feburary 2015 | a bigfoot video

Bigfoot is no joke around Skamania County (people really believe!) and the 9th grade English class did an entire unit on bigfoot to capitalize on it : deciding what sources were legitimate, listening to guest speakers, doing research and then making a video about bigfoot. When I heard the English teacher was getting the Bigfoot costume from City Hall (because they have one, of course) I just HAD to go with as they shot the video.

it was just as amazing as I thought it would be.

We went up above town to shoot the video, perfect place for a Bigfoot to be.



I was able to watch some of the kids videos as well, and they were SO good and funny. I would say the teachers video was a solid C effort, some of the students videos were definitely better. A for effort though. 

October 2014 | McCall Point Hike

I've never spent much time east of Hood River, but now that I am living in Hood River I am loving going east into the desert. It's SO different then west of the Gorge, that I am used to and I love it. Especially since the weather there somehow always seems to be nicer.

I hiked up McCall Point- there was a lot of damage from a fire, which was kinda a bummer because the hike is supposed to be on a ridgeline (I think?) but the detours push you back into less impressive routes. And I saw a SNAKE. I screamed and ran. I always scream and run when I see nature I don't like. It works for me.

Still there is no denying that Oregon is one pretty state.

I ran into ONE person, and asked them to take a picture of me. Here is the gem:

Night hike - November 2014

Daylight Savings time is useless, because it still gets dark at 5pm. Seriously, the sun goes down at 5pm. It's the WORST. None the less, Joe and I decided to go hiking.

The day was SO beautiful:

Joe & Khan:

 

 

We knew we were going to end up hiking in the dark, so of course the essential safety equipment was a whistle.

And we finally made it to the waterfall - right before the sun went down.

Night hiking, it's the next big thing.

august 2014 | tunnel falls hike 1 / 3

Tunnel Falls Hike Part 1 / 3 

Tunnel Falls Hike Part 2 / 3

Tunnel Falls Hike Part 3 / 3

Joe and I decided to do an overnight hike to Tunnel Falls, and after a late morning start (totally my fault, I had gone out the night before!) we left at about noon. I had been about three miles down the trial, so the start wasn't new to me, and was pretty crowded with people going to Punchbowl Falls. Once you got past that (2 miles) it was much less crowded which was nice.

It was so hot I convinced Joe to swim, even though he's not a huge fan.

He jumped in, but it was shallow so I didn't. The water was pretty cold and there were fish.... I hate fish. But it was great to cool off.

 ^ I love waterproof cameras because you just never know what you're gonna get! 

august 2014 | Tunnel Falls Hike Part 2 / 3

 Tunnel Falls Hike Part 1 / 3 

Tunnel Falls Hike Part 2 / 3

Tunnel Falls Hike Part 3 / 3

After the swim break we continued on... it looked pretty much like this the whole way :

till we got to this :

Joe's comment was "Multnomah Falls, what?" which was pretty right on.

you walk behind the waterfall, which lead to some speculation as to how / why the trail was even built, but it was awesome :

Twisted Falls :

I thought these trails were awesome! :

and loved these little waterfalls that seemed to be everywhere! :

august 2014 | Tunnel Falls Hike Part 3 / 3

Tunnel Falls Hike Part 1 / 3 

Tunnel Falls Hike Part 2 / 3

Tunnel Falls Hike Part 3 / 3

After the waterfalls there are a bunch of places to camp, most were pretty empty ... it was a Monday night after all.  But we managed to find this one:

 ^ can you spot our tent?

I laid around while Joe made dinner and wondered why trees don't grow straight...

and walked around the river near our campsite :

I was pretty unsure about this meal Joe brought, specifically this meat:

 but it was great! I can't say the same for the pasta thing we had, though. 

This was the view from the tent ... not too bad :

The next morning, the sun didn't wake us up at all (which was nice!). Joe made coffee and another dehydrated breakfast ...an egg omelet thing that was also pretty good. Basically, I got spoiled being cooked for on this trip and doing nothing. Joe even bought all the food before hand, so literally all I did was show up (late!), it was great. My Dad had even gotten me a Life Straw so I didn't have to worry about water.

I convinced Joe one last swim would be a great idea, but it wasn't. Because it was really cold.

One last look at all the falls and we headed back.

We both agreed that it was great to hike and not be rained on the entire time -our June trip it rained the ENTIRE time, literally every minute it felt like. So another backpacking trip is in the works that sounds like it should be awesome. Next week is my last week before work starts, so I have to get everything in! I am not at all ready to go back, but I have had a great summer so it's hard to complain.