I was taking the bus over to Bingen when I saw the words 'Report Paranormal Sightings Here' out of the window. I immediately started tracking where it was in relation to where I was staying, and as luck would have it the bus loop back around and my stop was just two blocks up the slope from it.







There is a laptop on the table to type in your reports there. Also love the sign with info on the reports and the... everything.

I've never heard of the Klickitat Ape Cat and I'd be 0% surprised if they made it up themselves to add some extra flavor to the area, but I don't care. I believe in the Klickitat Ape Cat.

The place is an outdoors store, which is basically a convenience store with goods meant for people hiking or climbing in the area. They carry trail food, pack soap, etc. Theirs was also a paranormal center and pot shop. Perfect, 10/10, no notes. My 'if I win the lottery' dream has long been to open an outdoors store, but I never considered adding paranormal center into my business plan. Their actual reality outshines my dream plans.

So far I'd stayed at a perfectly maintained mid-century sprawl and a semi-basement that felt like an obscure form of punishment. And the third and final place is...





Bougie Capsule Hotel. Or you consider it like a hostel, but hostels typically operate under special rules and have exceptions to the rules hotels and inns have to follow. This had none of that stuff, so I tended to not think of it as more capsule vibes.





Way more my speed. I stayed where because my train was super early and this was right by the station and I've always wanted to stay here for a night. I thought an upscale capsule/hostel seemed amusing. I had a great time. Jury is out if I'd do it again because the bunk area is pretty packed. Things went well, but it's a risk. One couple there had a crock pot and was making a spicy bean soup and also had the door propped open to keep the smell down, but that meant the bunk area was fully open to passersby. I wasn't stressed by it because the smell did dissipate and I kept my bag with me, but it's easy to see how easily one overly entitled person can wreck everyone's stay in the bunk area. Super glad I checked that place off my list.

There are normal rooms and even private cabins with hammocks. Also, a general hammock area:


White Salmon didn't go well, Bingen was amazing. Bingen delivered.

Then my return train was actually on time and I got back to Portland.

I woke up the next day to a few logistical problems:

One - I had three conflicting sources of info on what the bus schedule was, and if it was even running

Two - Official info was that the road I needed back to town was suddenly closed due to construction, which would turn my hike from a very do-able 7 miles, to a 'I can probably survive' 14 miles. Either way, there would be about 600 feet of elevation change.

Despite all the uncertainty, I headed out anyway. This was literally my fourth attempt at knocking out this leg of the through hike and a fourth failure would be insane. Also, the weather was great and the air was clear and perfect. Smoke hasn't hit yet, but projections are this is going to be a bad year. So I was like fukkit, it's the gorge, I probably can't get into trouble I can't get out of. I need to get while the gettin's good.

Spoilers: The day went pretty smoothly outside of some stress about whether I was doing a very do-able hike or setting myself up for hell.



Finally, the damn trail! The full trail through the gorge should be completed next year, right now I am doing the existing bits in chunks. I have also hiked out to some un-restored highway ruins in the past and need to see if they are still there when I get a chance.

The original highway was not only further inland than the current one, but it also tunneled through the rock in a few sections:







( Two more tunnely pics )

Finally out at the Mosier Twin Tunnels! This took so long! Finally being there was amazing, but I hit this early in the day and wasn't sure how things would pan out from there. But hey, at least I was there and not stranded in the middle of nowhere at a connecting bus stop.

The current highway below:




When it's fully complete it will be a way to hike or bike the length of the gorge. It's a massive infrastructure project to make the gorge more accessible, but the trail doesn't go to where the current cities and towns are and there's no shuttle buses. It's a bit of a paradox. When I do the next chunk I'll need to start in Mosier again, but head the other way. Mosier isn't even a regular bus stop. The only places to stay in Mosier are extremely expensive rentals meant for groups of 12 people. Trying to do this accessible trail to support car-free travel in the gorge is a bit of a nightmare without a car.





This tree, note the roots, it's just clinging to the rock. Just hanging out, trying to thrive in an insane situation:



Lunch spot:



The road back to town was open! And a bit spicy, very curvy and not much of a shoulder:



After I got back, had showered and everything, I went out to Fermentation's beer patio:

Or, really days 1-3. First day I hiked towards Mt Hood Village. Second day I was out on the boardwalk over the wetlands. Day 3 I went back out on the boardwalk and and also hiked a bit into the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness.

