Wilderness Band Photos!

This post is really so my buddy Seth can browse through all the pictures we took on our camera when we were taking photos at Lost Lake. I look like I am from Tron in some of them!

Bread, From Scratch!

Trox made her first attempt at making bread from scratch. It was a French bread type thing. It was fluffy and delicious!

Champoeg!!!

We live so close to Champoeg, that its been criminal we hadn't been there yet. We checked out the 1800's garden, and barn, then went for a bit of a hike along the river.
A ways into the trail, a fisherman came out of a little path. I asked him if the fish were biting, and he said they were. We decided to see if the path took us to the shoreline. It opened up to a wide area of sandy beach. I stripped to my boxers and got in, of course at first it was cold, but I soon acclimated and began enjoying the swim!
We are gonna head back soon, I am real excited. We are gonna pack a light lunch and some beer, and make a day of it!

Lost Lake, the Next Week!

Well, we just got back from another amazing adventure in the woods! We drove around for a time, trying to see if any spots were open, and almost everything was filled to the brim. We wanted to be by the water, but all those were snatched early.

We ended up at the exact same camp spot as before, in Lost Lake! It was pretty awesome there, as always, and we set up camp fast because we had all been talking about swimming all day. We even went all the way up to Gordon Lakes to see about camping and swimming, but the Lakes are not the best for swimming. Since Big Lake is just a few miles up from Lost Lake, we took some road beers and headed out for a swim.
The swimming was so awesome! Last week, Brandon, Seth, and I swam there, I couldn't stop thinking about it afterwards. We had to go back, and back we did go. We swam awhile longer than before, and it was so much fun. I really enjoy it up there.
Camping is always a delight, and the conversations are engaging and jovial. Whenever I go into the woods, I feel so relaxed and I can let my mind wander.
Last week at Lost Lake there were tons of small toads at the shore. This week there were hardly any. We decided to head down the road to the end of the campsites, where we heard a bubbling creek. My buddy Seth was in the lead and before he took a step down, I saw a ton of movement underneath. I warned him and we stepped back to see thousands of the little guys, migrating their way to the sweet double creek ahead.

We stayed there for awhile and on the way back, Gina, Trox, and I smelled a peculiar odor coming from the shoulder of the road. We glanced at each other, and started to giggle because the smell resembled, uh, jizz.

I still don't now what these plants are, but they are nasty smelling, we all kept smelling them, and getting grossed out! What the hell are those things!
It was a great trip, and I always look forward to the next time...

I Am Iron Mountain...

Where to begin! This last Thursday, Seth took me, Trox, and Brandon out to the cascades to have an awesome adventure! We ended up staying at a campsite in the Lost Lake area. The campsite was awesome. The sites are spread out enough so that you never really even see anyone else camping.
Before we got setup for the camp, however, we had spent a good part of the day hiking around some cool areas. We started out heading up Iron Mountain. This hike was too cool. The area is very unique due to changes in one of the last ice ages, it maintained a diverse wild flower population that was a wonder to behold! This article my buddy Seth gave me, really explains the wonder of Iron Mountain, http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2010/07/oregons_mountain_wildflowers_a.html!



After we had set up camp, we were grimy and ready to swim! We waded into Lost Lake, but it never reached above our waists, and it was a muddy mess! After we got out, we decided to head up to Big Lake, just a few miles up the road. Trox stayed at camp to watch the stuff and examine the wildlife, but Brandon, Seth and I swam in Big Lake for a bit. It was so cool to be swimming around these mountain tops at over 4500 elevation! The water was amazing, and it felt so good to go swimming again!
We got back started to really get to it, had some drinks and food, waiting for it to get dark. The real reason we had come out was to check out the peak of a meteor shower! There were not as many meteors as I had hoped there would be, but the ones we saw were so cool looking. We would chat at the lake's shore, hanging out, when a meteor would soar across the sky, we would all stop and go "Aaaaaaaah" or "whoooooa". It was a great night. Thanks again to my buddy Seth, for setting it all up in the first place!

Mechanics BeWARE!

Well, we were on our way to my buddy Seth's house for a sweet, sweet barbecue, when the car felt real funny! We turned around, decided to go to Seth's anyway, then turned around again, as the problem was getting worse.
We stopped at a Jiffy Lube, the only place open still, and the guy checked it out, but said it was a dealership problem, maybe four to five hundred bucks! Jiffy Lube is about two miles from my house and traveling that far almost overheated the engine. We decided we were stuck until we could find out what to do next.
The next day, I called a the closest dealership, and it was indeed going to cost a lot of money to tow and repair the vehicle.
We had an idea of what the problem was, so I called my old boss, Dave, to see if we could use his tools for the job. He did us one better, and let us borrow his truck for the night to go get the new parts and all the tools we needed for the job.
We started by taking the wheel and splash guard off, which gave us access to the bottom motor mount to the tensioner, which was the issue.


After getting the S-Belt off, we took the upper mount off, and replaced that bad boy. Trox did a lot of the work and it was great to see her get in there and kick ass.


We took it for a test drive, and it ran like new! We felt so satisfied and accomplished getting it done ourselves. Maybe we won't even get our oil changed at the businesses.

Same Deer, Different Day.

I think our house is a routine stop for this lady. It's cool, she is helping keep morning glory and blackberry bushes at bay.