The Willamette Valley - Week Two

Oregon is beautiful. It has a little something for every traveller: dramatic shorelines with crashing waves and pristine beaches that go on for miles; sand dunes and waterfalls; lush valleys with vibrant green, yellow, and orange fields of apple orchards, vineyards, and newly sprouting winter rye. Further east, where we did not venture but where I have visited before, there are amazing geological sites, canyons, and dry desert-like landscapes similar to back home.

Our foray inland from the Scenic 101 highway to the Willamette wine region was a nice change from the coast – a little dryer and a little more sunshine. It’s rolling hills and windy roads throughout the valley were stunningly beautiful and even though we were no longer in the rainforest, there was plenty of deciduous forest for us to forage in and we did indeed find several more “choice” edibles including the horse mushroom and wine cap mushroom. 

Our focus in the area though was to explore the wines of the region, not the fungi (though Judith assures me she would really like to find a fun guy). 

Wineries in the Willamette Valley are far less fancy than in the South Okanagan – most tasting rooms are picnic tables outdoors or a bar counter inside the building where they make or store the wine, and several we visited were closed despite their advertisments stating otherwise. We did visit one winery of note that more resembled an Okanagan style winery and it was delightful – Willamette Valley Vineyards.

Willamette Valley Vineyards is one of the largest wineries in the region – and one of the oldest – and while many of the smaller ones are trying hard to compete, I would say we enjoyed the wines there more than most we tasted. It has earned the reputation as "one of America's great pinot noir producers" by Wine Enthusiast and is part of a public company traded on the Nasdaq. While big is not always better, in the case of the Willamette Valley it seemes to be.

Their large building, which hosts a tasting room and restaurant, sits atop a hill looking down over a gorgeous valley – a site to appreciate in the fall with all the leaves changing colour. We were tasted on numerous wines- all of which were very good. Pinot Noir is the award-winning varietal grown in this region - and this winery had three very good Pinots. After our free tasting (fees waved because I work in the industry) we enjoyed a great burger with a free glass of Merlot. It was soooooo good, and a super end to our day of tasting.

One thing of note with the wines in this region was the stark minerality of the whites. Missing was the familiar fruit forward notes we are used to in the hot climate of the Okanagan. The cooler wet weather here (and soil types) contributes to most of the whites tasting like wet rock and lemon juice, so while the area is most definitely worth visiting for its beauty – stick the to pinot noir if you are wine tasting – and I recommend you pair it with a hefty dish of wild mushrooms!

 

 

Olympic Penninsula - Week One

One week in to our RVing journey and we have settled into an easy routine that keeps the RV from becoming cluttered and ensures we are not climbing over one another. Tawny (the dog) wakes us up in the morning with a barrage of wet kisses, at which point I pull her under the covers to warm me up and I settle in for a few more winks. While I do that, Judith has generally leapt from her bed with the energy of superman to get dressed and put her murphy bed up and turn on the cappacino machine and furnace. Slowly Tawny and I emerge from under the covers where I slowly make my way to the espresso machine and make us both a latte. 

If I am not fast enough, Judith has often made my bed too - which requires a whole system of things done in a specific order:fold and store the sheets and blankets, remove the mattress foamy and seat cushions, heave it all up onto the upper storage loft, and then reconfigure the bed into our benches and table, replacing the cushions and raising the table...just in time to receive the two hot steamy lattes! By the time I have  finished my second latte and emerged from the bathroom fully dressed, Judtith has taken out the garbage, plugged in or unplugged various hoses and cords and such, swept the floor, and maybe even run a lap or two to the laundry room.

Judith is a morning person, and I am, well, NOT. However, we have slowly begun to morph into a schedule that works for both of us. She is sleeping later and instead of heading out for an early morning walk with Tawny, we put the dog out for a quick pee, and then relax for a bit while my achy joints wake up, and then by 10 am we are usually headed off to the trail head for our first long hike of the day.

