Summer Photo Retrospective, Part 2

These photos are from when we hiked the PCT in August with Lenny.  It was only a three day hike, but we hiked in 15 miles the first two days, and so Seth and I had to hightail it back to the car on the third, all 15 miles back out at once.  We wore ourselves out. (but in that pleasant sort of way).

First step onto the trail

The top of the ridge we came to was covered in this green patchy moss

Dusk the first day.  We hiked 9 seemingly vertical miles to get to the first campsite.  When we got in after dark, "Blaze" the through hiker we had chatted with earlier had clearly settled into camp long ago.  When he passed us on the trail that afternoon he had already put down 32 miles.  The guy's calves were probably bigger than my waist, and I can't imagine he took in too many views for too long, but he was in his sleeping bag before we got into camp, and snoring before we had dinner.  I was a little envious then.

Mt Hood from our lunch spot, and the highest point in our hike

Checking out Mt. Adams

Some creepy Tim Burton looking flowers that I haven't
been able to identify

Tiger Lillies

Running alongside the one part of the trail were huge old lava flows that you could climb around and  in

Camp!
We hammocked the whole trip; the tent is Lenny's

Happily fed and getting sleepy by the fire

Summer Photo Retrospective, Part 1

I've just cleaned out my camera and sorted everything out on the computer, and found some photos that, for one reason or another, didn't make it online this summer.

Sarah got really into archery with our friend Josh this year, and over the summer they were having what they called "weapons wednesdays" out at the farm where Andrew lives (also sometimes including rifles).  On this day though, it was just bows, arrows, and one completely destroyed target/mountain of hay bales.

Sarah Arching

Josh shoots while Sarah and Gordon spectate

Seth, with Sarah and Josh

Gordon takes aim, Sarah, Seth, Josh, and our friend Will also pictured

Andrew, Sarah's man-friend, with Sarah and Will in the background

Me, about to kill a that target dead

Andrew's roundhouse cabin in progress

Roof detail

Climbing trip (with Lenny again) to Smith Rock

As we headed South East out of Portland, we broke through the Cascades, veering just South of Mt. Hood, and all of the sudden Oregon became a dry, sunny, and very flat place.  Eventually we veered off the highway and out of nowhere rose this giant monument of rock, carved out by the river that runs below it like a mote, smattered with climbers too small to see in the photo below.

View of the area from the parking lot.

To get to the climbing areas you had to go a good ways downhill, cross the river that you can see here, and then climb back up to get to foot of the rocks.

Seth rigging up our first climb on the first day... you can see him at the top, but he almost blends into the rock.

Lenny climbing on the first day.

Me on belay.

Seth leading a climb on our second day.  To lead means to set protection as you climb up; these rocks are bolted along the routes so that you clip your rope into the bolts as you go.  When he got to the top, Seth would then attach the rope to anchors so that Lenny and I could climb the route after him.

The view from the bottom of this route.

Me climbing day two.

We moved over to another area with really cool rock features- never climbed on anything like this before.

Seth setting up the first climb on day three

Lenny climbing; also, if you look close, you can see Seth sitting in a nice little groove and belaying from up top.

The area we climbed on the third day was across the river from the other climbing we did, and from here you can see the first area the we climbed the day before.  It's the slabby (least vertical) section right in the center of the photo.

As we were about to leave to head back home we found this beautiful slot canyon not far from the parking area which we explored the inside of a little bit.  It was 15-20 ft deep and 2-3 ft wide most places, with huge boulders piled and wedged in a few places that made it easy to climb in and out.

Mt. St. Helens and Recent Fun

I have for you photos from the Mt. St. Helens hike that Sarah, Seth, and I did with Dad while he was here.  It was not too long, but kind of a bear.  After you break out of the woods, it's a scramble up volcanic rock (which is really really sharp) and then a trudge up a steep slope of little rocks and volcanic ash, during which you usually slide back down about half as far as you move up each step.  But the reward is worth it.  When you get to the top you're peering into the mouth of a half demolished volcano, rimmed with glacier ice, and full of steamy vents.

Sarah climbing up the boulder fields

Sarah and Dad take a breather on the way up

Finally at the top!  You can see the rim behind Sarah and Dad, and the ice clinging to the inside of it.  The panorama function on my camera did something odd to the horizon though...

View of Rainier from the top.  The lake pictured didn't exist before the eruption; it has filled in since.  The debris that you can see on the left side of the lake are all trees, uprooted during the eruption.

Into the crater

Vents

Part Two

The past couple of weeks Seth has been learning to surf with our friend Lenny, whose trip to Mexico has been postponed as his traveling partner decided to record an album "real quick" before they go.  But, this is good for us as Lenny has lived around here all his life, and has plenty of free time right now to take us on adventures.  

Surfboards in the van

Seth with his board

Seth and Lenny almost colliding, but looking very cool doing it, al least.

The cove where said surfing took place.  Not a bad spot to spend an afternoon.

We camped that night a short hike from the beach at Ecola State Park

One last photo of the rocks, the next morning on our way out.  The surf was really weak, so we convinced Lenny to take us mushroom hunting instead.  Seth and I have gone out once or twice on our own, to no avail.  But Lenny promised that he knew a spot...

He wasn't lying either.  These are Chantrelles: extremely tasty if you've never had them (not cheap either, they usually fetch $10 a pound).  We took home about three pounds of mushrooms or so.

        

Some neat looking but not necessarily edible mushrooms that I took pictures of to identify later.

Oyster mushrooms ready to cook up at home.  These and the chantrelles are the only two varieties that we found that day (both were delicious!).  Crimini mushrooms also grow around here, and I'm really hoping to find some on my next hunt, although they are much sought after and a little harder to find.