Updates (Year in Review)

Hah! Turns out I'm not very good at continuing in the theme of catching up. And somehow, the last year just, well, disappeared. Not that I haven't been doing *stuff*, I just haven't somehow gotten back to cataloguing it. Looks like a year behind a desk/computer will do that to me.

2017 'twas good. Yeah, I'm old (yay 40!) but life is good. I have a kick-ass job (learning tons, fantastic coworkers), have caught up with some old friends, acquired some new hobbies, love my adorable husband, and have plenty on the agenda still to do. Just...haven't been sitting down much. But I love keeping family and friends up to date, so here goes nothing. {GRIN} 

Andy, trying his hand at fly fishing (Wilson River)

Because...this guy

JANUARY
We had a hellishly cold and wet winter last year (so far, this year is MUCH MUCH better. Hal-leh-lu-yah). In retrospect though, it makes me sad as I love hiking the gorge in the snow and rain and wind. (This year, most trails on the Oregon side are closed, thanks to the horrifying Eagle Creek fire....)

Dry Creek falls, one of my favorites for cold weather wanderings. Impossible, yet, to know if it still exists

frozen hairs

FEBRUARY
Splitting time between deserts and the coast and waterfalls, hunting up decent weather days between the deluge, looking for sun...

 

Sunny northern coast and shipwrecks

Deschutes River Trail...can you find the wandering collie?

MARCH
Lots of local wanderings, rediscovering places close by. More rain. Mud. Dogs. Dory continues to ever-so-slowly settle in.  

winter shores of the Columbia River and Sandy River delta

 

Mud. So much mud.

She's a cutie but a weirdo

APRIL
Finding new places (for us, at least) on the coast. And one of my last hikes on the Oregon side of the gorge, my beloved Wahkeena/Devils/Angels Rest loop, likely destroyed now. 

Evening light, Drift Creek Falls

Drift Creek falls

I love the slumbering forests of the gorge (Wahkeena trail)

trillium blooms

MAY
An early heat wave starts and the pug craps out on a hike.

JUNE
My mom visits for her 70th birthday. <3. Wineries, the gorge, long drives, Helens.

Helens, Johnston Ridge. My mom couldn't get enough

Loowit trail. Negotiating snow boulders isn't always fun

puppy snowcones

JULY
Even the mountains are hot. Lupine like I have never seen. Introducing a good friend to the joys of huckleberries.

LUPINE. Tilly Jane trail

Elk Cove

Fireweed galore. Recovery in old burn zones

dropping into a summertime Heather Canyon

J.B. is the best-est

AUGUST
One word. ECLIPSE. 

The coast wasn't insane like Central Oregon....still entertaining on the 101 though

SEPTEMBER
I love my husband. September is always a good month. Twenty-freaking-years.

OCTOBER
Two words: NORTH CASCADES. (Finally....OMGOMGOMG). Hunting larch. 

Heather-Maple Pass loop

Glorious larch at a freezing 6800'

brrrrrrrr

(Saw my first bear on trail here!)

NOVEMBER
Sleepy, shorter days, racing sunlight. The world is starting to wind down.

 
DECEMBER
Ice storms (again) and a perfect, solstice hike.

Trail buddies

 Now...to play catch up on everything else....