We tried to go to nature church on Mt. Hood yesterday, and while the weather was fine and the snow was plentiful, we saw far too many Great Apes and Domestic Canines and no wildlife at all.

So we went to nature church at the beaver pond today and saw, in addition to our resident Mallard flock, a beautiful lone, rainbow-colored Wood Duck and an then a Great Egret, like this one. “They look like angels when they fly,” remarked Z. They really do. Further upstream we saw what at first appeared to be an otter, but turned out to be a young nutria. We followed him upstream as he skillfully navigated rapids and debris dams.

A little later, I ran across a hawk and spied these three Black Tail Deer in Deer Meadow. Great to see the neighbors out and about on a crisp early winter day.

LuLu, 1995-2012

No creature great or small has ever loved us so fiercely, nor hated everybody else with even greater ferocity.

At first, upon entering the forest, you feel you’ve entered a whole different world. But then one day you realize it’s not a different world, it’s the world, the actual planet you live on.

It’s great to be an ape.

Found a new Nature Church sanctuary in the neighborhood. I’m going there all week. Peace out.

Warning: do not eat!

River Mile 7.3 – 11.2

(Click for full-size view)

We just hung up the canoe for the season, a couple wishful weeks after our last weekend of good paddling weather. Our final days took us back to Tigard’s Cook Park, the same as day 1.

This time we headed downstream to the I-5 bridge. With the exception of one shallow section with some rocks to navigate (river mile 9.3, see map), this was the most unobstructed section of the Tualatin we had yet paddled.

The next day, we put in at the Rivergrove boat ramp (river mile 7.4), and paddled back up to the I-5 bridge. Heading back, we decided to continue downstream on a broadest, straightest, most unobstructed stretch of the river we paddled, to the Lake Oswego Canal (just west of Wanker’s Corner, where we’ll start next srping).

Note to future self: This stretch of the river was our favorite so far. (But we’ve still got several miles to explore!)