Community is where you make it
When Jamison and I visited Cape Meares Lighthouse on New Year’s Eve, we both took film cameras. I received the scans just today. I like the look.
The roll had jammed partway through. Worse, the film got scratched on its way through the film box. I’m going to try to fix that. Sorry, Bob… I’m interested to see what the sprocket holes look like when I get the negatives back.
In the meantime, I’ve been shopping used Olympus OM-1 35mm film cameras from Japan. ‘Could be fun.
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*A post where we don’t get to Punch Bowl falls and do more than hike.
Yesterday, Jamison announced to Suzi and me that he was going to go for a hike to Punch Bowl Falls. That sounded like fun to me and another opportunity to take some pictures. Little did I know.
I sort of invited myself and asked Jamison if he had one more roll of film I could have. Looks like I’ll soon be buying the next pack of five rolls.
Jamison said that the best pictures can be achieved by wading in the water so we wore hiking shorts and packed extra shorts, socks, shoes, etc. As Jamison drove up the Gorge, I loaded the film into Bob’s Pentax MX.
We arrived at the trailhead and headed out. The trail follows Eagle Creek, sometimes quite closely. Snow angled up against the uphill side of the trail, covering some of the trail. Sometimes, the snow covered about half of the trail. Other times, almost all of the trail was covered. The snow was frozen hard and slick. Where earlier hikers had created footsteps across it, passage was not treacherous. Otherwise, the choice was between trying to create footsteps on the snow or walking on the edge of the snow and path, immediately adjacent to a steep slope down to the river. Neither option felt that safe. Fortunately, those conditions were rare.
After we’d hiked a ways, we came upon three hikers who were stopped and talking. They looked at us1And maybe at our bare legs, which were warm, but bare… and told us that they’d gone just a little farther up the trail and turned back, that it felt too dangerous to proceed. When one showed us her crampons, we realized that we probably shouldn’t go any farther.
So, we stopped and talked for a bit, took some pictures, and headed back. Even during our not-so-far hike, the above-freezing temperatures had softened the snow such that none of the return trail felt that dangerous.
Jamison wasn’t done adventuring, so we continued east to Doppio in Hood River before finally turning around and heading home.
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Hell on Two Wheels, Until the E-Bike’s Battery Runs Out. The New Yorker writes a nice article on e-bikes.
For context, this past year I bought a Tern HSD P9 Performance ebike and love it!1Yes, the blog post is still in my drafts.
HT: Roman Meliška on Mastodon.
This afternoon, Jamison and I went to Cape Meares Lighthouse to take some photos. We both decided to use film. I got Bob’s old Pentax MX with the 50mm f1.4 lens. On the way, I swapped the button batteries and verified that the light meter worked. I then loaded some Kodak Portra 400 from Jamison. I was ready.
It’s a different vibe for me using film. I take more time. I enjoy the process more.
Until something happened inside the camera about ten to twelve images in. The film felt like it wasn’t advancing. Maybe it never was, but it felt like it was. I think I saw the rewind knob rotating as I advanced the film. And I felt the film pickup let go after rotating the film rewind knob nine or ten times. So, maybe I got only ten good shots, with another couple on the same frame. I’ll find out after I get the film developed.1And if anything turned out, I’ll post them here.
Fortunately, I was taking some digital shots, too, to see how the shots were likely turning out. Those are those shots you see above.
I’m looking forward to the next time.
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Monday evening, Suzi and I were relaxing before bed when the lights at the inn blinked. They were out only a couple of seconds and we were glad when they came back on. Unfortunately, not that much later, they went out again … and then stayed out.
We still had internet, so I was able to jump on the power company’s site to learn that there was a powerline issue. This wasn’t a surprise as the wind was picking up. And the power was supposed to be fixed by morning. Sure enough, at 6:15 am, the power came back. Suzi said it came on during the night, at least briefly, but I slept through it.
Although the weather was windy, I wanted to take the shot I’d attempted the day before. Headed south/upwind, I had to cover my mouth with my hands to be able to breathe. My phone’s weather app said the wind was a steady 29 mph with gusts to 52. I believe it.
After getting my picture, we watched the wind and waves from the comfort of our room. We checked out and headed to Second Street to discover the waves again coming up to the sea wall, maybe even higher than yesterday.
