Late Update

Jay and I went for a fabulous 8-mile hike this weekend. We went to the Opal Creek Ancient Forest, which is a 1000 year old rainforest. Since we're leaving Oregon soon, I have decided that we need to finish up here with a bang and do some good hiking before we leave.

I was originally enticed by a picture published in the awesome magazine that Jen and Michael gave us for Christmas, National Geographic Adventure. As it turns out, the beautiful emerald green pool in the picture is miles off the beaten path. But we managed to see tons of amazing old trees, lots of moss, and other cool stuff...

First we stopped at Salmon Falls for a quick pic.

Then I found a huge patch of the biggest clover I've ever seen right next to the falls. I couldn't find a four leaf one, but I picked this one just to show you how big they were. I figured that even missing a leaf, this clover had to bring us some luck.

We hiked for a few miles before lunch. The entire hike was right next to and over the Little North Santiam River and Opal Creek. There were great waterfalls everywhere, and everything in sight was green, green, green, green, green! Here's Jay getting started...

See how green it is?

Then we started hitting little patches of snow and ice. It wasn't bad because it was every once in a while, and we were able to keep track of the trail, so we kept on...

Finally we arrived at our destination, which was the Opal Pool. This is me standing by it.

I got in trouble for standing at the edge of this cliff, but I asked Jay to please take the picture anyway. I didn't want to risk my life for nothin'. Jay opted not to pose for the same shot. My husband is a mountain climber, but Danger Boy he's not.

Then we had some lunch, perched precariously on a fallen tree that extended over the river. I don't have a picture of it, because things were pretty dicey sitting there, and it was hard enough to hang onto our PB&J's, let alone chance it with the camera.

The Bad News

Then tragedy struck. Jay packed us a lovely lunch of PB&J sandwiches, chips and juice. All I was in charge of was the M&M's. I talked about the M&M's all the way up the trail. I was even considering making myself an M&M and Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich. Jay doesn't obsess over food like I do, but I know he had M&M's on his mind, too.

After lunch he started digging around in the backpack for dessert. He asked where I put the M&M's, and I said, "ME?!!? Where did I put them? What do you mean? You packed the backpack." Jay thought I was kidding and started frisking me for the M&M's and sadly, they weren't there. They were on the kitchen counter, right where I left them. So much for my giant three leaf clover.

So without dessert, we carried on. Pretty soon our lovely trails started turning into really big ice fields. They were bad because they were getting too large to get across to find the trail on the other side, and we were post-holing through them pretty bad. That was bad because I had on my cute hiking capris, and my legs were getting pretty scratched up.

End of the line

So instead of going the 10.5 miles we had intended to hike, we were forced to turn around short of our goal and only hike 8 miles.

We took a different path back to the car and came across a cool old miner's camp that's now an "Education Center" called Jawbone Flats. There were about 40 signs scattered around this place that proclaimed it as an Education Center, but never did it say what the education offered was.

A cabin at Jawbone Flats

The people we passed who were staying at this place were on the...sketchy side, maybe, and they really weirded Jay out. He became convinced that they were learning how to be cannibals. So each time we passed somebody who was staying there, I had to suck in my gut and cheeks and look really scrawny and emaciated. Luckily, nobody tried to eat us and we made it safe and sound to the car. The next morning, Jay woke up and reported that he had had a nightmare that the "Jawbone Flatites" were chasing us around the forest. Oh, my Jay.

These are the old miner's trucks at Jawbone Flats

The Good News

On our way back to the car, just when my dogs were seriously starting to bark and might have been whining a little, Jay spotted a salamander walking across the path! Woohooo! I love salamanders! I stooped over to pick it up and Jay shrieked and scared me to death (Remember, not Danger Boy). He didn't want the salamander to kill me, I suppose. But I HAD to pick it up and be it's friend. So I picked it up and let it crawl around on my hands for a few minutes and named her Sally. After a few minutes, and much to Jay's relief, I reluctantly let her go. I had to let her go three different times though, because according to Jay, I wasn't putting her in a safe enough spot. But he was right, because not two minutes later a couple of dogs passed by that would have surely eaten Sally. But thanks to our careful placement, she was well out of harm's way by then and I was glad.

Here she is...

How cute is she??

Actually, this isn't really a picture of Sally. In all my excitement, I forgot to get a picture of us together. Doh! So when we got home we searched the internet for a picture of her and Jay found the one above. I know she looks slimy, but she's not. Just very cold because it was like 50 degrees up there.

Anyway, in our search for a picture and description of Sally, we found out she's a California Newt, or Oregonian Newt, or Roughskinned Newt. She has a lot of names. We also learned this:

Like other Taricha members, the glands in the skin of the torosa secrete the potent neurotoxin tetrodotoxin, which is hundreds of times more toxic than cyanide. This is the same toxin found in pufferfish and harlequin frogs. Researchers believe that bacteria synthesize tetrodotoxin and the animals that employ the neurotoxin acquire it through consumption of these bacteria. This neurotoxin is so strong that it is enough to kill most vertebrates, including humans.

Oh.

Needless to say, Jay has told me so at least 1000 times since coming upon this awesome news. Oh well, no harm done. I lived to tell the tale, and I'd pick her up again. We bonded.