BALD EAGLES, VOLCANOES, CAVES and more: A PACIFIC NORTHWEST WINTER ESCAPADE, Part 2, Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Mount Thielsen, Oregon.

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s book writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took these photos in Northern California and Southern Oregon in February 2024.

At dawn, after spending the night at the Winema Historic Lodge in Tulelake, California, all we could see outside was the nose of our car poking out of impenetrable fog. We guessed that fog dissipates faster over dry land than lake water, so we drove a few miles south, entering LavaBeds National Monument,an area preserved because of its volcanic origin and Modoc native people history.

The lava flowed in the past half million years and until about a thousand years ago, from the Medicine Lake volcano on the Pacific Ring of Fire. This volcano is not pointy, tall and postcard-worthy like Mount Rainier near Seattle or Mount Hood near Portland. Instead, it is shaped like a shield, low (7921 feet or 2414 m) and broad (22 miles or 35 km from east to west and roughly 30 miles or 48 km from north to south). Yet, it is California’s largest volcano by volume and area, and its lava flows extend twice as far as it does.

A Fleener Chimney, more than 4 feet (or 1 meter) across.

We stopped at the Fleener Chimneys. Footpaths led up lava rock mounds to metal fences that kept us from falling into big, deep holes in the ground where lava once erupted up, splattered down and solidified as it cooled, gradually building up the “chimneys.”

Mount Shasta at right, as seen from the top of Schonchin Butte.

Next, we hiked to the top of Schonchin Butte (elevation 5302 feet or 1616 m). Deer tracks went all the way up the trail, so I kept looking all around, ready to jump out of the way of any startled animal. We didn’t see any wildlife (except for a Bald Eagle in flight, what a treat!), but we got a good view of the snowy cone of Mount Shasta, a 14,180-foot (4322-m) high volcano to the south, in sharp focus in the crisp, clear air.

Model of a Modoc winter lodge--partly underground, insulated by earth and tule layers.

This austere landscape of lava flows, buttes and caves was the homeland of the Modoc native people, until Europeans arrived and turned it into a battlefield during the Modoc War in 1872-3. Details are available at the Lava Beds National Monument Visitor Center, plus information about Modoc rock art and displays of craft items. As a fan of miniatures, my favorites were the models of traditional Modoc dwellings. I skipped the natural history information—for the next time I visit.

When we asked the ranger about visiting caves, he asked us to sanitize our boots, using the brushes and solutions set up outside the entrance door. This was in case we had visited caves elsewhere and encountered a deadly bat disease, white nose syndrome. Disinfecting boots before visiting caves protects local bats from infection. Caves where entire bat colonies hibernate are closed to visitors in the winter. The Ranger also made sure we had actual flashlights, because cell phone flashlights are not sufficient.

Valentine Cave pillar.

As advised, we visited Valentine Cave. After descending into the mouth of the cave, a gaping maw in lava rock, we faced a stone pillar in the underground darkness. Going around it on either side led deeper in the tube-shaped cave. The mouth of Skull Cave was the size of a road tunnel.

After the sun had vaporized all the fog, we drove to Petroglyph Point to see historic Modoc rock carvings. I found them surprisingly large and coarse, perhaps because the rock is too soft to allow finer details. Then we drove to a warm hotel in Klamath Falls, Oregon, for the second night of our winter getaway.

On the third day, driving back to Eugene was only going to take three and a half hours, so we detoured off US-97 North, heading west on OR-138, then south on OR-230 to glimpse photogenic Mount Thielsen in its snowy splendor. (See first photo.)  After we spotted the Mount Thielsen Viewpoint sign on the opposite side of the road, we took advantage of a Sno-Park to turn around, and drove back slowly, facing the mountain to take photos from the car. The viewpoint and its parking area were inaccessible, smothered by snow. Next we stopped at a nearby Sno-Park (parking requires displaying a Sno-Park Permit) to snowshoe up an unplowed road, an easy walk under a bright blue sky. We were the only ones there.

