beacon rock

the day after we returned from camping at paulina lake, j left for a week-long business trip in new jersey. i usually have mondays free from teaching, so my mom & i went for a hike in the columbia gorge. we picked beacon rock as the day's hike. it's the core of an ancient volcano, with a mile long trail to the top, which offers beautiful views of the columbia gorge. it's a good site for rock climbing, one of j's favorite places to spend a day. certain sides of the rock are closed periodically throughout the year due to nesting raptors. after making our way to the top & down, we checked out the bonneville dam. my mom was really excited to see the fish ladders, especially the part of the exhibit where you go underground & see the large salmon swimming by the windows, fighting their way through the current.

july 4th

happy 4th of july!!! i'll be spending it with my family this evening. i'm going berry picking this morning...

metolius river

on our drive back to portland, we stopped off to check out the beginning of the metolius river. it's a river that begins from a spring coming straight from the mountain. you can barely see the water at the mouth of the spring, but as it grows, the river becomes quite visible.

paulina lake camping

here are the guys after the run, plus c. they made it around the lake in record time, especially considering that the path was rocky & uneven. they showed up just as we were finishing our hike.
after we got all packed up & extinguished the fire, we drove back to bend & stopped for lunch at the old st. francis pub, bend's mcmenamins establishment, before heading back to portland.

paulina lake camping

while the guys were on their run, c & i hiked to the top of the little crater. here's a picture from the top, just to prove we didn't sit on our duffs the whole time the guys were trying to outrun each other. (they really get quite competitive.)

paulina lake camping

the boys, before their 7 mile run around the lake.

paulina lake camping

campsite, beautiful campsite. it was freakin cold! i forgot that it got so cold up there, and failed to bring thermals, hand warmers, etc. i ended up wearing everything i had brought, which meant two layers of pants and 8 layers of shirts/jackets. it was still a fun time. hot dogs, marshmallows...woohoo! thanks to the boys, the campfire was kept going strong. good times.

paulina lake camping

j's havin fun with the camera again, giving a canadian p thumbs up. we're on our way back to the campsite from the hot springs.

paulina lake camping

here's a picture from the lake level of paulina peak.

paulina lake camping

here we are getting ready to soak our feet in the hot spring. as you can see, a tiny little area has been created, with logs for benches & everything. the little pool, fed by the hot spring, was around a couple feet deep.

paulina lake camping

here you can see paulina lake on the left, the big obsidian flow on the lower right, and east lake in the center. this is one of my favorite places to car camp.

paulina lake camping

a picture of paulina lake, from paulina peak. it's 7,985 feet in elevation. the newberry national volcanic monument is located within the deschutes national forest. it's a 17 square mile caldera at the summit of a 500 square mile volcano. newberry is both seismically & geothermically active. there are hot springs located along the shores of paulina lake.

paulina lake camping

while we waited for c & b to show up, j set up a slack line for a little balance practice. this is a popular thing among rock climbers, and actually other crazy people in general. the crazy people, when they get really good at walking on the line, they do it over canyons & stuff without any safety devices.

paulina lake camping

a self portrait... j was having fun with the camera. we drove down to bend two weekends ago, and spent friday night with jeff's brother b & his wife c. the next day, we picked up groceries & headed to paulina lake, located in the caldera of the newberry national volcanic monument, about 45 min from bend. we grabbed a campsite & waited for b & c.

CANADA DAY

HAPPY CANADA DAY EVERYONE!!!!!!!

lil' professor

i'm too tired right now to blog about last weekend, so that will have to wait until later.

for now, check out this link for something fun. my brother sent me this link this evening.

did you play with this when you were young? i'm curious!

triple falls hike

this was taken about right near where we turned around to go back. little kerouac was absolutely pooped by the time we got back, but really happy. i bet he'll sleep well tonight!

triple falls hike

pretty flowers on the hike.

triple falls hike

kerouac is normally afraid of water & avoids it. either he was just too hot & tired to care, or he's getting braver. in any case, he just laid down right in the water & cooled off. i've never seen a dog do that.

triple falls

here's a view of triple falls. it's kind of obvious how it got its name. very pretty. check it out up close. click on it.