SCHOLARSHIP DAY 96: Skinner Butte Hill, small flooding in Eugene, and Alton Baker Park

It's the 3rd December already, and it's my Mum's Birthday today. (Happy Birthday Mum!) It's strange to think that soon it will be mine too, and before you know it, I'll be in Los Angeles for Christmas and New Year, and almost equally as unbelievable, just moments after the decorations have been boxed up and sent back into the loft, I'll be sent back to England too!

Good news for the rest of my scholarship, though. My Sagittarius reading in this week's Eugene Weekly reads: "You will have good luck for the next 30 to 31 days. In the next four weeks, I suspect you will be the beneficiary of a flood of cosmic mojo, as well as a surge of divine woowoo, a shower of astral juju, and an upwelling of universal googoo gaga..." You can tell it's from a Eugene newspaper! So expect plenty of woowoo and juju and googoo on my blog on this, the last month of my trip!

I headed out today, fuelled with the excitement of reading such a optimistic prediction, with the intention of heading to the Skinner Butte, suggested to be one the best places to obtain great views of Eugene. Seeing a city from above is a great way of observing its structure so I always make it part of the plan, at least once on a visit, to head out upon a hill or a mountain and do it. It's named Skinner Butte after Eugene Skinner who founded the city of Eugene in the early 1800s. To get to it, I first wandered through the Owens Rose Garden, a treasure in itself. From my experience in Portland, I expected all the roses here to be deadheaded, but luckily not all of them have met the shears.

It was on this little self guided tour of the Rose Garden that I turned around and viewed what was a very interesting sky scene. The Sun never really made a stage appearance today, but merely remained behind the curtains of cloud. At least the forecast of 100% rain wasn't 100% correct; in fact, it was totally out because Eugene stayed completely dry all day.

The entrance sign to Skinner Butte Park inspires anybody who bothers to read it: "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere." The words of Vincent Van Gogh certainly were true for Skinner Butte Park; there was a lot of beauteous sights to behold here, as I followed the narrow zigzagging path towards the summit with zeal. Birds tweeted their morning tunes, while squirrels chomped on their breakfast nuts. The vegetation here is composed mostly of small shrubs, or large towering trees, although evidence of well managed deforestation was present. I decided to count the rings on one of the cut tree trunks. On this particular trunk, the tree experienced about 50 years or so of really good growth, shown by a wide rings; in the proceeding years though, the rings get too thin to count, and its rapid decay towards eventual death maybe one of the reasons why it was one of the few chosen to go under the saw.

The views from the top really do demonstrate what I was trying to illustrate yesterday. Most of Eugene's housing is one or two storeys at the most, and are shielded somewhat by the many trees. The only buildings really exposed are those in what could be classed as the city center, if there is such a zone in Eugene. Here, I noted that there weren't any outstandingly large skyscrapers, such as the scene offers if you view Seattle or Portland from a height. From the summit of Skinner Butte, Eugene seems to offer very little interest; it's one of those cities where you have to enter by ground to gain any significant insight into its unique culture and lifestyle.

There used to be an astrological observatory at the top of Skinner Butte, where university students would come to study, but it was decided that a more accessible location was required. The observatory at the tip of the butte was left to ruin, and later on, became an unpleasing sight to residents, so much so that one night in the early 1900s, it was blown to pieces by dynamite. I stood in its former position and gazed out to Spencer Butte, on the other side of the city, imagining such an explosion. Did those who set off the dynamite truly love nature, and find beauty everywhere? I decided they probably didn't.

For the afternoon, my plan was to continue my eastwards journey towards Alton Baker Park, the largest park in Eugene, with plenty of nature. Being in the city all the time makes you appreciate these natural spaces even more. On my way, I discovered an area of Eugene, that arguably is one of the greenest areas of the city. Parked in a car park was a Sun Rover Station. It harnesses sunlight by way of the panels and produces clean electricity. What's more is that it can move about, and so the Sun Rover has been took to many a park or an out of town location void of mains electricity, and provided the means for a good event. In a year, one of these devices can produce up to 1400kw hours of electricty. Not bad, but on a day like today where the Sun was unsuccessfully peeping through the clouds, I suppose the Sun Rover had a well deserved day off.

Here in Eugene, the Willamette River never rests. It has a strong current, flowing speedily as if it's eager to leave Eugene, and according to a resident who I got speaking to, it has been this way since 1996. From my own research, Oregon experienced one of the worse floods ever recorded in that year, preceeded by a winter of high rainfull, which saturated the ground, raising many river levels. The Willamette was very close to flooding Portland, and ever since that year, minor flood events have occured here in Eugene. Today saw one of them. The river, with such ceaseless energy, was washing up onto the cycle path, and teased those whoever who decided to risk a perch on the seats.

I scheduled my lunch in Alton Baker Park just in time to see a group of youths emerging from the bushes with bags of litter, and forming a small huddle around a gardener who was giving them all instructions for what seemed to be their afternoon of forced community service. Their faces showed all the love for nature that a sunbather has for a cloudy windswept day. With lunch over, I moved on to explore what Alton Baker has to offer. Nature trails wind their way through here like a mess made after a knitting party, but more trails meant more opportunities to spot nature. It was lovely to see the Grey Squirrel and the Red Squirrel sharing the same wooded habitat, although unsuprisingly, I counted many more greys than I did reds. Where the Grey squirrels didn't seem to mind my little nosy into their private lives, the Red Squirrels seemed convinced my camera was threatening and consequently hopped on as fast as they could in effort to outfox both me and my Panasonic. It took a lot of patience but I managed to acquire two modestly good photos.

 

 

Leaving the shelter of the wooded phase of this trail behind, I emerged to find myself staring at a very picturesque lake. Back in Alaska, all of these froze up ages ago, and I remembered the great days out on them, with the university civil engineering department taking measurements and samples of gas. Remenisicent of the ice, the water on this lake was likewise motionless; a small breeze rippled the almost immaculate reflection.

It was to my wonderment therefore, when a large Cormorant glided right in front of me and took a perch on the lakeside. It would be my first sighting of a Cormorant on this trip. I stayed a while to see if it would make an equally impressive take off. It looked as if was going through the pre-take off procedures that a pilot would undertake, and so ready with the camera, I waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, it took to the air, and I gained a successful 'in flight' shot to add to my collection.

On the way back through the park, passing what looked like a soccer stadium in the distance and a dog playground, my mind has turned to other things, particularly my days in cross country running. Seeing joggers pass me, this way and that, on a trail which didn't look too dissimilar to a race route I would run in Bure Park (Great Yarmouth, England) made me feel close to home again. It's great that a visiting a new place can spark memories made thousands of miles away. One more day in Eugene, and then my adventures in the state of California begin.