I have to preface this post by saying that I was born in Pacific County in 1953, my mom was born in Pacific County in 1923, my grandma was born in Pacific County in 1894. Her mother (Anna Lena) moved to Pacific County in 1890. Anna Lena lived here the rest of her life, my grandma lived here her entire 90 years, my mom and I still live here. We’re kind of fond of Pacific County! I live on the beach side of the county, but my forbearers lived on the east side–not all that far from Falls Creek, where we just had our retreat.
This is the creek view right across from the gym where we did our sewing.
Our county is still 80% forest. My grandpa was a logger here. The native forests were mostly cedar–and in many places you can still see the old stumps from the first logging–even though it was probably a hundred years ago that they were cut down.
Lots of them have turned into “nurse logs,” providing a base for seedlings that have grown into magnificent trees of their own.
Even under this tree there was once an old stump.
If you look closely, you can see where the loggers notched out a place for the springboards. These boards got them up high enough to saw through the trunk where the diameter wasn’t so large.
Even though our weather was very rainy, I decided to walk along the creek to the falls–about a mile.
It started out as an easy, flat walk.
There were so many cool trees along the path. like this one with THREE trunks!
And this one with two trunks.
I just love the little ferns that grow out of the trunks and branches of the trees.
At first the path was a one lane, gravel road. It crossed a bridge and opened into a lovely meadow.
There was a tiny cabin there.
It must have been there a long time judging by the maple trees in front of it!
The trees were bare, but there was plenty of “evidence” on the ground that these were maples!
I was always told that if you were lost in the woods, you could find North by looking at the trunk of a tree. There would be moss growing on the north side of the tree. Well, here’s one of the maple trees. Side 1.
Side 2.
Side 3.
Side 4. Hmmm, I’m thinking this isn’t going to work for finding North.
This snag looked as though it could star in a horror flick!
The farther I went, the more rapid the creek was flowing.
Soon the gravel road ended, and it was time to start the climb to the top of the falls.
The trail was strewn with leaves.
And snugged the side of the hill.
The vine maples were so pretty with the vibrant yellow leaves.
Even though it had quit raining, everything was dripping.
The path climbed pretty steeply. I could still see the creek below.
When I rounded this corner and reached the top of the nexts rise, I could really hear the falls.
The water was cascading over stair-step looking rocks.
But that was just the lower falls.
It was hard to get back far enough to get good photos, but you can see how much water was flowing here!
Here’s looking straight down from the top of the main falls.
It was definitely worth the walk. Twice, since I forgot my camera the first time!
Pacific County is a pretty good place to live!
9 Responses
November 13th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Stunningly beautiful! That is my kind of walk.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Truly gorgeous. I’ll keep that lost-in-the-woods tip in mind when I’m trying to find my way out of a forest somewhere other than Pacific County!
November 14th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Wow, that is really pretty. But how scary that you went alone. I would never have the guts to do that by myself. I am a big chicken!!! Thanks for the view without having to do the work of walking way back there.
November 14th, 2009 at 6:34 am
BEAUTIFUL!
November 14th, 2009 at 7:44 am
Beautiful walk. That is such a gorgeous area and I could almost smell the freshness as I looked at the photos.
November 14th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Love the pictures, Karen. My favorite thing when I first come to the county was seeing the old stumps with the springboard slots. I can imagine the stumps with spring board poking out from the side and a timber faller at work. I love the big cedar stump on the left side of the road going to Lone Fir Cemetery.
November 14th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
What a beautiful walk. We loved to camp on the Washington and Oregon coast when our children were little–it is so beautiful.
It seems like home just gets in your blood doesn’t it. My dad and mom still live in the same house that my dad has lived in since he was seven years old (except for the first 12 years of their marriage). My brother and his family live in the house that my mom and dad lived in when they were first married. I really dislike the cold winter weather so people will ask me why I live in such a cold, snowy part of Canada. I have no explanation other than the fact that it is home!
November 18th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
I truly enjoyed this post. My Grandpa was a logger in the North Oregon Coast Range and he would take us up logging roads point out the big old growth stumps with notches, the remains of trestles and logging camps. Meanwhile Grandma would have us kids filling coffee cans with black berries we didn’t know we were actually working. She would make us a cobbler at the end of the day and blackberry jam with the rest. You have inspired me to take a photo trip back to Vernonia. Thank you, Wendy
November 20th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this post…it makes me hungry for the Coast. I LOVE this area, spent a lot of time there but now I’m up in the City (Seattle)…I’m thinking NEXT year I need to come to your retreat AND jump in the car during the holidays and come on down. Thanx again!
Leave a Comment