Monday, 15-Jan-2024
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted up a simple sunset picture from my work.
That one tree – my dear readers probably know exactly which tree I’m talking about – is always so perfectly framed by a good sunset. Now that snow’s come to Wilsonville, it adds just a little bit of extra beauty to the view.
So please – enjoy. Enjoy the quiet of a snowy evening, when everyone’s stayed home. The cold air, the foggy breath, and the clear sky as the sun dips down.
Friday, 10-Nov-2023
As it should, our story begins with breakfast. Pine State Biscuits, fried chicken, and coffee.
We proceed to the trailhead, where once again it’s a Mustang… and a couple of huge, lifted, offroad doom-machines. I mean, sure. If you need a doom machine to drive in the snow… us New Englanders just drive. Not to brag or judge, of course…
Then, I dove into the woods.
It’d been a while since I’d gotten out into the snow, and this was just what I needed. Cold air, cutting crisply into my lungs, with that unique type of deep silence that only snowfields bring. 
While there were the two other vehicles at the parking lot, the trail held tradition and I didn’t see either group while I was hiking. I had the mountain all to myself, it seemed, and I took full advantage of that to soak in the quiet, take two quick drone-flights, and simply let my mind wander as long and as far afield as it felt the need.
I hiked back in the dark – night fell quickly, so close to the Solstice, but I didn’t mind. I had my headlamp, my warm clothes, and the emergency gear to see me home (or to stay safely on the mountain) if needed. I lived in my warm little puddle of light, illuminating from my headlamp, and forged my way back to the car.
Saturday and Sunday, 20-May-2023 and 21-May-2023
Ohh man… it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to hang out with Dave! I think the last time was when I was still living in Hood River… and all I really remember was that we had a fire on the porch, wrapped Dave up in a sheepskin rug, and had him pose with a dwarven sword and a battle axe.
Those’re the kind of things we remember.
Anyways, Dave and his wife Lakay came to visit in May!
Saturday, 20-May-2023
Technically this story begins on Friday night… but the summary for Friday was “Dave and Lakay got into the airport, we drove home, hung out for a bit, and then fell asleep.” Simple and easy.
The real adventure begins on Saturday morning.
Our goal for this visit was to… well, visit! But every good visit needs a framework, and we settled in on doing something I haven’t really done before – visiting spots from a movie! Lakay is pretty into Twilight, and since it was filmed in Oregon and Washington we had an awesome opportunity to check out a few spots from the movies. The main town of Forks, up in Washington, was a bit out of reach for a weekend trip… but thankfully a few spots were nice and nearby.
Our plan for the day was simple and elegant: Relaxed morning, movie location lunch, then do a clockwise tour around Mt. Hood!
Breakfast was a nice meal at home, followed by some catching up and prepping for the days adventures ahead.
Then, our first stop on the tour – The Carver Cafe! Apparently it was a whole scene in the movie, and the super neat part was that we got seated exactly where the main actors sat in that scene!
From there, the legendary Multnomah Falls! Kinda interestingly, I ran into a coworker there who owns property in Oklahoma near Dave and Lakay… kinda weird, but definitely cool!
Then, a quick stop for views of Hood, a drone flight or two, and a it of poking around the White River sno-park.
Finally, our ultimate destination of the tour – The Timberline Lodge! We got to play on the snow a bit, had an amazing dinner, and then got the best present of all from Mother Nature… a full lightening storm, shattering the sky off to the East of the lodge!
I can’t overstate how cool the storm was – Lightening is much more rare in Oregon than it is in a lot of other spots I’ve lived, so in and of itself it was a treat… but the storm was limited to one specific cloud formation off on the horizon, which meant we could easily just gaze over at it and appreciate the cloud-to-cloud bolts, and knew when to expect the air-to-ground strikes.
We seriously just parked by an overlook, and sat on the hood watching the storm. I don’t know how long we stayed out, but it was at least an hour or so until the sky got dark and the storm finally receded into the distance.
<I didn’t get any pictures of this… forgive me, but my photography-fu isn’t quite strong enough to capture lightening yet>
A seriously good end to an excellent round-the-mountain adventure.