Sick.

Time for leaves and puddles. SE Division, 22 Oct 2022 Olympus Pen EES-2/Kodak Ultramax 400 After almost three years of pandemic I've managed to avoid COVID. I social distanced when advised, masked up, and got my vaccine plus a booster. I wondered if I could keep outrunning the virus indefinitely, especially since it seems like...

The itch for bike camping returns

Bike Camping at Ainsworh SP/Columbia Gorge, 25 Aug 2020. Ricoh 35 ZF/AristaEDU 200. We're having some nice weather for the beginning of March. That snow and ice storm? So two weeks ago. How can you think about winter when the outside temp is nearing 60F? Not only do we have nicer weather, but the days...

The benefits of “temperate” winters

Olympus Pen EES-2, Kodak Ultramax 400. Taken on December 13, 2020, which pretty much is "winter" here. I've said it here before: While Portland has a real winter (meaning: a distinct season) its "realness" is not on par with what I saw when I lived in Connecticut many a decade ago. Here, winter is more...

A hike through the West Hills to Pittock Mansion, 8 November 2020

Camera: Minolta SRT-101. Lens: MC Rokkor-X PG f/1.4 50mm Film: Kodak Ultramax 400 The West Hills is a small mountain range (Tualatin Mountains, in itself a far-flung spur of the Coast Range) that separates Portland from the Tualatin Valley to the west. Some of the hills rise above 1,000 feet in elevation. And there's lots...

A trip to the mountain: Mount Hood, Cooper Spur, and the Hood River Valley, 10-12 October 2020

White River Crossing, OR 35 on Mount Hood. 12 Oct 2020. Camera: Minolta Hi-Matic 7s. Film: Arista EDU 200. It's been a weird year for travel, obviously. Coronavirus and stay-in-place restrictions pretty much put the kibosh on travel from March (right after an eerie trip to Seattle, the then-epicenter of COVID in the US) through...

Discovering new-to-me parks in Deep SW: Albert Kelly Park

I've lived in Portland for almost 20 years. In these two decades I've gotten a good grasp on most of the 133 square miles of the Rose City, from the central core to the far-flung areas like St Johns and far East Portland. But after all this time, there's one area that I still don't...

The update: Fresh air again.

The last couple weeks here in Portland have been hard. No doubt you've heard about the wildfires that raged (and are still somewhat raging) in Oregon. Exploding over the Labor Day weekend, driven by high winds and dry air, the fires have burned up an area larger than the size of Rhode Island (for non-Americans,...

Growing the hair out

Self-Portrait, Kenilworth Park. 28 Aug 2020. Camera: Olympus XA2. Film: Ilford HP5+ 400. Since stay at home became a thing, I've seen a lot of #pandemicbeards on the social medias. Why bother shaving when you can't go anywhere? That's not for me. I don't like beards, so looking like a member of ZZ Top is...