Saddle Mountain!

Josh and Linze went the weekend before us, so I'll pseudo-quote them to save time!

We just climbed Saddle Mountain on Saturday... "It's 7 miles off of HWY 26 towards the Oregon coast. Here's what the Oregon State Parks website has to say:

'Two and a half miles. That's all it is from the parking lot (elev. 1,650') to the summit of Saddle Mountain (elev. 3,283'). Be prepared to marvel at the sheer volume of natural beauty packed onto the mountain, from a mature forest setting to fields of wildflowers to an open rocky summit. The view from the top of the mountain is one that cannot be described ... it must be experienced.The trip to the top isn't an everyday stroll through the woods, though. Come prepared with water and layer your clothing. The temperature is very different at the summit than in the parking lot. Wear appropriate shoes for rough terrain and be prepared for some steep grades, which make for interesting climbing.'

The temp was NOT different at the top vs the Parking lot, actually. It took us about 3 hours to get up and back down. Not too bad. Molly was dying of the heat, so we took quite a few little breathers on the way up, but really, it wasn't that hard of a hike... except the last few hundred feet. Even that, though, I wouldn't consider hard... you just have to take it slow to be safe.

Afterward we ate dinner in Astoria at a little (and NICE) bistro near the Astoria bridge. Very yummy! We got back home at about 9, showered, watched some TV and got in the Hot Tub!

Here are our (few) pictures.

Saddle Mountain, Aug. 2008

Hot Tub Pics!

Thought we would go ahead and post a pic or two of the hot tub, so people know that we really did buy one!

Hot-tubbing!

What a cutie (the baby is cute, too!)

We took these photos the day after Gluttony. Heather Phillips cooked us pizza and invited the survivors of Gluttony day over. We all had a very nice (beer-free) time, playing with the kids and eating some good grub.

"Two tickets to the gun show!"

Godson and Family Aug. 2008

Baby Owen!

Here are some pictures of my step-nephew, Owen and his family. It was a short, but sweet visit. Owen was very happy and in a really good mood!

Owen Aug 2008

A visit to Grandma Norris

Had a nice talk with Grandma and Family. We visited the day after Gluttony day, and she seemed like she was in very good spirits, overall. It was nice to see her, and also a little sad... but she is so positive that its very easy to sit there and talk without even thinking about her health.

Grandma Norris, Aug 08

Gluttony Day Photos

Not much here, but I thought I would post a few photos that we did take. Don't remember much after this point!

Gluttony Day - 2008

Ouch!

Man, I don't know what I did to my wrist... I mean, literally nothing stands out as being the one THING that started all of this pain... But now I can barely use my right arm at all. Nearly everything causes a severe sharp pain between my thumb and my forearm, right in the wrist. I went to the urgent care facility today, and they x-ray'd it and such.Nothing broken, but it is a sprain of some sort. I'm in a splint, so typing is very tough...using the mouse is worse. This will definately affect my work outs... hopfully not too much else, though.

Anyway, last night Molly and I left the house at 4pm to catch a Radio Head concert in Seattle which started at 7:30. We made it by 9:30. The last 6 miles took like 3 hours almost. We decided we couldn't handle another 6 hours in the car, so we listened to like 8 songs, and left to beat traffic. We we're sound asleep at home by 1:45AM.

Fun weekend

This last weekend Molly, Josh Y and Linze and I went out to Crater Lake for some camping and to see the meteor shower.

We drove down early on Friday morning and missed most of the traffic down (it is nearly a 5 hour drive from Portland) so that was good. When we finally arrived, the smoke from the California forest fires was so thick you could barely see the lake. I feel bad for those people who would only see the lake like this, and not see the amazing blue color that the lake normally has.

Friday we went on a nice hike up Garfield Peak which affords (normally) a beautiful view of the lake from the top. The peak is 8054 ft above sea level. The air was thin enough that we had kind of a difficult time breathing. We made it to the top and it was almost clear enough by then to get a decent (but not great) view of the lake. Friday early-evening we walked up The Watchmen which is a peak at around 8013 ft and watched the sunset. It was BALLS cold up there from the wind. I am betting that it was around 40 degrees with the windchill, and we were up there for over an hour. The warm fire was very, very welcome once we got back to the campsite.

Saturday was quite a day. We decided that we were going to climb the tallest peak in the park: Mt. Scott at 8929 ft above sea level. We decided to get an early start to avoid the crowds but were blocked by a marathon that happend to be that day, but not
posted like ANYWHERE... so we wasted a good 2 hours (and gas) driving around the lake trying to get to the mountain. When we finally got through at around noon, we found the hike to be fairly easy, but again, the air was thin so we had to go fairly slow. The view from the top was breathtaking. We ate lunch up there and headed back down. Afterward we did 3 other smallish hikes, none of them longer than a mile, but all were amazing in terms of what you got to see.

On Sunday we wanted to do a smaller hike, but our attempts were thwarted by construction and logs (don't ask). So we went wine tasting in the Umqua Valley. We got back into Portland at around 8pm last night.

I'll post the pictures later tonight!