Late Summer Weekendage - 8/14ish/2010

Mel and I decided to emerge from the air conditioned bat cave that we call home this past weekend... It was another hot one, (hopefully the last of the year) so we snuck out to Opal Creek to try to beat the heat. Apparently everyone else in Western Oregon had the same idea, but a slightly different application... We choose to explore a section of the creek that isn't commonly visited in the summer, despite it's absurd beauty. Okay, I'm just going to say it: Opal has to have the clearest water of any creek I've ever seen... It was so clear in fact that it was almost impossible to predict it's depth in places! As we swam along, occasionally I'd reach for the rocks that appeard to be right under the surface, only to find that I couldn't touch bottom even when dunking under and reaching with my toes... Other times, we'd think it was deeper only to find ourselves running aground as we swam along. Awesome, and the best part is that we've got a lot more canyon to explore, but for another time.


Usually the darker color implies deeper. I doubt I could touch bottom here even jumping in...


One of the few spots I dug the camera out... Pain to get it out of the drybag.


More of the creek, pretty low flows right now.


Mother nature kicking some serious ass...


Can you tell how clear the water is?


Mel diggin' on the canyon scenery


Yep, pretty awesome.


More awesome...


Hundereds of people were there to hike and picnic, but we had this part of the creek to ourselves


Totally special... We'll be back for more before the year is out...


Okay, <---that was Saturday, on sunday, I joined party of yayhoos heading up Broken Top as part of some insane Dudley "hyper"-weekend that Catherine had put together to entertain our friend Christine. It was HOTT out, but worth it cause the bugs were down and the views were sweet.

The ship of fools


Broken Top from below the crater... This was my first trip back there since I climbed it years ago with Chris. The first trip was much more "harrowing" and I will confess that the route we choose that time was one of the scariest I have done. This time thankfully we were taking the straightforward route up the Northwest Ridge. :)


Christine finds some snow and promptly attempts a snow angel.


The views rapidly became stunning as we gained the ridge crest


Here's Aaron with some "majesty"


Loose scree scrambling (screeambling?) as we approached the summit


Catherine starting up the one tricky part of the climb


The gals doin' their little turn on the catwalk.


Amy right after the catwalk section (or at least, the first catwalk section)


The team stringing out on the exposed summit catwalk


Again... (Zoom in on this one to get a better feel for it)


Catherine pulling up to the summit (another one worth zooming in on... don't fall here!)


Christine joins the party


Hanging out on the summit while Catherine starts the downclimb


Faith, Hope, and Charity... Aka the Three Sisters


Looking into the crater. This shows the route we took years before.


Reversing the route


Aaron on the diggin the views and making sure we didn't leave anything behind!


Heading down the ridge with most of the difficulties behind


Some clouds rolled in which changed the light some. Couldn't resist another shot


Springs we came across on the way down. Yum!


Pretty much ugly, huh? Actually, it almost looks fake it's so cool.


Another spring, this time w/ Bachlor in the background


Parting shot, Indian Paintbrush, Heather, and Bachlor.

This shows how to both fail and succeed in using a line launcher to set up a highline. First one is kinda funny to watch... I think if the bucket wasn't tied down it would have ended up in the river too! :)

Ecola SP and Fort Stevens - 8/7/10

Here are some shots of a great trip we had to the North Oregon coast this past weekend. It was rainy most of the day, which was a nice change from what we've been getting used to back in the valley. Would have been a good day for the nice camera, but alas, these are just from my little point and shoot. Looking back, these pics really make me look forward to the rainy season!


Looking North towards Indian Beach in Ecola SP


Nice rocky stretch of coast here. North, it mellows out a lot until the Olympic beaches.


Beach rocks on Indian


Mel at Indian Beach


Looking south towards Tillamock Head from Sunset Beach


Wreck of the Peter Iredale


Stoneworks at Russel Battery. We don't have many ruins like this in OR!


Wish I had wondercamera for this staircase, oh well, maybe next time.


Why can't we just give peace a chance...?


...cause cannons are frickan cool! (5" naval gun at battery 245)


More passages and stonework at Ft. Stevens


...and some more. Really neat colors at this place. An interesting history note, Ft. Stevens was shelled by a Japaneese Submarine in 1942. Apparently the only thing that got hit was the baseball field's backstop.

Mt. Washington - 8/1/10

Had a great trip yesterday w/ the little lady up on Mt. Washington (Oregon version that is...). I was interested to see how Mel would handle the climbing and exposure (we haven't been out too much lately) but I shouldn't have worried, she jumped right back into it! We made pretty good time on the approach and roped up for the summit pitches. The climbing on this route (N. Ridge) isn't particularly difficult, but the rock quality is generally poor, which means it's worth taking your time and finding the holds that don't move (or pull out). We enjoyed the beautiful summit for a few minutes, but the siren call of Big Lake was enough to make us not want to linger too much! Unfortunatly the mosquitos had laid a trap for us and we were pretty much swarmed most of the way down the trail. We still managed a quick swim on the way out, but pretty much had to run barefoot and soaking from the lake cause of the little bastards. It was still worth it though: another great trip for me and a new cascade summit for Mel! :)


Hiking up the ridge w/ Big Lake, Hayrick Butte (flat top), Hoodoo (ski hill), Three Finger Jack and Jefferson in the distance.


Waltzing past one of the ridge-crest towers.


Same tower, different perspective...


I don't think Mel was particularly impressed with the steep, loose, gravely crap on the approach!


Summit corndog (sidenote: if you only eat corndogs for a month your skin turns yellow and your hair falls out)


Found evidence of some of our friends... Couldn't find Aaron and I from last year though...


Mel enjoying the hazy view back towards the valley


Sister's were looking surprisingly clean for this time of year


Window on the ridge during the downclimb/butt-slide


Mel traversing some crappy/shattered rock on the way out


Parting shot: She sure is a beautiful mountain if you don't look too close at the rock! :)