Mulkey Creek Hike

Yesterday was another beautiful sunshiny day, the kind that makes us all long to go outside and spend hours bending over to pull weeds from our flowerbeds. But Nick wanted to go hiking, so as has been my habit for the past 20 years since motherhood took control of my life, I sacrificed my own selfish plans and desires in order to do what was in my child's best interest.

We headed through Corvallis again to the Bald Hill trail head and hiked the Mulkey Creek Trail, a 4.5 mile round trip that only gained 600 feet in elevation. The first part of it was a gravel path through pastures, where we saw cattle, sheep and horses. Then the trail went up through old growth forest. I didn't notice any wildflowers on the way up and mentioned it to Will as we started down. He soon pointed out a trillium to me, and we noticed many of them thereafter. Back in the wilderness hiking days before children, we had quite a wildflower photography habit going.

I love the way the ferns grow on the tree trunks as Nick observes Mulkey Creek.

It was about 5 p.m. when we got back to the parking lot, which was not a desirable spot to have our traditional hot drink after the hike. Will suggested we just go home, but to Nick, the afternoon just wasn't complete without his cappuccino. So we looked for a picnic table in Corvallis as we drove home. Will has an unerring sense of direction, and the first street he turned on had a park with a lone picnic table near the street. He was a little uncomfortable about parking because the parking lane was pretty narrow. Nick and I convinced him it was fine. After all, the curb was not yellow. Nick set up the little stove and soon the espresso was ready. We had no hot pad to help us remove the tin cup, and a small mishap occured when Will used his handkerchief instead. What’s that burning smell? Oops, the hankie is on fire! Nick enjoyed that a little too much. He finally stopped laughing when a police car pulled up. A young officer got out and asked if that was our vehicle. "Does that look like a parking lane to you? ...Well, it's not a parking lane, it's a bike lane." In his own special sarcastic, less than polite manner, he made it clear he thought we were pretty stupid to mistake a bike lane for a parking lane. Will moved the car around the corner, the police officer left, and Nick and I got a bad case of the giggles. The irony of a young officer rudely reprimanding my husband! We were wishing we had Mr. Sarcastic Bear with us, because that officer would have been a very worthy recipient!