I really don’t know why. I’ve been stopping at Lithia Park in Ashland on the way home on the past few trips. It’s a wonderful place to stroll. Not to mention that if the light is favorable you can get some darn nice pictures of little Ashland Creek.

I wasn’t sure how it was going to be today considering that there hasn’t been much in the way of fall color. Actually Lithia Park had better color than the other places I’ve visited this month. Well, with the exception of the trees in the cities.

Today was, as usual, a sunny day. So I was hoping to get some nice colorful reflections in the creek. Apparently timing is extremely critical. As it so happened, I hit the perfect time last year. This year I was lamenting the lack of reflected color. As I walked a bit further I started to see some. You see, I arrived just a tiny bit earlier this year. My observation, which is based on a sample of just two days, is that the right time starts around 10:35. I ended up looping back to my original spot by 11:40 and that was too late.

Oh I made sure to visit the tiny Japanese Garden. Last year I was just a bit late, but there was still some color and the fallen red leaves were pretty. This year I was definitely too late.

After dinner tonight I was looking for a trash can. I found one in the exercise room. As long as I was in there I figured why not try the machines. I had never used an elliptical before. I didn’t like it. I had to bend my knees too much. The recumbent bike was okay. I wouldn’t mind working with it a little more to get a better feel for it. But I tried that after I got a work out on the treadmill. That was okay. I prefer actually walking on the ground, but I think I wouldn’t mind having one at home. It felt a little strange, but I think I might be able to get used to it. Gee, that would save me the trouble of driving so far so that I can go walking in the woods.

Since I had already completed all of the major locations in my plan, I was reduced to looking for some fill in items from my options list. I can assure you that it’s a horrible situation to be in. I’m feeling so sorry for myself that I’m close to tears. Or maybe I’ll be honest and say that I simply enjoyed an easy and quite enjoyable final day in the Portland area.

I went to Wahclella Falls in the morning. I haven’t geocached in several years, but I would have had to be blind to miss the cache sitting right out on a rock near the falls. I wrote a short note in the log, but I don’t intend to go to the web site and record my visit. I guess that sometimes people just find caches and write in the log even if they’re not involved in geocaching. For instance, someone at work found a cache and read the log. There was an entry from a decidedly non-geocacher. It read, “Why don’t you people just get high?”

I went about halfway up the talus slope and shot a couple of quick frames. I was going to continue to the huge boulder but decided that there wasn’t much point. Since East Fork Falls was barely flowing and the ephermal waterfall on the cliff wall near the talus slope was living up to its description, I didn’t expect that I was going to get any particularly good shots from up there. The only reason I would have gone is to see if the shrine has been replaced. It was gone during a previous visit or two, so I don’t have any reason to expect that it’s back.

My next stop was Beacon Rock State Park. Since I didn’t have any time pressure I hiked slow and stopped often to just enjoy my last day in the Gorge. I was on the Hamilton Mountain Trail, but I had no intention of going up to the top. I’m not one of those sort of people who needs to get high. While I can enjoy grand, scenic views, I seem to gravitate to much closer, more intimate settings.

Rodney Falls was mostly in the shade, but there were spots of sunlight. Although those certainly didn’t enhance my pictures, I managed to get a couple of photos that weren’t too bad. It’s a pretty waterfall, but the coolest part is something which isn’t easy to photograph. There is a spur to the Pool of the Winds, which is a small alcove that the top tier of the waterfall flows into. The view is fenced since it’s on the rocks right next to the outlet. I can only imagine how much wind and spray shoots out of there when the creek is flowing high. A somewhat drier view can be had from the bridge below. There was no spray at the bridge today. It probably does get wet in high water, although it would be nothing like standing next to the entrance of Pool of the Winds. The entire cascade goes on for a while, but there aren’t really good viewpoints.

Looking at the park map, I saw a short trail to a pond size lake. I figured why not check it out since I was already finished with what I wanted to do today. It was nice hiking without my backpack and tripod. There may have been a pond there at one time, but now it’s a marshy meadow surrounded by berry thickets.