I hope to go back and do more photography there. The rain way too heavy at times for pics, and because I was leaving on day 3, I was checked out of my room and once again had everything on me. I'd have stayed another day, but I wanted to be back in Portland for an event that wound up getting cancelled.

And I got to add to my collection of dodgy bridges I've crossed.



This was worse than I realized at first. It's hard to see, but on the left that's tree roots gone sideways. The ground around the base is eroding because the tree fell.



There were also birbs:



And wet walkways over wetlands:



( More forest and more wet walkways )

Things went mostly smoothly?

The one problem is when I was headed out. In Portland, having a group suddenly try to surround me on a sidewalk is something that can happen, but it's been a while and it's usually easy to see potential pedestrian traps. Some parts of Portland have become very infested with evangelists, but they carefully toe the line. Their set ups on the sidewalks are not legal and every time they get too cheeky, try to infringe more on a sidewalk or something, they get talkings to. So, when I saw some down the street I just went eyes down, and pretended they didn't exist, only to have some guy in a trenchcoat block my path. I didn't react well. I don't expect static from that direction. So, I yelled at them and pushed through. I *think* it's because I was wearing a pack and thought I might be someone they could pull that on. In any case, being unexpectedly surrounded really freaked me out. It's something I usually handle well, but I was so 'eyes down, just ignore' I didn't see the close in.

Anyway, after that I got my lunch at Chipotle and headed out to the bus stop, planning to eat on a layover. I wound up getting some nice coffee from a stand near the Gresham Transit Center.

I had been worried about doing a trip where I'd haven to have walk, maybe hike, with everything on me - computer, days of food, etc - especially since the weather report went from '60s and partly sunny' to 'high of 40, overnight freezing and heavy rain'. But I managed it pretty well. I got out into the area, walked to the Wildwood Recreation Site and hiked a few miles before I could check into my place.

Because I was at Wildwood all 3 days, I'll do motel pictures on this post, Timberline on day 2 and post all the Wildwood pics for day 3.

I stayed at what used to be a very run down, sketchy motel in the area. I'd always wanted to stay there because I assumed one day it would be gone. Turns out, they got bought out by a resort company and the buildings were renovated with a focus on keeping with the original character of the place and they restored the original sign

I may have been mildly obsessed with taking aesthetic shots of the sign:





It's a really cute place with a grill and seating area for those staying there, that wasn't yet open for the season. Some of the rooms have their own patios. The rooms that used to be long-stay motel rooms now have full kitchens. I think my room was a storage closet and they renovated it to squeeze one more room in without changing the building too much. It was way smaller than any other on site and I am pretty sure the bathroom was made by shrinking the on-site laundry room. Not complaining, it was a cute place and well kept. Staying there post-sale was probably a much better and possibly safer option. I'm glad they are keeping it the way they are.

Still working on my urban tree series. Still trying to decide whether to call it The Tension Between Nature And The Urban Landscape or Trees With Big Butts





This is going to be a little less curated than my usual posts, because I am still picking which shots will be The Shot and might reshoot some of these... I may need a lens I didn't have on me for this walk. Anyway, the works in progress
( Read more... )

It a rain gutter teeming with life fascinating? Or have I just lived in this damn town too long?



I also tried to do a video:



( Some more pictures and the start of a project )

I Saw The TV Glow number from the LED Drag Show



(Also, I just love moving my feet a bit because it's cold and some girl SLAMS into me because she thought I was leaving and wanted my space, and I'd already moved because people had pushed in front of me at my initial space that I had from being there 30 minutes early.)



Pollination Station at the Electric Blocks



From the Labyrinth of Light

( More pics of all that and tentacles under the cut )



And one more short video posted on BlueSky

I'll post my camera photos later, these are just the cell phone grabs. I didn't stay out as long as I wanted because I got rain on my lens. I do use a hood on my all my lenses, but my main lens I use for stuff like his has a very small hood, or else it'd get in the shot. For rain shooting I'd typically use a long prime, if a long prime is feasible.