At Tolovana we saw waves even higher than yesterday. I discovered that when the waves hit the access ramp wall and steps, they reflect back into the oncoming waves, colliding with soaking spray.1Ask me how I know about the soaking part… ;-) The wind blew the foam into the parking lot, coating the cars’ windshields.
Not wanting to drive after dark through the coast hills in high winds, we headed home early. Suzi checked the maps and said highway 26 was closed, but I ignored her and kept going. I should have listened. We hit the closure at about milepost 15. TripCheck said the road would be closed for another couple of hours.2Long road closures are never good news.
We turned around and checked in for another night. The power was out again, as it was for virtually all of Cannon Beach. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the same luck with the internet and it was too dark to read. It was an early night for me.
More photos and movies the next morning, followed by breakfast at our new favorite breakfast spot. Then we headed home, successfully this time.
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Post-Christmas and the kids are all out of the house this week,1At least, that was the plan… so Suzi and I decided to take a quick trip ourselves. We headed off to Cannon Beach to see the Rock, the tides,2There were King Tides on the 22nd through 24th. and the waves.3 Thirty-five-foot waves predicted for tomorrow! I’ll believe it when I see it and will take pictures.
We detoured to Seaside first but it was so rainy that we barely got out of the car. We didn’t want to walk anyways, so we had multiple reasons to head south to Cannon Beach. We parked at the end of Second Street and saw the waves had pushed logs up near the steps. Ecola Creek entered the ocean much farther upstream. The beach was essentially nonexistent.
We headed to our hotel and checked in. The waves were washing completely over the sand. I wanted to take my standard picture of The Needles, so I ventured to the edge of the sand. I watched as a wave washed up to the grassy dune just south of me. I thought I could run through this “low spot” between the waves and be on the far side to take the pictures. When I ran past where I’d seen the waves wash against the dunes, I saw that it only got worse the farther south I went. I turned and ran back to where I’d started before the next wave came in. Maybe I can get the picture tomorrow at lower tide. Or maybe honkin’ huge waves with potential sneakers will keep me off the beach.
Suzi and I then headed farther south to Tolovana Beach to see that waves were reaching the bottom of the steps down to the beach. We stood and watched this repeat, getting soaked by the heavy rain.
Tomorrow I’m going to wear my raincoat over my puffy coat4And over my vest.
Every day at the coast is a great day!
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On Christmas Eve, Suzi, Jamison, and I explored a bit. With the freeze of the last few days, we decided against driving over the coastal range to see the King Tides at Cannon Beach. Instead, we drove to L.L. Stub Stewart Park and tested the limits of traction by trying to walk in the parking lot.
Then we went to Buxton Trailhead of the Banks-Vernonia Trail to check out the trestle and take a few photos.
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With my “favorite” billionaire doing his best to destroy Twitter, it seemed like a good time to try an alternative. I’m now @blogan@pdx.social. Give me a follow. I might even post something.
Hope to see you there!
Update: I’ve already moved Mastodon servers, from mastodon.social to pdx.social. I updated the link above to my new address. Hope to see you there.
In early spring, Suzi and I started shopping for e-bikes. We’d ridden e-bikes before on vacation and they are magical. There’s no other word to describe them.
After many hours on the web and taking multiple test drives, the Tern HSD P9 Performance, in limon, remained my top pick. On May 12th, Grey1Limon, Grey Limon. was mine. Not much later, Suzi had an e-bike of her own.
We rode them on the Banks-Vernonia linear trail. We rode them at Sunriver. We rode them in the neighborhoods. I rode Grey to Starbucks and to work and home again. I rode Grey on longer weekend rides.
While riding on October 8th,2Yup, another post soon to be back-dated. I looked down and saw Grey was about to hit 1,000 miles on the odometer. Just as I reached my Starbucks, the odometer turned — cause for celebration! ;-) c[_]
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Shortly after Suzi was born, her parents spent the summer at Red Mountain Lookout to watch for fires– and they took Suzi with them, no running water and miles away from civilization. I don’t know whether to admire their bravery or question their sanity.
This past summer,1Yeah, it’s taken a while to post this, but I’ll just backdate it soon to Aug 22, 2022,and not worrying about it. Be forewarned: I have more backdated posts coming… her dad arranged for us to be able to visit the lookout and talk with a ranger about its history. It’s not currently operational, but there are plans to convert it to an overnight “lodge” for those willing to brave the trek.
What a view!
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