Eagle Creek Hike

Heather and I went out today into the Columbia River Gorge, to Eagle Creek to be exact. This is breeding ground for the area's salmon, and it was neat to see them gather together and swim upstream to spawn.


The weather was so gorgeous, with fall tones around every corner. The changing leaves were very nice, both here in downtown and outside of the city. The yellow leaves were the most bold against the many evergreens found all over the place.

Mom and Dad visit Portland

Over last weekend, Mom and Dad came out to visit us in Portland and we had a great time. It was very nice to see them and spend time together, and I also took them around town and showed them some sights. All in all, I think we experienced quite a bit of Portland's main attractions, including: the Columbia Gorge, Vista House and Multnomah Falls, a snowy Mt. Hood, the Portland Farmer's Market, Saturday Market, lots of time on the Portland Streetcar, the Aerial Tram from the South Waterfront, the view from Pittock Mansion, and lots of time walking around downtown Portland. While I was hoping to show them a good time, I hope they still had a little bit of time to relax!

Ecola State Park, Crescent Beach, Sea Lion Rocks

After hiking at Saddle Mountain, we drove just a bit further west over to Ecola State Park and Cresent Beach. As soon as we arrived, the sun was out for only about 20 seconds - enough to snap the first two pictures below.

We had brought a picnic for lunch and were sitting down to build our sandwiches when the fog started to come in and completely engulfed the view we were just enjoying. It was so cold so suddenly that we ran over to a covered pavilion to finish our lunch. After that, we had to head straight back to the car to layer up before we could explore the beach and trails. While I do recommend going to the coast, it has to be fully understood that there are no guarantees of sunlight or views - you have to be lucky to see the sun at the coast. But, the beach was still fun to explore once we had our fleece jackets and hats.

Saddle Mountain

Heather and I decided to get out of town and go camping and hiking at Saddle Mountain, on the way to the coast. We left Sunday afternoon and headed west. We camped Sunday night and awoke early to hike Saddle Mountain. The trail and views were beautiful - it was a continuous uphill trail to the top of Saddle Mountain, and crews were doing great work to protect the trail and mountainside from erosion. The view from the top was great, as were the wind gusts. It was so windy that your eyes became blurry after awhile. It was a great hike. Pictures below.

The Swifts at Chapman School

So tonight Heather and I joined our friends Julia and Jason and headed to the Chapman School in NW Portland. Basically speaking, each night for maybe a couple of weeks, thousands of migratory birds (Swifts) join up, circle the old chimney, and swoop down the chimney to get a good night's rest, protected from their prey. It's quite a site, and the city is very proud. Hundreds of people show up just before sunset and bring wine and a picnic and watch the magic. They are even making a documentary movie about the event - Check out this quick trailer from the movie to see the footage of the birds (I didn't get too many good pictures):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vojNdQf53bQ&feature=related

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeFBBzXs7C0&feature=related

Silver Falls

Heather and I went for a hike at Silver Falls State Park south of Portland, near Salem. The hike had a total of 9 waterfalls - but after you see a few, quite honestly they all start looking the same. But it was a nice hike and we enjoyed getting out of the city for a day. It was a cold first day of fall! Some pictures of the best waterfalls are below:

Oregon Coast

Even before we heard of the forecasted record high temperatures for the Portland area on Friday, Heather and I decided to go to the coast and see the far western border of this new state we have moved to. We left the city and it was already baking hot, but as we drove due west an hour and a half, tems began to fall as we neared the town of Tillamook where we stopped for lunch. We had set our sights on hiking Cape Lookout, which was to provide amazing views along the rocky coastline and multiple viewpoints.

We pulled up to the trailhead in the midst of a rainforest. It was very cool (low 60's was my guess), rainy, and cloudy. There was over a 30 degree temperature change between the city and the coast, only an hour and a half drive away. So, layered up (on this record hot day for the areas back east that we left) and began the trail shivering in our jackets. We got to one of the first viewpoints, and realized we were just not going to get our way with the views today; this is what we saw from our great viewpoint of the coast below:

Anyway, we continued through the rain and clouds along the hike, but the viewpoint at the end was nothing greater than a big white/grey cloud blocking everything. So, we headed back to the car and decided to drive up the coast a little bit to see if the weather would break and make a loop before heading back to Portland.

We did find this nice viewpoint on the side of the road:

This was the beach scene at Canon Beach and Haystack Rock:

It was quite cold on the beach we found: Note heather has on jeans, a sweater, and now a blanket, in the middle of summer:

Providence Bridge Pedal

The entire city (it seemed) showed up for the annual Providence Bridge Pedal early Sunday morning, August 10. This ride has several different options in length, but we chose the toughest - with 11 bridge crossings. It totaled 37 miles, with plenty of pit stops along the way for bananas, water, bagels, fruit, and cookies. Shorter options included riders of all ages and plenty of families with kids, etc. There were some nice opportunities to ride on the floor of the interstate highway (the I-405) running around the city and some other areas that cyclists would not normally choose to ride.
The bridge crossings were fabulous, as most of them were closed to cars and allowed only bicycles to cross. Our team held together quite nice and had a great time throughout the ride, soaking in neat views from all the bridges that crossed the great Willamette River (we did cross a few bridges twice, not 11 separate bridges). It was a great experience, and a good time on the bikes, with a supposed 20,000 riders particpating in total. Ride times were staggered throughout the morning and many of those riders chose shorter options. But, regardless, there were a lot of people on bikes!

For more pictures from the bridge pedal, click here: http://www.box.net/shared/hn8dboimfq

Mt. Hood

So, I basically have not written much here in a while because I have had no time to write and/or not much to say. I have been working full time at a bike shop, so that takes much of my time. However, Heather and I did make time recently to head out to Mt. Hood. This place is spectacular.

Beautiful scenery abounds, and views of the peak are around every corner. It was an amazing place and a wonderful way to spend the day.

its all roses

one of the many free things we enjoy here in portland is the free international rose test garden. heather took this one. this is from our trip to the rose garden on Thursday, July 10.

Electric Car Parking Only

We took a walk around town today and noticed this charging station where you can drive in your electric car and hook it up so that it charges while you work. I have no further details at all, although I do have many questions. I quickly found an article online outlining the intentions of PGE (Portland General Electric) to install even more electric-vehicle charging stations. Pretty cool.