HIKE TO "HANGING ROCK"

Friday, June 24, 2011

Up on top of Hanging Rock!

Click HERE to see ALL hike pictures. 

     Today Moms2 hold down the fort in Bandon (which means they knit, crochet, cross-stitch and nap all day according to them!) while Rick and I take off for Myrtle Point, Powers, and a trailhead deep in the coastal mountains!   It is a glorious sunny day – perfect for exploring back roads and trails! 

We leave Bandon around 8:45, hoping to take the shortcut road to Arago over the mountain between Bandon and Myrtle Point.  Unfortunately, we don’t recognize the name of the road until too late, so end up driving all the way to Coquille, and then up the main highway to Myrtle Point. This is dairy country and the many farms, pastures, and cows are beautiful in the morning sun.  So many farmers are in the midst of haying right now – field after field of mown hay, baled and ready for pickup. 

     It is a windy road from Myrtle Point to Powers…..and patched in multiple sections due to washouts and other damage.  Again…many more large hay fields than we anticipated.  Powers is bigger than we thought.  We  toasted Cherrie, Arron Moxon, and Jenny Moe as we drove through town! 

     Our trailhead is 17 miles past Powers, then 9 miles up a paved one lane road, then another 2 miles up gravel roads, the last section rather steep with drainage ditches across the road which we a little tricky to maneuver in the Toyota, but we made it!  The area was burned in places in 2005 in the Blossom Creek Fire, but while we passed several burned trees, we didn’t really go through a lot of burned area.  We arrived at the trailhead at 11:15 – about 2 ½ hours since leaving Bandon! 

Coast rhodedendrons were in full bloom!

     The trail climbs 1200’ in two miles, much of it through once logged old growth forest – many BIG tall trees remain towering over carpets of fawn lilies (smaller versions of avalanche lilies), fairy slippers, and dwarf rhododendrons.            

      The uphill was fairly relentless and steady, but never too overwhelming!  I had to stop and take some flower pictures, but overall kept a pretty steady pace I thought.  Overall we identified the following flowers in bloom, or ready to bloom:  stonecrop, rhododendrons (two varieties), currant, fairy slippers, beargrass, vanilla leaf, Solomon’s seal, Oregon grape, columbines, trilliums, wild rose, yellow wood violets, salal, huckleberry, Manzanita, lupine, fireweed, thimbleberry, cliff penstemon, paintbrush, and….. probably more! 

The Fawn or Avalanche Lilies were stunning!

     Once we got to the junction with the Panther Ridge trail and saw our hanging “Hanging Rock” sign on the tree, we turned left and headed up the last open stretch to the vistas awaiting!  Once you hit the edge of the ridge, you need to keep to the left and go downhill for abit to get to Hanging Rock.  We saw all these rocky outcroppings and didn’t realize which one was the actual rock since they all seem to “stick out”.  We ate lunch atop our error (which Rick convinced me I could get on top of and did with his extreme help, all the while wondering how in the heck I was going to get down OFF the thing!) and gazed out at the vista 1500’ below which showed much of the Rogue River drainage and valleys.  In the distance we could see a snowy white triangle of a peak.  Much discussion over WHICH peak.  (Finally using Google images and a matching of the pictures, it has been identified as Mt. McLoughlin east of Medford)  Rick got me down off our first viewpoint using a back way under a huge bush (excellent job, husband of mine!) and we headed down the trail to the real Hanging Rock which we had seen from the “other top”.  It was like a freeway to the top of this rock!  What a view forever!!!   Good breeze, but a warm sun.  I could have taken a nap up on the top with the heat of the rock soaking my body, but alas, around 1:45 we decided we had probably better head back down the trail.  Two miles and downhill and an hour later, we returned to the car. 

Hanging Rock with the Rogue River Wilderness
 in the distance. 

     Stopped on the way back down to the main road when we spied a small pool and waterfall to our left, and a crashing waterfall of the Coquille to our right.  There are two waterfall hikes along this stretch of the Coquille that we didn’t take.  A good reason to return to this area for additional hikes! 