Boring, Oregon that is. I wonder who came up with that name. I suppose it was probably someone with the surname of Boring. Hopefully it wasn’t intended as a descriptive name. But perhaps someone just thought that the simple life is the way to go.

I’m sure that much of the younger generation of electronic multi-taskers would have been horrendously bored with what I did today. What did I do? Well I walked in the rain. You heard me right; it finally rained. The forecast was for showers starting in the late morning. I was trying to figure out if I was going to take my backpack, but since it was already sprinkling on my way to the trail it turned out to be quite an easy decision.

I took a few pictures near the beginning of the Lower Salmon River trail. Most of the rest of that section I spent just walking and observing. Although I didn’t see anything that caught my eye in terms of photography, I still enjoyed my solitary hike. I was the only one out there on this rainy morning. Instead of hiking out and back the entire distance, I walked back to my car and then drove to the Central Salmon River trail head.

There was one car here. I figured that it belonged to the hardy souls who had a tent set up in the campground. Speaking of camping, I saw signs reading that the forest service was considering closing camping outside of developed fee campgrounds in this area. The portable toilet and trash cans were intended for hikers and were not intended to serve as fee free campground facilities. Of course instead of closing the area to free camping they just removed the toilet and trash cans. I do have to say that I don’t blame the campers for using the toilet. I would have done the same in their position. However, they could have certainly packed out their garbage.

It was raining pretty well while I hiked the Central Salmon River trail. I could have skipped it. I even thought about turning around. My thought was that I didn’t want to get my camera gear soaked. I set a time when I would turn around if the rain didn’t let up. When that time came I decided to continue, because I was enjoying myself. After all, what better way is there to spend a rainy day than walking on a trail? I reasoned that my gear has survived getting wet before. I just had to make sure that it didn’t get too wet.

I ended up seeing maybe ten people on this trail section, which surprised me. I figured that maybe the locals had gotten spoiled by all of the recent sunny weather. I, perhaps, may have been spoiled by the rain. The remainder of my time in Portland is expected to be sunny. How boring.

My previous visit to Eagle Creek didn’t make a strong impression. The temperature was 102 degrees. When I exited the air conditioned car my stomach lurched, and I thought I was going to be sick. We got back in the car and left in search of easier destinations.

Today I actually got around to hiking Eagle Creek. Since it was a longer hike I needed to be mindful of the time. That meant that I did not take as many pictures as I would have liked. I think that overall this would not have been as photo rich (for me) as some of the other creeks I have visited during this trip. But a lot of the time I had to just keep hiking instead of stopping to take pictures. Of course that was easier during the times when I had the sun shining on the creek.

I had expected that Tunnel Falls would be sort of a novelty. I have to say that when I was able to experience it in person I really liked it a lot. It was actually pretty darn cool. There are many spots along Eagle Creek where the builders blasted the trail out of the cliffs. This spot was one of those locations, except that there happened to be a waterfall flowing down the cliff. What do to? How about blasting a tunnel behind the fall? So you’re walking on an exposed cliff. You enter a short tunnel maybe fifteen feet long. When you emerge there is mist from the waterfall flowing at the portal. Right after that you’re walking through rain, which is water falling from the cliff. Oh and you’re still on a narrow ledge. Hike a short distance farther and you’re looking at the waterfall you just bypassed. Well I don’t know. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much to you. But I really enjoyed the experience.

Twister Falls was spectacular, but I was looking directly into the sun, so I didn’t even shoot any frames.

On my way back, I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. I checked to see that I had my tripod, camera, and other assorted paraphernalia. I did have everything, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was forgetting something. I finally figured that it was my subconscious mind telling me that I was forgetting to take pictures. As I previously mentioned I knew that I was going to have to choose between actually completing the entire planned hike or taking a long time shooting as much as I normally do. I rationalized that the majority of the creek scenes were not drastically different than other creeks I’ve visited. In addition, much of the trail runs high above the creek. I did pass up a few opportunities to get down to creek level. One in particular was a spot with green mossy rocks sprinkled with fallen leaves in the middle of cascades. I couldn’t tell if I was actually going to get a good vantage if I headed down there. I was saving my time for something else.

