A Clear Day at Denman (Southwest Oregon) 20-Sep-2021

We got 0.75 inches (19 mm) of rain here over the last two days! Just like the forecast promised! Miracles! Less than an inch might not sound like much, but after you’ve gone months and months with practically none, it’s a lot! Enough to squelch the wildfires and wash away the smoke. The fronts that brought this rain had moved on by Sunday afternoon, so today dawned cold, clear, and bright. 😎

The LovedOne had something this afternoon and we’re busy tomorrow but it just seemed wrong – so wrong! – to not go outside and breathe a lot. So we carved out some time this morning for a brisk walk around the Military Slough Unit of the nearby Ken Denman Wildlife Area. The rain had washed the dust off the trees there just in time for the Fall color display to start. 😄

As usual, we accessed Denman from the TouVelle State Recreation Site. There is a short “official” interpretive trail within the recreation site that connects within the wildlife area to a variety of obvious and not so obvious use trails, several abandoned and in-use roads, and an “official” equestrian trail. Our goal for today – other than simply breathing deeply – was to see if we could go out and back without using any of the old roads.

So we went counter-clockwise up onto the Agate Desert, past the much shrunken pond in Military Slough, to gravel TouVelle Road. Across that, we picked-up the horse trail and followed it almost to the parking areas on Agate Road. You’re supposed to have a fish & wildlife permit to park at these but it’s not clear how many people bother getting one. We turned back here and followed an obvious use trail back to the interpretive trail within the recreation area, making small detours to visit “secret” fishing spots along Little Butte Creek.

This loop came to 5 miles (8 km) with no appreciable gain and a return home by lunch. There was a LOT of deep breathing along the way and each smoke-free breathe was GREAT! 😁

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