The rain forest in The Olympic National Park is spectacular and we are very glad we decided to start at the very beginning of the famed highway 101. Neither of us is a fan of the cold, so we were a bit leary about lurking in the north too long, but seeing the fall colour has totally been worth the rain and cooler temperatures.

Old growth conifer forest and moss covered dissiduous trees are otherworldly and down right enchanting to walk in. The smell of earthy decay and fresh wet leaves is sweet and the rain seldom finds its way through the canapy to where we are, far below, scrounging around in the mulch in search of fungi - a new pasttime we have taken up to add interest to our daily walks. 

Mushroom hunting...taking pictures and cataloging various fungi. We often pick them, wrap them carefully in wax paper, and bring them home where I do some research - looking up pictures in my fungi book, online, and even posting for second and third opinions on the Pacific Northwest Foragers Facebook group. I then place the cap on a white piece of paper to leave it over night. The mushroom will drop spores onto the paper in a specific pattern and colour - an important feature to take note of in deciding on a final identification.

We have seen literally dozens of different and beautiful species, and have even enjoyed eating some shaggy manes and boletes (below).

Mushrooms are facinating - something I became interested in many years ago. 14,000 different mushrooms have been described, however, there are likely many, many more, and I aim to find as many of them as possible!

We have spent a few extra days in the Olympic penninsula as we have enjoyed the hiking very much (and Judith was unwell one day). We have enjoyed two hikes a day and even spent some time soaking in some hot springs. Travelling in an RV means no daily baths - as we are both use to - so we will do our best to find natural hot springs along the way. We have also been lucky to visit a couple of wineries that had some good wine, and we are looking forward to escaping the coast next week sometime to head inland towards Oregon's Willamette Valley a wine region known for its Pinot Noir.

Today we had an exciting (and dangerous) encounter with a rogue wave where Judith was swept off her feet and soaked to the bone (in her winter coat, toque and gum boots), and I, while attempting to outrun the wave, fell face first onto a log, cutting open my face. We were quite a sight driving back to town - Judith butt naked in the car, having doffed her soaking clothes, and me driving with blood running down my cheek!

Apparently there is an atmospheric river running into a low pressure system off the west coast creating what the weather people are calling an atmospheric bomb...sure to cause historic rain and flooding and up to 8 feet of snow in the mountains. There is no way to outrun the storm (and of course I don't want to being a storm loving soul), so we have instead booked an extra couple of nights in the area so we can ride it out - and hopfully watch it come ashore. I am looking forward to taking some great storm photos.

And They're Off!

Last minute preparations for our trip have kept us both busy all week...and hopefully the glitches we have encountered will be our last. The worst of these was when I turned on my computer today - or should I say TRIED to turn on my computer today - and it was dead, broken, caputz - it had CEASED TO BE!

I panicked. Called Judith in tears. Hyperventilated to the point of almost passing out. Not so much because my stupid cheap piece of shit computer was dead, but because it was dead with my book on it; the book I have spent the past 10 years writing and the past 12 months finalizing.

Apparently – and fortunately - my computer automatically saves things to the Cloud. I cannot say I actually understand this cloud…I have visions of fluffy white things with angels and hard drives….Anyway, I rushed off to the place I bought it (the damned thing is only a year old) and they were, as expected, useless, so I went to a little computer repair shop and walked up to the geekiest guy I could find and said, “Please, I beg you, be my hero today.” And five minutes and $20 bucks later it was fixed!

On that note, I am done with cheap computers! They make them to break! Disposable computers that last less long than bananas. I asked the computer geek (who I adopted and named son number 4) what computer I should buy, and interestingly he told me the same thing as my computer engineer son number two told me: Lenovo Think Pad. So…as soon as I get home from my trip south, I will buy one. In the meantime, I will regularly ensure my stuff is backed up in heaven, er, the cloud.

Tomorrow we head to Abbotsford where we will spend the night eating cheese, and then we are off at 3:30 to Bellingham.

We will be flying on a small Cessna 206 and Judith hates little planes, so I am glad it is only a short flight. I will be sure to tell her that I learned to fly Cessna’s when I was 18 so if the pilot has a heart attack she will be in good hands. (I won’t tell her the story about when I landed the plane on my first solo and nearly took out a dozen people and a few planes….)

