Back-to-School

After nearly a year of free-loading, I mean, (hehe) freelancing, Mr. Springfish has finally re-joined the world of the full-time employed. Home ownership makes a man do CRAZY things, like give up the ability to work in his penguin boxers, or pick up and go skiing when there's fresh powder falling at Meadows. Tom signed on for a tough job—creative director—with the little agency I work for in Hood River, Summit Projects. Welcome back, sir.

Remember when your mom would do this to you on the first day of school?

Off-Roadin'

Since Tom brought his truck out to Oregon, we've been doing a lot more off-road exploration. We have shuttled the biking trails at Post Canyon a few times this season, so in regular Tom-fashion, he took it upon himself to see how far he could go. Little Tommy came home super-excited one day after finding the top of Post Canyon, at a hilltop clearing called Binn's Hill. This hilltop offers great view of the Hood River Valley, the local volcanoes and even a sliver of the Columbia.

The wind was really moving the layers of clouds. A big cloud would slide out of the way to reveal the view and a moment later a group of poofy little clouds would come sliding in, covering it up again. Especially spectacular from Binn's Hill are Mount Hood and Mount Adams.

Majestic Mount Hood to our south.

Mount Adams is always smilin' to our north.

From this angle on a cloudless day, you can also see Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier off in the distance in WA. Good find, young man. This is a great place to enjoy a sunset and a few cold ones.

Lewis River Trail

Bikes, Boots and Beers
The last weekend before our parade of summer visitors started filtering in was an extremely enjoyable one. We packed up our bikes, boots and beers and drove north into Washington to the Lewis River Trail in Gifford Pinchot National Forest. I was jonesing for a few days of biking, hiking, camping and relaxing. This little weekender prooved to scratch the itch in just the right spot.

Shadow, my sweet ride, is smilin' big. :)

Live and Learn
We drove about three hours to get to the trailhead at Curly Falls only to learn from a guy at the general store that he "drove up from Hood River in about an hour". Ahhh. Back roads. Good to know.


Everything in it's Right Place
The Lewis River is BEAUTIFUL. It's one of those places that allows you some real solitude, which to me, feels like a real vacation. Tom drove to the local store to grab some firewood while I set up camp and mosied around and admired the gushing river.

We camped right near the trailhead at Curly Creek.

After setting up camp, we hopped on the bikes and hit the trail. It was still early in the season, so we spent a lot of time carrying the bikes over debris—the flooding from this past winter did a lot of damage to the trail and shelters when it dumped giant trees everywhere like splintered toothpicks. Because of all the obstacles, we did a lot less riding and a lot more hike-a-bike. We were spent around four miles in and only ended up riding 8 of the 22 miles of trail. On the trail we passed some really awesome campsites located right on the river's edge. Hopefully we'll get back up here this summer or fall.

Back at camp, we had some Pasta Primavera and Mac & Cheese for dinner. The Mountain House packaging has Mount Hood pictured on the front!


Our dinner paired deliciously with a familiar beverage—Yuengling Lager. We can't get Yuengling out here in Oregon, so Tom brought a few cases back when he drove his truck out to our new state. Thank you, sir. Fire! FIRE!

Who, me?

Bring on the bears!

Nothing satisfies me more than a weekend in the woods.
I heart the campfire and lap bears.

Tom says hello to a clouded St. Helens.

Smokin'
The headwaters of the Lewis arise on the southern flanks of Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams. The Coldwater Ridge Visitor's Center, located in the northern part of Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument, is slated to close this November because it needs a million dollars in repairs and the park service is poor. A girl I met at Full Sail Brewery one day told me about this visitor's center and how cool it is. Since were in the general vicinity, we decided to take a ride up on Sunday morning.

The ride up to this area of the park was long (2.5 hours) and the experience, anti-climactic. We went from morning sun to clouds and rain, the visitor center is run down, the staff is less than knowledgable and the MSH movie they show is piss poor. I was certainly not impressed.


Grape Ape Cave
The highlight of the day was the 3-mile hike at Ape Cave. Ape Cave is a lava tube that was formed 2,000 years ago when Mount St. Helens erupted. The lava flow came down from high on the slopes. Over several weeks, this lava flow began to cool and crust over on the surface, while the lava beneath the surface continued to flow. At the end of the eruption, the lava flowed out of the tube. It left behind Ape Cave as we see it today. Ape Cave is 12,810 feet long—that's almost 2.5 mles long! It is the longest intact lava tube in the U.S. and the second longest in the world.

We suited up with warm clothes and headlamps and climbed down the metal staircase into the cave to enjoy an Indiana Jones-esque adventure. Inside the cave it is a cool, constant 42 degrees and damp. We enjoyed scrambling over boulders in the dark. We turned off our lights to experience true darkness. Neat!

Tom and Spoka check out one of the two natural skylights in Ape Cave.

