Day One - Duvall to Rogue River

From the pre-dawn chill of Duvall, Red-Tailed Hawk flying past our morning circle, on this day – the first of our epic expedition down the road South to California – we have traveled out of the Western Hemlock zone of Duvall and into…. something else!



Past forests of Oregon Ash and into the wide open Willamette Valley. Through Oak covered hills pondering the Ponderosa Pine look-alikes and a new species of Cedar.

Lunch in Lake Oswego, blindfold games in the parking lot and the call of a lone Scrub Jay, a preview of what’s to come further South. There is something special about groups of Wilderness Awareness School students in the parking lots of gas stations and rest stops. We may be able to disappear in the woods, but we don’t blend in so well in public. Tony Deis and Molly Strand of Trackers NW drove down from Portland just for hello and hugs in the last 5 minutes of our lunch stop, and invited us to a buffalo feast on our way back through Portland next Friday.

I am pleased to announce that the Blue Van won the Willamette Valley Raptor Challenge, counting a total of 63 raptors on the 17 mile stretch just North of Eugene, though the White and Teal vans represented impressively as well. And for the record, Turkey Vultures are not raptors and neither are Warbling Vireos. In other news, in the game of Naturalist Dingo (like Bingo, but Dingo) “Dingo” has not yet been called, but all three vans are well on the way to six-in-a-row, and baby black sheep have been sighted.

A long day on the road with 40 people (students, staff, apprentices, and our very own paparazzi!) may or may not sound like fun from a distance. But here we are at the Rogue River Campground, bellies full of pasta, singing old songs and new, as we clean up after dinner. The feeling is good.

Tomorrow it is down the road to Sunol (State Park?) Southeaast of Sacramento, where we will roam the hillsides looking for….. I’m not going to tell you what we’ll be looking for, but I will tell you some of the things we see when I next log in on Thursday evening from Quail Springs in New Cuyama.

Until then, beauty and blessings from Anake on the Road.