The first few days of our trip will be spent in the Olympic Peninsula hiking in the rain (I brought my Hunter’s rubber boots). If it is super cold, there is a chance we will move faster down the coast than originally planned. We both love hiking but hate the cold. (On the other hand, there will be mushrooms growing in them there hills and I am hell bent on becoming a mycologist over the course of the next 4 weeks.)

Wish us luck and stay tuned for lots of mushroom pictures! (OK, maybe some ocean, forest, and mountain pics too and maybe when I am up in the Cessna I will take a picture of the Cloud!)

Heading South

Did you know over 2 million Canadians and over 11 million Americans have RVs? That is a 33% increase over 2020. The pandemic has certainly played a role in people wanting to travel this way - these bubbles on wheels mean you can go places while avoiding crowded airplanes and overseas lockdowns.

I have never thought of myself as the RVing type, but after covid restrictions were lifted this summer and my friend and I began discussing winter travel plans, we both agreed that staying close to home this year might not be a bad idea. So Judith bought herself a shiny new Tiberon 25 foot RV and I agreed to tag along for the ride.

Then the fourth Delta wave hit and the United States decided to keep the land border closed.

So like thousands of snowbirds across Canada, Judith and I have been forced to make the decision to either park the RV until next year and postpone this bucket list adventure, or pay an exorbitant pile of money to ship the RV and my car down to the states, and then fly down.

And of course, like any true adventurers, we said what the hell and chartered ourselves a small plane to fly us from Abbotsford, BC across the border to Bellingham, Washington where we will pick up the vehicles that will be driven across the border for us by a shipping company. (I will avoid the temptation here to launch into a tyrade on how stupid that is and how it has nothing to do with keeping Americans safe.)

Our plan is to go down the west coast of Washington, Oregon and Califormia enjoying the beautiful scenery along the fameous Highway 101 and along the way we will hike in the various state and national parks. I bought myself a handy dandy Pacific Northwest Foraging guidbook to give my hikes some added fun.

By driving in separate vehicles we will not only have a nice 4 hour break from each other every day as we drive (much needed if you knew how much I talk when on road trips), but it will also mean we can park and hook up the rig and still have a small vehicle to scoot around in to go sighseeing, into towns, onto back roads, to get groceries, etc. 

About the time it starts to be too cold to hike we will be in Califormia where we will visit Napa Vally for some wine tasting and then head on to Palm Springs/Palm desert area for some pickleball and desert hikes. New Mexico is on the list to visit too as there are numerous wonderful state parks and monuments there, though there is some debate about when to do that as we both hate the cold more than we love monuments.

By December we will also visit Louisiana to see some old friends of Judith and then by the coldest part of the winter we hope to be somewhere warm like the Florida keys where we will hang out with the aligators for awhile.

Of course all of this depends on how well we adapt to RV life. 25 feet is a small space in which to toss an extrovert (me), an introvert (Judith), and a medium sized dog with a crazy amount of energy. We get along pretty well, but pragmatists such as we are, we decided we would only commit to one month at a time. If after a month we are ready to pull each others' hair out, I will agree to head off on my own - hopefully towards tornado alley! 

Actually, my plan B is to go to either Spain and enroll in Spanish immersion school in Malaga (weather is moderate there in the winter, and using my vacation club, I can stay in a wonderful 2 bedroom 2 bathroom with full kitchen unit at the Marriot on the Mediterranean for $400/week) or go to Mexico, Colombia or Ecuador to learn Spanish. It all depends on the covid numbers in each country.

Hopefully that will not be necessery though. Judith and I are both truly looking forward to exploring the great ourdoors and taking in the beauty that is the United States. I may hate their politics, but with out a doubt, of the 40+ countries I have been to so far, some of the most beautiful things I have seen are in the USA!

I plan on blogging along the way to share our experiences and photos, and hope that you will come along for the ride. We leave October 15th, so stay tuned!