Lunchtime walk

I don’t take a lunchtime break because I prefer to work the 7:00am – 3:00am shift and get a good chunk of my afternoon to enjoy the sun or take care of weekday errands.  The traffic is much lighter, I spend less in gas because I’m not stuck in stop n’ go and I get a nice chunk of afternoon back.  However, I do still take one of my 15 minute break periods to fit in a lunchtime walk and clear my head a little.  Over the last few months I’ve been increasing the length of my walk as I get more familiar with it and of course get a little faster at the route.

This is my current route.  I’ve added three blocks since I first started doing it and I already feel a little fitter as a result.  I’ve still got a long way to go in terms of getting back in shape, but the daily walks have been helping a ton.  I’m hoping that I can enjoy the route for another couple of months before the really cold weather kicks in.  I’ll still take my walks, they just won’t quite be the same without the sun shining and the birds singing.  Speaking of which, I’m going to head out and take one right now.

Silver Falls with Brian and Ellen

On Saturday, Meaghan and I accompanied our friends Brian and Ellen on a hike around the Silver Falls state park.  The ten falls trail is one of my favorite hikes in Oregon and one that I have had fortune to walk on several occasions.  This was only my second time doing the full length trail, usually I would miss the final loop that passes by North Falls.  The weather, while initially threatening to rain, turned out to be superb.  Despite the fact that the sky was overcast for the majority of the day, we didn’t catch a single drop of rain.  Because of the early time of year the falls were very full, making the sights and sounds even more spectacular than usual.  I’ve seen Silver Falls in springtime, summer, and fall, and have to conclude that while the summer sun is beautiful the fullness of the falls in springtime makes it the best time for a visit.

We met with Brian and Ellen for breakfast downtown at a little cafe called Besaws at eight o’ clock.  Meaghan and I arrived a little early, only to find that they actually opened at eight and so we took a short stroll around the area, pleased to see that the early morning weather was at least holding firm.  Until recently I had spent very little time in north-west portland, and even now I do not know it very well.  It was nice to take the time to wander the streets and take in a few of the shops that I had heard mentioned in conversations.  Breakfast gave not only a nice opportunity to both wake up and catch up with our friends, but also to further assess the weather before emabarking on our adventure.  At around nine o’ clock we were on our way down I5.  We decided to carpool in my Mazda, not only to save on gas but also to give us the chance for conversation during the drive.

The drive down to Salem was relaxing and we were chatting comfortably when I suddenly noticed a large metal barrel sitting in the middle of the lane to our right.  No sooner had I thought “that’s dangerous” than the lid of that barrel came hurtling towards the windshield of my car, kicked up by a car in front of us.  Instinctively, I tried to swerve but it was too late and the metal lid hit the center of the windshield full force.  Fortunately it glanced off the glass, leaving only a few scratches and nobody was injured.  A quick check to make sure everyone was OK and we continued on our way.  Other than that, the roads were fairly clear for a Saturday in May, a sparsity continued in the South Falls parking lot of the state park.  Wonderful!  I hate crowded trails on hikes.  I’d much rather we have the whole park to ourselves.  After a short restroom break, we began our walk along the Canyon Trail.  The South Falls are encountered almost immediately upon this route and were as full as I could ever remember them.

I was able to get some great photographs of the South Falls themselves, but I was particularly happy with the shot of Meaghan, Brian, and Ellen together with the falls in the background.  Having already lost about two hundred feet of altitude from the South Falls parking lot, the trail continues for about a mile before descending down a stairway about another hundred feet to the Lower South Falls.  Whilst the trail has already led behind the first waterfall, it leads wonderfully close behind the Lower South Falls; my personal favorite of the entire hike.  A large pool of water had collected behind the waterfall and it took some fancy footwork and balancing on rocks to avoid getting wet.

We had not travelled too much further along the trail before we were approached by a park ranger.  He was running fairly quickly in the opposite direction, a walkie-talkie in one hand, and a motorcycle helmet in the other.  He asked us if we had seen any injured people along the trail behind us, to which we indicated we had not.  Bidding us good day, he continued his pace along the trail down which we had just come.  Before we reached the Lower North Falls, the next on our journey and about another mile and a half from their predecessor, we saw an ATV part way down an embankment off the main trail.  It looked as though it had been driven down the rather thin hiking trail and had veered off down the embankment as it was now sitting upside down resting against a tree.  After hurrying over to see that no-one was injured, we learned from another park ranger that it had belonged to the first ranger we had seen carrying a helmet.  Apparently he had crashed while using it to ride down the trail, presumably while looking for the missing person.  It was nice to know that the driver of the ATV was OK, but we certainly had not expected so much excitement.  We continued on to Double Falls where we met a family who had also seen the crashed ATV and were speculating upon the missing person and the events that had transpired that morning.

