John Day "Walk About"

Once a year my friend Jim Hay goes on a week long exploration of the forest back roads. This year it was to see the wild flowers in the high mountain meadows around John Day. I tagged along as the camera man. I was more interested in the trees than the flowers.

We took an extremely rutted road to an abandoned fire lookout tower.
On the way back down the mountain I was afraid the vehicle would high center so I encouraged Jim to cut across the hill. After studying the situation Jim said "No, we are going to do the right thing and stay on the road." We didn't high center and I was proud of him for obeying the rules of staying on the road.

I got sunburned on day one, so thereafter I wore a red bandana in foreign legion style. This worked great except for the tip of my long nose.The weather was great and the sky was magnificent at the mile high altitude. It was easy to get GPS fixes at that altitude with 5 or more satellites overhead. I love the bark patterns of the ponderosa pine which often has a reddish tinge.

Jim enjoyed fishing.

Surplus chests

Filipino-mahogany chest 23" wide 17" deep and 19" tall made from cabinet doors

Hardwood box 17" wide 13"deep and 13" high.  The top is a shade lighter than the sides

Beautiful 44" wide 12"deep and 24" high linen storage chest.  Formerly at the foot of mom's bed.  Ideal for storing sheets or pillows.  Would almost match Sheryl's bedroom furniture.

If any of you kids want one of these I'll deliver it. I'm now out of the business.

Drift Creek: beautiful spring day at the coast

The trail is 1.5 miles long.  Most of the trail is in the shade of the conifer trees. Amazing growth rings on this conifer, 2 to 3 rings per inch. The stump was in the middle of the trail.   My boot toe is sticking in the corner to give a size comparison.  

The suspension bridge is in the middle of nowhere and goes nowhere.  It is 100 feet above the river below.  The water fall is in the background.    

The trillium blossom is often found on the coast range forest floor under the trees.

This is a huge old stump which the loggers used as an anchor.  The notches are to wrap the steel cable around. The other end of the cable is attached to a tower (or spar tree).  The cable would be suspended in the air and logs hung from it as they were being moved to the trucks on the road.

My traveling companion, Jim, is looking out over the coastal landscape.  He almost always has a slight bulge under his shirt on his right side.  He claims it is necessary in bear country (and every where else except church). We've never seen a bear so it must work.  He claims hollow point bullets don't work well when shooting a bear because the hide is so tough.  As you can tell we don't talk about deep subjects when we are out enjoying nature.