I have now edited my first set of pictures in Costa Rica, and I am missing that country already. The high temperature in Portland is still a good 15 degrees lower than the low in Costa Rica. This means that I have gone from lying naked on the bed with a fan on me  while complaining about the heat, to being bundled up with a blanket by a space heater while complaining about the cold. Not entirely true, just 35% true.

Spiky Plant

My little lizard buddy

Lizard the sequel

Clouds rolling in on Chirripo

Tiny crab in Santa Rosa National Park

Little crab pushing the water out of his hole after a wave. Pic by Shannon.

Finding tracks early in the morning. Not sure which kind.

I should really get better about ID-ing flowers.

Shannon and I did a recent one night trip to Nehalem Bay State Park. Normally the place is packed, but it turns out that people don’t want to go to the beach on Tuesdays in February, so we had it to ourselves.

This is a series of photos I took on our walk. From the looks of them you might think that we were trying to make album covers for our 90′s era rock band.

Photographer: Look pensively off into the distance. This will show people that you are deep. You are doing a great job Linkin Park.

I blame myself. And after a pictures request from Helen, I’m putting a few of them up here.

Driftwood

What is she looking for? Truth and more album sales

Horizon

Album cover

Driftwood the sequel

squint

I went on my second trip out in the snow a few days ago. The snow was a little thicker and we got to practice using a shovel to flatten out the snow under our shelter.

Here are a few pics from a wonderful trip.

Part of the PCT

The water froze inside my pink Nalgene

Go little Tarptent, go!

Mt Adams in the distance

Shannon says, Really? You're putting that one on the interwebs? I'm never backpacking with you again.

Shannon and I were on our trip in the Seven Devil’s Mountains on the tail end of the summer right before fall. We started talking about the space between the end of something old and the start of something new, and I found it to be a lovely concept. These pictures are my attempt to capture that idea.

Pine cone

Transitioning flowers

Dying leaves

There was a large burn in the Hell’s Canyon Wilderness area in 1994, and the area is still in the re-growth stage. This created some pretty incredible wood textures (and I couldn’t stop photographing them!)

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I recently went on a fun camping trip to Timothy Lake near Mt Hood. Here are a couple of my photos. They are nothing too special, but I had fun taking them and thought I’d pass them along.

Log and waterfall

I've been enjoying the over-exposed look lately, not sure why

I make my 5'2 friends carry in all of the weight

Aubrey is a very talented artist, and she drew this for me. I think it’s cute and wanted to pass it along.

This picture is from back in the day when I studied with TrackersNW. Here I am in camouflage for a stealth exercise. Good times.

Camo practice with TrackersNW back in the day

Feeling a bit nostalgic today, I began browsing through my photos from the Appalachian Trail, and I found a few I’d like to share.

Some little critter made a beautiful pattern in this wood

There are some flaws in this waterfall picture that I’m still trying to figure out. I’d like the water to have more texture, and not be so blindingly white. Maybe a faster shutter speed?

I'm still learning how to do waterfalls with this method

Neahkahnie Mountain is on the Oregon Coast. It’s a great little hike with quite a payoff for the distance climbed.

View from Neahkahnie Mountain