The Wild and Scenic Rogue River: Gold Beach, Oregon

Posted on Saturday, Sep 3, 2011

Sunday, July 30, 2011

While I generally prefer to shoot stills, there are certain experiences that really demand video.  The ride up Oregon’s wild and scenic Rogue River is one of them.  The 104 mile round trip up the Rogue, one of the original eight rivers protected by the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, is half wildlife safari and half amusement park ride.  This video focuses on the latter.  It was shot using a Canon PowerShot S95 in an underwater housing.  (The HD version is available here if your internet connection can support it.)

The video only hints at the amount of wildlife that can be seen in and along the river.  On this trip we saw Canada geese, harbor seals, dozens of turkey vultures, ospreys everywhere, several bald eagles, herons, three bears, a number of river otters including one that was eating a lamprey for lunch, and a deer with a couple spotted fawns.  Because of this, taking a DSLR with a telephoto lens can also be a good way to go as long as you have a way to protect it while enjoying some of the wetter passages along the river.

Commercial tours up the Rogue are offered exclusively through Jerry’s Rogue Jets out of Gold Beach.  If you decide to try it yourself—and I recommend this experience to anyone touring Oregon’s southern coast—here is my best advice:

1. There is a 60, 80 and 104 mile trip.  Choose the 104 mile trip.  It is the only one that takes visitors into the wild section of the river.  (The Rogue is divided into three sections: recreational, scenic, and wild.)  Don’t worry about the trip’s duration; time flies and you are never more than a couple hours from a potty break.

2. Do not choose the 60 mile trip unless you’re just looking for a basic boat ride and want to stay relatively dry.  There is little white water—life jackets aren’t even required—and the boat never leaves the recreational section of the river.

3. Take the trip on a weekday, if possible, and avoid holiday weekends if you want to see wildlife.  Our first trip was on Fourth of July weekend.  We saw lots of other people along the river but few animals.

4.  Wear a hat and use sunscreen.  Your wet clothes will keep you cool enough that you may not notice the sun baking you to a crisp.  And do not forget sunglasses.

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

Upper Waikani Falls: Road to Hana, Maui

Posted on Saturday, Aug 27, 2011

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

It is ironic and a little sad that I must follow up my last post about the beginning of Lewis’ love of honey bees with a blog post about the end of it. Like other recent posts, this one features a waterfall—one of many along the road to Hana on Maui’s rugged windward coast—and bees.

Because we had devoted so much time this spring to exploring the waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge, most of the falls along the road to Hana were relatively unimpressive as photographic subjects. Upper Waikani Falls, aka Three Bear Falls, was the first one we encountered that struck me as worthy of the time it would take to photograph it. I decided to do so; and Lewis decided to come with me while Darla watched us from the bridge above. Reaching the base of the falls involved navigating down a steep muddy slope, scrambling across a series of large slippery rocks, and then wading through the pool at the bottom of the falls. At least that is how I imagined things going; we never made it that far.

As we carefully made our way through and across the rocks, I was focused on Lewis, who was in front of me, and on my own footing. I didn’t want to see either of us slip and fall head first onto a rock and then, potentially unconscious, into the fast moving stream coming off the upper falls and flowing toward the lower falls. As it turned out, the real problem was the hive of bees in the adjacent vegetation. Unfortunately, I only noticed it after batting it with my elbow as I walked by. I felt an acute burning sensation in my elbow just before becoming enveloped in a swarm of angry bees.

Being in front of me, Lewis had no idea what was going on as he started to get stung. If Lewis hadn’t been involved, if it had been just me, I could probably spin this into a humorous story about my own wilderness incompetence but it was such a terrifying experience for him that there just isn’t anything funny about it. We couldn’t run away so, in the end, we just sat down in some shallow water and waited out the attack with me trying my best to swat bees off of Lewis as they attacked. By the time it was over we each had been stung about 20 times.

Twenty bee stings is no picnic but it could have been much worse. We were fortunate to be wearing clothes that we had treated with permethrin, a very effective organic insecticide, as well as insect repellent on our exposed skin. This seemed to make many of the bees reluctant to sting. We were also fortunate that neither of us were allergic to bee stings since we had no cell service and were hours from medical facilities.

The following day, the doctor in Hana—who was also the one answering the phone at the small hospital—expressed surprise that we hadn’t had to come in to the emergency room. She said we both needed tetanus vaccinations; and that the worst day is always the day after. She was right. We both felt like someone beat us with a baseball bat. There wasn’t any part of our bodies that didn’t ache.

If there is a humorous aspect to this story, it is listening to my wife tell this story and talk about how stressful it was to watch this all take place from the safety of the bridge. I’m sure it was; and I always tell her how bad I feel that she had to endure that… Meanwhile, honey bees are now insecta non grata in Lewis’ world.

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

The Race: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Posted on Saturday, May 21, 2011

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Papa T had been asking for a number of months prior to this trip whether or not Lewis was faster than me. My answer was always “maybe”; I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my knees to find out. Lewis had challenged me to several races on this trip and I had won my share of them—but always through the use of trickery and distraction. If it was a foot race of any distance and he was prepared and paying attention, he would always win. The whole time Papa T had been sizing up his competition and, on the way back from climbing up to a viewpoint of Grand Prismatic Spring, decided to give it a go. One second we were all walking back together; the next, they were gone.

The Boy won. As Papa T tells it, the race was close until Lewis left the trail and cut across some rough ground while taking a more direct route to the camper. I’ll let the viewer examine the evidence and decide for him/herself. Regardless, my money is on The Boy this year. We’re going to have to start calling him Secretariat. He’s fast.

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

Pacific City, Oregon

Posted on Sunday, Jan 2, 2011

Friday, August 20, 2010

Tell me this giant windsock doesn’t remind you of The Doomsday Machine, that giant ice-cream-cone-of-destruction that showed up in episode 35 of the original Star Trek. We spotted it from up on Cape Kiwanda and decided to check it out. From our initial vantage point, we had no idea how huge this thing really was; as we walked toward the windsock, it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger – so big it had to be anchored to a Subaru Outback.

I challenged Lewis to catch the windsock by its tail. Lewis happily took up my challenge, alternately lunging at and then dodging the colorful tails as they whipped and snapped in the wind. I was a little surprised when he actually got hold of one. He was quite pleased with himself.

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

Merry Christmas!

Posted on Saturday, Dec 25, 2010

On Christmas Eve, Darla made a proposal to Lewis that went something like this:

“Some families just give three Christmas presents, like the three presents Jesus received from the Wise Men. What do you think about that?”

Lewis thinks about this for a minute before responding. “Good,” he says, “But if we forget, it’s no big deal.”

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2010 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.