When we arrived back home from our bald eagle expedition, we were thrilled to count three adult eagle sightings on our first day out, three on the second day (an adult and juvenile on the ground in morning fog and the adult flying over the lava beds), and one on the third day (upon leaving Klamath Falls.) A week later, in two hours in Eugene, we saw five adult bald eagles, and I’m pretty sure I heard the birds laughing at us for going on a car trip just to see their countryside relatives.

Yet, repeating this escapade in other seasons sounds easy and fun. When winter is over, the bats wake up from hibernation and more lava caves open to human visitors. In spring (and fall), a bazillion birds stop over on their migrations north (and south). And in summer, birds make more birds!

Part 1 of this post appeared on April 22, 2024 at The Intrepid Tourist. 

All text and photos, copyright Caroline Arnold. www.theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com

BALD EAGLES, VOLCANOES, CAVES and more: A PACIFIC NORTHWEST WINTER ESCAPADE, Part 1, Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Bald Eagle, Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, California

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took these photos in Northern California and Southern Oregon in February 2024.

Tule Lake (T), Lava Beds National Monument (L), CA; Mount Thielsen (M), OR

Ever since I read that the Tule Lake area in Northern California is where to look for “the largest number of wintering Bald eagles in the contiguous U.S.,” it’s been on my Pacific Northwest bucket list. Bald eagle numbers peak in mid-February, some years reaching above one thousand. By late March, the eagles have left on their journey north.

In February 2023, temperatures below freezing, ice, and snow made driving conditions potentially treacherous. I chose to stay safe at home in Eugene. A year later, nighttime temperatures barely dipped below freezing. It was time to go!

The Tule LakeNational Wildlife Refuge is one of six Klamath Basin Refuges which are the last remnants of once-immense wetlands, shrunken by agricultural development. The refuges are a rest and feed stop for waterfowl migrating along the Pacific Flyway. Winter waterfowl are bald eagle food.

At the website for this wildlife refuge, a term that makes it sound like a safe haven for animals, I was surprised to see “Hunting” under “Visitor Activities.” When I looked up the 2024 hunting seasons, on different dates for ducks, scaups (diving duck species), or Canada geese, I found that all hunting had ended in January. I felt reassured that visiting in February should be safe from stray bullets.

Upon arrival, we stopped at the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center at Tule Lake. The building contains excellent displays of taxidermy ducks, geese, eagles, and other birds commonly seen at the refuge, a library of relevant nature books, and a children’s play area with toys. The Ranger said, “There must be a hundred Bald Eagles out there right now,” sparking bright hope that we would see some. During the day, they look for water birds to eat. At night, they roost in treesy areas (such as the nearby Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge, closed to the public). At dawn and dusk, they fly out and fly back, commuting to their day job.

The Tule Lake Refuge includes wetlands, some of which are farmlands seasonally flooded by irrigation. A network of dirt roads includes a 9-mile Auto Tour Route that begins four miles south of the Visitor Center and an array of straight roads on top of dikes, some with a power line running alongside. 

Bald Eagle.

We drove off, scanning sky and land and tops of power poles for photogenic birds. One bald eagle stared us down.

Bald eagle in tree.

To increase our chances of sightings, we chose to move around the vast area rather than sit still for hours at roadside spots or Wildlife Overlooks. Nature gifted us with dazzling visions: two more bald eagles, moody skies in turmoil, rain drawing dark curtains on the horizon one minute and washing over us the next, brilliant rainbows flashing in and out of existence…

White pelicans in front of the Peninsula rock formation.

We saw lots of duck species, coots, white pelicans, tundra swans, and sandhill cranes. A distant, gigantic, solid-looking white area contrasting with pale blue lake water turned out to be a clumped flock of perhaps a thousand birds!

For dinner at Señor Tequila in the town of Tulelake (one word), we tasted chicken specialties with decadent, Land O’Lakes secret cheese sauce (imagine chicken Stroganoff, especially since my selection contained added sour cream)… I ate a little of it and carried away the rest to eat for another meal.

