Idaho Trip, Day 1
At the end of July, I used my frequent flyer miles which have been accruing for years to fly out to Portland to go on a road trip with Amy. This is the first installment of photos from that trip. Our only goal that we started out with was to "see Idaho". It was truly one of the best weeks of my life, and both of us had a lot of difficulty returning to our respective city lives, but I'm still processing, so more on that later...
Sunday, July 23rd, we leave Amy and Tony's house in Portland. I was supposed to have finished my professional paper the week before, at the lake... I mean the Friday before, in the cities... I mean on Saturday during my layover in Billings... Saturday evening in Portland??? (Sound familiar? See comentary on DC Road Trip.) So we decided to just head out with paper unfinished. Amy had procured all the necessities for a week of camping, including a great tent off Craig's List (photos to follow), and a borrowed mountain bike for me.
Amy, Tony, and John's place in Portland
We took Oregon 26 east through the cascades toward Mount Hood
And soon spotted our first anarchist van
We stopped at Umbrella Falls at the foot of Mount Hood. It was incredibly beautiful, but our camera died for a while, so we only got two photos. The first is of Turkey's Beard, a plant that Amy had never seen in the wild before and was absolutely ecstatic about. It smelled really interesting, sorta skunky. This was the beginning of the week of mind-blowing smells:
In the pools of the falls, we discovered "the awesomest bird ever". We don't know what it was, and it didn't pose very well, but just believe us, we could have watched it for an hour. Actually, we did.
Coming out of the Cascades, the landscape seems to change within two miles and suddenly you're on these beautiful dry plains with smoke from forest fires blowing across them. Soon you're in the Warm Spring Reservation, which has one of the best community radio stations ever, KWSO 91.9.
We took a look at the atlas and decided to camp at Cove Palisades State Park on Lake Billy Chinook.
This was day one of the trip. More to follow when I get the time...