Fall Colors

Today, I joined the local Photography Meetup Group for a fall colors photo hike.

We met at Starbucks, which worked out nicely to grab a quick morning jolt of caffeine.

We made a potty stop at the Sahalie Falls parking area, and took a few photos there to warm up.  The weather was PERFECT for a photo hike...cool, recently rained, and not currently raining.  It did sprinkle on us a bit during the day, but just enough to keep us cool but not enough to really get our camera gear or us too wet or uncomfortable.

From there, we headed to the trailhead we were actually intending to hike from.

When I saw some Oregon Grape, I told Nathan they had edible berries, but didn't realize the berries were currently out and he would take me up on it.  He ate a BUNCH of them, plus brought some home.  Hope he doesn't get sick!

Nathan got in on the action, too.

The trail itself was gorgeous.  Easily the second most beautiful trail I've been on (the MOST beautiful was the trail up Mt. Constitution in Moran State Park on Orcas Island in the San Juans).

Nathan got a little silly.

Finally, we got to the destination of our hike, Tamolitch Pool, aka The Blue Hole.

The photos seriously don't do this place justice.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  I'd had no idea it was even there.  If you live in Oregon, you should totally make the drive and the 2-mile (each way) hike to go see it.  Especially right now with the fall colors!

This is the McKenzie river, which happens to flow through a lava tube (and/or just seeping through the porous rock), and apparently when the river is SUPER high, will sometimes come out of the rock above the pool and fall into it, but currently is just coming up from underneath the surface, giving the illusion of a pool of water with a substantial river flowing OUT of it, but nothing flowing into it.  It doesn't look very deep, because it's so clear, but it's apparently 30-40 feet deep.

On the hike back to the car, we saw this adorable dog, who is apparently NINE, but acted like a puppy.  This is his "sit pretty" trick.  Notice the giant maple leaf in his collar.  :-)

And this is Tom and Hazel, who were kind enough to let Nathan and me ride in their car.

We stopped back by Sahalie Falls on our way home, and this time we took the brief hike to the falls.

In conclusion, here's a combination of 72 separate photos, to try to capture the entire pool (click to embiggen)...

...a video of the pool and surroundings (mute if you don't want to hear Nathan talking and the sound of the rapids)...

...and lastly, a link to my Flickr page to see ALL the photos (62 of them).

I totally recommend this hike...four miles round trip, not strenuous at all, and well worth the views!

Trigger Update

I went and saw Trigger today, at the trainer's place.  He's doing great--LOVING pasture life, and getting along well with the herd.

When the trainer came to pick Trigger up from the boarding barn, he reared and struck out at her husband while loading in the trailer.  When she first started working with him, he spooked at everything he could and flung himself INTO any pressure, especially from the bit.  But in two weeks, she is MUCH more impressed with him. She loaded him into a stranger's (to him, not to the trainer) trailer and took him on a trail ride.  She said he would occasionally "look" at stuff, but wasn't spooky, and was totally in his element on the trail.  They even went up and down some steep stuff, and while she let him take his time, he did really well considering how out of shape the poor guy is.  I'm betting his muscles are very sore today! 

She's so impressed with his turnaround, in fact, that he's no longer officially in training--she'll ride him every so often to remind him she's the boss, but otherwise, she thinks he's perfectly sale-able as is.  Time to find him a wonderful trail home!

Who's a happy horsie?

Happy Birthday SweetPea!

My friend and fellow blogger, SweetPea, had a milestone birthday recently, and invited me (and at least one other friend, who couldn't make it) along on her trip to Portland to visit her family.  The party organizers, knowing her interest in horses, decided it would be fun to watch horses race, and that we should all wear hats befitting the Kentucky Derby.  Hilarity ensued.

Oh, you want photographic evidence?

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early, and I drove to her house where I left my car for the rest of the weekend.  The foliage is GORGEOUS right now.  We didn't have time to stop, so these photos are taken from the car.  So squinch your eyes and fling your head from right to left really fast to really get the full effect.  :-)

We only had time to offload our suitcases before taking ourselves and our hats over to the house of one of her FOUR brothers (and she has a sister, who unfortunately wasn't there this weekend), where I met this cute puggy and an adorable kitty.  Oh, and some humans, too.

