DAY 31- A Bike Ride and Logging Museum...
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| Photo- Bike path in Klamath Falls near where bike paths meet. |
It was beautiful blue skies with not a cloud in the sky and
the temp had risen to mid-50’s; as I jumped on my bike to explore the Klamath
Falls area a second time. I will say
that Oregon in general is a very bike friendly state. I was finding that the area of Klamath Falls
was holding true to that rule too.
Klamath Falls has 2 main paved bike paths; one that goes
along the city’s canal for about 6 miles and another that goes through the
heart of the city and out to a small town called Olene. The 2 paths meet at a bridge where they form an
“X” and they make quite a bit of the city accessible via these paths. There are sidewalks from various
neighborhoods that meet up to the path and there are even other short paths
that go into other parks or neighborhoods.
All of these path ways are reclaimed areas where the railroad used to
be. There are even additional unpaved
trails that spread out from these two paths and if you had something other than
a road bike, like me, you could go for miles and miles on this system of trails
and paths.
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| Photo- The Amtrak Station in Klamath Falls. |
There are also quite a few street areas that have painted
bike lanes in them too. While trying to
find where the second path started, I happened upon the Klamath Falls Amtrak
Station. I thought that was rather
interesting that there was a station here.
But I guess there is a fair amount of tourist business that goes to nearby
Crater Lake and commuters from the surrounding areas that use the train.
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| Photo- A big yard with a big garden along bike path. |
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| Photo- A duck in the canal along bike path. |
As I rode along both of these paths, I noticed all kinds of
things. There are a mix of big yards
with gardens, ducks on the canal, schools, city swimming pools, farms, warehouses,
RV resorts, lumber yards, nice neighborhoods and not so nice neighborhoods. You almost felt like you were in the country
in some areas even though you were only a ½ block away.
Later on, I went to the Collier State Park Logging
Museum. It’s about 40 miles north of
Klamath Falls on Hwy 97. (Crater Lake’s south entrance is about 65 miles north
of Klamath Falls.) This museum is more
of an outdoor display than the typical standard museum. During the height of the summer they have
state park employees that do demonstrations and give more guided tours of the
area. Well, as per my luck, I was two
weeks late for all of that. So I opted
to borrow a map from the state park employee who was manning the
information/gift shop and do my own self-guided tour.
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| Photo- Used to be drawn by horses and used to transport logs down the mountainside. |
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| Photo- One of the first Caterpillars. |
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| Photo- AND the $64,000 question is.... What's a RIP SNORTER? |
The museum is set up with the history of logging in Oregon which
started in the late 1860’s. Logging in
the late 1860’s consisted of hand tools and wagon-like vehicles where horses
were used. There were all kinds of
examples of these items outside under pavilions. Then, near the turn of the century steam came
into being and steam-powered engine orientated machinery came into use. These pieces of machinery were larger and
were generally sitting out in the open.
Next, it was the combustible engine and the logging industry progressed
on into our current time. Most of these
pieces were out in the open and on display.
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| Photo- A restored original cabin of what the first loggers would have lived in. |
There was also a cabin village area to show how most of the
men would live while they were logging.
Most of these cabins were one room, with dirt floors, and hew from
logs. They were generally about 10’ x 14’
with a slanted roof. It was a very
interesting place to visit and it was just a very pretty day out. It was nice just to be out enjoying it.
DAY 32—A Day Off and Family…
I know, I know… I had just taken off another day off just a
few days ago and come on it can’t be that hard to be on a basically permanent
vacation. What’s up with that??!? Well, I did need to catch up with some laundry,
try to rearrange the inside of my car, and I wanted to do a bit of painting too;
plus, I wanted to hang out some more with my Aunt Lindy too. I
managed to get a couple of paintings done and laundry got done too. I hung out the whole day with Aunt Lindy and
that was nice too. It was a productive
day.
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Photo- "Tickled Pink Shoppe"; Watercolor on 9" x 12" paper.
Based on shop I photoed in Portownsend, WA. |
But let me say one thing about family; I think that there
are more characteristics than just hair color, eye color, and general
appearance that get passed on in a family.
What I’m alluding to is that I am now convinced that the genetic makeup
for the open-mouth-insert-foot disease definitely runs in my family. Not that
that’s bad but I noticed my family has a tendency to speak our minds and
sometimes it’s not the most “Politically Correct” way of stating things. I guess you could say that it’s probably a
good thing that no one in the family is into running for political office
because they would definitely be up that creek with no paddle and a ten foot
wave coming at them. But I will say that
this same “disease” is part of the reason that makes me so dearly love my
family too. Sometimes, I think that it’s
the small idiosyncrasies that make people, relationships and families so interesting;
and thus, makes life very interesting too.
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