More Powell Butte and the Zoo

We’ve been out at Powell Butte twice since the last post.  It’s fairly close, and the trails have a lot of up down.  The mountain (Hood) has been out.  It’s fairly spectacular.  One day we could also see St. Helens and Adams, but the camera could not pick them up.



This is the caretaker’s cottage at Powell Butte.  Isn’t that lovely?  It looks at the mountains and is very nicely situated in a meadow.



This is one reason to keep going back to this trail system.  It’s steep.



There is also shade.  This is the split between the Elderberry and Cedar Forest trails.  Names are approximate.  Many people ride these trails on cross-bikes.  The trail surface is very nice; no baby heads, very few roots and no really narrow sections.



There are, however, giant slugs.  This is a Leopard slug.  That’s Jim’s foot, in one of his new hiking boots, for size comparison.  Those are Lowa Zephyrs.  Their sole is not stiff enough for Tucson, but for dirt or slickrock they’re fine.  The search for the ultimate stiff sole continues.  He did try the Oboz boots, but to get the really stiff sole they’re water proof.  Apparently there is a design idea that hard core mountaineering guys will want a waterproof shoe.  Men who do not want waterproofing clearly are not hard core, so they get a softer sole.  That’s what the lady at REI told us.  One thing we did remember is that the wonderful stiff sole on the Lowas that Jim can no longer wear came from Dave Page, Cobbler.  When we return to Issaquah, we will visit him to determine which boots can be resoled and go buy some of them.



Yesterday we went to the Zoo.  We had planned to go there as well as the Japanese Garden, but it was too steenking hot.  After the Zoo we were cooked.  Children born in the GPNW don’t do well with really high heat.  There was a lot of whining and wanting to go home from the short people.

The elephant enclosure is huge.  I’ve never seen so much real estate dedicated to elephants.



I love the Tamarin monkeys.  They always look like rock stars with big hair.  There was a female with two babies, but she was too far back in the enclosure for the camera.



An Anaconda from the Amazon rain forest.



I can’t remember his name.  White Faced something.  He has an interesting gate when he walks.  Sort of a hopping run.



Ah the joy of simple pleasures.  What could be better than a bucket on the head.



The bear spent a long time playing with the bucket.



Kelp.



We were fortunate enough to wander in to the Penguin enclosure at feeding time.  These are Humboldt Penguins.  They’re from South America.  The zoo originally had penguins from Antarctica, but they couldn’t keep them cool enough.  So, they switched to birds from a warmer environment.



The zoo worker was wearing a headset so he could talk to us.  We could hear the penguins making their penguin sound as they gathered for food.  They’re fed three times a day, and they eat a lot.



Did I mention it was hot?  It was hot.  This bear was spending time in the tub with a hose running water on his back.  He’d get out, shake off, and then get back in the water.



As zoos go, Portland’s is nice.  We were especially impressed with the amount of space devoted to the elephants, and the seals and otters. 

This is our outdoor air temperature unit.  Notice that it’s 86 inside the RV.  We really could have used a third air conditioner.  They can be added to the bus, but that involves cutting a hole in the roof, which is something I would rather not do.



Tomorrow we are up and out for Harrisburg, OR.  We’ll be seeing Elite RV, Peterson Caterpillar for fluids, and Country Coach for front end alignment.  Country Coach uses a pit, so there is no danger of being damaged like we were in March.  It will be hot there, but not as bad as it has been.