Crooked River Camping

After our trek around Paulina Lake we checked out the map to see where we should camp next. We didn't want to go too far from one of the major towns in Central Oregon and hub remembered an old potential camping area along the Crooked River, where he'd spent some time hiking around when he was younger. So we drove over to see if we could find the spot again....passing many of the beautiful fields and livestock along the way.

 And sure enough, we found it and what looked like a great place to camp even if we weren't entirely sure if it was actually a legit camp site.

But after 20 miles of hiking between the day before and that morning, it was great to string up the hammock between two trees, pull out the lawn chairs, and lay in the back of the truck reading and enjoying the afternoon sun. The dogs were even too tired to care too much about their bones ;)

 We did take the half-mile canyon trail down to the river twice however and caught some beautiful views:

 Steelhead Falls and the little separate cascading water section on the far left is a man-made fish ladder:

 Back up at the camp site, we set up the tent, moved the truck to be our wind block, and after a low-key dinner, we crawled in for the night.

At 4:45am we woke up to a ruckus from a far camp section where some "long-term campers" were located. Not being sure of what was going on and not wanting to get involved, we quickly broke camp, loaded up, and headed out around 5am.

By waking up that early (which happens most the time when camping), we were fortunate enough to catch the beauty of the sunrise against the snowy mountains:

We ended up driving over to Smith Rock State Park, which we intended to go back and hike down into the canyon later in the day but didn't ever get back there. We did catch a few pictures from above the canyon however and watched some mule deer cross a stretch of the road:

Since it was barely above freezing and 6:30am, we drove into town and tried out the Black Bear Diner--incredibly friendly service, lots of good food for cheap including healthier options, a core value of willing to make substitutions per your request, and its a somewhat local-like option as its only located in the PNW. 

Part 3 to come ;)

Backcountry Camping Time

An almost week away was amazing, and we traveled from the city to the woods to the mountains to the desert badlands to the coast and back to the city. We saw several friends, spent time with family on both sides, and became incredibly reacquainted with nature. The dogs had a blast and hub and I returned back home today with smiles from ear to ear. A great week indeed.

First day we arrived at our location in Central Oregon about 2pm and backpacked 9 miles up the trail until we hit snow prior to our desired camp location for the night. Hiked 3 miles back down the trail until we found the good spot we remembered passing and hub set up the tent and made us and the dogs some grub. It'd taken a while for me to get used to carrying a larger and heavier backpack and after 12 miles in about six hours, we were more than ready to get into bed.

Morning two we headed the six or so miles back down to where we'd left the truck. Going down never takes as long as going up, especially when its in the 30s and the faster one walks, the faster one warms! ;) It was great to sit alongside the creek where we'd started and wash my feet to put on a different pair of socks and comfy shoes.

 Along the trail we saw vibrant green moss, lizards, elk and bear hair, flowering bushes, chipmunks, and the occasional flash of a bird.

 Once we were ready to move on, we drove up to the top where there was too much snow for us to hike, and came to Paulina Lake.

 The dogs had a great time playing in the snow again.

 A view from along the road up near the top of this section.

We hope to get back there later this summer when the snow has retreated as it'd make a great 2-3 day backcountry camping trip. It's about 10 miles up to the first lake and then there's a 20 mile rim trail along the edge of the crater and lava fields. Hopefully we'll at least get back to see the obsidian flow area once the snow has melted.

More pictures from the rest of the week to come tomorrow......

Random Thoughts

The PNW is a pretty inspirational place. Its absolutely awe-inspiring to see Mt Hood off in the distance on clear days as we drive east on one of our regular routes or to catch a glimpse of the beautiful and clean city when we cross the bridges over downtown Portland. National and state forests abound, waterways (while polluted) glisten, and hundreds of shades of green greet your eye wherever you choose to look. It's been interesting to get messages from many friends who have moved elsewhere and who continue to encourage hub and I to soak up the beauty and awesomeness of this place for them as well--leaving the PNW can create an ache that no other place really has the capacity to fill.

