We’ve got this. God speed and thank you for your service.

One of my favorite places in the Oregon Cascades may be lost due to the fires. I know, lost homes and displaced people take precedence, but I can’t help feeling a deep sadness over the loss of the Olallie Lakes area in the Mt Hood National Forest.

There was this cute old style forest service resort there that was built in 1932 and served as a stopping place for those stalwart folks hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. The resort, along with the old growth forests and the creatures who dwelt there will be truly missed…

I wanted to share this photo from last summers backpacking and camping trip at Olalie. My dad liked it enough to have it framed and it was on his dining room wall until he passed away this January.

Latest report says that we won’t see any improvement in the air quality until Thursday. Man, that’s depressing!

Had to drive in this morning to help fix a server problem at work. Could maybe see three blocks in the smog….

The view from our driveway. Not sure if this is more fog or smoke. Whatever it is, it’s twice as sense as yesterday. Can’t see more than 3 houses away.

It’s bad here. AQI is 310 making us the worst air quality in the world. Literally.

Here is what our neighborhood looked like at about 6am this morning. It’s like standing over the smoke from a campfire out there.

2020 is really not our year… Bleh!

These are my musing, thoughts, ideas, etc. around al manner of things. I don’t update as often as I would like to, but you may find something of interest here from time to time.

Today was a beautiful one, book-ended by a golden dawn over the Umatilla Valley and a sunset which made the Columbia into a ribbon of beaten bronze.

If you have been following my posts over the last week, you are probably asking, “Hey, shouldn’t you be backpacking to an alpine lake in the John Day wilderness today?”

And the answer to that question is yes. Yes I should be.

Children, let me tell you a story of high adventure… Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryus, there was an age undreamed-of. And unto this came Conan, destined to bear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a ….

Oops, sorry that’s the opening to “Conan the Barbarian” (1982)

So, ahem… let’s try that again. We (Dog and I) left at about 5:30am and drove for about 6 hours to reach our destination, the “Baldy Creek” trail-head in the Wallowa Mountains. We rucked up at about noon and headed up trail first crossing the north fork of the John Day River via a wooden footbridge. We went about a mile and a half before coming to the crossing for Baldy Creek. It is at this point that things got exciting! Read more »

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion;respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

~Chief Tecumseh