Category Archives: Day Trips

Well that’ll put a rose in those cheeks!

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by in And Around, Day Trips, Other Side Of The Inside Of The Box

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It has been one wicked windy few days.  Utterly beautiful blue skies, frosts in the mornings, and an all around visual delight.

But bundle on up before you go out there, it has been one wicked windy few days.

You would think that those of us who have lived here our entire lives would be used to it.  However, I have come to the personal conclusion that there are things you never get used to and will push against to your last breath.  For me, the wind is one of those.  I’m good with cold, I’m okay with hot (yes, we do get hot.  Think back.), but when you add those 52 mph gusts to a 32 degree temp, I’m out.  Could I please have the 14.1 degrees straight in calm air?  [Want to know where I got that number?  Here’s a cool toy for those of us who live in the wind.  Wind chill / temp conversion tool.  You can thank me later.]

However, I would like to point out a couple bright spots in the midst…
1)  You look very healthy when you come indoors (once you get the hair back off of the wrong side of your head and other humans can see your face) with a flattering rosy glow.
2)  If you’re having trouble waking up in the morning and getting into your day, save the five bucks for the coffee and just step outside.
3)  When you take your dogs up to that stretch between Corbett and Aims for the run down to the river,  that calm clear cold under a clear-star-sky moon will absolutely redeem any lingering annoyance with the environment.

Larch Mountain blocks the east wind completely where the dogs and I take our nightly hike to the Sandy River.  Completely.  We pile into the van in the chaos and drive up the hill, and we step out into pure peace.

"Hey, what do you want from a cell phone in the dark?"

“Hey, what do you want from a cell phone in the dark?”

It is such a gift.  The waxing moon has lit the trail almost to no-flashlight level, the river is sparkling under the occasional mist, the rocks are beautifully frosted, it’s the perfect temperature for the long hike back up the hill, and everyone else is huddled at home around the woodstove, leaving the trail, and the forest, and the river,
to just us.

It is a good thing.

The Dark and The Mud and the Sweet Spot

10 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in And Around, Day Trips

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It rained yesterday for a goodly part of the day.  Hard.  I know that because Rian and I were tromping around town in it, gathering up site partners and talking to good people.  Everyone here understands when you walk in with their informational packet wrapped in plastic, your hair askew, and your makeup running.

It quit, or more accurately slowed, early afternoon.  Late afternoon, clear of tasks for the moment, I headed for my daily hike in the woods with a van full of dogs (358.8 pounds in four black-and-tan bodies officially qualifying as a van full).  We got there just before 5:00 (the days are getting longer again, have you noticed?), in time to walk the first mile through the forest without a lamp.  And when we came out of the woods at the river a mile later than that, there was still enough light at the bottom of the gorge to sit on a wet rock by the river for a few minutes and enjoy the rampage before the late dusk turned to full dark.

It is a function of human, that when you’re in the middle of flourescent and traffic and phones and people all day, you don’t think about what that inconvenient rain and a relatively warm day means in the wilder parts of your world.

The Sandy was running high and loud and beautiful with rain and snow melt.  The huge sitting rock at the edge of the beach was six feet out in the river, the boulders at the bottom were gently knocking into each other, the air was crisp and clean and six kinds of jazzed up with ions, the sky had cleared enough to show a swath of stars sparkling in the cold.  It takes all of thirty seconds in that environment to wash out a day and drop you into sweet peace.  Try it some day, when it’s been raining all day and still might be a little.  Hike a muddy trail, get a little wet, take a happy dog, brave the dark.  You’ll walk out new, I promise.

LLH