I started at The Night Market because at least one of the exhibits was supposed to be there. Weirdly, I've never seen this before, but the market wasn't fully set up when I got there? Whole sections were still in progress. I was confused. Like, one of the bars was still being set up. I hung out for a bit and did a double circuit of the sellers. Nothing for me, but I do want to point out that they vary vendors a lot and it's not the same set of vendors I see at all the other markets. (People were shit talking the vendor selection on reddit, calling it stale and unchanging and that has never been true. The Eat-A-Dick cock shaped cookie seller was one of many vendors I've never seen before)



One of the 'tentacle portals' of WLF was there and:



Okay, kinda small.

They hand tons of backdrops for photoshoots. Someday I will go with someone and also get all these photo ops, but I've been telling myself that since... I think 2017?

So, then I walked around and wandered some of the exhibits. video of the dragon here. If none of my stills turn out, I will go back and reshoot.

Here is a random exhibit:


I love how the festival ranges from 'fire breathing dragon' to 'store that sells lamps being open late' to... uh...



This is 'Garden At The End Of The Anthropocene' and when I saw it I was dismissive of it, I took a picture to make fun of it, but I take it all back. It's trash, but in a way that kinda works? I'm warming to it because of it's abandoned lot surroundings. Considering the vibe suggested by the title? No notes.

I meant to clean my camera, eat, and head back out, but I didn't, something came up. Hopefully tomorrow I'll hit Electric Blocks and Glow Bar, maaaaybe Cartopia?

I had so much to say about Day 2, I forgot to point out that these factories is where the Leverage episode The Last Dam Job was filmed. And hey all of OG Leverage is on youtube now so I can link it. Some of it is filmed inside the factories, but starting at about 34:25, it's all a different view of the same places I am shooting. A really good view, damn I wish I could get access. But, the hydro plant there is actually still running. It's one of the oldest still working power plants in the world.

Old metal coal company sign embedded in a tree:


There are a lot of small hikes I wanted to do in the area, but I kinda wanted to get back to Portland and my indoor shower. Also, I had to check out of the room and didn't want to hike with my computer on my back. So, I went for a short ramble. I kinda wanted to check out the Amtrak station for the area, just a silly little thing to go see. Oregon City's station is a whistlestop, the trains only stop if there is a ticked passenger for that station. But, it's got an actual station building because this was supposed to be the big city for the entire region. So I go and see that the station building is now a brewpub. And I didn't know? I seriously considered staying until they opened, but I'd had a beer the previous day so I just kept wandering. But, next time station-turned-brewpub, next time.

I then saw shapes that looked like the frames of covered wagons. I went over to see the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. So, I kind of hate covered wagon imagery because most colonists came by settler train and we just pretend it was pioneers who can't go back, are now trapped and must go on once they've started blah blah blah. So I went in very leery. Turns out the center nearly closed during covid, but they got some major grants and are in the middle of a project to redo the center showing the actual history, bring in indigenous and other voices, update the language and more. It's on a good piece of land and they grow crops using heirloom seeds. The current center does address the impact of Black exclusion laws, but the lady told me they are going to do a much better job of it in the remodel.

Also, the center has a pet chicken:


I don't know when/if the Willamette Falls redo project is going to pick up steam, but the area has two major projects that are expected to bring in tourists and address the colonization aspect of the area. Could be really interesting. But, uh, they really, really need to do something about how people drive through there. Even the most car-loving tourist expects to walk around the downtown with it's historic buildings, tons of cafes, bars serving solid menus of bar food and surprising amount of tattoo parlors for such a small area.

And cute thrift stores:


I mentioned the problem in my 2018 post as well. I am not shy about asserting my pedestrian rights, but I am also not an idiot an just don't fuck with some of the intersections there.

Oregon City is close enough to Portland that you can take a city bus right to their transit center. It's in that weird space where it's a hassle for day trip, but also stay down there and people find it weird. It's a 2 hour bus ride each way for me. I've been wanting to go back and do a lot more photography, so I grabbed a cheap ABnB room and went down. Here is my post from my last trip down there in 2018, where I talk about wanting to go back soon to redo shots. Only took me six years?

