EAGLE POINT NATIONAL CEMETERY

Today Mom and I took a ride out to where my father’s ashes are buried. This is Memorial Day Weekend and for many it is the first long weekend of the year for camping, boating, and family get-together's.

Although here in the Rogue Valley it is a bit wet and chilly today there are many things going on around the Valley like Boatnik in Grants Pass (CLICK HERE to find out what that is about if you aren’t from this area.) If you like to hang-glide the RVHPA are flying the skies in the Applegate. There are lots of people BBQing, but probably under their patios. Mom and I did see a few hardy folks up at Willow Lake camping-out in travel trailers.

For many people Memorial Day (it used to be called Decoration Day) is a day to remember those who have gone-on before us.

According to Wikipedia:

Memorial Day “began as a ritual of remembrance and reconciliation after the Civil War, by the early 20th century, Memorial Day was an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as ordinary people visited the graves of their deceased relatives, whether they had served in the military or not.”

As a nation, we observe this holiday as a commemoration to the United States Service Men and Women who died while in the military service. On television we often see pictures and video’s of Arlington National Cemetery on this weekend, but our own local national cemetery (better known as the VA Cemetery) also places flags on every grave and flies many large flags around the cemetery.

 

This article is dedicated to my father Bill Keal.

We know he isn’t under that stone because he is fishing with Jesus in heaven but Mom and I like to come out here occasionally anyway.

GRANARY TREES

Last October 2010, my friend Louise and I took a trip to the coast, Bandon to Florence. I don’t like going on I-5 if I can avoid it. So we went up Tablerock Rd angling toward Shady Cove.

Louise suggested we stop in at TouVelle Park because she wanted to show me something. We drove all the way through the parking lot to the end. Where there was a tall Pine Tree, so I thought to myself “Big Deal!” after all we live in Oregon.

We got out of the car and she had me get up closer to the tree where I could get a good look at the bark. To my amazement, there were 100’s of holes with acorns stuck in many of them. I did mention that the tree was a Pine right?

Louise had no idea why there were acorns in the tree and there was no one about that I could ask. The best I could do was take a picture of this unusual site:

 

Fast forward 6 months. May 1^st on a Sunday Mom and I were out for a ride after church at New Song. I thought it would be interesting to take a photo of the whole tree in TouVelle Park. So we drove past the little building at the beginning of the park, found our way back to where that tree was in October. Before I could get out of my car, a park ranger is standing in front of me writing down my license plate number (I didn’t pay as I came into the park. Oops!)

I was able to talk him out of giving me a ticket (nice young man), get my picture of the tree and ask him a bunch of questions.

 

 

The tree you see in the picture is called a “Granary Tree”, because the Acorn Woodpeckers in the area (after drilling holes in it) use the tree to stash acorns which they then eat all winter for food. The ranger said he only knew of one other tree like this in all of Jackson County. That tree is over near the Rogue River close to the now torn down Gold Rey Dam.

You can read more about this in Wikipedia, I didn’t get a picture of the Acorn Woodpecker but I certainly know what it looks like now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Woodpecker

Matt 6:25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns (well maybe in a tree), and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” NIV

Mill Creek Falls Trail

Wednesday Neil (my husband) and I went for a hike (walk) on Mill Creek Falls Trail. We were having such a nice run of sunny weather we knew that the spring run off pouring down the falls would be spectacular. There are 2 sets of falls, Mill Creek and Barr Creek, that pour into the Rogue River just above Lost Creek Reservoir.

It had been been a couple of years since we had been up there and we missed the parking lot and had to circle around back to it. It’s not that hard to find if you are paying attention.LOL

When we get down to the “T” we went right which leads to the 2 sets of falls. There weren’t very many people out on the trail this day. The first falls are the Mill Creek Falls they drop 173 feet to the Rogue River below.

 

I did take this video, we’ll see if I can get it to show up here:

 

Wow I think I got it on here!

We then walked on down to Barr Falls it is at the end of the trail and you have to climb up some rocks to get a good look at it but it is worth it. The only issue was the falls were in the shade but I was still able to get some good shots.

In the first picture you can barely see it but the falls start almost at the tops of the tree line.

From there we went back to the “T” and walked down the left hand trail that leads to the Avenue of the Giant Boulders. This is a warning sign about the this area of the Rogue River being a Class 5 river (1 mile in length) for people who Kayak. Personally I think anyone kayaking here would have to be a little “crazy”.

Watching Neil climb around in those rocks makes me nervous.

 

Well after that excitement I was read to head back to the Trail Head. On the way back home we stopped at Casey Park where we saw Oregon Grape, the state flower, it was in bloom.

All in all a wonderful day!