     We stop in Powers for a cold drink and a phone call to Moms2 to let them know we are enroute home.  In Myrtle Point, we find our shortcut road from this end, and Rick decides he hasn’t had enough of narrow windy mountain roads, so we turn left to Arago and the shortcut over the mountain!  It is Lampa Lane, the road I suspected this morning AFTER we passed it by! 

Back to Seabird Lane to find hamburgers and fried taters awaiting us.  Quick showers to clean up and an evening of puzzle work and Quiddler!  What a great day!  

TWO WEEKS WITH TWO MOMS!

The four of us at Shore Acres State Park

WEEK 1: June 15 through June 21

Click HERE to view album from Week 1

Wednesday, June 15:

Rick and I leave Baker City bound for Portland and then on down to Bandon for a two week visit at my mom’s house on the coast.  But first we will be picking up Rick’s mom at the Portland airport, where she is flying in from Albuquerque!   This will be known as our TWO MOMS trip! 

Rick puts Marie to sleep!

First stop is the Pilot near Hermiston where we meet Margie Kelly, Midge, and 3 month old Marie at the McDonald’s.  We enjoy an hour of visiting and seeing little Marie for the first time.  Margie has her all decked out in her bright tie dye clothing!  Got caught up on all the family happenings!

Beautiful day to drive the gorge with the very full Columbia River.  We thought about stopping briefly at Multnomah Falls, but decided if we ran into traffic in Portland we might be cutting our time a little close to meet the plane.  As it was, smooth sailing, so we had a half hour to kill at the Target near the airport – and both ended up finding some sale items we couldn’t pass up! 

Mom R had a smooth flight, but having not picked up someone at PDX before, I was sure glad to see her walk through the exit – I wasn’t sure I was in the right place!  Rick went to cell phone parking and waited for our call. 

The car is packed pretty tight with Mom R’s two big suitcases and the ice chest full of all the produce we got from Bountiful Baskets last Saturday.  Plus I had to bring the materials necessary to scan nearly 1000 slides in the next two weeks! 

We head through Portland (not the funnest part of the trip!) and through McMinnville toward the coast.  It is a beautiful day and sunny, so should be a pretty drive down the coast.  We had hoped to meet Kady for an early dinner in Mactown, but she was caught up at work until later – Wednesday was the ONE day it was hard for her to get free from work.  L 

Stop in Lincoln City at Moe’s for dinner!  Good stuff! 

Arrive in Bandon at 9:30 pm – a very LONG day, especially for Mom R who was up at 5am Mountain Time this morning! 

Thursday – Saturday, June 16 to 18:

Rick wants to enter it for the Heart Association calendar!

Lazy summer days!  Thursday and Friday are sunny and gorgeous, albeit with the ever present summer north wind!  Because of the full moon, the tides are at their lowest for the summer season, so Rick and I arise early on Friday morning and head down to the beach and toward the Face Rock point.  It is a glorious morning on the beach.  Just a light wind and sunshine.  We are able to go west from Tunnel Rock probably 400 feet or more, skirting around puddles, etc.  About 15 clammers down on the beach right at the low tide point – successfully judging from the bags at their sides.  We poke around the rocks in front of Sunset Motel, finding the normal  star fish, anemones, etc.  But also discover a large slimy orange rubber “coating” on the rocks in places that we hadn’t seen before.  Strange, yet living, type of “critter”. 

We don’t accomplish a great deal these three days, although Rick does get Mom Mac’s car washed and waxed, we visit the grocery store to stock up on additional necessities, and Mom R teaches us to play Canasta!  It is the first of the summer and time to relax.  Rick takes a long walk on Thursday down to the church and back, while we run errands. 

Saturday the weather takes a sharp turn downward – misty rain and low lying clouds.  Mom R thinks it is cold here!  And it is colder inside as we lose our “solar heating” on Saturday. 

