#middle fork path

[spaciousreasoning]

A Return to the Middle Fork Path

Today was another mostly cloudy day, at least until late in the afternoon, when the clouds began separating and the sun started to shine through without any interference. Last night’s low was 53 degrees, and today’s high made it to just 68.

My blood sugar fell to 193, which was a nice decline given the past few days when it was over 200.

After Nancy and I had our coffee and played the usual brain games, we showered and dressed. Then Nancy whipped up a protein drink.

Just before Nancy called Peggy, her spiritual advisor, I took off for Costco. I found a convenient parking spot right off the bat and went in for a few items, including half ‘n’ half and a bottle of Pinot Gris for Nancy. Once I loaded everything in the car, I went around to the gas station to fill up the tank ($3.99 per gallon).

I managed to get home before Nancy ended her call, so in the meantime I caught up on my Flickr account and other social media.

Once she was done talking with Peggy, we started working on breakfast, making an omelet with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and cheese, cooking up the rest of the bacon in the oven, and toast with blackberry fruit spread using the bread from Kalen’s most recent loaf.

After breakfast, Nancy called Kalen and talked with her about the fallen fence in our back yard. Another section had come down, which made a total of three. Kalen said she would check with Ronin and see if he could help out.

Following a nap, we went to Clearwater Park and walked along the Middle Fork Path to the junction with the Mill Race Path and back. We did 2.93 miles in a little more than 1 hour and 11 minutes, a total of 7,200 steps. We both experienced a little pain, Nancy in her back and me in my foot and hip.

When we got home, we found Ronin working on “repairing” the fence. I went out to see if I could be of any help. He stood up the three fallen sections and propped them up with some of the wood left the renovation work on the house. When I suggested he send us a bill for his work, he said he would come by later this week for another dinner.

Tonight’s dinner was more of the Tuscan chicken and rice that was still leftover, plus we steamed the last two corn cobs. We followed up dinner and cleaning with a couple of fudgesicles.

Then I took off right at 6 p.m. for the Tuesday evening men’s recovery meeting. I picked up Henry and we arrived just before another van full of men from one of the local treatment centers. Art asked me to pick out a reading, and I found a section in the Living Clean book called “A Leap of Faith.”

When I got home, after dropping off Henry, Nancy and I watched the latest episode from “Beyond Paradise.”

Just before turning in for the night, I posted the July calendar on my FB. I had made a few last-minute additions to it earlier in the day. I also uploaded the July church newsletter to the St. Thomas website.

There may be more sunshine than we saw today on tap for tomorrow, but tonight’s low is going to drop down into the upper 40s. Tomorrow’s high is expected to reach the low 70s.

Our calendar continues to be mostly empty during the daytime. Nancy suggested that we can think about making plans while we have our coffee in the morning.

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On this day in 1921, U.S. President Warren G. Harding appointed former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the United States.

June 30, 1917, was the birth date of Lena Horne, an American singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist whose career in film, television and theater spanned more than seventy years.

Today is International Asteroid Day and National Meteor Watch Day, Clean Your Disposal Day, National Corvette Day, Nation OOTD Day, and Social Media Day.

[spaciousreasoning]

Along the Middle Fork Path

Another cloudy and relatively cool day, though the sun did finally show up a bit in the afternoon. The rain that had been forecast for early this morning did not appear, but the overnight low was 56 degrees, and the day’s high was just 75.

This morning’s blood count was up again a bit, to 168. That’s into the “danger zone,” but not enough to be terribly concerned. Unless it keeps it up in the days to come.

After enjoying our coffee and playing the Monday edition of the online brain games, Nancy did her yoga while I began my computing.

When Nancy was done, we had toast with jelly, then showered and dressed. I drove Nancy to her chiropractic appointment, then we went to Market of Choice off Beltline for a few items, including chicken for our dinner. Once we finished our shopping, we returned home.

I started cooking up the bacon we got the other day, then Nancy whipped up some eggs, and we had breakfast, including more toast, some of it with jelly.

Then we went out to Clearwater for a walk on the Middle Fork Path. We walked all the way to the junction with Mill Race Path and then took a side trip to the river’s edge before returning to the start of our walk.

After that, we dropped by the new house to check on the renovation progress. Kurt had been there, but he was gone when we arrived. We walked to Kathleen’s to get her key and then checked out what had been done. The ceiling has mostly been removed, and the kitchen was completely empty as well. We will check in with Kurt to find out what will happen next.

On the way home we stopped by Old Crow for a blended Mexican mocha. I checked back in to Flickr, and the day after the Explore, the account collected 2,419 views and several more faves by 5 p.m. when the counting changes over.

Then I posted several pictures on Flickr from our walk, including one of a bee on a flowering teasel. I also posted a different picture of a bee on a teasel for FB.

Nancy had a glass of wine, and I joined her for some lap time. When she was done, she went to start making the chicken piccata, and I ran to the corner to get some heavy cream for the recipe.

Along with the chicken piccata, we had rice and steamed broccoli for dinner. We passed on dessert, since we had the mocha before dinner.

