Tag Archives: Rain

Dec22

A visit weekend full of adventures – Hiking Angel’s Rest

Posted on December 22, 2021 by perfectusvarrus

Wednesday, 10-Nov-2021 through Monday, 15-Nov-2021

My friends came to visit!

Two weekends in a row… I’m the most social of all the social butterflies, it seems!

And honestly, I’m so thankful for it. 2021 was, for mas as for everyone, a challenging year. It’d been a year of huge personal growth, and excellent introspection, but at my core I’m still a social creature. Self-reflection is only a part of the growth cycle… sharing those insights, and getting other people’s input, is just as important to someone’s growth.

So when Daniel and Erin asked if they could come to visit the weekend after Dillon and Liz’s wedding… well, I couldn’t say yes fast enough!

Friday, 12-Nov-2021

Daniel and Erin had landed on Wednesday, and then spent Thursday exploring the city while I took the chance to force me to bike into work… which is honestly something that I really want to do more often, but can’t quite get myself out for bed in time to consistently do.

Advantage of friends visiting, yet again 🙂

We ate, chatted, and had an excellent time both evenings… but the real fun came on Friday when I was out from the office for the weekend, and we could all cut loose and escape the city together. The Columbia Gorge was calling to us, and even though the weather was looking a bit ominous we steeled ourselves (and packed rain gear) and headed into the storm.

Angel’s Rest is one of those hikes that I’ve done a few times… but for some reason it’s never really stood out in my memory. It’s definitely a gorge hike – not too long, but with fairly significant elevation gain to be had. And at the top, usually excellent views of the river and opposing cliffsides!

Today… was rainy. A bit rainy. A lot bit rainy.

One could even say that it was actively raining, the same that it had been for a few days beforehand. Strange, I know, but Oregon does sometimes have rain in the fall.

Nevertheless, we persisted though – passing waterfalls and rockfaces, knowing that our efforts would probably come to naught more than some short views from inside the clouds. Daniel had checked flight information ahead of time (dang pilots, and all) and theoretically the cloud layer was above the summit of Angel’s Rest… but this was the Gorge, which tends to funnel clouds into lower altitudes.

As we hiked, the clouds stayed where they were, and we slowly walked into their depths as we hit the summit block.

Oregon can be kind sometimes though, and as we walked to the cliffs edge, the clouds cracked and we got a glorious few views of the ridgeline behind us!

The clouds closed in behind us as we hiked out, and the rain picked up as we got lower and lower toward the gorge floor. Perfect timing, if you ask me, since it just gave us that little extra oomph to finish the hike up a bit more quickly, and to make it out to Little Big burger before it closed… And then home in time to make some excellent Dark and Stormies with the rum from the previous weekend!

Mar19

A Scotland Adventure – Part 5, The Old Man of Storr on the Isle of Skye

Posted on March 19, 2020 by perfectusvarrus

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Hello, and welcome back to your annual story time of Ben and Sarah’s international adventures! Keeping with the tradition of the last few years, Sarah and I visited with her family, this year going back to Scotland.

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Saturday, 28-Dec-2019

On our first full day in Skye we went searching for The Old Man of Storr.

The old man is old – I don’t know how old rock pillars are, but they’re probably extremely old, right? Millions of years? Yeah, that seems right… and Wikipedia confirms it – something around 2.8 billion years old. Which kind of seems too old to me… but then again, I’m not a geologist, so I don’t really know.

The Old Man of Storr is old, let’s just roll with that.

The Old Man of Storr is also rainy, we learned.

As all piled out of the van at the parking lot, and immediately grabbed all the rain gear we could find before heading into the mist and rain.

As we climbed higher, the rain kept getting worse – to the point that Bill and Henry had to turn around to protect their camera equipment. Sarah, Leah, Greta and I powered onward and upward though, continuing on as the rain turned from “rain” to “Bleak”, and then went through “Dreak” and even into “Lashing” at one point. It was impressive… but thanks to the waterproof phone, I was able to get some pretty excellent pictures!

We sort of saw the Storr, but only barely. Still, absolutely worth the adventure, in my book.

