Weekend at the Coast

Last weekend, I took a couple much needed days away from work to enjoy some unseasonably hot weather on the northern Oregon Coast. I knocked out five hikes from the "60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Portland" book - over 30 miles in two days - and camped for the night at Cape Lookout State Park. Below are some shots of the weekend. It's hard to believe that all these pictures were taken less than two hours from downtown Portland.


Early morning on the Coast.


A lighthouse perched on a rock, off the coast. I think I would've liked to be the lighthouse keeper here, if only for a couple weeks.


Awesome bridge on the Drift Creek Falls trail.



View from below the bridge (check the upper right corner of the picture), with very cool (literally, the spray was welcome relief from the heat) Drift Creek Falls in the foreground.

My New Home

After returning from Iceland in September 2007, I moved from California, where I had lived for the previous five years, to take a new job in Portland, Oregon. I desperately needed a change of scenery... and, even more desperately, a full time job after two years of piecing together a part-time living between trips.

I've been in Portland for nearly a year now, and I've never felt so "at home" anywhere before, a bold statement considering all the places I've lived. Yes, the weather stinks sometimes, but the outdoors opportunities within two hours of my apartment are virtually endless. I've been devoting a lot of my time to getting to know my new home, and have no international travel plans for the immediate future, although the direct Portland-to-Tokyo flight is tempting.

Here's a shot of Mt. Hood, my local peak, that I took on my first Oregon hike after moving up here.