After emerging back into daylight, we walked the loop trail back to the parking area from the upper cave. This short trail is enjoyable, with moss-covered boulder fields, evergreens and openings in the ground that hint of more caves—there are about 60 lave tube caves in the Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams vicinity.

We took the smart way home and cut our drive back to Hood River from 3 hours to 1 hour. Can't beat a few extra hours at home to clean up and rest up before getting back into the work-week swing. I heart living on vacation. :) :) :)

Deschutes River Trail

A few weeks ago Tom had a group of buddies come to town—the good 'ol philly crew—Pete, Clarkie, Drew, Serb, Davi-T and Henry. WoooOOOoooowwwww! It was great to see some familiar faces on the left coast!

One day while the rest of the boys were off white water rafting the White Salmon River in WA, Carley and I got to play with Drew for the day, since he isn't big on water sports. Rather not hang out in a river all day, eh? How 'bout next to one?

So, after we slept in on a Saturday morning, I decided to pack up our crew and drive about 50 miles east of Hood River to explore a bit of the Oregon desert. The Deschutes River State Recreation Area is located at the confluence of the Deschutes and Columbia rivers on the east end of the Columbia River Gorge. The trail meanders upstream along the Deschutes for about three miles before gaining some elevation and returning on a trail that parallels back along a terrace above the river.


We parked in the nearly empty lot and trudged across the long field of grass that leads to the trail. The first critters we came upon were these two humping dung beetles. The bottom one was struggling to walk while the humper was going to town and enjoying the ride.


By June, the heat builds in this area of Oregon, turning the vegetation a golden brown. Lucky for us, our advenure took place at the tail end of spring, which paints the walls of the canyon green for a few months each year, before the heat bakes the green out.


We took a few mintues to enjoy the river after walking along the trail for about 1.5 miles. We needed a break from all the excitement. Said excitement of that section of the trail included Drew inhaling a bug and chocking on it heartily, at least 15 rattlesnake sightings and about 6 giant lizard encounters—all while leading the troop through 5-foot-tall grass with ticks in it. But the wild flowers were beautiful!


We had a great time rollin' around on this day that felt exactly like summer. When we left Hood River it was pretty windy, chilly and overcast. We found the sun at the Deschutes and I felt SMART. ;)


Around a bend on the trail we came upon a bathtub. Drew cracked me up when he said, "yo, that's weird. if youda asked me what I expected to see when I came around that corner, the LAAASSSSTTTT thing I woulda guessed would be a damn bathtub." Row that thang!



Around the trail's halfway mark, you come to a natural arch. Carley sits on top while the river peeks through the bottom. As the wind blew the tall grasses on the hillside across the way, it brought the landscape to life.


Here's Drew soaking up some views and sun.


The gorgeous dry-land sagebrush stroll featured knarled bunches of Himalayan blackberry, sagebrush and bunchgrass. Wildflowers were popping everywhere.

Cutestuff One & Cutestuff Two. We're small.


I haven't been there, but this view is exactly my mental image of a lush part of Africa—Lion King-style.

After our hike, we decided to do something fun that I'd never done before—a wine tasting. This was a perfect treat after a 7-miler, since Drew is a wine conoisseur. Wine never tasted so good. On our way to the Maryhill Winery, we saw signs for the "Stonehenge of Washington". Why not?

Built by Sam Hill as a tribute to the soldiers of Klickitat County who lost their lives, Maryhill's Stonehenge is the first monument in our nation to honor the dead of World War I. The structure is a full-scale replica of England's famous neolithic Stonehenge. A Quaker pacifist, Hill was mistakenly informed that the original Stonehenge had been used as a sacrificial site, and thus constructed the replica to remind us that "humanity is still being sacrificed to the god of war.'' The location now also includes monuments to the soldiers of Klickitat County who died in World War II, Korea, and Viet Nam.


Geometric-shaped shadows make me take lots of photographs for some reason.


Carely, Drew and Slab-o-See-Ment.


We had a bit of a commotion as soon as we arrived at the winery, since we had some unwelcome guests crash our party—a handful of ticks. Yep. GODDAMMITIHATETICKS. At one point there was one hopping around on the floor of the tasting room. The other guests and staff were NOT amused. Strike one against the Oregon desert and Deschutes River. Damn ticks.

Although we all had a serious case of the creepy-crawlies—at one point I had to hit the ladies room to check my crotch just in case—we enjoyed a tasting of both the regular tasting room wines and the reserve list. We probably tasted 12 wines, some of them more than once. ;) I think we ended up leaving there with 7 or 8 bottles. Our last few sips were enjoyed on the patio that overlooks the orchards, the Columbia River and good 'ol Mount Hood.


How great is that? Our friend.


The last hubbub of the trip came from a long line of cows mooOOOOOOooing their way across the road and up the hill. They were doing some serious power-mooing. We stopped and rolled down our windows—what better way to end a great day spent outside in great company than with a nice little buzz, a nice little breeze and a sunset bovine serenade. O yeah.