After turning around and coming back to the warm van, we moseyed onward toward Kilt Rock for a quick peak at the waterfalls, before heading back into town to dry off and warm up!

Mar18

A Scotland Adventure – Part 4, Driving to Skye

Posted on March 18, 2020 by perfectusvarrus

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Thursday, 26-Dec-2019 and Friday, 27-Dec-2019

After Christmas day, we packed up the van (Yep, there was a van!) and headed into the great unknown!

Well, unknown for us. Bill and Greta had made this drive a few times already, so they were our tour guides for the adventure! We set off from Aberdeen (on the Eastern side of Scotland) aiming toward the far Western side… though not all the way West, just pretty far West. The lovely isle of Skye!

To get there, we passed through the Cairngorms, a beautiful mountain range in the center of Scotland. We’d done a bit of hiking there the last time we were in Scotland, so we really enjoyed this chance to tour through the mountains in their entirety – we made a few tourist stops to get some amazing views, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

The weather and conditions were actually quite mild compared to our expectations – There was some snow, but none near where we stopped off, and I don’t think we actually got any snow underfoot at any point. It was absolutely cold, don’t get me wrong, but it was somehow a more enjoyable cold than I was expecting… not quite the sharp biting cold that I’ve gotten accustomed to in the Pacific Northwest mountains. More of a seeping cold, that slowly creeps up on you through the various layers and jackets.

It was amazing.

Our final stop on the first day was the historic Loch Ness, where we stayed at the Ben Leva Inn. After a long day of driving through the mountains, it was absolutely perfect. We had amazing sunset views over the Loch, and the Inn had the exact warm and welcoming feeling that you’d hope for in a Scottish Inn at the end of a long travel day. The main room had excellent / hearty food, and the fireplace was warm and roaring. We ate, played some cards, chatted, and turned in for an early night.

The second day of driving took us past Loch Ness and on toward our final destination on Skye. It started early, but thankfully it also started with some very lovely bagged lunched by the Ben Leva staff – so absolutely a win in my book. Though… maybe not so much a win for the drivers, who had to navigate the dark Scottish roads hours before sunrise. But they handled the van adroitly, and we wound our way steadily toward the coast.

One quick side story here: The Loch Ness Monster.

We never saw Nessie, though I do now have a personal encounter story. You see, we stayed over at Loch Ness, and the morning that we left our hosts gave us some lovely bagged lunches. There was a sandwich, a fruit, and a soda for everyone. Cokes, Sprite, and even a few IRN-BRU Scottish drinks.

We stopped off to get groceries later on in the day, and when we came back one of the IRN-BRU cans was leaking everywhere. “Ohh no! I must have left it open on the seat!” I cried.

But no – the can wasn’t leaking from the top! It was leaking from a puncture mark on the side?

And wait a moment… there wasn’t any soda anywhere. No wet spots, no puddles, no sticky residue. It was as if the soda hadn’t ever even existed.

That was when I realized that the puncture hole bore a striking resemblance to a Plesiosaur tooth.

Now, any logical person will cite Occam’s Razor, and will tell you that the soda must have absorbed into the seats, or dried up, or something of the like. But I know the truth. In my heart of hearts, I know that Nessie likes IRN-BRU.

Anyways aside from Nessie, there was Skye.

Skye was beautiful. We saw it first from the shore, a bit after we stopped at Eilean Donan castle to see the most photographed castle in Scotland, but before we crossed the huge bridge connecting Skye to the mainland of Scotland. It was gorgeous, even with the omni-present rain.

Somehow, to me at least, the rain really makes the whole picture. Scotland in my mind isn’t sunny and warm… Scotland is harsh, and bleak, and has at least semi-constant mist. That makes the few rays of sunshine that much more poignant… and boy did Skye not disappoint that first day.

We started off with a quick stop at a beautiful seaside down, moseying inland past Sligachan bridge, and toward the Talisker Distillery. We even stopped in at a beautiful artists shop above the distillery, where Sarah got a chance to chat and talk shop with one of the owners.

We explored, photographed, got a bit rained on, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Later on the day, once the house we were staying at was ready for us, we headed into Portree to the nice warm house…