After my pity party posting the other day I engaged in my own personal prozac application---started watching one of my favorite feel good flicks (Catch & Release), indulged in two local brews, and then pulled on some running gear and hub & I covered a 5k. Definite reminder that life feels so much better when I'm releasing some decent physical energy every single day! What a difference extra oxygen to the brain and the release of fabulous endorphins can make :)

Yesterday hub and I headed south to attend the nursing school graduation BBQ for one of my friends at Silver Creek Falls outside Silverton. We had intended to hike the 6 miles around the falls but as it was a pretty chilly afternoon, rain was heading in, and our bellies were full & lazy inducing we just sat and enjoyed the company of my fabulous friend and her friends & family. While she and I don't get to see each other all that often, J's one of the ones who has an incredibly infectious giggle, a warm family, earthy minded friends, and the capacity to always make our interactions feel like no time has passed at all. Definitely an enjoyable afternoon. We stopped off at Granny's for a quick hello--long enough to drop off new tennis balls for her walker, read her mail to her, and get her situated for the Mav's game....and then we headed home for hub to watch the last half of the game here while I half-napped and half-cheered. ;) The night ended with an hour long phone call with an old friend who I spent much time with the last time I lived in Portland and who has since relocated to Los Angeles. Good to catch up with him and pretty darn entertaining too!

Hub caved last night and finally was on board for us to travel down to hike & camp in the Redwoods.....only for me to discover that dogs are not allowed on National Park trails scratching that idea. I can understand that dogs have the capacity to interact negatively with wildlife but I also think that there are plenty of humans allowed on the trails who could probably do worse damage---and it's unfortunate that, in my assumption, many of the types of people who are more apt to backcountry hike & camp would be likely to be dog owners.......But anyway (aka end of rant), we're now intending to stay in Oregon and head toward some great state parks with hiking and camping instead---luckily Oregon State Parks are dog friendly and we'll be able to see some of hub's family and one of my friends as well!

The drizzle we had last night was great as I didn't have to worry about watering the garden or flower beds, and it's been a lazy day today of catching up on blogs and figuring out the week's plans.

Hope you enjoyed an awe-inspiring and fulfilling weekend! I'm sure I'll be back with plenty of pictures to post from our trip :)

Ho Hum The Week is (Almost) Done

This has been a week of lots of great joys, endings, and well, PMS and pity parties. ;) Poor hub has gotten to deal with my hot and cold emotions--oh the joys.

So some of the great things:

On Monday, we took the dogs on a 5.5 mile hike along a river trail and then I spent the afternoon at happy hour with two of my cousins:

ON TUESDAY, we drove down to Salem to pick up Mom & Dad's picnic table that Dad had driven up for us to house and use. We ended up going out for dinner with Granny & Dad and then stayed for hub to watch the basketball game with Granny. There's something incredibly pleasant about listening to 3 of my favorite people chattering in the room at the same time. The picnic table is the perfect size for our covered patio and will be absolutely wonderful for our next BBQ:

ON WEDNESDAY I gave my students their finals, corrected them, and inputted final grades. Spring term is over and its two weeks until summer term begins. Dreaming of camping plans and Oregon site seeing began.

ON THURSDAY we ran the dogs down to the dog park, completed another 2.5 miles to finish off the loop after they'd had time to play in the sun, and then came home to learn that the neighbor was having a tree cut down and wanted us to trim the apple tree in order to empty the yard debris trailer. So hub got to trimming and I got to dragging branches. Then we headed off to watch the softball game of one of my friend's 8 yo daughter. So cute to watch!

AND all week we've been eating out of this fabulously delicious watermelon: :)



This week we've hiked less even though the weather's been nice and my dreams of camping next week have been slow going in development. I've been having some pitiful moments of feeling like I need something to look forward to, especially since it's been harder than I'd imagined to reintegrate to the social circle I once had here--somehow it's so easy to forget that people move on and incorporate new interests and individuals. And it's really not fair to demand and expect for hub to be my sole entertainment, supporter, and listener at all times.  Add on to that the fact that three months back in Oregon seems to have turned on my overwhelming brain functioning, and I'm turning into a sniveling ninny. ;)

So in an attempt to get over myself today, I'm holing up this afternoon watching one of my never fail feel good movies (Catch & Release) and then I'm hoping to go for a three mile run. I figure a good night's sleep tonight and a BBQ and hiking tomorrow should hold me over til we can get out in nature together. Here's hoping!

Hope you all are enjoying a peaceful weekend!

Mow-Power

Last week when we were at the family beach house, I got a little bit antsy...

cause the dogs were getting lost in the patch of grass outside the back door ie in some sections it was up to my hip and I didn't want it to fall on my father to have to drive the three hours up to the beach house just to mow the grass. Dad's pretty much the primary caretaker of the place and while it's great that he's so willing and has been able to do so much of it, we're all pretty much capable these days. ;) (Sadly a year round resident down the road used to so kindly mow the neighborhood lawns when she did her own, but she suffered a heart attack earlier this year and passed....)

