black butte hike

On Saturday me, Pat, and our friends decided to tackle the hike up Black Butte, which is something we had wanted to do last year, but ran out of time. The whole "deal" with this hike is that you want to drink a Deschutes Black Butte Porter on the top of Black Butte :) So, packs on, filled with water and bottles of beer, and camera in tow we set off.

Admittedly, I was expecting the hike to be a bit easier... To make a comparison, take the Misery Ridge Trail at Smith Rock for example: super steep but with variation between up hill cut backs, stairs, and straight aways, and a fairly short trek up overall VS. Black Butte, which was long and pretty much just up, up, up the entire time. I suppose it didn't help that I had pulled my hamstring earlier in the week, but this did feel a bit harder. However, the view (and beer) at the top were plenty rewarding, not to mention all of the cute little chipmunks running around.

Here are some of the pictures that I shot with my big cam from the peak.

[[ mountains from the peak of black butte. views & fire towers. vibrant colors. chipmunk friends! back down. ]]

my week in pictures 58

monday 6/16 - sunday 6/22

Last week we spent a pretty good amount of time outside including a trip to Old Mill for the Fermentation Celebration, a tough hike up Black Butte on Saturday, and lots of working in the yard Sunday. Not too many pics for now, but took my Nikon with me up Black Butte, so I will post more about that tomorrow.

[[ sushi dinner. fermentation celebration at old mill. beautiful sunset. hiking up black butte. wildflowers. bob, our chipmunk friend. weird little tower. drinking a black butte on black butte. super high. poses. crazy flowers in our yard. a trip to the garden/getting all domestic about it. ]]

our yearly day trip to newport

friday, june 13th

Me and Pat have been taking at least a day trip to Newport for several years now, and even though we are a lot further away from the beach now, it is hard to break the habit.

Since we had to head to Corvallis for Hayden's graduation we decided to take an extra day off work and take our trip a little early this year. The weather was crap, but we didn't care, and actually despite it raining all day it never happened while we were outside. Lucky us. Of course no trip to Newport is complete without visiting both Rogue locations (three if you count the distillery) and our friend Wally the Walrus for our annual pic. Here are a few pictures I snapped on my phone.

[[ bridge. rogue. pat's happy place. steamer clams and dill halibut fish & chips. rainy day. the marina. antique shopping. WALLY! crab attach on the pier. ]]

my week in pictures 57

monday 6/9 - sunday 6/15

This week was definitely a busy and exciting one, though without any arson this time.

Me and Pat both had a short work week and then headed to Corvallis Thursday evening to visit some friends, take our annual day trip to Newport/Rogue, and for Hayden's graduation on Saturday. I still can't believe that brat is all gradumicated! Saturday night Hayden even convinced us to go out one last time and celebrate with him. That was interesting. I felt old, but didn't look it apparently, lucky me.

On Sunday I got to do brunch with my dad and some of my sisters for Father's Day since he was in town moving the little out of her apartment anyway. Then me, Pat and his parents helped Hayden move out of the 35th street house. It was kind of strange saying goodbye to that place one last time considering me, Pat, and a variety of roomies lived there for four years while I was in college. Although it hasn't felt much like ours for a long time since it is totally trashed now. Still lots of good parties, I mean memories there. :)

I am going to split the bulk of our day trip to Newport into its own post tomorrow so that this one isn't insanely long.

[[ a much less smokey view from our hike up pilot butte. dinner at brewerks. day trip to newport. hayden's graduation. reading through the speeches, my bad. this kid... pit stop at the rogue hop farm in independence. family grad. party dinner basically in the movie caddyshack. sunday brunch // dinner at les caves. bye bye 35th street house. ]]

bend burning

On Saturday afternoon (6/7) a wildfire was sparked, turning the Bend skyline black with smoke... 

A little dramatic, I know, but I couldn't resist an epic headline.

[[ my pano from pilot butte: click to enlarge. ]]

Me and Pat were headed to Brasada for the day when we noticed a plume of smoke creeping up to the sky and partially blocking views of the Sisters Mountains. I assumed controlled burn since those are a common occurrence around here, but Pat quickly pointed out that the smoke was turning black. Once we reached his moms place we had a panoramic view of the disaster, which had already grown significantly and included a second plume of smoke. Throughout the day we sat on the porch watching what they named the Two Bulls Fire from a safe distance. As it turns out, there were two fires that sparked about 15 minutes apart, and now local authorities are throwing phrases around like "man made" and "arson".

Things escalated from around 350 acres and the evacuations of all homes and national parks in two areas, to almost 6,200 acres at 0% contained overnight as air support halted for the evening. By Sunday afternoon the fire had grown even larger creeping closer to town, and over 1,000 local residents were placed on evacuation standby. Even though our home is on the other side of Bend, and we personally have only had to deal with some smoke, a little ash, and some seriously compromised air/itchy eyes, the whole situation has been extremely creepy to say the least. Now the fire has reached somewhere around 6,800 acres but firemen have finally gained control of it and seem to be successfully moving it away from town.
Mad props to the fire teams who have been working day and night to get this thing under control. 

Here is a Map of the evacuation zones from the Two Bulls Fire for proximity. 

I took a series of pictures on Saturday at Brasada, and then got a few closer shots from Pilot Butte by our house in town on Sunday. 

[[ progression of the fire saturday afternoon and evening. ]]

[[ progression of the fire sunday morning. driving in to bend. late afternoon shots on pilot butte. ]]

If you want to see exactly what we were looking at from Brasada in "real time", Click Here, scroll down to the bottom, click on "Webcam", and select Saturday 6/7/2014 for a time lapse video of exactly what we saw. The video from Sunday 6/8/2014 is pretty interesting also.

For more "real time" views of the fire, check out the following videos:
Eye On Bend Saturday Timelapse (click here for the condensed version)
One Hour of Smoke Timelapse
Fire at Night Timelapse
Aerial Video from Drone 1
Aerial Video from Drone 2


Additionally, there is a ton of amazing imagery that I pulled off of Instagram (#twobullsfire) below, as well as some pretty epic shots from wedding photographer Josh Newton who was shooting at Rock Springs Ranch when the entire wedding party was forced to evacuate the area. Click here to view his website with more images, and here is the full story (though it has blown up so I'm sure you are all sick of it).

[[ photos from instagram, credit: trappface. stubobusa. american_sf. aurora_cook. ]]

[[ photos from our friends: sara's pic from southwest bend. jenn's pic from north east right by our place. ]]

Finally, here are some news and mapping sources that I have been using to follow the fire's progress for those interested:
CentralORFire (twitter feed)  |  CentralORFire Blog
USGS Two Bulls Fire Map Viewer (zoom in on oregon)
KTVZ (local news)
Wildfire News Today (lots of good info & pictures)
The Oregonian
Live Weather Stations 1 & 2 (although things are nice and clear now)

my week in pictures 56

monday 6/2 - sunday 6/8

Last week's highlights include tons of yummy food, a backyard work sesh, beautiful sunsets, a little lounging by the pool, and Bend catching on fire... Yea, about that last part, a full post with details and lots of pictures to follow tomorrow. I had never quite seen anything like it so I took a bunch.

[[ pat's delicious bbq. blueberries for days. happy hour dinner at noi. feast from the fire at brasada. the sunset situation. my office for a day. watching the two bulls fire explode over bend from brasada. the fire at night. good morning, where are the mountains? exploring construction sites. a little pool time action, minus the usually gorgeous mountain views. red sky driving home sunday night. the fire from pilot butte right by our house. ]]