When we checked in at the Winema Historic Lodge on the edge of the refuge, the owner, Loyal Taylor, whose awesome first name I had never encountered before, generously shared stories about the bald eagles and barn owls who are his neighbors. Breathtaking photos of some of them hang in the lodge dining room.

Everywhere we went on that February Wednesday, we were the only visitors there. That night, the temperature dropped around freezing. The wall heater in our room rumbled loudly on and off, so we turned it off and piled extra blankets on the bed. Even though I put on thermal clothing, I dreamed that I was back in the frigid Himalayas, in an unheated tea house room! 

To be continued in next week's post.

All text and photos, copyright Caroline Arnold. www.theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com

THE ROAD TO CAMP BOVEY: From Minneapolis to Northern Wisconsin, Recollections from Childhood

Camp Bovey sign, 1961.

Seventy-five years ago, under the direction of my father, Les Scheaffer, North East Neighborhood House, a settlement house in Minneapolis, founded Camp Bovey near Solon Springs, Wisconsin. It was a place where children and families of Northeast Minneapolis could enjoy nature and the outdoors, learn camping skills, and have fun together. My first trip to Camp Bovey (then called Camp Hodag) was when I was four years old. Over the next seventeen years I went there many times--with my family, as a camper, and as a staff member for the summer sessions when I was in college. No matter how many times I made the trip, I always felt the excitement of going to Camp.

The four Scheaffer children at Camp Bovey, 1951.

I write about Camp Bovey in four chapters of my new memoir, SETTLEMENT HOUSE GIRL: GrowingUp in the 1950s at North East Neighborhood House, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here is an excerpt, describing the trip to Camp as I knew it as a child.

Camp Bovey. View of the lodge from across the lake, 2022.

The trip to Camp Bovey from northeast Minneapolis is 150 miles. I know all the stops and landmarks by heart, and no matter how many times I take the trip, the excitement of going to Camp never fades. If you don’t stop, you can make it in about three hours. But for our family the trip always takes longer, with stops along the way for gas, groceries, toilets, a picnic lunch, and if we are lucky, wildlife viewing--perhaps a deer, bald eagle, or in spring, a patch of trilliums.

We always aim to get an early start, but never do, and by the time we reach Taylor’s Falls on the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River, everyone is hungry. St. Croix State Park, across the bridge on the Wisconsin side of the river, is a favorite lunch spot with its scenic view, rocks to climb, and space for my brothers and me to use up some energy before getting back into the car.

After lunch we head east to Turtle Lake, where we turn north on Highway 63 toward Cumberland, home of the Tower House Restaurant, named for the turret on the Victorian house in which it is located. When I am thirteen I taste an exotic foreign food for the first time at the Tower House—pizza! It is delicious.

Cumberland is on an isthmus between two lakes. In winter, the Chamber of Commerce drives an old car onto the frozen lake and raises money by taking bets on when the ice will melt and the car will sink. In 1960, we pass through town in early April and the car is still sitting on the ice. We are on the way to Camp to celebrate my brother Tom’s tenth birthday. By the time we go by again, on our way to Camp for a Memorial Day work weekend, the car is gone. We never find out how long it took for the ice to melt that year.

After Cumberland, the next major town is Spooner. We sometimes stop for a light meal at the Buckhorn Inn on Spooner’s main street. My brothers and I love sitting on the high bar stools. We are allowed to order anything under a dollar. As we wait for our food we ponder the heads of deer and other animals mounted on the wall and wonder if the bizarre two-headed calf is real. It is. Outside Spooner, Highways 53 and 63 merge, and we continue north, going through the tiny towns of Minong and Wascott before arriving at our turnoff at Gordon. To the left is the fire tower on top of the hill above Lake St. Croix. We turn right onto County Road Y.

