Walking With Chewie 01-23-10

Another fine spring day in January (yes this get's the mind racing with Climate Change paranoia!) and the dog wants another walk, oblivious to his master's plans for the day.  Luckily for him, walkin the dog is always on the agenda... :)

As usual, he's raring to go, I can't even get him to stand still for a picture!

 


So on we walk.  Today we're going to quest to the lands of Taralon.  Not to rescue maiden fair nor slay mighty dragons, but to watch Chewie whizz on anything that will stand still for five seconds and snap some pictures.  It is straight criminal to not get out for pleasure on SOME level on a day like today after all.

First we have to go through Ashley Meadows park a block and a half to the East

Not a bad park, as far as city parks go.  And there is a dog poop bag dispenser at the entryway to the park, yes there is a method to my madness today on our route!  I'm out of doggy poopy bags.
 
So we traverse the soggy, muddy hillside to enter the gates of....TARALON!!!!
Of course the first damn thing you see is another park.  This one has a sign posted warning "non-Taroloners" that they are not welcome here, nay even TRESPASSING.  We're scared naturally, so we go the other way (plus you see one cheap public jungle gym, you've seen them all).
  
Now like many of the hills above us, the Taralon neighborhood is not finished, in fact I would say only 7-8% of the lots here have homes, so it's even more post-apocalyptic then most of the other neighborhoods around here.  
Here's a nice intersection, the corner of Nothing st. and Nada ave.  The section of orange 'barrier' that's trampled down has a path leading into those woods, some beer cans and condom wrappers litter the underbrush, ah youth.

 
As you can see the housing bubble bursting has spared some nice natural space.  Hopefully for a good, long while.  Snakes and gophers need someplace to party too you know!

And if you needed proof of their eventual intent out here, well here you go skeptics!

 



So we're walking towards the 'lake' at the corner of Taralon.  It's really not a lake, but a collection of water runoff from the hills below.  It has to go somewhere after all, but the ducks don't seem to know the difference.

Ducks just are not picky creatures after all.  Besides it sure beats most of the scenery around here that man-made crap has ruined. 

 It does not look quite as pristine however from a distance.




  
There are some interesting walks you can take out and about.  I work in Tualatin and they have a pretty decent art walk/nature walk trail system that I may blog about sometime.  Part of my "Urban Nature" series...keep an eye out for it!  :)  I just need a decent camera and I could just go slighty crazy with this stuff.  I'm glad no one really reads it.

On the far side of the 'lake' is a drain system access point (I made that term up by the way, I don't know what they really call it.)  Raised cages over the pipe system.

Kind of a trippy looking thing that just does not fit into the whole "Feng Shui" of the area if you ask me.

  


A shot down the hole gives you this view of the pipe ends, with an exposed section where you can see the water flowing somewhere.  How did I get such a good picture you are wondering?

 

Because as you can see, they don't LOCK THE DAMN THINGS!!  Those pipes are pretty wide too, wide enough for some small kid to get stuck in a pipe for sure.  I find this somewhat ridiculous.  Of course if I were a six year old kid, I'd think it was way cool, and probably get stuck in a pipe in the process.


We walk further along and there is a lone house in the trees to the South East.  A holdover from the ol' days of Happy Valley, probably refused to sell his land.  Bravo to these folks, the developers can just go take a flying leap!

 It's kind of hard to see, being a brown house and all, but I still think it's cool.  They have a long gravel road leading from basically nowhere to their gated driveway.  That must REALLY piss off the mailperson AND the garbage man.  Again good for them!!


So we turn back through the heart of Taralon, cavort with a pair of Chocolate labs (man, people LOVE to let dogs run loose out here, kind of cool!) and head towards home.

 Another shot of ye olde empty TARALON!

 More empty lots in the distance.

 
Now this is kind of cool, a circle of very large rocks that seemingly have no purpose.  Local legend however tells of the dark rites and sacrifices that have taken place within this ring of deadly magic.  Oh yeah, and the Tooth Fairy says hi.

 

Bridge over troubled waters? 

More empty lots.  You can tell they still kinda keep the landscaping up though.  Gotta keep the landscapers working!

Ah, the secret to the landscaping is revealed.  It turns out that this is actually Fluer De Lawn!!  That's French for "Plant it and fuggedaboutit".  It apparently cutting edge, eco-friendly ground cover that is pimped on this website: 

www.protimelawnseed.com/about-us/fleur-de-lawn/

What urban nature walk after all is complete without some environmentally progressive references?  Puhleeze...we are all about sustainability and being one with nature on this blog after all.  We've seen Avatar not once, but TWICE!!  So c'mon...

Until next time... :)