Category: animal

Went for a ride

I am looking for a different place to shoot the milky way and possibly the Perseids this weekend. We decided to head down to Crescent City, it is about a 30 minute drive. Here is the picture in the daylight that I think will make a great foreground for the stars. I am however not sure what I was thinking after I took this picture. Let me explain. When I step outside of the car just to take a documentary image I close the door. So, one would think when the picture is taken you open the door to get into the car. I ended up closing the door and giving Roy this look like how I ended up on this side of the door. You can now have that image in your head. Well, when a door is open what do you do you close it. I’m just glad Roy did not drive off. Once I got back in the car we decided to explore the coast of Crescent City. I love the unique rocks and beaches that dot the landscape. Look for some pictures from here in the future.

We finally are heading home it is dark and I am pulling my let’s fall asleep while Roy drive. As you can tell from this video, I did not stay asleep for long. I am also glad Roy was a truck driver. I am also glad we have both views from the camera.

You can see Roy’s lips move and catch a light going by us. He said that it looks like we will only see one logging truck on the way home. He also explained that he loved driving at night because there was usually little to no traffic. My though was yeah with little to no traffic you get animals. That is how we lost a windshield in 2000. That was compliments of a wild mustang. That is just about when I had my reaction. This was a half mile out of town, and she was standing right in our lane. I grew up in the Midwest and have seen deer in the middle of the road, I will say they are small compared to the cow elk in the middle of the road. The cows can weigh between 400 and 500 pounds.

I have to say I am glad we got home safe, and the cow decided to head back off the road.

Chickens in the ‘Wild’

I am so glad we did not go any farther down the dirt road we were on. Had that happened, I would not have photographed the chickens. Towards the end of our afternoon drive, we were headed home when the car was actually being chased by a dog, and that is what I was paying attention to. Roy, on the other hand, was paying attention to whatever moves. In this case, it was some movement on the side of the road. Roy said, “I’m sure I saw chickens,” and I’m thinking, “Okay, if you say so.”

A u-turn occurred, and the dog resumed its chase. He found the movement and made another u-turn. I pulled out my camera, and Roy straddled the road so I could take some pictures of the chickens. Realizing we were in the middle of the road and there was traffic coming down that road, the photo op was finished. We did flag down the car to let them know chickens were on the side of the road. The other driver said, “I will call the owner and let them know their chickens are loose.” The chickens were the end of a fun road trip down a dirt road up an elevated dit road. The start of this was watching kites trying to fly.

Sometimes when you are waiting for someone to come back and they don’t, you have to change plans. We needed to talk to the office where we are staying, but it was closed. A whole afternoon of free time. Our normal routine is to drive through the harbor to see if the kites are flying, then park by the river that drains into the ocean to see if there are any egrets or maybe common murres or pelicans. This day, however, the only thing flying was a solo light green kite.

We needed to explore something different, of course it was sunny and that in itself is rare. Down Winchuck River Road or the Oregon Redwoods Trail, time to see a few large trees. This is also where we saw the chickens. The road itself was a maintained county road until it wasn’t. I will say, on a side note, that this summer the forest service roads are in better condition than in the past. We did take the paved forest service road until it turned into gravel.

The first road had a bridge over (not troubled) water. I was able to take advantage of the sunlight falling through the trees onto the river. It was great to stay in the car and just shoot from the passenger side of the car. Not wanting to go any further down the road because it had turned into gravel, we started heading back to civilization. Before that happened, I suggested let’s head up to the Ludlum campground; it is only 2 1/2 miles up another road. This road quickly turned into a narrow, one-lane gravel road with nowhere to turn around. (Not one of my better adventure ideas.) We were able to find a wide spot in the road to turn around.

Roy is always paying attention to the environment I do not notice as much as he does. I am learning. I mention this because the pictures below are of a fallen tree with its root ball intact and all of the tiny trees and brush growing out of the trunk. Mother Nature’s nursery.

In my opinion, the forest is peaceful and a tad unnerving. The quietness is deafening until you start to hear the sounds of the forest. Just about then, I’m out of the car taking pictures, looking over my shoulder for the bear or bobcat, or maybe a mountain lion. I saw or heard none of them. I did end up jumping though and getting scared. It was caused by Roy and his horn. As I went to the other side of the car after lovingly telling him he was #1, he pointed out how high above the river we were.

On the way home and after we ran into the chickens we went to see Oregon’s largest Monterey Cypress. This tree than 130 feet tall. I had trouble fitting it in the farme. It is interesting what gems are hidden in plain sight.

With a full day of no fog it was great discovering the area.