Our streaming for the evening began about 8 p.m. with another episode of “Astrid.” A famous environmental activist was attacked in public by a young woman. Things got tougher when the criminal claimed to come from the future. Time travel turned out to have nothing to do with solving the case.

We closed out the evening with the next episode of “The Madame Blanc Mysteries.” Jean’s colleague Charlie’s aunt was poisoned. It turned out that Aunt Fifi owned valuable antiques which complicated her relationship with her half-sister. Jean eventually figured out who the killer was.

We are returning to more sunshine tomorrow, starting with a lot of 52 degrees and rising to at least 82 by the end of the day.

Nancy has a phone call with a former Tucson friend tomorrow, and my men’s meeting comes around tomorrow night. Anything else will be off the cuff.

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On this day in 1925, High school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of teaching human evolution in class and fined $100, but the verdict was later overturned on a technicality. Commonly known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, William Jennings Bryan, a three-time presidential candidate and former secretary of state, led the prosecution. Famed labor and criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow served as the principal defense attorney for Scopes.

July 21, 1899, was the birthday of Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image. Some of his seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works have become classics of American literature, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Today is National Junk Food Day, Global Hug Your Kids Day, Legal Drinking Age Day, National Be Someone Day, National Get Out of the Doghouse Day, Racial Harmony Day, and Take a Monkey to Lunch Day.

[spaciousreasoning]

Back to the Middle Fork Path

We awoke this morning to light rain. In fact, we only noticed it because the streets were wet. Since rain had not appeared on the forecast for today, I wondered aloud, “Where did this come from?” Nancy replied, “We’re in Oregon.” Good answer!

The low last night was 46 degrees, and today’s high was 65. With a day of mostly clouds—and, evidently, rain—we thought about sticking close to home, but the weather improved and our plans changed.

This morning’s blood sugar was only a point above yesterday, at 183. I am still waiting for approval from the PCP for a re-order of the 1000mg Metformin. Having stopped taking the fenofibrate yesterday, my visits to the bathroom have been fewer and less troublesome.

I was awake early, with pain in my right hip and leg, so Nancy urged me to use the heating pad for some relief. It did not do much to lessen the pain, but it did allow me to get back to sleep. Meanwhile, Nancy got up and did some chores before rousing me to make coffee.

After we enjoyed our coffee and played the brain games, Nancy decided we would have eggs for breakfast. In part because of the three dozen eggs that grandson Kyle gave us last week, which all came from his chickens. It’s nice to have a source that’s so much less expensive than the grocery store.

So we had cheesy eggs, warmed up bacon, and toast with jam for breakfast. We finished off the bacon reserves, so we put that on the shopping list.

Nancy and I decided to go check out the Market of Choice we had seen near the bird store we visited the other day. It was located north of the Beltline off Delta Road, and it turned out to be larger than either of the other two locations we have been to. Our list included a couple of things for tonight’s dinner. I also decided to try a different brand of cold brew, since my usual brand is not carried there.

Once we got home and put everything away, we immediately turned around and went out to do some walking. Instead of sticking around the neighborhood, we went to Clearwater Park to walk the Middle Fork Path. But we got stuck going down 42nd Street because a train was stopped and traffic was backed up quite a way. Lots of folks were turning around, and we finally did as well. Then we found our way through the neighborhood over to 32nd Street and crossed the tracks just before train passed that direction.

We finally got to Clearwater Park a little after 12:30 p.m. Then we walked about a mile along the Middle Fork Path before turning around and heading back. It took us more than an hour out and back, though, because we went slowly, observing all the plants that are springing to life, and taking lots of pictures. Nancy also used her apps to identify birds and plants. The total distance was just over 2 miles and it took us an hour and 12 minutes, with 5,500 steps.

By the time we got home around 2:30 p.m., we were both ready for a nap. Nancy got up before me and spent some time on the phone with her daughter. When I finally managed to get myself out of bed, I downloaded the pictures from our walk earlier and posted a few on Facebook.

When Nancy ended the phone call with her daughter, we started working on dinner. We began by roasting some small potatoes in the oven with oil and garlic. Then we put together a meat loaf from a favorite recipe of ours and stuck it in the oven as well. A side dish of green beans came last.

By the time we finished dinner, I was just about ready to leave for the Tuesday men’s recovery meeting. I picked up Henry and drove over. The reading was from the Basic Text, a chapter called “More Will Be Revealed.” During the sharing, I talked about having been in Oregon a year and how grateful I have been to have the fellowship to help me settle into our new home.

I got home about 8:30 p.m., and Nancy and I began our streaming by watching the Monday Colbert, with guest Wanda Sykes. Then we caught a “Tracker” episode from several weeks back.

There is sun in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, with a low tonight near 40 degrees and a high of 66. It is expected to climb into the 70s on Thursday. We might try to take advantage of the good weather and explore another area of Oregon. Everything will be reported here, of course.

