Anthony Lakes

Those of you who know me, know I used to play in a Marimba Band in La Grande, Kupenga Marimba.   I moved away from La Grande about 9 years ago, but the band invited me to perform with them when they are short handed, and I LOVE getting back together with them to play.    It is a wonderful group of people, and the music is delightful.     They have invited me to play with them at the Pendleton Farmers Market on October 7, so I have been practicing at home a lot, since the last time I played with them was before Covid.     Practicing on my soprano instrument only goes so far, so I traveled to La Grande to practice with them, on the Band instruments, last Monday.     I decided to make a Waddles trip out of it.

I dropped Waddles off at the Anthony Lakes Campground (one of my favorite Forest Service campgrounds) before practice and easily found a place.   This is high elevation, so getting cold this time of year, and I figured there would be lots of open sites.  I was right.

Then I drove back to La Grande to meet a friend for dinner before band practice.    I alway take back roads, and so drove through North Powder and Union to get back to town.   Along that road is this historical plaque.   It honors Maria Dorian, an amazing woman who was a contemporary of Sacagawea.     Her story is documented in a historical fiction book series by Jane Kirkpatrick.    

After practice I drove back up to the campground and crawled into Waddles for the night.    It is delightfully DARK and QUIET there.

I got up early the next morning to hike up to the top of the ski area (I was on a mission to find some geocaches).   This area has lakes, mountains, wildflowers, wildlife and is one of my favorite places to hike.

At the top, there are some interpretive signs about the Whitebark Pine trees which are a high alpine species.    There were lots of Clark's Nutcrackers, and Mountain Chickadees about. 

Hofer Lake

Fall is coming...

At one geocache I had to run a gauntlet of deer to get to the cache.   We all remained calm and moved slowly and it all worked out fine.

The old bridge

The new bridge

And then it was time to head back home.    Of course I took the back roads.

The bushes are turning, and were beautiful 

Out in the middle of nowhere!

I am hoping to get out with Waddles at least one more time.   I will be going back over to practice with the band in early October, so we will see; two days after I was at Anthony Lakes, they got 4" of snow.    Winter is coming.

 

And we are off!

 Day 1 is under our belt.  It was a mostly easy day to Northeastern Washington.    Waddles and I got a pretty early start.

Everything on Waddles is working perfectly, all my food fit nicely into the fridge.  Early on I had 14 motorcycles pass me on the highway and I had the thought that they might be heading for Sturgus, South Dakota, which I will be passing through.  I had to look up the dates to see if that gathering would be going on when I was there, and fortunately it is not.   That would be a madhouse I would rather miss!

The drive was nice and in familiar territory so I don't yet really feel like I am on a big road trip.   Tomorrow will change that feeling I am sure.

Tonight I am mooch docking in front of a friend"s house.  Went out for a lovely dinner with friends and had a good visit.   It will be early to bed, and early to rise for this girl!  Tomorrow I head into uncharted territory.  

It appears that comments are being posted as Anonymous, including my responses, so I ask that you include at least your first name in your comments.  THANKS   I will do the same.

First outing of ANOTHER season

 It has been a year, exactly, since I posted to this blog.    I apologize for that, but it seems like I have done 'repeat' trips the past few summers, and it didn't seem blog-worthy.    So, this post is once again about my annual trip to the Ladd Marsh Bird Festival in La Grande, Oregon.

I love this festival, and it gives me a chance to go back and visit people I don't see often enough, and to get time on the marsh, which to me is quite magical.

I drove over on Friday and got settled into the Hot Lake RV Park (conveniently located right on the edge of the marsh with lovely showers and a great view).   

View from Waddles

Friday evening I met up with a couple friends for dinner and then attended the evening kick off event, which included a talk about Sandhill Crane Nests, which was pretty interesting.   They are built in the water, sometimes floating, sometimes anchored to the bottom.  They can be 8' across sometimes, and must be rebuilt every year.   Sorry, I don't have any photos of them.

Went to bed early and rose VERY early to get onto the marsh as the sun was coming up.   It is delightful to be on the marsh as it wakes up.

Sunrise over the Marsh

Sunrise over the small fishing pond on the Marsh

I met up with another friend early and we wandered the marsh listening to Marsh Wrens, Common Yellow-Throats, a Bittern, Tree Swallows, Geese, Ducks, and more.      Another friend joined us and we visited a number of the 'stations' where bird experts, with spotting scopes, help see and identify birds.    There was lots of water on the marsh, and I didn't take many photos.

Egret

Tree Swallow

Nesting Tree Swallow

In the afternoon we drove around the area, visiting old familiar places, and ended up at the Haines Steakhouse, which I had not been to in many many years.   It hasn't changed much!

Early to bed for yet another VERY early morning on Sunday.    I had signed up for the Birds & Botany of the Pine Forests field trip.  Same one I did last year because it was a wonderful excursion.

The down side of the area we visited is that it is a popular camping and 4-wheeling area, which kind of kills the mood of a quiet walk in the woods, but it was early enough to not be too bad.

Lunch break

The Forest Service has put out a lot of nesting platforms for Great Grey Owls, because, apparently they are not great nest builders.  These platforms are used every year.   Most are in locations not revealed to anyone, but there are/were 4 which birders could visit, with the caveat that they not be disturbed.   Unfortunately in the past year, 3 of those 4 have been destroyed.   One was hit by lighting, one simply fell down, and the 3rd was being so disturbed by photographers parking themselves under it, and well meaning (I hope) people picking up baby owls that had fledged out of the nest, but were not yet able to fly (this is normal), that the Forest Service took the platform out.    

We were fortunate enough, on our field trip, to get to see, at a distance, the one platform that remains.    There was a female on the nest, and while we were there the male came in and gave her some food.    If the field trip guides had not pointed out where the platform was, it would have been nearly impossible to find.    This is a good thing, as while we were there a couple 4-wheelers drove by (we pretended to be looking at something in a very different direction) and some people who had expressly come out to  photograph the owls and had been looking for days without finding them, came by.    Our guides educated them on the situation and they were very appreciative.   I didn't get any photos of the owls as they were a long way off and my camera lens is not that good.  Along the way we saw lots and lots of flowers in bloom and saw & heard lots and lots of birds.    It was another great field trip and it was nice to be back in the Pine forests.

Here is your overload of flower photos!

Arnica

Camas

Dandelion with Bugs!

Mariposa Lily

Oregon Grape

Shooting Star

Star Flower ?

Wild Iris

Wild Strawberry

We stopped along the creek on our way back to town and it was lovely.

That afternoon I visited a friend on her fabulous deck-with-a-view, where we saw Lazuli Buntings and more.

I went back to Waddles and relaxed after a couple LONG days.    I was sitting inside, unwinding, not paying much attention to outside.    I decided to walk to the showers and this is what I encountered!!!   It was spectacular.   This is thunderstorm country, so the clouds are amazing.   There are also fires happening up in Canada right now which are sending smoke our way, which always contributes to beautiful sunsets.

Another wonderful Waddles trip to Ladd Marsh!    I will try to do better on blogging this year!