[travel] The Oregon roadtrip

Desi and I returned from our week-long roadtrip to Portland yesterday.  The ostensible purpose of the trip was to watch our friends Simran and Amanda get married in Portland, but to me the point of driving (which is more expensive and a lot more work than flying) was to see all the lovely stuff in between.  We kept off major highways, opting instead for the roads that wind through hilly landscapes and briefly become the main street of various small towns, with the obligatory local revenue-generating 25mph speed limits that allow us to glimpse the life scattered across the vastness of the US.

Overall it was a wonderful experience, despite the occasional grumpiness that long drives can generate in people who are accustomed to movement and exercise.  We spent a couple of hours sorting through the 500 or so trip photos, wielding Lightroom's magic toolset over our favorites to make them better approximate our firsthand experiences.  The pictures are on flickr now, and I'll be writing up some entries to go with them over the next hour or two.

Map of the trip

[travel] Oregon Roadtrip part 1: climbing at Castle Crags and Shasta

We spent the first night with some friends in Chico.  On the second day, we planned to visit the interesting-looking Castle Crags state park (we chose a lot of minor destinations based on noticing the names of green sections on the map we were passing near and then looking those names up on flickr) for a couple of hours before heading on to a full day of hiking on Mt Shasta. 

Instead, we were so entranced with Castle Crags that we embarked on a rather strenuous 6 mile hike with a 2000 ft elevation gain.  The apex of the hike offered up an additional off-trail don't-say-we-didn't-warn-you climb up a 500-ft dome that offered incredible views of the crags and of Mt Shasta. 



The final climb was a bit harrowing.  Climbing real, somewhat crumbly rocks without proper equipment or a clear route is an interesting task for a pair of somewhat risk-averse people.   Our adventures on the way:

 
 
   

We were very happy to finally make it to the top, and were stunned at how few other hikers we saw along the way.  No one else was adventurous or foolish enough to go up the dome as well.

 

The view of Shasta from there was fantastic.  Unfortunately our hike took so long that we had very little time to explore Shasta before sunset, and we had to play don't-flinch-at-the-trucks'-massive-headlights for a couple of hours on a narrow road to Klamath Falls before we could sleep.

 


I want to go back and climb Mt Shasta.  In the late summer it can be done with minimal equipment.  It's a 12 mile roundtrip with a 4000ft elevation gain (and the climb starts at 10000 feet, so it's very thin air. 

See all the Castle Crags photos on flickr!

[travel] Oregon roadtrip pt 2: Crater Lake

Crater Lake is one hell of an impressive place.  It's the remnant of a volcano that was so massive that it blew off numerous cubic miles of itself in a single cataclysmic explosion around 6000 years ago.  (I wonder what Bible literalists think when they read about things like this... perhaps they shake their heads at the obvious stupidity and arrogance of those so-called scientists)  The scale is mind-blowing -- looking at it, I can think "this used to be a mountain, and a center piece that's a mile high, five miles wide, and six miles long just vanished, leaving this hole.  The water of the lake is extraordinarily clear. 

The site was made a national park over a century ago, and bears the hallmark of many years of planning for tourist-friendliness.  It is a huge tourist draw despite its remoteness from major cities.  Unlike Castle Crags, the hikes are easy and well protected; the coddled tourists are encouraged to enjoy the fantastic views in a limited number of easily accessible locations. 



Yes, you.

 
 

There was one spot where we could hike down into the lake and jump into its almost drink-ably pristine blue waters.  I hadn't planned on doing this, but the cliff tempted me, so I made do with some boxer shorts as marginal swimming trunks.

   

( More photos... )

See all the crater lake photos on flickr!

[travel] Oregon Roadtrip Pt 3: long roads

We took the scenic route through Central Oregon into Portland.  The experience of traveling on a road cut straight through tall, dense forest triggers old memories of watching the final scenes of Star Wars, when the Rebels improbably flew down that trench...

 

Later, we encountered a beautiful desert on the way to Mt Hood