Oregon Random Ride Finale: Darlingtonia to Ashland

July 12, 2015, was the last day of our random ride, cut short because of car trouble. We tried to figure out what had happened and replace the leaking fluids, but what to do was a mystery. We decided to rush back to the mechanics in Ashland, who had made repairs at the beginning of this trip, and have them check it out. But there was one more stop to make before leaving the coast and making a beeline to the east.

California pitcher plant

Just north of Florence, there is a little park a few miles off Highway 101 called the Darlingtonia State Natural Site. With my knowledge dating back to Little Shop of Horrors, venus fly traps in flower pots, and studying botany at Humboldt State University, I only recently discovered carnivorous plants are not only in the jungles of Borneo. Darlingtonia californica, the California pitcher plant or "cobra lily", is endemic to northern California and southern Oregon. Where there is cold water, seeps, or bogs, this beautiful-looking green predator may grow in large populations. They suck water up from their roots to fill leaves modified into pitchers, attracting unsuspecting insects with a sweet nectar. When the insects fall into the liquid, the plant dines on and digests the poor critters to make up for a lack of nitrogen in the soil. "It's supper time..." I first discovered these pitcher plants when camping in the Siskiyou range; however, the population by Florence is much larger.

We took Highway 126 along the Suislaw River to Interstate 5 and to Ashland, passing a wildlife refuge I would like to visit, and stopping for lunch at Ixtapa Family Mexican Restaurant in the town of Veneta, just west of Eugene. The truck seemed to do OK on the trip up I-5 to Ashland. We took a room at the Rodeway Inn and got dinner at the adjacent Wild Goose Cafe and Bar. Little did we know, it was open mic night. So we followed dinner with a few drinks and entertainment from Ashland's local singer-songwriters--from seasoned folk singers, to a clever cover of The Elements by Tom Lehrer, to a fledgling who had never played in front of people before.

The next day, we took the truck to the Shell station mechanics, and they again dropped us off at Lithia Park while they spent nearly the whole afternoon fixing her up. This time, we walked the trail a bit and had lunch at Umi Sushi and nice coffees from the Mix Bakeshop. And we saw a few more animals at the duck pond, including the western pond turtle, which is a native and critically sensitive species in Oregon and a species of special concern in California. They may be common in southern Oregon, but they are declining in other parts of their range. They are usually shy of people, but this turtle seemed well adjusted to our presence.

A western pond turtle makes his home in Lithia Park.

American robin with his catch of the day. Is that a fish?

This is a male cardinal meadowhawk (Sympetrum Illotum)--
a very pretty red dragonfly found in the western U.S.

Lithia Creek

When the car was finally ready, we headed back to California. Of course, no trip down Interstate 5 from Oregon is complete without getting the shot of Mt. Shasta. Not much snow, however. Tells the tale of the drought.

The trip ended meeting dad for dinner at Black Bear Diner in Paradise--home to my parents and nearly home for us. I was already planning the 2016 random ride, starting at the Darlingtonia reserve.