.

Then there were the bunny rabbits in the Shore Acres forest, the muskrat on the Coquille River jetty, and the bald eagle flying over Simpson Reef.

My First Press Release

I just posted my first press release as an intern at the Coos Watershed Association! Cool part is: I wrote the press release, it is about something I am doing, and I am tech-savvy enough to post it to the website myself. The other cool part is; I hadn't thought of doing a press release for this event until the local TV station called me and asked for one. I am really excited (nervous) about this one!You can view the full size press release here or visit the cool webpage I designed for this and future press releases.

Vanity Faire

Tidbits from “Vanity Fair: Selections from America’s Most Memorable Magazine; A Cavalcade of the 1920s and 1930s.”
(a book I got for $3 at the local library book sale)

Now before you close your browser, Vanity Fair is not what it used to be. It was still mostly a celebrity magazine then; but the 1920s and 1930s were the time of a different kind of celebrity: T.S. Eliot, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Paddock, Rudolph Valentino. And when is the last time you saw such magnificent artists as Picasso and Matisse in a “celebrity” magazine? Probably 1927, when they were featured in Vanity Fair.

It is funny to me to read Vanity Fair’s opinion in the early- to mid-1930s that such unquestionable greats as Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, and Katharine Hepburn are “destined for great stardom” since I have always known them as great stars.

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Excerpt from A Cooking Egg by T. S. Eliot, 1923

Buried beneath some snow-deep Alps
Over battered scones and crumpets
Weeping, weeping multitudes
Droop in a hundred A.B. C.’s*

*An endemic teashop found in all parts of London. The initials signify: Aerated Bread Company.

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From a 1925 article where artists write their own epitaphs:

“Here lies the body of Harry Hirschfield
If not, notify Ginsberg & Co., Undertakers, at once!”

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Some of the earliest examples of “photoshop” graced the pages of the early 20th century Vanity Fair coupled with witty captions. Another style of photo collage I found funny was comparing photos of celebrities to those of animals. Did you know Albert Einstein looks remarkably like a wind-blown poodle when you put the two next to each other?

Garbology 101

I learned some scary things about landfills and the state of trash disposal in the United States from this week’s Earth911.com e-newsletter. You probably think your trash is naturally decomposing in a landfill somewhere, right? Wrong! But don’t feel bad that’s what I thought too. It turns out landfills are not built to decompose trash. Trash is separated from the ground by a clay or synthetic layer and is buried with soil everyday to keep it separated from our water and air to minimize contamination. Bottom line, if you’ve got something you think should decompose (coffee grounds, stale bread, yard trimmings, egg shells, vegetable and fruit peels) make compost with it yourself! Here is a good website to learn how. If you don’t want to or don’t have the room to make your own compost (or if you have a dog that would eat your compost) then do an internet search for local community gardens. Chances are they have a compost bin that you could contribute to thereby helping your community grow healthy food locally and diverting a significant portion of your trash from landfills.

The University of Arizona has been offering a “Garbology” class for thirty years. “Over the course of the project’s diggings in 21 landfills across North America, researchers have excavated hundreds of undecomposed hot dogs, corn starch, and lettuce dating back to the 1960s. They also found 2,425 newspapers – still readable – that were essentially used to date the food.” I learned that newspaper takes up about 50% of landfill space in North America. Can you imagine? Paper is one of the easiest things to recycle but it decomposes extremely slowly.

The scary prognosis: “North America is running out of room for garbage.” In my opinion the adage “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Compost” can be simplified to “Think!”

OmniOregonian

I’ve just gotten back from a sabbatical from computer technology. Last week I was exploring what seemed like 24-7 with one of my favorite humans. We drove the Oregon Coast from Lincoln City to Port Orford stopping at every state park and “wayside” that intrigued us. It felt like we hiked as many miles as we drove. Each coastal alcove is a completely different ecosystem. Cape Arago State Park is very similar to Port Orford Head (see picture) with its steep vegetated cliffs with boulders on the beach. But in between; Face Rock and Devil’s Kitchen State Parks are long flat beaches of fine sand with rare basalt outcrops and islands.

We also had a few adventures inland. We drove up into the Cascade Mountains to ski Willamette Pass. It was an impressive ski resort with two feet of real snow, fast chair lifts with no lines, and two peaks to ski down. Unfortunately, it was snowing/raining/sleeting the entire time. We didn’t fall down much but our snow pants and mittens still got soaking wet on the chair lift rides. After one failed attempt to find it, we finally got to hike to both Golden and Silver Falls which are two very large waterfalls less than a mile apart, just 24 miles northeast of Coos Bay.

There were also a few discoveries of man-made marvels. On our way to the coast on our first day we stumbled upon an enormous air and space museum. We couldn’t afford to go in, but we walked around admiring the planes that they left outside. To get an idea of how big the museum was; it houses Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose." From what I have been able to find, the "Spruce Goose" still holds several world records; largest wing span: 319 feet, tallest plane: 78 feet. It only flew once; November 2, 1947. These museums are out in the middle of Evergreen Orchards & Vineyards. Some of their wines: "Spruce Goose Pinot Gris," "Howard Hughes Pinot Noir," "Rosie the Riveter Rose." So cute!