Mum's the Word

Shhhh. Don't tell anybody, but tomorrow is the first day of Fall.

Although it's one my favorite times of year to photograph, hike, and fish; it always makes me get retrospective of how my summer went. In the past, I have had both wonderful - and not so wonderful times during the long days of the season. This year was, well, just average.

This weekend was kind of dreary in Bend. Somewhat fitting I guess, due to the impending end of summer ahead. I decided that I needed something around to try and help fill my views with color instead of the all the gray out my window.

So, I brought home a glorious example of a Fall Mum. The gray light was perfect for making on image of the last day of summer.



The fall colors will be around us sooner than we all expect. I guess that's one of the reasons that I thoroughly enjoy living just far enough north to be able to experience the four seasons.

Gary

Yumm!

I was lucky enough to find some good looking asparagus at the local market this afternoon, so I added some chicken breasts, rice, and red potatoes to the shopping cart and headed home.

I'm not much of a chef, but the results were spectacular!


I am fat and happy tonight!

Gary

Grasshopper... You need to fish!

I was up at 5AM this morning and managed to get a new furl tied, a cup of coffee in me, and pack up some gear for a trip to somewhere. I didn't know where, but Heather and I agreed last night that she would take me somewhere. When she arrived, she still hadn't decided where we were going. After a stop at the grocery store, the first red light made our decision for us. We headed to a series of small streams a couple of hours away. We were hoping to have some fun throwing hopper patterns at eager trout.

We succeeded!

Since my summer has been a little lacking on fishing trips, I decided to leave the camera in the car most of the day and just fish instead. I did get a few quick shots though...

I got a bug tied on the way (photo by Heather, taken at 45 mph)


We started our day on this small creek. The levels were low and the temps were a bit high, so after a short time we decided to move on to stream #2.


Stream #2 turned out to be rather hopper friendly. We had a blast!


We saw some other bugs around as well


As we thought about our journey home, Heather decided that she would show me a stretch of a secluded stream with the promise of more trout to be had. We both caught a handful of gorgeously colorful, and wonderfully feisty, hand-sized trout


Around numerous log jams...


...and boulder fields




Thanks to Heather for taking me on this trip and showing me some new waters.

It was a great way to spend a Sunday. All 330 miles of it...

G

How old am I?

Old enough to know better...

Today I am 44. I still feel like I'm 20. I've got a lot more to say about how I feel about my age, but it'll have to wait a few days until I digest it all.

Tomorrow I am headed out on an adventure. I really need to get out. I am looking forward to the outing.

Becoming 44 years young is less important than what I might experience this weekend.

G

Hangin' Out

I spent this weekend with both my son and my parents. My son found that hitting garage sales with his grandparents was pretty fun (I didn't go).

He ended up bringing home a pretty cool desk lamp. Perfect for helping him see when he is building models. Since he didn't have anything in progress, we spent Saturday afternoon at the hobby shop. He decided to use his savings to buy a really cool aircraft carrier which included a ton of aircraft.

While he was concentrating on his project, I just had to break out the camera and get a couple of shots. I like this one...



Thanks Mom and Dad for the visit, and for taking time to make sure B had a great day.

Gary

A Laborious Labor Day Weekend...

(Belated...)

With my current status of having no car, Heather was willing to help me get out of town for the three day weekend.

We had both been really busy lately with work and stuff, but decided to head out in search of something extraordinary.

Every couple of years I make a point to travel down to the somewhat desolate southeast corner of our state and visit the awe-inspiring Steens Mountains. This years visit provided some experiences that were new to me. Everything was new for Heather...

We had big plans to leave at 0-dark-thirty, but finally managed to hit the road about 8 on Saturday:


An hour or three later, we ended up here:


We headed up the mountain and set up camp. Afterwards we headed to the summit. We had a visitor along the way:


We continued to the summit and had a great view to the east:


Along with a view to our destination for Sunday.


The Wildhorse Lake trail starts at 9400 ft, and makes it's way to the lake in 1.1 miles, with a descent of 1100 ft. The climb up is gonna be a bit tough...

We made the trip without any issues, and arrived at the car just as the wind was in full force. It was probably gusting to 60+? The trip was well worth it.

We decided to head back to camp and hang out for a while. The amount of stars over head was absolutely outstanding! It was like we were in a snow globe!

Here's the Milky Way over Fish Lake:


After breaking camp, we decided to check out the Blitzen River. It was wonderful looking water, but we had little luck.

It was a great weekend full of oohs and awes. I look forward to my next trip to the area.

Gary