Hiking

A few weeks back we got a spring teaser. The sun was out, and though it was a bit cool, it lured many of us to buy sunscreen and light beer that goes well with lime, put away our long pajamas and flannel sheets in exchange for lighter linen and shorts. I may as well have washed the car for all the jinxing I put into it. But in any case, my friend and I managed to get in a few Friday hikes and I did some on my own on the weekends. Occasionally, I remembered to bring my camera.

This set is from the Columbia Gorge. The Columbia river flows from Washington south and then west all the way out to the ocean. A good part of the river, including this section, forms the border between Oregon and Washington. A freeway on the Oregon side parallels it for quite a ways and it's one of my favorite routes in the country as the further east you travel, the more dry and deserty the conditions become. You can fall asleep surrounded by fir trees and waterfalls coming off of moss covered cliffs and wake up surrounded by bald, brown hills. I used to imagine that the desert hills looked like someone had taken a giant erasure and took off all the trees and green bumps.


Rest break a little ways off the trail, looking west. It was quite the hike up to this point, so we took a breather and some photos.



Did I mention it's a big river? You can see a very tiny speed boat in this picture as well as a buoy. I was also impressed with the color of the water that day.



Typical Forest Service signage and map markings caused us to end up on a different trail than we had intended. While the road noise was a little annoying, the views were pretty good from this spot. This shot is facing east and little north. That parking lot way down on the right? That's where I parked.



Same shot as above, zoomed out. The climb was hell, thank you.






The next few came from a couple different trips to a park along the Willamette River. While the Columbia flows west through the north portion of Portland, the Willamette (rhymes with "dammit") flows north right through the middle of Portland and then intersects with the Columbia. The park is in the southern suburbs where the hoity toity have their waterfront mansions and docks. It's usually full of fishermen, but for the life of me I can't figure out why anyone would eat something out of a river full of toxic heavy metals that are there due to our years of heavy industry. Maybe it's catch and release.


It was a wet winter. It just seems so typically Oregon that there would be a dead tree over the path that has ferns growing on it.



White legs need some sun.



I was trying to photo an elusive bird here. It's in the picture, but you'll never find it, because it looks just like a rock. In the background you can see some fishing boats and some of those mansions I referred to.



Here's a blurry close up of that rock-like bird.