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{ Category Archives } nature

Artichokes, pt2

Here’s what happens when you don’t harvest your artichokes: giant thistles. Related posts You can look but you better not touch (0) Woodring Tree (3)

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Cape Lookout beach

A shot along the north side of Cape Lookout, a long narrow ancient lava flow that sticks out into the Pacific. Note that sunny July weather (this is while it’s in the nineties in Portland). Related posts IQ Test at Moe’s West (0) Cape Perpetua (1) Woodring Tree (3) Tsunami working group (2) The Written [...]

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Tsunami working group

You see these along the Oregon coast. Sort of a complicated logo (usually you get something like a neckless guy vaguely doing something in warning signs–this is pretty specific). I like the long explaination of the commiteework behind this graphic. Related posts IQ Test at Moe’s West (0) Cape Perpetua (1) Cape Lookout beach (0)

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“out-of-control platitudes”

Oh, Onion. Massive Flow Of Bullsh*t Continues To Gush From BP Headquarters Congressional hearings aimed at stopping the bullshit have thus far failed to do so, with officials from BP and its contractors Halliburton and Transocean only adding to the powerful torrents of bullshit by blaming one another for the accident. Along with the region’s [...]

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Giant Sinkhole in Guatemala

Doesn’t this look more like the result of a laserbeam from space? What’s with the huge Lovecraftian cavern in that pit? BoingBoing now has more on this. And here’s a Flickr version of the hole photo. Related posts You can look but you better not touch (0) The Sky Can Be Pretty Here, Too (2) [...]

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Brain Eater

Bleah! Another thing to think about when unable to sleep at night. Stumbled upon while researching warm springs in Oregon. Related posts Terrible Tilly (1) Mossy writin’ (0) Hail (2) Cape Perpetua (1) Canyoneering down Eagle Creek (1)

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Bigfoot!

A distant figure on a snowy mountain, only and hour from Portland! Bigfoot!!! Related posts Ranger Station for Sale (1)

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You Know, With a Bridge That Might Not Be Such a Good Idea

from the sidebar of this cool article about a condor egg. Related posts Terrible Tilly (1) Tech Support (1) Roll Over and Play Dead (2) Ridgewood Stone Faces 2 (2) Nice Old Firehose (1)

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Canyoneering down Eagle Creek

Eagle Creek is a beautiful, waterfall-full, and really really steep creek (anywhere else this would be called a river) that starts near Mt Hood and ends up, thousands of feet and a dozen miles later, at the near-sea-level Columbia River. It makes it way down a dramatic winding canyon, moss and near-rain-forest thickness growth around [...]

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Terrible Tilly

One mile west of Tillamook Head on the Oregon coast sits a lonely rock with an empty seagull-poo-splattered lighthouse. This is its story. On October 21, 1879, four laborers were put on the rock. The rest of the crew followed five days later. Putting men on the rock entailed stringing a 4 ½” line from [...]

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You can look but you better not touch

Now that I’m out west I need to learn to recognize the cousin of my old pal poison ivy, poison oak. This article helps explain what’s going on when you get a rash, the oil involved, the structure of the plants, “immunity” (it’s a myth), and some treatments. What surprised me about poison ivy and [...]

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Finally, Sun

First clear day in quite a while. This here is Mt. Hood from the top of Mt. Tabor Park; both mountains are volcanoes (luckily Mt. Tabor is extinct). Related posts Suite 1905 (1) Mossy writin’ (0) Woodring Tree (3) The Border (0) SE Portland Bars (2)

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Woodring Tree

No idea what kind of tree this is, but what trippy flowers. Related posts The Border (0) Suite 1905 (1) SE Portland Bars (2) Roll On, Columbia (0) Neglected burrito cart (2)

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“They Grow ‘Em Big In Oregon”

175 lbs pumpkin grown by Larry Kading of Portland, OR. Related posts Woodring Tree (3) The Written Test (3) The McFarthest Place (0) The Border (0) Terrible Tilly (1)

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Idaho

Drove up from Moab through the desert and up into the mountains at Price and Helper, UT. Then down the winding US 6 through the Wasatch mts to Provo, up through the sprawl of Provo/Salt Lake City/Ogden (and some pretty aggressive/bad drivers), then onto 84 west into Idaho. The landscape changes here into the Columbia [...]

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Mancos State Park

So we were feeling all cool and prepared from our Durango shopping and ready to take on another chilly night in our next stop, Mancos, CO. The campground was unmanned and completely empty. The reservoir, Jackson Gulch Lake, was so low that the boat ramp ran out before you reached the water. We drove around [...]

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Mesa Verde pt 1

From windy Navaho Lake we make our way to Durango. I was expecting some kind of cowboy town; instead we got a 6 lane highway and a super Walmart. We did find an outdoors store, of the sort that only carries Coleman gear, sports junk, and guns. Assault rifles, from the looks of things. We [...]

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Blanca Peak

14,000 ft collection of peaks seen from several angles as we rose above the icy clouds and crossed La Veta Pass and decending into the San Luis Valley. Soon we’ll be following the upper Rio Grande before Wolf Creek Pass. It’s a lot warmer here, though really really windy. Related posts Wolf Creek Pass (0) [...]

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Wolf Creek Pass

Quite a steep drive up over this pass, we put Froggenfreude to a real test. The car seems to have survived. Just after the top of the pass there’s a pullout with incredible views down into a valley and across at a mountain with cliffs and autumnal aspens. A short trail leads to the eroded [...]

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Out under western skies

Sunset over Tuttle Creek Lake in Manhattan, KS. It’s starting to look like the West. Searched for the campground that supposedly is here until sundown (this state does not appear to be big on signage) before giving up and going into town for a surprisingly good Thai meal. Afterwards we discover most of the hotels [...]