Saturday night Moms and I spent some time viewing pictures of Luke in Tucson, Rick’s birthday pictures, and then remembered Pop with pictures of his life and the memorial service and picnic.  Today was the first anniversary of Pop’s death. 

Sunday, June 19:

Today looks like it MIGHT clear off later and turn nice, but still a little cloudy.  We get ready and go to church and then stay for the Father’s Day brunch afterwards.  Good egg casserole and muffins and fruit.  Our main meal for the day!  By the end of church, the weather was glorious!  Later in the afternoon Rick and I took an hour walk up around Seabird Terrace and the new housing developments.  Eventually came out by Face Rock golf course and back to the house. 

Both Luke and Jed called Rick by evening’s end and he had good visits with both of them.  Moms2 and I played a game of Chicken foot dominoes, with “invented by Ginger” rules since I can’t really remember how to play correctly!  But it works and Mom R wins.  Late night talk makes us suddenly realize it is nearly midnight and Rick has gone to bed two hours earlier! 

Monday, June 20:

View north from Mom's deck

Work Day!  We have a morning fog/cloud which eventually clears off to a beautiful sunshine. And Moms2 are late in arising after our rather tardy bedtime last night!  I start in on the main stack of slides, and by day’s end have completed scanning another 175 or so. First chore for Mom was a pedicure!  Rick found a piece of door trim and worked to stain and seal it and fix one of the doors that the dog had damaged.  He also worked outside today, the main accomplishment being the hedge!  The timing worked out perfect (eg. God must have wanted the hedge done TODAY!)  As we were leaving for the nursery and to ask about renting a heavy duty hedge trimmer, Mom’s yard lady came by, we asked and she does hedges!  But with a time constraint today, she showed Rick the tool, and he did most of it while she cleared it away.  By the time we returned from the nursery, it was nearly done!  I got all of Mom’s planters out front fixed up with new petunias, marigolds, and geraniums.  We also had to replant a new rhododendron as one of her old one finally died over the winter. 

Whew!  Leftover chili for dinner and an evening of canasta before an earlier bedtime! 

Tuesday, June 21:  Shore Acres State Park!

It is a beautiful sunny morning, and after Mom fixes blueberry pancakes for everyone (It is her day to cook!), we take off north for Shore Acres, Charleston, and Coos Bay.  A wrong turn finding the back roads to Shore Acres, but we quickly correct our route with only a little backtracking!  We stop at the Visitor Center for the South Slough Estuary only to discover that all the tickets for the Friday canoe trip have been filled.  L  The sun at the estuary fills wonderful, but we soon drive into fog and never leave it the REST OF THE DAY!

Rick and Mom

Shore Acres is shrouded in misty, swirling banks of fog, and a cool breeze.  So much for my decision to wear shorts for the first time this summer!  But we still find the flowers beautiful as always.  The roses are just coming on while MOST of the rhododendrons are still in bloom.  Azaleas past for the most part.  The bedding plants are in, but haven’t grown much so tucked in below the hedges.  I find plenty of flowers to photograph!  My favorite?  The PlayBoy roses with its orange and yellow tints. 

We drive on in to Charleston for dinner to eat at the Fisherman’s Grotto.  Turns out to be a “slower” choice for the day, as it takes over an hour to get served our meals.  OK food, but not stellar.  We still enjoyed it though!  Rick and I had salmon burgers and clam chowder, while Moms had fish n’ chips or fish n’ shrimp. 

Then it is time for shopping, which ended up more and more shopping as we went!  Eventually visited Walmart, Bi-Mart, Joanne’s Fabrics, Ross, and Fred Meyer!  Came home with all sorts of goodies, including a new dress and two tops for me from Ross, all for under $20!!  Bargain time as it was Seniors Tuesday, and for them Seniors are 55+!! 

Home by 7pm to put a Razzleberry Pie into the oven!  Quiet evening watching TV and talking with Marg on the phone regarding plane tickets!  I saved another $70 on my San Diego SW air flights by rebooking as a special was in the works! 

And so…..Week 1 in Bandon ends.