Oregon City has a lot going on. It's the end point of the Oregon Trail and there was a huge push to make it the capital of Oregon, a major site of industry, and now it's got a mix of abandoned and still in use old factories around a waterfall that is in the top 20 worldwide for size as determined by sheer volume of water. Historic buildings, nature, infrastructure and a city walk with a view of decaying factories, it's a lot.

Or, to put in another way - I saw this historic sign on my walk there:



But, nature is healing. The factory used in filming Twilight has been deconstructed as part of the project to repair the ecosystem, restore access to the river and build housing for indigenous people. The actual land is now owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.

I plan to do a lot of day or short trips down there because there is a LOT to shoot and I want to spend more time on the factories while they are still there.

Day 1 - Stranded and smelling like wet dog

Even though this was going to be a short turn around to a city that I can get to on Trimet, I decided to take two bags. I wanted to bring my usual camera bag and carry that around, and just put everything that didn’t fit in a separate bag. My usual camera bag is the one I’ve been carrying about 9 hours a week for eight years and I’m very attached to it. I credit this bag with helping me get back on my feet, literally, after my 2016 medical issues. But, things did not go to plan.

The good news is that Peak Design’s lifetime warranty is no joke and my replacement bag is on it’s way to me. The bad news is, yeah, fuck. Zipper gave out.

So, I brought my Travel Pack which is a great bag, but it’s designed to make full use of every centimeter that airlines will allow for a carry one bag. It’s a bit awkward to walk into certain shops with this bag, which is why I didn’t plan on bringing it.

The owners of the tiny house have a dog. The dog would not stop jumping on me as the guy lead me to the door. It was raining hard and the ground was muddy, so I was getting covered. I tried expressing repeatedly that I was having trouble even walking due to the dog, but the owner seemed to not even process it. He kept acting like I was all 'aw, the cute little dog is so excited I can't even walk!' rather than 'no, seriously, dog keeps trying to be underfoot, I have a heavy pack on and it's muddy, help'

One of my rules of packing is that I always bring two pairs of pants, even for an overnight. You never know when something is going to happen. If I don't want to pack jeans, I pack something as pajama pants that I could, if I needed to, wear on my legs. Just this once, I broke this rule. Because I wanted to take some #AmWriting pictures on the trip, I brought cozy plaid PJs. I knew I was getting filthy, but it wasn't until the next day that I put the jeans back on that I fully realized that somehow that dog's furry paws had transferred a significant amount of wet dog scent onto me.

I walked around a bit to get my bearings and stretch my legs, but then fire trucks and police cars rushed to block most of Main Street. There are intersections in Oregon City that I just don't walk due to how people drive there. They come off the 205 and flow through stop signs like Main Street is a highway they are merging onto. The way cars were pushing through past the accident was just not possible to pass on foot. Trucks where pushing onto McLoughlin aggressively and there was no way to even try to walk through it, but, as I was trying to figure out a path, I saw why the street was being blocked.

CW - Death

The accident was giant SUV/truck versus pedestrian. First responders were trying to do CPR, but things looked bad. That is actually the second time I've seen someone die in public within about 10 days. When I was taking the train to the airport in Chicago a lady had a massive seizure and died three seats down from me. I cannot remember ever having seen people die before that. Maybe I have, but I've tried and tried to think about it and just, nope, can't think of anything.

So, I turned around and went to the McMenamins Pub and had fish and chips. It had been raining heavily all day so I looked like a drowned rat, but there are worse places to be stranded. I hung out there until everything was cleared and walked back to my room.



My plan for the trip was to use being away from the internet to get a lot of typing done. I have a nearly full composition notebook from my Truckee trip. It just feels more private to handwrite than to use my laptop. In one of my photos from my Truckee trip I can clearly see the phone screen of a girl on the train and I could see the words and the pictures... and it was uh... yeah. People, please if you are going to sext like that, hold the phone closer to you, especially if you are sneaking pics of that like yourself and sending them.

Reference to above spoiler-cut topic

But, when I got to the room all I could think was that I'd just seen someone die doing what I do constantly, in a crosswalk and everything.

So I opened Twitch on my phone and listened to Detune recap the news that came out of the Game Awards while faceplanted in bed.