I wanted to add this quickly. We have done a couple of camping trips this summer. We don't really do anything special when we camp. We just go up to the mountains and find a national forest service roads that are as remote and unused as possible and search them until we find one with a view. So far we have found a couple of great spots to camp.

At camp we laze around, cook, drink, laze around some more. Occasionally we even hike or bike.

Last weekend I took the bikes along. Akiko didn't join me on the rides, but she very graciously played shuttle driver for the weekend. We were supposed to do a ride together on the last day, but the dogs were so worn out, we just did a couple of easy water fall hikes instead. Yeah, that's right. The dogs were too tired to do much more than lazy hiking to beautiful PNW waterfalls.

Just arrived at Camp:

A few minutes later, the dogs and I snuck out for our first shuttle run of the weekend. Great way to start off. 10 miles of downhill single track.

View the next morning without sun:

View once the sun started coming up:

Looking back up at Camp:

Later that day the dogs and I did the Alpine Trail from top to bottom. Great single track ride. 14 miles of mostly downhill through old growth. I will try to add a picture of that later. Below is a shot of a meadow that we crossed about halfway down. It is not exciting or spectacular, but it was cool to just bomb through!.

Handlebar point of view later on down the trail:

The next morning we took things even slower, but eventually I got some of this brewed up to get us moving.

Then we went waterfalling. The first stop was Pinnard Falls. Kaibu seems to have a little Lab in her afterall.

Overview of the falls:

There were also cool old trees to play on:

Then it was on to Spirit Falls:

Franny was pretty wiped out. She usually does not sit still this long.

The moss was so green and lush.

Then we headed home with a side stop for an OK BBQ sandwich in Cottage Grove.

Cornice Crashing

We went to play in the snow this weekend. Like a dumbass I forgot the camera yesterday so there are only pics from today. No biggie, as the views yesterday were pretty blah.

Here is the view from our highest spot of the day.

Very close to here Ms. Fran (our 3 year old mutt) got too far out on a cornice and it went crashing down with her on top of it. Akiko and I were standing about 3 feet away and felt a rumble and then "boom." It took us a second to realize Fran was gone. It was only about a 10 foot fall, but the cornice that came off was huge. 20 feet wide by 6 feet long by about 4 deep at the deepest point. We were just happy she stayed on top of the chunks!


After she got her bearings and a couple of minutes of slow moving nervousness, she was as good as new. That musta scared the shit out of the poor thing. I am laughing now, but was a little freaked myself when it happened.

This is a different cornice of about the same size that Fran rode down.

Akiko decided that it would be a fun ride if one could collapse a cornice on purpose and ride it down. So at the next small cornice we came to, she tried it out. She started to tiptoe out to the edge and I told her to hang on a second.

The next thing either of us knew she was flopping around on the ground at the bottom of the cornice. It happened so fast I did not even get a picture of her. She is not so interested in riding cornices any more though...

Another pic of Akiko and the girls in the snow ghosts.

And a shot of some snow ball tracks.

Fun day in the snow.

Hmmm...Niagara Falls Oregon?

I was planning on staying home today and washing the mud from yesterdays trip off the Trooper, but Akiko wanted to get out of the house and do something. Since we didn't finish breakfast until a little after noon, whatever we did had to be close. Akiko chose Niagara Falls Oregon. If you have never been there, it is just above Willamina. A 30 minute drive on forest service roads and then a 1 mile hike from the trail head brings you to two pretty big falls. This trip length was perfect, because we could get there, do it and get home before dark even with a late start. My recovering knee didn't mind the short distance either. It would prolly also be a good walk for kids...short distance and fun falls at the end.

We got to the parking lot and I got nervous, because of "all" of the cars.



In spite of the impression you get from wife's attire, it was pretty warm in the woods.



Kaibu had some fun playing on a big ol' log.



First view of the right fall. Niagara Falls is kind of a funny name. I wonder what inspired the "namer" to go with Niagara? Ignorance or Irony? The falls are obviously much smaller than the real deal, but they aren't packed to the edges with tourists and souvenir stands. (No the colors aren't really that red. It is one of the filters built into the camera that I prolly over use...)



Here is the right fall a little closer up.



Kaibu, Franny and I under the right fall.



Kaibu couldn't quite figure out how to get back down. It was very slippery and she wanted to jump off the highest part of that rock into a bunch of big rocks. After a bunch of pointing and hollering from me, she finally took the easy, but colder way down...a little dunk was involved.



Akiko under the right fall, once for perspective:



and once for entertainment:



Here is a shot of me under the left fall for perspective. (I keep saying right and left fall, because there are two water falls. Yup, you guessed it. One on the right and one on the left...)



I liked this shot of me under the fall too. The water looks pretty cool, I thought.



Ms Akiko posing happily on the rocks below the left fall.



A fun, fast, little trip.