Monthly Archives: October 2017

Oct9

An adventure to the Ocean – Taking Daniel to the Pacific

Posted on by
Standard
An adventure to the Ocean – Taking Daniel to the Pacific

Wednesday, 06-Sept-2017

 

As mentioned in the previous post, Daniel came out to visit for a week!  We’d made plans to do some awesome basalt climbing near the house, and then do some hiking up on Mt. Hood.  Unfortunately… there were fires.  Massive wildfires, that dropped Portland air quality into the “unhealthy” category.  And worse, literally burnt huge swaths of the Columbia River Gorge.

So climbing in the gorge was out.  Mt. Hood was in the smoke zone too, so that was out.

 

What wasn’t in the smoke was west of us; the beach and the Tillamook State Forest.  We’d already tried hiking one of the mountains in the forest, which didn’t quite work, so the next logical step was the beach!

Unfortunately, the air quality by the water wasn’t super good either… it was clear enough that Daniel, Ollie and I could breath pretty well… but Sarah was still pretty well hampered by it.  To keep her asthma as down as possible, she ended up hanging out and doing some drawing and writing at a coffee shop in town while Daniel and I took Ollie for a run up and down Cannon Beach.

It wasn’t quite the same without Sarah… but Ollie still enjoyed herself, and Daniel and I got an amazing chance to catch up, which was really amazing and much needed; though I don’t know if either of us realized that at the time.

We just walked.  Ollie frolicked and chased seagulls, maintaining a 300 yard seagull-free zone around us as we explored up and down the beach.  It was excellent.  Daniel got to take photos, I got to relax, Sarah got some alone time, and Ollie was able to get the zoomies out.

Or at east get some of them out… right?  Right?

She’ll be tired tomorrow, right?

(Ed Note: Ollie was not, in fact, tired the next day)

Oct8

Hiking Elk Mountain… or attempting to, at least

Posted on by
Standard
Hiking Elk Mountain… or attempting to, at least

Tuesday, 05-Sept-2017

 

Daniel came to visit!

We’d come up with a whole adventure plan for his time here in Portland – we’d warm up on Gorge climbing at Rooster, then climb the Beacon, then hike, then explore the city.  Great plans, right?  WRONG.  FIRE.

As in, there were fires.  Some kids, hiking at the Eagle Creek trail, decided that what that area needed were some explosions.  So they threw fireworks into the brush.  Which, funny story, caught fire.  Which then, totally unexpectedly, caused a monsterous conflagration burning over 48,000 acres.  Yup.  Because some [swear words here] people wanted to play with fireworks.

 

ANYWAYS.  I’M NOT BITTER AT ALL.

 

Since we couldn’t go climbing thanks to the fire, we spent the morning doing some research at a rather excellent breakfast spot that Sarah and I like taking Ollie to.  Advantages of Portland: there are a ton of dog-friendly spots nearby.  After perusing six or so guidebooks, we settled in on a solid hike – trekking up Elk Mountain, out toward the coast.  It wasn’t too long, wasn’t too high elevation, and more importantly it was out of the smoke from the fires.

So we thought, at least.

A few hours later, Daniel and I are sitting at our high point, staring off into the hazy distance, wondering how we’d gotten so winded by such a short hike.  Ollie wasn’t fairing much better… the poor puppy had burnt through her own water, and I’d started giving her mine.

We weren’t at the top yet, and actually still had something along the lines of 800ft still to go, but the time had come and we made the call to head back to the car.  Still a beautiful hike, no doubt, but it probably would have been a bit more beautiful with… you know… breathable air.