Lower Table Rock

There are two table rocks just out of Medford. One is called Upper Table Rock and the other is Lower Table Rock. I have found no reason why one is upper and the other is lower. The area, which covers 4,864 acres, is managed jointly by the BLM and the Nature Conservancy. Over 50,000 people hike the trails to the top each year. And we were two of them.

We decided to hike the Lower Table Rock because it looked more challenging. 

Of course.

Here is a cool map that gives you an idea of the route we trod. The little zig-zaggy line that goes up the cliff is vastly underestimated.

After reading this in the car park, I decided to go back to the car and retrieve my pepper spray.

It was a perfect day and the wildflowers were in full bloom. Lucky us!

The hike is about 5.4 miles, according to some sources, which includes the walk on top of the plateau.

A row of electricity pylons guards the way, buzzing fiercely at the trespassers.

The first part of the trail was an easy slope and there were lots of trees, especially our favourite madrones.

I wasn't too keen on these little fellows.
In fact, eew.

Pretty soon the gravel trail steepened and I began to have concerns about the stability of my ankles on the way down.

No matter, traipse on!

There were many different wildflowers on the way up the trail, changing with the elevation as we ascended higher and higher. Not all of the flower photos turned out, so this is only about half of what we saw. I had forgotten how difficult it is to focus on some flower colours. Here are the best ones, mostly identified.

Indian paintbrush

Dwarf onion (allium)

Not a flower

Vetch

I wish I knew the name of this, but I have been unable to find it, in spite of it being all over the area as well as out in Central Oregon. Some kind of silverpuff, I think.

Camas lily

These galls were all over the trees at the lower elevation. They can be caused by insects, mites, nematodes, bacteria, or fungi. They damage the tree, which causes the tree to produce larger amounts of growth hormone, which result in galls such as these. An attractive solution to the problem.

Desert parsley

Blue-eyed Mary

Monkey flower

Forktooth Ookow. I kid you not.

Henderson's stars

Western columbine

Lupine

Tolmie's cat's-ears, AKA cat's ear lily, AKA mariposa lily

Wood rose with, I believe, poison oak

I love this twisty madrone.

Right at the top of the trail the path divides and you can catch a view from the edge of the cliff if you go left over a very rocky terrain. The view was breathtaking and you could probably go home happy after going this far, but we wanted to have the whole experience, of course.

Looking over Upper table rock

So on we went.

The plateau is a mounded prairie habitat and has a unique plant community. A thin layer of granular rock covers impermeable volcanic rock, allowing water to collect during the winter in shallow depressions and creating what is known as vernal pools. It is a rare environment and supports a threatened species of fairy shrimp and an endangered plant called dwarf woolly meadowfoam. 

This is a very hot and dry area as soon as the pools dry up, which they already had by the time we were there, and the flowers are very different from the wooded areas on the way up.

Arrow Leafed balsamroot 

Longhorn plectritis

As we walked along this very civilized path, we could see a group of people coming towards us who were moving around in a very curious manner. We wondered what they were doing.

And then we saw for ourselves. Hundreds and hundreds of little tiny frogs were crossing the path. The pools were almost completely gone, just a remnant of dampness left, so they must have been on their way to seek shelter in the trees. I wondered what happens to the fairy shrimp in the summer. Apparently, they die after laying eggs that can withstand extreme heat and arid conditions and the eggs hatch as soon as the pools fill up. Cool.

It was impossible to avoid the little critters, as they were thickly underfoot, but they seemed to avoid our big clompy feet just fine. Which is just as well, because I would have been sad to squash them.

Lizards were also in evidence, basking in the sun.

The ground was thickly covered with grasses and wildflowers.

It seemed like a long mile, especially when we kept getting distracted with things like frogs, but we finally made it to the other side. We were overlooking Kelly Slough, a unique wetland habitat that is home to many aquatic birds.

We walked over to a patch of trees and spent a nice lazy interval sitting in some welcome shade and eating snacks, then wended our way back across the plateau and down the trail, which was just as precarious as I had feared. Why I ever go hiking without my poles I do not know. About halfway down I started to get blisters on all of the toes of my right foot, and by the time we got to the car I could hardly walk on them.

No matter. After a little rest back at the house and donning a pair of sandals, I was good for the rest of the day. 

This is an awesome hike, definitely best done in the spring. In fact, I would do it again in April, as it would be cooler in temperature and the pools would still be in evidence. The wildflowers would also be different and, I suspect, more numerous, so I think we will do this again some year.

Shakepeare in the spring

A couple of weeks ago the man had a job down near Medford in southern Oregon, so I went with him. The sky was lowering as the sun sank to the horizon on this Wednesday evening.

The sky changed its nature every minute or so, and Jeff sat in the passenger seat trying to capture it on his camera as I drove.

The sunlight shone a particular glow on the surrounding land that doesn't really show up in the photos, but just remembering it fills me with awe.