At Gordon, we are ten miles from Camp and almost there. The first five miles out of town are on a two-lane blacktop. When we reach Flamang Road, we turn left onto a graded sand road. We drive for another five miles, crossing Ox Creek and passing a few cabins. A sign for Camp Bovey, across from a cluster of tumble-down log buildings that we call the haunted farm, marks the last leg of the trip, a narrow rutted road winding through jack pine forest. It isn’t long before we get the first glimpse of Lake Metzger glimmering through the trees, and then, after passing the three “boys” cabins, pull into a parking place at the back of the lodge. We have arrived at Camp.

Flagpole. Dedication to Lester Scheaffer, founder of Camp Bovey, 1949.

Today’s trip to Camp Bovey bypasses Taylor’s Falls and follows the Interstate toward Duluth, cutting over to Highway 53 at Spooner. But the thrill of going to Camp never fades.

Camp Bovey is celebrating its 75^th Anniversary this year, 2024. It is still a place for children and families to enjoy the out-of-doors. For more about Camp Bovey and anniversary events, go to the Camp Bovey Facebook page or the ESNS website. (North East Neighborhood House became East Side Neighborhood Services (ESNS) in 1963.)

 

 

SPRING WILDFLOWER WALK on the Montclair Railroad Trail, Oakland, California

Allium triquetrum on the Montclair Railroad Trail.

One of our favorite walks near our house in Oakland is along the Montclair Railroad Trail. Once the path of a busy commuter rail line, it is now a mostly shaded, level path through a forest of California oaks, eucalyptus and redwoods. 

Montclair Railroad Trail (east end).

In spring, the edges and open areas are home to a variety of wildflowers. Here are some that we encountered on a recent warm, sunny weekend. 

Broom (an invasive species.).

Nightshade, sometimes called horse nettle.

Daisies.

Cow parsnip, a California native plant.

Lupin.

Forget-me-not.

The trail is 1.5 miles long. Along the trail are several information boards telling the history of the railroad and how local residents saved the land from being developed after the railroad stopped running. I'm glad they did.

"It is silent now, but long ago you would hear the shrill scraping of iron wheels along a track as a green interurban electric train would suddenly appear and pass along the very path on which you are walking. From 1912 to 1957, the popular Sacramento Northern carried passengers and freight between Chico and Oakland."

The trail is accessible from the parking garage in the Montclair village shopping area. A short climb up the hill behind the parking lot leads to the main path. It is a popular trail for walkers like us, but also for people with their dogs and bike riders. If you go on a Sunday as we did, between 9:00 and 1:00 pm, you can finish by stopping at the Farmer's Market just down the street from the parking garage where you can buy fresh vegetables, fruit, fish, or a wide variety of prepared foods (dim sum, bao buns, crepes, samosas, cornish pasties and more) to eat at picnic tables or take home.

MAP for parking and trail access.

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis)

ART SHOW--PAINTINGS BY TOM SCHEAFFER, at the Maya Moon Collective, San Diego, CA

Painting by Tom Scheaffer

My brother Tom Scheaffer is currently exhibiting his beautiful paintings at the Maya Moon Collective in San Diego, California, 3349 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116. 

Tom Scheaffer dressed up as a French artist.

The opening reception, Saturday, March 23^rd, 6 to 8 pm, was attended by many of Tom's friends and well wishers. Tom dressed up as a French artist, adding to the festivity of the occasion. 

Tom works in a colorful, expressionist/realistic style, depicting scenes in nature, especially of places in Southern California. His paintings are also inspired by his roots in the upper Midwest and summers in the North Woods at Camp Bovey in northern Wisconsin. Here are some samples of the paintings in the exhibit at the Maya Moon Collective.

If you are in the San Diego area, be sure to stop by to see the exhibit and have a bite to eat at the Maya Moon Cafe. The paintings will be up until the end of April.

Tom gives special thanks to George McKeever for helping him hang the show. For a few more pictures of Tom's paintings, click HERE.