will bike for wine

As part of Eola Winery's Bike Oregon Wine Country, the screamin' green machine went on her longest ride yet...52 miles through the rolling hills of the Willamette Valley.  Beautiful countryside and vineyards surrounded us as we cruised winery to winery on the cool, late summer day.

view from one of the vineyards

a common sight for me throughout the day

casey and me

bikers/winetasters

some got a little more into it than others 

flowers from one of the wineries

more flowers from one of the wineries

  casey on the road

what r 'em wheels for?

setting up the boats

After 3 summers, I participated in potentially my last beach survey last week.  The weather was the best I've seen it on the coast so far this summer (which of course means that I got sun burnt and got another blister on my lip).  I was nervous about this particular survey because part of it was in Westport, Washington where we had our unfortunate run in with one of the many crabpots in the area last year... http://photoerica.blogspot.com/2009/09/deadliest-catch-and-migrating-channel.html.  Luckily, the incident was not repeated and we got all the work done in good time.

putting the boats in the water

putting the boats in the water

safety crew trying to find the boaters amongst the clouds of birds

the birds (note the jet skier)!

gabrielle land surveying at sunrise. beautiful colors that morning.

emptying her boots post survey

me land surveying with gabrielle at sunrise

We also managed to find things to entertain ourselves with while in the field.  We found that the dollies that we use to transport the jet skis into the water with also make great dune carts!

andrew showing us how it's done

2 seconds later i had a mouth full of sand.

 diana takes the wheels for a spin

 katy models the uniform

dinner with the crew in our sweet suite we had for the week

permanent infrastructure + beaches = bad news

waldo lake

To escape from the valley heat last weekend, a group of us hit up the Cascades to relax at Waldo Lake.  Complete with fabulous scenery and one magnificently clear lake, it was a hella good time. 

 

 casey living the good life

one of the many islands

 clear water!

we didn't even plan this...

  sunset at waldo lake

 sunset through burnt trees

 the ladies...and casey

i had a crush on this tree.

 

Broken Top

After several failed attempts to hike at Broken Top, I finally made it last weekend. Although not quite a successful summit, the hike and views were still awesome. Because there isn't an obvious trail to the top, we just set our eyes on the peak and bushwhacked our way there, but of course, it ended up being the wrong way! After getting above most of the trees, the rocks became very thin and brittle--a sound identical to walking on broken glass.  The terrain quickly steepened and we were soon left with cliffs of loose boulders separating us from the summit. Rather than risk our lives for the wrong trail, we just enjoyed the "nearly summit" views and headed back down. Sadly, this was also done in the absence of a summit beer as Oregon does not sell alcohol before 7am and we left Corvallis at 3 that morning! Lesson learned.

 alex stream crossing

the trail to green lakes

mt bachelor

sisters and green lakes

on the ridge to broken top

feels just like i'm walking on broken glass...

broken top

me & broken top

mt bachelor

alex on the ridge

view from broken top

surfing the rocks on the way down

bones! 

field of lupus

per usual 

indian paintbrush

we were up there

there's a meltpond at the base of this snow...i must get there soon.