A Whole Month of Family Time in Myrtle Creek, OR

Pardon our blog silence for the past month, we've been enjoying uninterrupted family time in Myrtle Creek, OR. Having visited here many times before, it is kind of a second home for us (after our former home town, San Diego) so photography sessions were few and one post will easily cover the month.

Our time has been well spent helping Chantal and James (my daughter and son in law) with yard work, lots of family meals together, a week long visit with my dad as he passed through the area and hiking old favorites and some new trails too. We discovered how bountiful fresh fruit is at this time of year at a couple of terrific U-pick farms.

View of the South Umpqua river from our backyard at On the River RV Park.

Merganzer mama and her brood.

When we hike the steep hills behind the RV park, we share the trails with a herd of Scottish Highlander cattle.

Drive or walk anywhere in SW Oregon and you are liable to see deer or turkeys.
These guys are flirting with trespassing...

Chantal and I fell in love with this succulent fountain on one of our many trips to find plants
 for a flower bed we redesigned.

Though we've stayed in the Roseburg, OR area many times before, we'd never visited any of the U-pick farms, though often that's because it was the wrong time of year. From now on, we will always check to see what's available because this area has prime fruit and vegetable growing conditions and numerous places to pick. Kruse Farms and Brosi Sugar Tree Farms both have multiple picking sites as well as excellent farm stands.

Cherry picking!

Bountiful, delicious Queen Anne cherries.

We picked blueberries at least three times, different varieties each time.

The North Umpqua river enters Roseburg from the east, flowing out of the Cascade Range along highway 138. The North Umpqua Trail system has about 70 continuous miles of trail along the river, plus there are numerous waterfalls along this corridor as well. One day during my dad's visit we hiked to three of the falls, unfortunately they had to be speedy hikes due to the heavy mosquito population and our lack of repellent!

Susan Creek Falls

Fall Creek Falls

On a super hot day we watched a lumberjack contest at Backside Brewery. We were fortunate to have covered seating on this 100 degree day, I felt sorry for the folks competing!

Chopping their way up two levels, the first one to chop off the top block wins.

Three slices (down/up/down) within six inches, must end up with three complete discs.

We found a couple of new places to hike, one being Cooper Creek Reservoir in Sutherlin, OR. There is a lovely trail along the west side of the lake and we continued on the road to circle the lake for a nice six mile hike.

There must be thousands of deer in rural Oregon...

This guy was one of several we saw feasting on a fawn just off the trail.

This fellow is fishing along the edge of a massive field of water lilies.

We hiked an old favorite, North Bank Habitat Management Area. The views are to die for, and there's always a chance you might see a bear!

The trails are wide mowed paths up and over golden hills.

Forested hills and green valleys as far as the eye can see.

A surprise in the deep forest.

We found another new-to-us trail system in Mildred Kanipe Memorial Park. Located several miles east of charming Oakdale, OR, the park boasts over 1,000 acres of history, oak and pine forests, lovely picnic grounds, horse campsites, at least 10 miles of multi-use trails and peacocks!

As soon as we arrived we could hear the peacocks distinctive calls!

We hiked rolling hills of grasses and oak forests...

to lush pine forests covered with ferns.

We shared our lunch with this inquisitive fellow.

There was more berry picking...the marion berries were fabulous at Brosi Sugar Tree Farm.

Brosi also had bountiful apricots...we picked there twice!

We got to enjoy a couple of summer concerts.

The lovely concert venue at Myrtle Creek's Millsite Park.

We saw the excellent Dirty Bourbon River Show at Winston's Riverbend Park.

We also happened to be in town for Roseburg's annual Graffiti Week. Lots of gorgeous old cars on display.

Shiny!

Hans reminiscing about his first car.

Our final hike up the mountain behind the RV park netted us the first ripe blackberries of the season as well as a very funny sight...one of the Scottish Highlanders munching lily pads in the stock pond.

Today we're off to the coast! We're looking forward to cooler temps and lots of beach time over the next seven weeks.