Exploring Oregon

 
Oregon Is An Outdoorsman's Paradise.
Summer will soon be upon us, and for most Americans, that means vacation time. The kids are out of school for the year, the weather is reasonably nice, and a severe case of "cabin fever" spurs us on to get away from it all. (Perhaps we can leave the kids with Grandma, you may be thinking, and really get away from it all!)

Have you ever visited Oregon? We have some incredible outdoor adventures waiting for anyone who is interested. Camping, hiking, fishing, swimming, boating, or just driving a scenic highway. From the deserts of Easter Oregon, to the many mountain ranges, to the breathtaking beauty of the rugged Oregon coast, our state is a wonderful playground.

Dean Creek Elk Reserve Along Highway 38 near Reedsport. This picture was taken from the Viewing Area, with a 300mm lens.

Some of you already know I am self-employed, doing internet marketing and web site maintenance.

One of these sites now has a Resources area with several pages of listings for Oregon sites specializing in recreation (compliments of "yours truly"). There are currently pages for Oregon Hunting Resources and Oregon Fishing Resources, with more on the way. By the way, not even one of the listings is an affiliate link.

Many of the sites listed on these pages have some great pictures of Oregon, big fish and trophy size deer and elk. As with any proper directory, new sites will be added as we become aware of them, so check back from time to time.

I actually expected the first resource page would be on hiking, as that is an area of my interest, far more so than either fishing or hunting. But most pages with information about hiking in Oregon are not themselves in Oregon, and cover hiking in areas all of the United States. Hopefully I can find a number of personal homepages that have information about specific trails.

This new directory of Oregon Recreation Resources is sponsored by Baker's Shoes & Clothing Company of Eugene, Oregon. Baker's carries functional clothing, shoes and boots for both working hard and playing hard, and specializes in work boots from Danner, Whites, & Viberg to name a few.

 
Spirit Falls Revisited

Spirit Falls, March 2004 (Click on the image to see the full photo.)

Circumstances have conspired to keep me from getting out this Spring as much as I would have liked, between Llama's six-day work schedules, bad weather and most recently, my German Shephard's surgery.

(The stitches come out tomorrow, which means we get to take off the "Shrek" sized elizabethan collar used to keep him from licking the incision. I'm not sure who is more happy about it, the dog or me!)

We did manage to get out a few of times, though, including a trip back to Spirit Falls in early March.

It was really amazing how different the falls looked in just a few short months. Last October there was hardly any water at all. The huge rounded rocks looked like the bottom two sections of a giant gray snowman, the water flowing down as though someone had used a hairdryer to melt the snowman's head. In March, it was nearly impossible to tell what those rocks looked like, there was so much water cascading down.

Spirit Falls October 2003

There were other changes, too. We had some rough weather during the winter, after several years of drought. There were several trees that had fallen down the hill, as well as much more debris from the river. One rather large log looked as though it had tumbled down from the falls. We could see the evidence of recent Winter storm damage in every direction we looked, the bright contrast of the newly exposed wet wood against gray bark and deep green moss.

Still, it was very beautiful. And the sound of the rushing water was delightful and calming. Well worth the effort to hike down a trail that wouldn't be properly groomed for several weeks.