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Fern Ridge revisited DUW (a hiking adventure)

ghosthousecorns

ghosthousecorns

Well-known member
It looked a bit dismal out today, but I am getting better at gauging the weather here and I could tell the rain, if any, would not be amounting to much.
So, I returned to the Fern Ridge reservoir in West Eugene wetlands (which I have featured in a previous thread, but Saturday is the only day of the week when the public is allowed past the viewing platform)

What I had in mind was to see if there was a way to get to this island:
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After hiking for about half an hour I got to a levee that appeared to go across
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Here is the view about halfway down the levee
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This is what I was walking on, sort of challenging to not twist an ankle
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(continued next post)
 
When I reached the end I thought I was stuck!
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But I found a way through the stuff
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I had to mark it when I got through to the other side, the shoreline all looked the same!
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Well once I got to the island I realized I should have brought a machete
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Blackberry and tangled growth everywhere! A small critter's tunnel
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Last few pics, a couple of skulls I found (beavers?)

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And a few more of the trees. I guess some places are just meant to be inaccessible. I had fun even though I couldn't quite get to them!

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I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to show you what I mean. If you like I will remove this. Tone mapping is so much fun! (of course I can't do it properly without 3 different exposed pictures)
 

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Tula_Montage said:
I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to show you what I mean. If you like I will remove this. Tone mapping is so much fun! (of course I can't do it properly without 3 different exposed pictures)
Click to expand...

Not at all, that looks way better than my original!
I guess I just like getting out there and taking them a lot more than I like tweaking them afterwards, they pretty much went straight from the camera to photobucket. If you like doing it by all means feel free I like seeing the before and after ;) Thanks Elle!
 
When I take pictures, I aim to have straight off printable shots that I dont have to tweak. I'm not a "purist" it just makes the job of uploading 500 shots at a time much easier LOL
 
Lovely shots Jen, it's good to see that you did go hiking in the end! Did you feel better because of that?

I'll be going to Hamm at the end of the week, so on Sunday you're going to see some shots of baby cobras, vipers and all the wonderful snakes you can think of :) If there's time (which I doubt there will be), I'd like to get some shots of the surrounding areas, so if so, I'll post those too. :)

All the best

David
 
Snake Dave said:
Lovely shots Jen, it's good to see that you did go hiking in the end! Did you feel better because of that?

I'll be going to Hamm at the end of the week, so on Sunday you're going to see some shots of baby cobras, vipers and all the wonderful snakes you can think of :) If there's time (which I doubt there will be), I'd like to get some shots of the surrounding areas, so if so, I'll post those too. :)

All the best

David
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Sounds like fun! I have very little self control at herp shows though. If you are anything as bad as me I'll be looking for your new acquisition thread :)
I did feel better but a bit sore today. Walking on those rocks is hard LOL.
 
Jen those are some pretty shots. I liked living out in WA just didn't care for all the rain. You should go to Washington during sunset and take a pic of Mt. Rainer(spelling?) for me. LOL
 
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Thanks Becky!
I'm a little south of there. But I agree the Pac NW is known for its rain and it doesn't bother me anymore. For how many days it rains, most of the rainy days are just a bit of drizzle, nothing torrential.
The volcanoes of the Northwestern U.S. are just amazing. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Olympia, etc. (It's the St. Helens type ones that get all the publicity though.) Even Crater Lake, the famous landmark, is the leftover crater of a massive megavolcano.
If I get a nice clear day I will try to get some pictures of the mountains visible from here, which I believe are called the Sisters and Mt. Bachelor :)
 
When I lived out there it was a daily thing to see Mt. Rainier every morning when the sun was coming up. The trails have some amazing foliage and fishing is superb.
 
Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures, Jen. We just returned to Oregon for the 4th time this last summer. We will always return here no matter where we go. I remember moving here from New Mexico in high school and being "blinded" by the green.

I hope you have many more hikes to enjoy---in between rain showers of course.
 
Oh! Jen those pics are just beautiful. Is it as flat as it looks? That would be a hike I could probably manage. If your day up there is like down here, you have another beautiful day for hiking.
 
I was just looking (or lamenting) through the pics Jen and I see fresh blackberries and blackberry jam in your future, yummo.
 
nlt71 said:
Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures, Jen. We just returned to Oregon for the 4th time this last summer. We will always return here no matter where we go. I remember moving here from New Mexico in high school and being "blinded" by the green.

I hope you have many more hikes to enjoy---in between rain showers of course.
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Yep, I haven't regretted moving here from San Francisco Bay Area one bit. Though it's a bit tougher to find work here, the scenery is amazing. this is the place to live!

susang, it is very flat, but the footing at least on that levee was pretty rough since you are basically walking on rocks. You would like the part up to the viewing platform more, as that is a more often used path and very smooth.

I saw so many birds - marsh hawks, mallards, osprey, tons of swallows, red winged blackbirds, and bitterns. There is no way to get good pictures of them with the camera I currently have but still very cool to see a place like this that is set aside for wildlife (even if it means that currently Saturday is the only day the humans get to go there) The hours and rules change seasonally as do the water levels. There are several hunting seasons for different species. I went during the duck season and saw that it was very popular with hunters, but I rather enjoyed it more yesterday with having the whole place to myself ;)
 
susang said:
I was just looking (or lamenting) through the pics Jen and I see fresh blackberries and blackberry jam in your future, yummo.
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Yeah, going to have to find grandma's recipe.
Blackberries are universal though, aren't they? I remember there were quite a few in Grants Pass too LOL
 
shed'n my skin said:
Yeah, going to have to find grandma's recipe.
Blackberries are universal though, aren't they? I remember there were quite a few in Grants Pass too LOL
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Yes we get lots, the secret is know where to go, if they don't get enough water they are pretty small. The other thing is access. Up on our property the deer get to the outside ones pretty quickly, but we take pruners and usually get enough for us, little piggies. I never uderstand the price of blackberries here when they are so abunadant.
 
They are tasty, but all those thorns! I definitely have mixed feelings about that plant. It grows everywhere and is impossible to get rid of using roundup, so it needs to be sprayed with crossbow. I do like the wild ones where I don't have to take care of the landscape, though.
 
shed'n my skin said:
Sounds like fun! I have very little self control at herp shows though. If you are anything as bad as me I'll be looking for your new acquisition thread :)
I did feel better but a bit sore today. Walking on those rocks is hard LOL.
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Lmao, it should be great. But unfortunately I definately won't be bringing anything back with me, and that's a fact :(

As is the way. No pain, no game Jen :p
 
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