Saturday, October 21, 2006

Silver Falls, Oregon...Thursday

Oregon has many different sights, that is for sure. One of the most remarkable places is Silver Falls State Park. The park is the largest (in area) in the state at about 9,000 acres. It also has ten spectacular water falls within its confines. Granted you have to walk a lot to see them all (eight miles), but you can see several within a fairly short jaunt. Each is named and each is unique.

The park was carved out during the 1930s by the CCC (WPA) and has been restored and added to…this is the place in the woods that we were seeking to play off our place at the coast. It is just 45 miles from Newberg.

Aleene and I drove out just after lunch, in the rain, and arrived just a bit early to suit the ranger, so we had to cool our heels in the day use area, which was fine. We stoked up the generator, turned on the furnace and I took a nap. I like to run the generator every so often with a load on it to keep it in tune. It worked fine. Aleene made a pot of coffee and we switched the reefer from gas to electric so as to have an electrical load on the generator.

Back in the campground around 2:30 and we parked in our pre-reserved spot plugged in the electric and water and have been reading ever since. It is raining outside. We are hopeful that tomorrow will be not as wet and that we can do a hike that will include about seven of the ten falls in about six miles…the distance we used to walk around Hutchins Lake.

We are out of cell phone range, so here we are for two nights. We have to be back in church on Sunday for I am the liturgist yet one more time (there are five Sundays in October) and we have to sing in the choir.

Speaking of which, we are both really enjoying the choir. Have I mentioned that before? We have some really great musicians starting with the pianist and the director. These folks learn music fast and focus for an hour on singing…it is quite enjoyable.

Back to Silver Falls. Aleene is enjoying herself, but she cannot forget that this is bear and mountain lion country. They generally are not sighted here, but just in case…we are in the foothills of the Cascade Range. Yep, this is rugged country. I would put a map link on this, but I do not have Internet service here either…just writing, but we are about twenty miles east of Salem; off the beaten path (Highway 22) that goes over the ridge to Bend. Can you say God’s Country?

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