Middle North Falls presents the opportunity to cut the hike short by taking the Winter Creek Trail in the case that fatigue has overtaken abmition.  Our foursome decided to finish what we had started and headed down the trail towards the North Falls.  The cutoff only saves about 2.5 miles but relieves little of the necessity to regain the lost altitude and eliminates the very spectacular North Falls in the process.  We were well in out stride, it was only early afternoon, and we had plenty of water left; the decision was an easy one.  There are a couple of good opportunities to wade in Silver Creek along this part of the trail.  Brian, Ellen, and Meaghan all put a hand in the water to test how cold it might be and then discussed the relative merits of dipping a toe into such temperature.  The general concensus seemed to be that it would prove quite cold and was probably best left for another day!

By the time we reached the base of the North Falls, the end was in sight.  After a short but sudden climb up the stairs leading to the North Falls parking lot, we finished the lovely downhill stroll along a forest trail leading back to our starting point.  There is a wonderful opportunity to look back at the North Falls from a distance, between the trees, and from above the now silent cascade that seemed so tall when viewed from beneath.

With a final look back at the last part of the trail, we returned to the South Falls parking lot where we had begun our journey only a few hours earlier.  We stopped at the lodge for a couple of burgers (Meaghan and I) and a couple of chicken sandwiches (for Brian and Ellen) before beginning the return drive to Portland.  We had a fantastic time walking with our friends and enjoying one of the best state parks that Oregon has to offer.  I’m looking forward to the summer and the many other hikes that lie ahead.

More vacation pictures – Silver Falls

Here are some pictures from the vacation I had with my folks this summer during a visit to Silver Falls.

Timberline Lodge

Here are some pictures from last weekend, hiking a trail alongside one of the ski lifts at Timberline Lodge:

The wind coming across the snow kept the temperature low enough as to trick me into not applying sun lotion.  Needless to say, some lessons just keep getting learned!  Really fun day though and walking up that incline was great for the legs.

McMenamins, Silver Falls, and OMSI

I had an absolutely fantastic weekend.  The weather was spectacular and despite having prior plans to do some housework, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to spend some time outdoors and play tourist for a couple of days.

The weekend started on Friday night with a trip out to the local McMenamins.  We both got dressed up, which is really fun once in a while, and went out to grab some food and have a few drinks.  Later in the evening one of Tawny’s friends showed up, so we stayed for another drink.  It was really hot on Friday, a prelude of the scorching weather to come.  After a week at work and a couple of drinks, the hot weather was sapping energy pretty quickly.  Time to call it a night.

Silver Falls
Saturday morning was gorgeous.  The sun was bright and there was not a single cloud in the sky.  It wouldn’t be right to waste such a day inside packing up boxes and doing housework.  Instead, we decided to drive down to Salem and head to the Silver Falls State Park.  We made a quick stop in Wilsonville for a new pair of shorts, a new t-shirt, and some breakfast at Sharis, finally reaching the South Falls parking lot just after noon.  After liberal application of sun lotion and the appropriate selection of a cap to keep my head from burning, we set off on the 6.9 mile loop around Silver Creek.  The full trail treats you to no less than ten waterfalls, three of which you can walk behind.  This map shows the route we walked, starting in the lower-left at the South Falls Lodge, walking north past Lower South Falls, then East past Lower North Falls, Double Falls, Drake Falls, Middle North Falls, Twin Falls, the half-way point at the other parking lot with North Falls, the Upper North Falls, and then back West past Winter Falls to the starting point.

I was able to get a lot of really great photographs.  The first couple are at the outset, overlooking the top of South Falls, which is a popular start-point for the full loop.  The second is from a bridge at the base of the South Falls looking back up at the outset from below.

