Clackamas River Weekend

I finally got a chance last weekend to get out of Portland for some car camping near Barton on the Clackamas River. A friend that is a caretaker on 50 acres of undeveloped land on the river invited me to spend the weekend.

The property is along a road that was originally known as the Barlow Road route of the Oregon Trail, described on Wikipedia as “by far the most harrowing 100 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile” trail.

 

When I got to Barton, I set up camp and took a little walk around the property to check things out.

 

There are many tree-covered grottoes and gardens connected by trails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A short walk through the woods and under a bridge takes you to Barton Park on the Clackamas River. (Click on image to view full-size panorama.)

 

 

In the morning, I woke early to take a hike along the Clackamas River Trail, a 7-mile trail that travels along the river between Fish Creek Campground and Indian Henry Campground in the Mount Hood National Forest. The trailhead is about a 20-minute drive down Oregon 224 from my campsite. 

 

 

 

The trail starts out pretty flat but soon climbs high above the river for some pretty good views.

 

 

(Click on images to view full-size panoramas.)

 

 

There are some steep switchbacks and spots with tricky footing, but the trail is generally quite enjoyable, sometimes dropping down to river level and sometimes climbing two or three hundred feet above the rapids.

 

 

 

Later that day, after lunch, Lloyd set me up with one of his rafts and gave me a ride in his pickup to a boat launch upstream so I could paddle back to the Barton Park boat ramp.

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, an amazing weekend under the stars less than an hour from downtown Portland.

Words to Live By

Car Accessories

A picture from my brother in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Bimbo Bakery

I passed this truck delivering sweetbread to a Mexican tienda today.

An Elk from the Elks

Along the lovely Terwilliger Parkway (sat map / topo map) in SW Portland, a 3.5 mile walk along a bluff above the Willamette River, one passes the Casey Eye Institute, a charitable eyecare provider for children which has been sponsored by the Oregon chapter of the Elks Club since 1949. It’s right next door to the Portland Shriner’s Hospital for Children.

Out front there is this great bronze statue of an elk in brief repose. (Click for larger version.)

Tegan and Sara Video Archive

Tegan and Sara are twin sisters from Canada that write and perform some amazing songs. Here are some of them:

Hell (live, acoustic)

Walking With A Ghost (live, acoustic)

The Cure (live, acoustic)

You Wouldn’t Like Me & Walking With a Ghost (live, in-store promo)

Back in Your Head (live, acoustic)

I Won’t Be Left

The Producers

A series of coincidences led me today to search the Internets for one of my favorite bands of the 1980s: The Producers, of Atlanta, GA. (Wiki entry.) I spun their albums endlessly and still have a couple of them on the original vinyl from nigh on 30 years ago. I understand they occasionally still tour the South and I would check them out again in a minute if I have a chance. Here are some of their videos I was able to find on YouTube:

Certain Kinda Girl

She Sheila

What’s He Got

Breakaway (Live on MTV’s New Years Eve Rock and Rock Ball, 1982/1983

Lucy (Fan video)

More on Snowpocalypse 2009

Aftershocks from the chaos of Snowpocalypse 2009 continue to rumble through Portland as the media reviews the gridlock caused by Tuesday’s unexpected rush hour snowfall. My own ruminations on what would happen in this city, with these leaders, if there were a true disaster such as an earthquake leave me uneasy, as does the feeling that this is all a metaphor for the situation we are in in the world. The endless head cold from hell continues, but the delirium seems over and all colds have to end sometime don’t they? At least 2009 is over and I’ve got 3 days off to regain my energy.

Untitle-able

Yesterday, for the second time in a couple of weeks, I abandoned my wheels on the side of the road due to poor weather conditions in Portland. The first time I was driving home in the upper elevations of the SW Portland hills on a quiet, cold Saturday night. This time I was trying to make my way home from work quickly during a Tuesday rush hour, minutes after realizing that the un-forecast snow that had been falling relentlessly for an hour was really starting to stick.

Because I have been fighting a nasty cold/flu this week and have had no energy, I drove to work when I normally would have taken a fifteen-minute ride on the 58 TriMet bus to downtown. When I peered out of a 20th floor window about 4pm and saw Salmon Street starting to turn white, I figured I might have just enough time to get home before trouble started. I knew within a couple of minutes of pulling out of the parking garage that I was not going to make it home in my car.

The first hint was the gridlocked traffic I was immediately stuck in. (Two, three red lights went by with little movement.) The second hint was the spinning front tires every time my foot came near the gas pedal, even on nearly level ground. I knew I had to stop driving within a few blocks before getting on Highway 26 and trying to go up and over the steepest hill in the city, so I pulled over and parked in a 1-hour parking space and set out on foot, figuring the parking ticket and the trip home would still be easier than the nightmare ahead if I kept driving.

I waited an hour for the bus to come by Goose Hollow. It never came. The snow kept falling. And getting deeper. I was coughing, wheezing, sneezing and hating and not paying much attention until I noticed that a BMW I helped a guy push out of a spin had not gone fifteen feet in fifteen minutes.

I walked over to the MAX line, the only thing that seemed to be moving, and took the next train to Beaverton Transit Center without even thinking about buying a ticket. After I had walked over for dinner at a nearby sushi joint I know that was empty because of the storm and waited for another hour, my bus came along and got me most of the way home.

I stayed home from work today with a horrendous all-day coughing fit and hitched a ride downtown to get my car after the snow melted this afternoon. I was happy to find no parking ticket on the windshield. I drove straight home and climbed back in bed to ride out this head funk I’ve got.

I Have a Christmas Tree

I went for dinner with my friend J.Po and came home with my first Christmas tree since I don’t know when. All I had to do was pull it out of the box and plug it in and straighten the branches a little. It’s fake and two feet tall but it’s perfect. J’s mom sent one and somehow she ended up with two so she offered the extra one to me.