261) A Trip To Oregon (and WA)

The other week I got almost as far away from Key West (now home) as I could get (in the contiguous US). I have a number of friends, some of which I haven't seen in way too many years, living in WA and OR.


This first group of photos is from the Japanese Gardens in Portland. I have never seen such a beautifully manicured garden anywhere.







One evening after Gabe finished work we drove out to the coast to a state park called Ecola. I almost forgot how beautiful the coastal northwest is. It was a very refreshing and stark contrast to what I have grown accustom to here in FL.




I was also fortunate enough to take a trip up to Olympic National Forest and visit the place that used to consistently come to me in dreams. I worked two summers in Olympic while in college, and hadn't been back for something like 7 years. It was almost eerie to just find myself there again, a place I had dreamed about and spent days walking through years ago. I was also happy to find I could still recall the names of almost all the plants there.






I spent a couple nights in Olympia on Eric's boat and we went up to Seattle to meet up with Paul and Ian. When I got back to Portland, Gabe had the idea to head east towards Painted HIlls National Monument. We camped in Ochoco National Forest, and then took the Columbia River Gorge back. Both the drives out and back were stunning. It was so nice to see the changes in landscape after about a year and half in Florida, mostly far south Florida.

260) Sunset Photos

These are some recent photos from the park at sunset. As summer is approaching the clouds get more interesting, so maybe we will be seeing some more posts on here...

259) Riding Out the Storm

Once before I found myself riding out a severe storm in my tent. That was on my first solo backpacking trip in Utah's Canyonlands National Park. Once the first freight train of wind almost breaks the poles on the tent, you know you are in trouble and it is just about too late to do anything about it.



Last night I camped on the beach. It was beautiful when I set up and went to bed, but I prepared the stakes for my rain fly just in case it did rain. I did not, however, go through the process of securing my tent in the case of severe weather. I knew there were storms well to the south of me, which I figured were moving west. What I didn't know was that there were storms brewing to the east of me, moving strait towards me.

Around 1am I thought I felt a few light drops of rain so I put on the rain fly, sacrificing the perfect breeze I had. I quickly fell back to sleep, and it barely sprinkled. At about 3am a gust of rain came through tested the strength of my tent poles. By the time that initial blast ended the rain and lightening were in full strength right above me. There is almost no time to make a decision to stay or bail out after that wind has hit. I probably could have just bolted to my car, but my tent and sleeping pad would have almost surely been somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico a few minutes later.

So I decided to ride it out in the tent, hoping the stakes on the rain fly held (just by chance the angle of the wind to the tent were ideal. The point when I began to second guess that decision was when a flash of lightning was proceeded so closely by thunder they were indistinguishable, and I felt a concussion (if that is even possible). After that happened once more about 15 or 20 minutes later I knew I was going to have to get out of there as soon as the next "lull" came. I put that in quotations because I just mean there was no lightening directly over me- I could hear it just to the west and east, which to me meant I had a small window of opportunity to take down my tent and not get struck while holding the aluminum poles. It turned out I was right, and by the time I started running to my car the lightening was back on me.



I rode it out for an hour, and by that time a lot of the roads in Key West were completely flooded. When I got home I checked out the radar and saw a lot of red.

258) A Good Night For Photos

Last night had a great sunset followed by a lightning storm a few miles off.

257) After a Long Pause

It has been a pretty long pause since I have posted anything. I try to keep this page photo driven, and I guess I just wasn't taking too many photos. The lack of home internet has certainly played a role in lapse, as well.




But since the last post there have been plenty of things going on. I moved to Key West and started a new job as an official park ranger for the Florida Park Service. So far so good. Key west is a pretty good place to find yourself living and working. Although I live a few miles out of Key West proper, I will still call it Key West.


The first three pictures are from around my area, I do a lot of kayaking to try to find interesting areas otherwise not accessible. The photo below is of an orchid my neighbor gave me, it just so happens she is an orchid breeder/gardener.


I have probably the best case living scenario- I share a house with three other guys. I have my own deck that is right over the water, and there are large decks that go all the way to the roof level, everything faces west, so every evening is a great view of the sunset over the water.


Above is my bedroom, and below are a few from the the decks. It is pretty nice to have the view out of my bedroom window look like a painting.

256) The Past Month (or so)

This is a mix of photos from the past month or so. The first ones are from a trip to the keys with my parents, and the second group is from Bradenton on the west coast with my friend Susan. The keys photos end with the butterfly and the Bradenton photos begin with the sunset.