Hood, Hike, Bees, River...etc.

I think this is the quickest I have ever promised to upload photos and actually done it. I try to keep the proportion of fodder for the blog : updating the blog greatly weighted towards fodder, so if it looks like my blog entries are too regular, it means I have too much time on my hands. Time unlike grease washes quite easily off of your hands .

Anyways, here are some photos of my hike on Mt Hood. We started on the "Top Spur Trail", hiked up to the avalanche shelter at McNeil Point, lolled around in the snow, made a loop and were back at home by 7 that night.

You can tell it was a hot day by how hazy the mountain looks

A wasp nest right next to the trail. The trail is notorious for bees, and usually at least one person gets stung. Gabe was the unlucky one this time around.

"They say a mountain holds many secrets, but the biggest is this...I am a fake mountain"
-Jack Handy

The Muppet flower

All of the wild flowers were in bloom. It was so beautiful I just wanted to roll around in all of the colors, but thousands of bees were way ahead of me. Thousands of bees had also apparently anticipated my thoughts of rolling around in the flowers and prepared accordingly by evolving a stinger.

ahhh, yet another waterfall

I took this photo upside down through my legs while dipping my head in the water. It was the most refreshing photo I have every taken!

A makeshift lunch of summer sausage, baked beans, pita, jerky, apples, and bananas.

Figures I can't remember what kind of flower this is, but it is at least the 3rd or 4th separate species of the same genera that I have photographed. It will come to me eventually.

Like an overheated ostrich

The perfect snow ball target

We ran out of water, but came prepared with a pump! While Sam was pumping I found a leach in the mountain stream...is there nowhere safe?

AAAAWWWE

Well, that was the end of our hike. The next day we felt obligated to keep our couch surfers from getting heat stroke in our un-air-conditioned house by taking them floating down the Sandy River:

We had a limited number of flotation devices, and luckily after years of listening to in flight safety briefings, Sam was able to use his theoretical knowledge in a much more useful and practical way than intended.

Liz, one of our two couch surfers, adjusting the ballasts on her tube.

Gabe

Jena and Matt moved to Portland a couple of weeks ago and are now living a couple of minutes away!

Andrew with the pass

Matt, looking like a giant in his tiny inner tube.

Kate, our other couch surfer who just finished up in AmeriCorps

Kind of a red headed Audry Hepburn thing goin' on

Some how our tiny raft stayed afloat through out the entire float

You can see I nearly lost my balance on my inner tube and could have floundered, camera and all.

Hand carved wooden figure head

JESSSICAAAA! was in town for a couple of days, and cooked us the most delicious of chickens.

Yours truly

If you feel around on the bottom of this river you are bound to haul in some sort of bounty. Sam found a paddle, and last time I found a pair of sun glasses. Strangely enough, Isaac went rafting down the same river earlier that day and had lost a paddle, although apparently it was silver, but either way there was conservation of mass, energy, and paddles, and all was well in the universe.

the roughest part of the river

I will leave you all wondering whether those are my feet or not.

I'm sure there are more things to put on here, but yet again the night is young, the world is my oyster, the time is nigh, and I am going to bed. See you on the other siiiiiiddddeee.