That Tree Be Tall

Redwood National Park is quite impressive. Not as astoundingly jaw-dropping as I was expecting, but great. Unfortunately, it rained like crazy on me for the two days that I was in the park.

If I have time, I'm really looking forward to Sequoia NP, where the trees are supposed to be even HUGER! That being said, 300 foot trees are commonplace in Redwood. 300 feet. That's pretty massive. Every now and then I would stop and think...if some of the smaller trees here were put elsewhere, they would completely tower above things and drawf everything else!

Oh, and of course you get the coast then, also, with Redwood NP. And not just any coast, a great, amazing coast. The Pacific looked cruel and wrathful the two days that I was near it through Redwoods. Just a little arch (it was gigantic...as seems to be the theme of this park) during my drive.

Whiskey Bravo

So I visited my eldest sister Jamie at her new place in Coos Bay, OR. The repairman who came to work on the stove was walkie-talkieing back to the office with parts numbers and verifying things with full letter names, such as Charlie Foxtrot. But the part was WB123??, and he was like, "Can we get Whiskey Bravo ???...." I nearly lost it while painting and he's in the background sounding like he's sending in an airstrike on the apartment!

I won't beat around the bush. We painted. We did a lot of painting, considering it's a one room apartment! However, we had a great time. Even if I might act otherwise.

We went for a short hike out at Shore Acres State Park, which is beautiful. It's the former property of a former shipping baron...Simpson, I believe. The views and weather were both amazing. I could handle living 15 minutes from a place like this, as Jamie now does.

And I picked up some wicked clip-on sunglasses during a stop at Goodwill for random house necessities. They're pretty much pure awesomeness!

More photos to come when I have access for a bit longer!

Mount Helens was Canonized

I joined my friends and former rafting co-workers Chris and Chad (and his girlfriend Shannon) for a great weekend up at Mount St. Helens. We didn't make it to the north side, which was wiped out when she blew in 1980. The south side is still great and pretty much untouched. Chad, Chris and I having some fun at the Middle Falls on the Lewis River!





Rainier, above. Adams, below. From a knob on our day hike Sunday we could see Rainier to the north, Adams to the east, Hood to the south, and Helens to the west. It was a great vantage point.




Shannon and Chad having some fun around the campfire!



We camped about 50 yards from the above falls, The Lower Falls on the Lewis River. Chris near the Middle Falls, below.



Upper Falls, above. Middle Falls, below.






The colors were pretty perfect for our trip. And the weather was unexpectedly and unbelievably nice for this time of year in the northwest. Chris and I didn't even set up a tent, just plopped it on the ground.



Some tasty eggs for breakfast, above. By the way, car camping is soooo great because you can take just about anything you want. It's actually quite similar to rafting in that sense. I hadn't used a dutch oven, above, since I used to raft. It's a great vessel for cooking!


Shannon jokingly attempted climbing one of the largest Douglas Firs that any of us had ever seen. It was easily well over 200 feet tall. You just don't see trees like that in the Midwest!

Back to the Clack

Ahh, the good old Clackamas River. This is where I did most of my rafting when I lived and worked up in Portland. It was great to go back and see if I could remember rapids and how I ran them and all that good stuff! That's Carter Bridge Rapids, above. And The Narrows, below, a beautiful mafic basalt formation that I believe was a lava tube at one point before collapsing and forming this little gem of a rapid!




And I had to include Toilet Bowl, one of my all-time favorite rapids. I hope I can get out there to raft the Clack again some day!

City of Roses

Portland has beautiful rose gardens. I took a book and enjoyed myself very much.

It was overcast and wet...I know, unheard of in Portland...but it meant some great colors and probably better photos.

Ghostland Observatory

I arrived in Portland Saturday evening to immediately head to the Ghostland Observatory concert at the Crystal Ballroom, an awesome venue in downtown Portland.  It was a great show, considering I'd never heard of the group before.

Lights these days are outstanding.  They are all lasers and can completely change a show.  Especially for electronic music like Ghostland.

The video does neither the lights nor sounds justice. It was a very fun concert, considering I'd never even heard of the group before!