A Fond Farewell-Our Last Adventure with "Uncle Ralph" at Adam's Prairie

As the saying goes "All good things must end" I guess that's true at least this side of eternity. This was a bittersweet trip because I new this was probably my last adventure with my good friend Ralph Scott. He is retiring this year as a grade school counselor and will be move up near Lyons OR along the Santiam River. This was my final picture of the day looking back at Ralph and Annalie coming out of Adams Prairie. What a beautiful place in the spring!!

We took a brief rest here in some shade since it was of 80 degrees in the sun. Ralph's motorcycle a Rokon is the equivalent of a 4 wheel drive. I had seen these things before but they were always 30 or 40 years old. He actually bought this one brand new a couple of years ago. Needless to say there are few places this thing can't go as long as you can stay on it.

Shortly thereafter we decided to ride down closer to the Rogue River. This is where things started to get really interesting. Annalie decided to walk ahead of us for awhile. She actually was running down the trail and nearly stepped on this guy. What a mess that would have been. Fortunately she heard the rattle and did the right thing which was STOP! She decided it was time to get back on Ralph's motorcycle. I know that I was in my 30s before I saw my first rattlesnake. Annalie made it till she was only 4 years old. I was also suprised to see one in mid May. Also this was by far the closest one to home that I've ever run into. He definitely didn't like getting his picture taken! Just for the record I figure it was probably between 15-18 in length but still potentially dangerous. Guess I've seen bigger and smaller ones.

Here's another reason why I'm going to miss my friend Ralph so much. Immediately after reaching the river Jason broke loose and started running down the gravel embankment for the water. When he got there he tried to put on the brakes but his momentum caused him to keep going falling headlong into the drink. Fortunately Ralph was in "hot pursuit" and immediately grabbed him by the shirt collar and fished him out. The water got deep quickly and there was also a strong current just a few feet out from shore. We actually had extra clothes for him but I decided not to change him since it was quite warm. Again it reminded us how careful we need to be so that a fun outing doesn't turn into a tragedy. It's sad to think that with my good friend moving out of the area it will be virtually impossible to go on adventures like these with the kids since I can't carry them both on my machine or look after them as I should. Ralph was always ready and willing to make the time so that these special outings were possible. We'll miss him.

This is a "living stump". The tree has been cut down but for some reason it grows a cap over the cut and continues to live. Pretty cool. I don't see these too often.

Dave