{"id":38719,"date":"2026-05-01T04:19:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T11:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/?p=38719"},"modified":"2026-05-01T04:20:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T11:20:42","slug":"flowers-and-destruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/?p=38719","title":{"rendered":"Flowers and Destruction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Day 3 of 3 consecutive days of long hikes to assess adventure readiness, my sister joined the fun at Mary’s Peak. Starting around 8:30 with fog on the coast and patchy fog in the valley and thick air, the day finished warm and sunny with Mt Jefferson hardly visible thru the haze as we headed home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary’s Peak, though in the coastal range, sees spring roll up the hillside about on the same timetable as cascades. Today’s trailhead (Conners Camp) sits around 2500 feet elevation, and spring was just arriving. Early flowers were starting to bloom, the underbrush just breaking out their leaves, but the lupin had yet to bud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The soaring raptors came out in the afternoon and the morning was filled with wood grouse and brown creepers. A raven impressed us by catching a worm (big!) seemingly out of nowhere – how did it see that worm? Deer tracks were not seen at all, surprisingly. While Mary’s Peak didn’t feel as sterile as 5 years ago, animals are few and the forest is noticeably a mono-crop 2×4 farm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving up to Conners Camp, you pass by the gnarly remains of a recent timber farming operation. The last time I came up the hill in early morning darkness that hill was lit up like a space station -harvesting in the dark. From the summit, the timber farming practices become clear and more painfully visible. Harvest all the trees, leave the hillside gouged and scarred – replant, redo, again, and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Regardless if you believe or trust the science behind this method of 2×4 farming, it’s hard to not feel sorry for the mountainside and all the life that once lived there – where did they all go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary’s Peak is like a neighborhood park, like Ridgeline in Eugene; many people come weekly and treat it respectfully … bikers, walkers, hikers all mixed together. The trails are well kept and ‘doable’ – you don’t have to drive to the parking lot atop. Not sure it’s a destination hike but a great place to rendezvous from different directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Route<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Started at Conners Camp TH and together went to the summit via the Summit Trail; then down along the meadow to the campground. Then from the second time at summit, down the north ridge to the cut-over trail and back to Conners Camp for lunch. After lunch, I went up same way and back down same solo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n