Blogs from Oregon, United States, North America - page 5

Day 12 was spent in Sisters, did laundry, recharged ipad, and ate non-dehyradted food! Found place to camp a mile outside of town.Day13 started out on HWY 242, stopped at Coldwater Spring CG, could not find trailhead. Kept walking until saw sign for Scott Pass TH. Took that road and basically hiked 8 miles uphill until I could no more. Am way out in wilderness, maybe more isolated geographically than ever. Hoping road leads me to instersect trail real soon.Day 14 this road I'd been on since noonish yesterday led me back to Sisters....so spent two days and about 20 miles of wasted effort attemptong to locate trailhead. has reminded me of the frustrations often found in travel. one of the many things about travelling i like is the necessity often found to figure oneself out ... read more

Day 8 this morning's reading's theme was 'abandon hope'. The belief behind such an idea is that only by giving up expectations, i.e., hope that we're, it, they're, will be better eventually can we not only become comfortable with the idea of groundlessness, but begin the begin of seeing and accepting where we're at at this moment.A mile into today's hike I heard a huge crashing, tumbling through the branches type of sound and saw a black blur cross the trail and scamper up the hill to my right. That's right, a black bear. About 40 yards in front of me. I thght, "cool, a bear", look how fearless I am!" a few moments later I realized that if said bear was stopped, growling and acting threateningly, I can be sure that "cool a bear!" would ... read more

I cannot believe I only have 13 days until I will be on a plane headed to Costa Rica for four months! As I am trying to prepare myself the best I can, things have been a little stressful and I am beginning to get nervous. Two years ago I would have never imagined myself embarking on this exciting journey, but I couldn't be more excited/happy/blessed to have this opportunity. Saludos!... read more

This is my first travel blog post, so it is more of a test than anything else. Maggie and I "travel", in a sense, once a week when we go for a Sunday drive. One of our favorite places to go is McMennamin's Grand Lodge in Forest Grove, Oregon. The Washington County Scenic Drive ambles its way around that part of the county and we have driven over parts of it at different times of the year. I will try to include one or two pictures of the Grand Lodge for this blog post.... read more

Day 6 August 11, Timberline, ORArrived at PCT at Government Camp late afternoon. Hiked until I had just enough light to set up camp. Mt Hood is remarkably lovely,and very different from Mt Rainier. Hardly any snow, so mtn looks naked in its geologic-ness.The trail is very sandy, like what you would want on the beach. Pretty lupine flowers lined the trail, a pair of deer bounded off 25 yards away. The sun setting cloaks the Mt Hood National Forest in soft, pastelly hues of sunset.Pleaides showers! The celestial madness at 6,400 feet is phenomenal. Six shooting stars before I lost count! Day 7Left camp before 8. Just crossed HWY 26, so 10 miles so far today. Am in Mt Hood National Forest. Must be equestrian day, have seen ten horses so far. Gorgeous weather.... read more

8th August ’12 Spokane to Portland So today it’s 350 miles to go, it was hot and for the first chunk of the journey we just drove and drove through flat, yellow prairie. When we reached the Columbia River the scenery still wasn’t much better and it was really windy. We pulled off at a service area in the middle of nowhere, which had eating places and petrol stations. As we were leaving I spotted a very unusual character on the corner of the junction holding a sign, at first I thought he must be hitching as he was staring at every car or truck really hard. As we got closer I could read the sign properly and despite what I first thought it said it wasn’t swearing but just said SMILE. So I gave him ... read more

I think there will always be a part of me in Washington. Literally. I fell and lost a fair amount of skin. My injury noted read: Wounds to: right arm, left elbow, both knees, left side of face, lower back. Swelling and bruising to left hip. All in all could have been a lot worse. We missed out about half a day cycling altogher. I didn't think I could leave it out of the blog. The whole situation was helped by the luck of hitching a ride into the next town (bike shop there to fix bent wheel) with a wound specialist nurse called Elizabeth who patched me up like a pro and gave us 2 bags of mixed nuts just for good measure. When you are camping on a tight budget, two bags of mixed ... read more

The day started out cool, breezy, and drizzly. Dave & Barb left around 5:45, while Rachel, Tracy, Brett, Randi, and friend left an hour later. I met them at the Kelso food stop, thinking Dave might quit. However, it wasn't raining at the moment, so on he went, with Lucas. Saw Kati & family, then Rachel, Tracy & Brett came in. On I went to Holladay Park to enjoy some time resting in the Lloyd Center Mall. Had a call from Kati, that Barb had crashed. She's ok, but her bicycle is not, so no more riding for her. Dave came in first, as usual! What a guy. Ran into Ron & Peaches, planning to meet them for dinner. Rachel, Tracy & Brett came in probably an hour later, so transferred their bags to them (I ... read more