These pictures are of the Lower South Falls.  We were lucky enough to pass someone on the trail who agreed to take a picture of us together.  The pedestrian traffic significantly thins out around Lower South Falls as most visitors turn around at this point and head back to their cars.  The trail heads behind the waterfall pictured here, which was a really refreshing moment in the pounding ninety degree sun.

This pair of pictures are of Double Falls and stack vertically to give the full 31ft height of the larger of the pair of waterfalls.  You can just see the second falls in the top right of the top-picture.

A little further along, we found some raspberries growing along the trail.  The first picture (top-left) is of Tawny after she had just reached through the brambles to pick some of them.  Shortly after that, we took a break to get our feet wet in the river at a nice spot we found just after Twin Falls.  The water felt surprisingly chilly considering the heat of the day.  The third picture is of the Middle North Falls, which are located right before the short-cut path that can take two miles off the route for those feeling tired.  The final two pictures are of the North Falls up close (bottom-left), and then from another great viewpoint (bottom-right).

Raspberries

River dipping

Middle North Falls

North Falls

North Falls Viewpoint

It was a fantastic day and even though my legs are still a little sore, it felt really good to get outside and enjoy such a beautiful walk.  I love living in Oregon.  Not only do we have access to Portland, the high-tech industry that pays my bills, a low cost of living when compared to Washington and California, Oregon also has gorgeous outdoor areas that are less than an hour drive away.

Sunday
Sunday morning started with a great yoga workout with Eoin Finn.  We did the Daily Dose of Bliss routine (38 min) and it was a fantastic way to shake off some of the stiffness of the hike from Saturday.  It never ceases to amaze me just how much a yoga practice can make me feel more energetic and less tired, despite being quite an intense workout.

OMSI
Sunday afternoon, we visited OMSI on a spur-of-the-moment decision.  Even though we didn’t arrive until after noon, that left almost seven hours to enjoy the exhibitions and see some shows.  Our schedule went roughly as follows:
1:30pm – Science Playground.  Playing with telescopes and morse code in the Physics lab.  Zoetrope fabrication.
2:00pm – Planetarium show.  Time-lapse exploration of the pacific NW skies.
2:30pm – Life Science.  They have a travelling show on pregnancy where actual fetal specimens from the full 38-week growth cycle are on show.  Although heavy feeling to know that the fetuses were real, it was fascinating to see them at the various stages of development, especially considering that my sister is currently about 17 weeks along.  I found the specimen that most accurately represented a fetus at the same stage as my future niece or nephew and was surprised to find just how developed they already are.
4:00pm – iMax “Coral Reef”.  The coral reef movie was fascinating.  Two researchers set out to explore and document the coral reefs around Fiji, Australia, French Polynesia, and Hawaii to discover why so many of the world’s reefs are dying.  It was sad in places to learn just how quickly they might all be destroyed, and very educational on an issue I’ll confess to having a certain ignorance about.  The iMax experience is always cool and this was no exception.
4:45pm – Earth Science and the Oregon Shell show.  The Oregon Society of Conchologists had their show on display.  They had some incredibly cool specimens and it was fascinating to see some Mediterranean shells I’d never seen before.  We were able to duck into the robotics show briefly before our next scheduled show and both Tawny and I got the chance to be owned by a robot that will race you to solve a geometry puzzle.
5:30pm – USS Blueback.  I’ve been on the tour of the Blueback before and absolutely love it.  I’m fascinated by the myriad switches, lights, and arbitrary dials in the control rooms, but the tour guide for this visit was definetely sub par.  The last time I was shown around this sub, the guide was a twenty year navy vet who had served on a myriad of submarines around the world.  He threw in all kinds of interesting information, such as the torpedo room being the most popular place to sleep because the loading hatch for the torpedos was also the best and most reliable escape route in case of an emergency and because the temperature in the weapons room was far lower than anywhere else.  This time, we had a kid who really just hated his job and was less than jazzed about taking us on “yet another tour” at 5:30pm on a ninety degree Sunday afternoon.  It was still fun to look around, and all in all rounded off another superb day.

iMax Coral Reef

Floormap

Sunday evening, Tawny let me cook dinner for her.  We had almond coated dover sole with brown rice, accompanied by a potato salad with homemade mustard dressing.  Tawny picked out some cheeses and breads for a light dessert and we washed it down with a couple of cans of Boddingtons.  Dinner done right!  So ends a totally awesome weekend. :)