The light was less than desirable at Punchbowl Falls on the way in. My plan was to return on my way back. My thought was at that time I should have better light. Perhaps more enticing was that I thought I might actually enjoy numbing my feet in the chilly water in the afternoon. I’m not sure why since I had about thirteen miles of trail rocks providing a relaxing Shiatsu massage to my feet. I was disappointed to find that the light was not much better when I returned. I’ve seen some stunningly beautiful photographs of Punchbowl Falls, but it appears that I won’t be adding to that particular bounty.

Eagle Creek has a very bad reputation for car prowls. I considered changing my hike to Saturday since I thought that more activity might mean less privacy for crooks. Instead I opted for a week day for a less crowded hike. I think that turned out to be a wise decision since even on a Friday I saw around sixty people on the trail.

To wrap up, photographically my day was mostly spent just taking quick snapshots along the trail. I didn’t end up with much worth sharing. In fact, I had a hard time finding anything at all I felt like uploading. The picture I finally chose was just a quick hand-held snapshot before I entered the tunnel behind the waterfall. What I like about it is that it gives you a feel for the trail cut into the cliffs. There is about a sixty foot drop in this location. Oh, and you can see a little bit of columnar basalt. Just before reaching this location, I passed through another blasted ledge. The rock looked a bit strange. It took a minute to hit me that I was walking on columnar basalt. The interesting thing is that the tops of the columns were mostly slightly convex or concave.

It’s a good thing that I had Siouxon Creek on my itinerary this year. I’m not so sure that it will remain reachable by passenger car much longer. That is without a doubt the worst (mostly) paved road I’ve ever driven.

Even with the days being sunny, there are places where the direct sunlight doesn’t reach for most of the day due to the lower angle of the sun at this time of year and the surrounding terrain. Since I planned this trip for this normally overcast time of year that has been a real godsend. Imagine a fall trip without rain and without much fall color. And speaking of color, I would love to share a picture of the beautiful color of the water in places in Siouxon Creek with you. The problem is that while I was able to see it through the trees, when I went down the bank to the creek level the light was different and I wasn’t able to capture what I could see from above. Speaking of above, the trail is mostly above creek level. That’s not exactly unusual. I am very pleased to report that the trail stays very close to the creek for the most part. It’s kind of disappointing when I hike a trail named for a creek or river and have very few views of those features.

The trail continues past the cutoff for the Chinook Creek Trail. I would have loved to continue, but instead, as per plan, I took the short spur to Chinook Falls. Chinook Falls is very nice, although I did not even take a picture. It was almost all in the shade, while the cliff on the left side was in full sun. I stood and watched it for a while. I wanted to stay longer, but it had already taken me five hours to get to my turn around point. It only took me two hours to hike back to the trail head. I figured out why it takes me so long to hike. (That is besides my various ailments.) I keep stopping to take pictures! Five hours in and two hours out. I’m sure you can do the math. Imagine what I could do if I just left my camera behind.

Yesterday I had a very nice time at dinner with Greg and Cheryl.

This morning I went to Panther Creek Falls. This time I also went down to the bottom. I won’t be doing that again. It was rough going. Bless the kind soul who left a sort of rope tied to a tree. Too bad it wasn’t long enough. But anything helps. I’m glad that I was able to get down there to see what it looks like from that perspective.

I completely forgot how beautiful the cleverly named Falls Creek is. I suppose that sort of oversight is prone to happen when there is a magnificent, exhilarating waterfall upstream. Pictures don’t do Falls Creek Falls Justice. Especially mine. But most of them won’t show how impressive this waterfall is.

I was planning to finish the day with a hike to Rodney Falls and Hardy Falls. I haven’t yet been to them, but since they’re south facing I figured that it was likely that I wouldn’t be getting any shots due to the sunlight, so I decided to make this a short day.