trinity alps: bear basin to granite lake

Macintosh welcomes you.

Christmas Crab

Thanksgiving in the Fire Tower

It was snowy-er than expected on the day before Thanksgiving in the mountains of Oregon. This soft and forever-vast expanse of grey was a perfect backdrop for the sighting of Alan and Dabney's fire tower refuge.


and Alan and Dabney cozy inside...

Morgan, Deb, Malia, Josh + soLo
that's Brian up there...


and Brian with his rockin' sis








moss mustache woman and moss-mustache man
old moss mustache beard man
regal moss mustache contemplating man


snow sliders!!!

the bear bit the inner tube

or:

Elisa and Kayla pay us a visit.


the penny is there for scale - that's something Josh got in the habit of while photographing the mushrooms he collected and classified. The bear's tooth put a hole in the innertube and we were no longer able to float down the river with it.

these are some of the mushrooms -

notice the penny for scale?



-but I get
ahead of myself. The mushrooms we collected later in the fall - just before Thanksgiving in time for a fungal feast.

The bear bit the inner tube around the time of Elisa's October visit.


This is Elisa.
She would do well to look behind her because I think that's Sasquatch.

People have noticed him around.

Josh introduced himself to Bigfoot, and now we're all friends.



Kayla and Solo are also friends.

Kayla took the big bed, so Solo had to be contented to stuff himself into Kayla's bed.

It was great to see E. and the big K.
Until next time... keep your innertubes inside or the bears might bite them!

the river

Train Mountain! September, 2010

or:

The Attack of Solozilla.


Josh and I drove to Oregon to meet Aunt Amy and Uncle Courtney at thei r beloved Train Mountain near Klamath Falls.





Steve Martin made this event famous in his own way, and we had anticipated sharing the same adventurous glee ever since talking with Courtney about his hobby of building these trains with a couple of buddies of his.






We camped right in between two lines, and so were able to catch this early riser as he took a spin on his machine. Here's Josh with his morning maté hanging out in the sun while the single engine rider whizzes by...




Our first morning, we fueled up - some trains run on gas, others steam, and there was a wonderful story of the guy who runs his engine with the pine cones that he collects as he chugs through the forest tracks.







We asked SoLo if he would like to take a ride on the flat car in front of me, and as he was obliging, we took off. Josh and Amy in front, Courtney driving, and Solo and I hanging out near my favorite car: the caboose!





We toured over the 13+ acres, under bridges and through the woods
until we came to a rail block - seems like once again, a damsel in distress decided to lay herself on the tracks.
It was just as well, because we wanted to check out the miniature (functioning) water tower
Courtney and his friends had built. We had a moment while the damsel was coming to her senses to admire his handiwork.





We continued through miniature towns, tunnels made from large culverts, and later that night, we took a ride through the garden of lights. It was a unique and fun day, I will always remember the feel of the rhythm of the tracks - an up-tempo version of their larger cousins - rocking us gently as we rolled through the grounds of Train Mountain!

whooooooooooo-whoooooooooooooo!