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Overnighter at the Coast

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March 1-2, 2026 Shake down cruise, er camp. Found us a teeny, tiny camper van to run about the countryside wreaking havoc wherever we go. Meet the new money pit. God help us it’s another Dodge, or rather a Ram. A Promaster with the infamous terrible transmission. What can we say it hit a price point that no Sprinter could meet. We actually adore her. I just hope she doesn’t fail us on some dark and lonely road.  We spent too much time and money getting her appropriately outfitted, then took ourselves to the coast for a night of camping in the rain. If anyone knows our past camping history you would know it always includes rain. Fortunately the rain wrapped up over night and the next day was pretty nice.  Spent some time at Yaquina Bay on Monday. The sea lions were busy hunting lunch and having a very successful hunt. The water was this wonderful color of blue and turquoise. Didn’t know it at the time but per another post the color is from herring that are spawning in the bay a...
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McDowell Creek Park

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Too rainy for riding, but not too bad for a hike. It’s time to get back in shape for hills and trails. If you’re local, you’ll know the trail. It’s Silver Falls little sister.   Royal Terrace Falls McDowell Creek Falls. It’s a short and at times steep trail not too far from our house. It’s usually pretty muddy, and while there was some muddy spots, for the most part the trail was pretty solid. We really have not had enough rain and snow this year. We’re way behind on snow pack. I have to confess I have enjoyed the dry and comparatively warm weather this fall and winter.     McDowell Creek I've probably taken photos of all these scenes a dozen times over the years. This tiny park is always photogenic.  An interesting pairing of trees. Ferns and Moss Beginning of the stair climb Majestic Falls. I've seen videos of kayakers going over this fall at high flow. Yours truly More stairs Top of Majestic Falls And the smooooth Iphone special effects version.  More Iphone ...
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Aurora Borealis

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  A rare occurrence tonight: An astral event and a cloudless sky. Oregon clouds nowhere to be seen. No fog either.   Tonight the northern lights are dipping down to our latitude tonight. I’m not much of a night photographer, but I had to see if the northern lights would make an appearance, and indeed there was a little color hiding in the dark.  My iPhone does a pretty good job of pulling out the color (I don’t even try with a real camera.) Some added post processing in Lightroom to bring out the color a bit more. I have a good camera. Perhaps I should learn how to use it for these kind of things. 
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Saturday Ride to the Country Bakery

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Cold start to the day, but great winter riding on the return. 38 miles.  The Peoria flamingos Puppers out for a stroll A bit of bike porn
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Happy New Year - First ride of 2026

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 Corvallis - Tangent - Shedd  First ride of 2026. Flat ride out and around the valley including one of my favorites, Brattain Drive. 33 miles. Rain was around but we avoided it. Happy New Year Western Star Grange Brattain Drive. 
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Crater Lake & Salt Creek Falls

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 It seems Sunday has defaulted to our exploring day. Today was Crater Lake with a stop at Salt Creek Falls. This was Bruno’s first National Park visit. We had three ominous signs we should reconsider our choice. First off I couldn’t find my national park passport book 2nd of all some places I wanted to see along highway 138. We’re closed due to fires. Finally as we were heading toward Oak Ridge we began to notice smoke in the air. Should we abandon ship? The last time we were at crater Lake it was smoky then too so once we eat out an Internet signal, we checked the air quality in the area and crater Lake was looking pretty OK. Turns out ominous signs mean nothing.  We stopped in Oak Ridge to top off the gas tank, while also scouting the local Dairy Queen for a future reference. Ice cream might be in our future. Our next stop was Salt Creek Falls. None of us had been there before and I’ve always wanted to go see it. It’s a gorgeous spot. Well worth the stop, and a short easy hi...
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