[spaciousreasoning]

Walking the Path

Thanks to no peanut munching during the evening TV watching, my blood sugar was down to 221 on Monday morning. Less tummy upset overnight as well, though I was awake for a couple of hours and needed some pain reliever to ease the body aches.

Having completed our morning brain games and our coffee we had some more oatmeal, we washed the sheets from our bed and did some various chores, which included a little computer work for a client. Then we did some prep for the dinner of chicken piccata and popped it in the slow cooker.

While the meal was cooking, we went to Dorris Ranch, near downtown Springfield, and walked about two and a half miles. We started out on a winding path through the forest and eventually came to the Middle Fork Path. We had seen the eastern end of the path during our recent visit to Clearwater Park.

The four-mile, 10-foot-wide path is a paved, multi-use trail that follows the course of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. It runs through wooded areas and open fields, offering lots of lovely views of the river and the surrounding area. Portions of it run through private land, but one segment is surrounded by fencing with gates at each end that are evidently closed at some time and for some reason.

Near Jasper Road at Georgia Pacific Park, the Middle Fork Path connects to the three-mile Mill Race Path, which ends just south of downtown Springfield, a short distance from Island Park and the Eugene’s trail network.

We were not the only folks along the path, of course. In addition to walkers and dog walkers there were also bicyclists. Nancy and I will get our bikes down there one day to ride the entire four miles, but we first need to purchase a rack to carry them.

Since we’re only going to be shlepping the bikes short distances, we are opting for a rack that can be easily attached and removed. It is also less expensive than having a trailer hitch permanently fixed to the car that allows bike racks to be mounted.

Over the course of our walk, I took lots of pictures with my phone. I posted a dozen of them on Facebook, including shots of the river, various plants, and other interesting sights.

Our dinner consisted of the chicken piccata with rice and we also sliced up and fried a zucchini given to us by a friend at church. For dessert we enjoyed ice cream bars from Costco. They are like those sold by a big name company, but they are much cheaper.

Before diving into the evening’s streaming, we checked on the rising of the blue supermoon, a celestial occurrence that combines a supermoon, when the moon is closest to the Earth, and a blue moon, the third of four full moons in a single season.

Our TV viewing started with the first episode of the third season of “Under the Vines,” a comedy drama from New Zealand about two step-cousins who inherit a declining vineyard. Aussie star Rebecca Gibney plays one of the cousins. The opening credits roll with “Wintergreen,” by the East Pointers, a Canadian contemporary folk music group from Prince Edward Island. It’s a wonderfully upbeat tune that sticks in your head. Sadly, one of the three members died in 2022.

Then followed another episode of “Midsomer Murders.” The killings were done with a guillotine in place for the filming of a movie in one of Midsomer County’s many villages. Our main objection was that an actual guillotine would not have been needed for making a movie, but the rest of the story was entertaining, and five of the actors had also appeared in other episodes of the show. Looking ahead to the next series, when Tom Barnaby’s daughter Cully gets married, one of the guest stars is Charles Edwards, who plays the other cousin in “Under the Vines.”

[sister2of5]

Would I do it again? Walking the Middle Fork Path at Clearwater Park!

Sister four of five has a goal to walk/hike all the options in our immediate area. Earlier today, she and I went to Clearwater Park. Keep reading for some rambling and eventually a few pictures.

After making our way to Clearwater Park in Springfield, Oregon (http://willamalane.org/park/clearwater-park/), we apparently drove past the main parking for the trail and ended up down by the boat ramp.

Four read that the trail went “along the river,” so we assumed we should go as close to the water as possible.

The official trail is very nicely paved and maintained. There are some other offshoot trails that are a bit more off-road. We found two of these dirt/rock trails, one of which we ended up taking back from the trail to the parking by the water, and one that ran, quite literally, along the edge of the river bank.

After muscling our way through spots that were pretty clearly not maintained trails but that had seen enough foot traffic to follow, we found the main trail. To get to it, we had to cross a small off-shoot of the river via a small rock wall. In hindsight, we probably weren’t supposed to do it, but we emerged unscathed and followed the official, paved path. 

We saw several other, very friendly people on foot, bikes, roller blades, and even a couple of skateboards. The weather was coolish, as the day was overcast.

The woods and the river were both very pretty, and we saw birds, chipmunks, and one large slug that four moved off of the trail to save him from imminent squashing.

The trail itself is about 4 miles long and counts down from the full length at the Clearwater end, with marker tiles in the trail every quarter mile. We actually entered the path at about the 3.5 mile marker and continued on to a little past the 2 mile marker before turning back, more as a result of swarming gnats than because of fatigue.

Shortly after turning around to head back, we heard a sound behind us. I thought it might be someone on a bike, and four thought it sounded like the wind, but it turned out to be a rapidly approaching wall of rain.

We brought umbrellas along and managed to narrowly avoid a soaking. The rain had let up again by the time we made it back to the parking area.

Would I do it again? Certainly. In fact, I would love to sometime walk the whole length of the Middle Fork Path. It’s a nice, easy walk, and if you’re adventurous, the other trails are a bit more of a challenge.