Since that day the grass was wet and rain showers were intermittent, I waited for a shower break and then went into the garage to see what the lawn cutting options were. I had a choice between an ol' electric mower (with the rain---no thank you!) or the ol' blade lawn mower (you should have seen the weed eater--it's like an ol' sickle). So I got to work using the ol' mower which happens to have a fairly dull blade at the moment---I'm pretty sure this is the original mower dad used as a kid to mow lawns! :)

Needless to say it took multiple short pushes, lots of arm muscle, and a decent amount of laughter to get one tiny section cut, but in the end it got done. The tallest pieces had just been flattened over by the mower, so I actually cut them with a pair of scissors.

Looks pretty decent, eh? ;) But the whole thing got me to thinking about how much we take simple things in life for granted....and how sometimes our health suffers because of it. Mowing with the old mower was a lot of fun, but it definitely took a lot more physical and mental work on this particular day. I started thinking about back when Dad was a kid and how so much more of the normal tasks actually took human power and muscle...and how much lower US obesity and mental disorder rates were. I started thinking about how good it felt to accomplish something basic via my own skills and wondered whether the increase in mental illness and disorder potentially has anything to do with how much of life has been broken down and sold into "ease." I could be reading too much into all this and while I don't agree with everything from the 40s-50s, a more self-sufficient life definitely seemed to have its perks for our population....and has the added bonus of being a more sustainable option for our futures.

And one final picture to leave you with....my lil' helper who laid in the truck bed the entire time just patiently letting me go about my business....although I think really she was hoping we would be going somewhere soon. ;)

We're about to spend an entire day out in the yard, getting it ready and finalized for a BBQ we're having with friends tomorrow. The sun is out today and I'm actually looking forward to pulling weeds, mowing the lawn, and a host of other outdoor activities.

Hope you all have a beautiful, sunny, outdoor, and physically based Friday wherever you are too!

Disturbed.

Tonight I'm thinking about one of the topics that I hate reflecting upon. By now I should know not to watch certain things....or read certain things...or listen to certain conversations, but every once in a while I let something slip through without remembering how easily I can be triggered.

Right now hub is watching Dexter---an already disturbing show but one that I can usually half-watch without minding it too much. Earlier this evening however, I walked out of the living room and will continue to be apprehensive at least until he tells me that a certain character on this make-believe show is dead.

Everyone has topics, realities, or fears that leave them unsettled, pacing the halls, or awake at night, and one of mine happens to be related to child abuse. Manipulation, mental, physical, emotional, or sexual---doesn't matter what type of abuse it happens to be, it's one that so easily makes me uncomfortable and disturbed.

Six or seven years ago I worked at Child Welfare. Even though I was on the happy end on the spectrum (permanency and adoption), I still read and reviewed the case histories of the kids on my caseload and on the caseloads of my coworkers. If you want something to keep you up at night--just read the intimate details of what some parents do to their children behind doors. The two months that I carried a heart-wrenching incest case disturbed my sleep and dreams for another six months. I could tell you stories about incest, biting newborns as punishment, adolescents who were chained to their beds, and kids that were starved and crawling in feces---I could go on, but I won't. And folks, in case you didn't know, these parents really can be the ones sitting right next to you in the grocery line, church aisle, or next office cubicle over. In fact, they are just as likely to be those individuals as the ones we may want to stereotypically envision.  Add onto my 10 month stint at Child Welfare, another summer spent as a substitute teacher in a behavioral day treatment setting for kids and I'm sure you can understand why these issues pull so truly on my heart strings and why I'm hyper-vigilant when it comes to parent-child(ren) interactions.

While everyone else sang praise to the movie Slumdog Millionaire, I was left disturbed by the atrocities suffered by those children in poverty. Same thing happened when we watched The Kite Runner, except the part that kept me up that night was the rape of the boy(s). Last week I read a news headline announcing the finding of a 14 year old boy who had been starved by his parents so much that he was under 70 pounds. Tonight, I caught five minutes of a psycho husband who broke his son's finger as punishment and locked his daughter in her room (plus the fact that she was sexualized which can frequently be an indicator of sex abuse....), and yet he was a pillar of his church and a well-regarded community member. While some of these stories and plots may be written for entertainment and be based on non-truths, these same types of stories do occur in real life...many times over for many hundreds of thousands of children across the globe each and every day.

...and if that isn't something to keep you up at night, I don't know what is. I'm sure in a few hours I will be happily sleeping and tomorrow will be a new day of new thoughts and realities, but unfortunately for many who sleep in this world it is not restful and tomorrow may be just as bleak as was today. So to each and every one of them, I pray for the end of suffering, the relief from pain, the ability to forgive or forget, and for the arrival of so many moments of absolute and pure joy.....