We arrived late at the hotel and Jeff spent the next day-and-a-half working while I was blissfully lazy. The furthest I wandered from the hotel room during the day was the hot tub and pool on the ground floor.

On Thursday I discovered that we could get rush tickets for Guys and Dolls in Ashland, home to the famous Shakespeare Festival, so we drove down there for dinner and got in early to the ticket office, snagging tickets close to the front and centre for the show. We paid $45 a ticket instead of over $100 each. It's a great way to see shows, although I hear it is harder to get rush tickets in the summer.

Jeff finished work at noon on Friday and we drove down to Talent to check out our airbnb lodging. It was out in the country a bit, and we were looking for the street number when we drove past a house that was all overgrown and had some old rusty cars outside. At least it's not that house, I said. Only it was. The airbnb photos didn't quite catch the ambience of the place. 

All in all, it was okay, although the house was a very cluttered and meandering, being created rather haphazardly from a barn. Some of the electricity was a bit questionable and there was no doorknob on the shared bathroom. The hosts were a couple of old hippies who earn a spotty living from their art, and several other people wandered in and out while we were there, including a guy who has been living out of his VW bus for thirty years. But the room was clean and the bed comfortable, so we decided to deal with the rest of it.

The weather was perfect and this was the view from the overgrown garden (AKA Food Pollinator Forest.)

Several beehives dotted the gardens, all surrounded by crystals and other new-agey things.

On Saturday morning we hiked, which will require a post all of its own. We were a bit worn out after that so we went back to the house to rest and then headed down to Ashland for dinner, hoping to catch rush tickets to Much Ado About Nothing. I really wanted to see Pericles, but it was sold out. 

If you've ever been to Ashland, you will know that it is a beautiful and much-weirder-than-Portland town. It is surrounded by hills that are visible from downtown.

Lithia Park follows Ashland Creek and exits right next to the theatre complex, so we walked through it and enjoyed the sunshine and the beauty of the park.

We were still tired and the day lent itself to relaxation, so we lay on the grass and looked up at the trees and listened to cello music.

The grass was damp so I moved to one of these benches.

In true Ashland style, the cellist transported himself and his cello on a bike. 

After collecting the tickets, we wandered the main street and listened to buskers. This young man was particularly impressive. He is a violist with the symphony and obviously lives for his music. This instrument is called a nyckelharpa and is from Sweden. If you want to learn more about it and hear some music, go here. He is off to Sweden soon to spend a year perfecting his skill. It is a truly amazing instrument. He told us that there are only twelve nyckelharpa players on the West Coast. He learned to play it using YouTube videos, which is how some of my piano students would prefer to learn the piano.

Wandering the streets of Ashland is always a hoot and an education. There was the guy who was lying on the grass with two sheep tethered next to him. The sheep had little pouches underneath their bottoms to catch the pellets. He had a sign stuck in the grass that said modernshepherds.org and a hat for donations. It is an interesting website, check it out.

And, of course, there are always the unshaven, unwashed, and dread-locked group of young people who hang out in small clusters in the plaza, strumming their stringed instruments and openly smoking marijuana. If one walked past them with enough frequency I am pretty sure one could get high on the fumes. According to the shepherd website, they are homeless and they have all been sleeping at night together in a garage belonging to some kind person. So, no money for a home because it all goes to weed. Apparently.

The play was a bust. I don't appreciate it when directors use Shakespeare to make trendy social and political statements. In my opinion, the play was ruined by such manipulations. But we only paid $25 a ticket this time; some guy was selling family tickets because his son was sick, so it didn't hurt as much as if we had paid even the rush price. All it cost was a couple of painfully wasted hours.

And on Sunday morning some wild turkeys visited the overgrown garden.

And then we came home.

In memorium

The day before I left New Zealand back in April, Jacquie took me to Hamilton Cemetery to visit Dad's grave. The headstone is a simple affair, but much thought and love was put into choosing it.

We walked around for a while and looked for graves of people we knew. It occurred to me that we in America don't have much imagination when it comes to headstones. It also made me wish we had gotten a flashier headstone for Dad.

Feast your eyes on these. It kind of took my whole funeral/gravestone planning to a whole new level. Some of these are of friends and neighbours, some are from strangers, and it is but a small sample of the fantastic gravestones in the cemetery. Click on the photos for a larger view.

This one has a picture of a house on it. Maybe it was the truck that was important.

I love this. And I would like to know the story behind the quote at the bottom.

LDS temple graphics abounded. Those Mormons sure know how to create a monument.

And this. Is. Awesome.

Old friends.

A giant paua shell. 

Tractor!

I want this one. Dolphins.

Some died young.

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It being Memorial Day here in the US, Jeff and I usually attend services in the morning. Jeff was heading out to California for an audit so we missed the tradition this morning. Luckily, Bethany is a dutiful daughter and she carries on her own little tradition of putting a rose on each of her local great-grandfathers' graves.