SweetPea's sister-in-law presented her with her gift, a stick horse.  But not just ANY horse, this one looks like Flash, and is a prize-winner--he had both a medal and a ribbon.  And a party hat!  He was promptly named "Sparkle Pony."  Notice L's purple fuzzy cowgirl/pimp hat...

A and T with their matching bowler hats, mustaches, and bow ties, SweetPea with her pretty pretty princess pink fuzzy hat with built-in tiara, and B with his jockey cap and jockey shirt.

SweetPea again, and me with my bedazzled and beflowered and beribboned floppy hat.  Unfortunately, I didn't take more photos at the pre-event, but I got more photos throughout the day that will hopefully show off more hats.

 Then we were OFF to the races!

SweetPea brought her pony, of course.  Sparkle Pony wanted to give those other ponies a run for their money, but SweetPea kept him well in hand.

I was excited to see horse racing up close and personal, so I went to the paddock area first, to watch the horses getting prepped.  They are SO lean and muscular.  They honestly seemed so weird to me after seeing the usual pasture puffs and endurance mounts!

Then we went up to the second floor viewing area to watch the first race of the day...

How cool is that?  Not as cool as it is to get up close and personal.  When we got back downstairs, I realized that anyone could go right into the paddock area--I'd stayed behind the glass before, so I went back and took photos through only the chainlink fence this time.

And then I went RIGHT up next to the track to watch them pony the horses past the spectators.

While we waited for the next race to start, the baby got to try on his grandpa's coonskin cap.

Then I was right next to the track as the horses galloped past at full speed, right at the finish line!

I won't bore you with ALL the photos I took, but seriously, how cool is this?

The bugler had spotted SweetPea's dad (aka El Dub)'s hat, and since he always plays a tune after the Call to the Post, he specifically waited until he was out front to play Daniel Boone for him, which he got a kick out of.  Also notice SweetPea's mom (aka Flip Flop)'s awesome gold hat with blue boa.

We watched all nine races for the day, but again, I won't bore you with ALL the photos, so we'll skip right to dinner, at Montage in Portland.  It was lovely, if a little loud, and they make awesome creations with people's leftovers.

SweetPea's parents, flanked by a waiter and a friend of theirs

 

Random stranger showing off their leftovers--it's a dragonfly!

Then the group got a little smaller, as it narrowed down to three of SweetPea's brothers and their significant others, plus her and me, and we went to Mint.

We went back to her parents house and crashed, then Sunday morning, got up, went to breakfast at Elmer's and I cuddled with this giant beast of a dog for a while.  His name is Simba, and he's part Mastiff and part Great Pyrenees, and is HUGE, but so adorably sweet, and best of all, NOT slobbery!  I was tempted to smuggle him home, and force my cats to deal with it, but alas he wouldn't fit in my luggage.  Or into SweetPea's car, most likely!

The funny thing is, this giant behemoth of a dog was AFRAID of Sparkle Pony!  At first, he ran cowering from the room whenever he caught sight of the pony, then he simply gave it a wide berth, until finally, we convinced him that Sparkle Pony wouldn't harm him, and even got him to wear the party hat.

And thus endeth the celebration of SweetPea's *mumble*th birthday in grand style.  We headed back over the mountains through the gorgeous foliage once again, and made it home safely.

If you want to see all the photos (the ones I left out are mostly of racing and of the adorable Simba), please click over to my Flickr set (click the slideshow button if you like, or just click individual thumbnails to see them larger).

Turning Over a New Leaf

So today, I pulled the Trigger.  Har har har...I'm so funny!  I wrote up a letter of notice, went to the barn, packed up all my stuff, and waited for Trigger's new trainer to arrive to come pick him up.  She's the one I looked at a couple horses with earlier, part trainer, part horse trader/dealer, so she can probably find him a buyer more quickly than I could on my own once he's ready for that stage.  Right as she and her husband pulled in with their trailer, another truck and trailer arrived.  It turned out to be the barn manager and HER husband (and all four of her kids).

Earlier in the day, I'd been debating how much "notice" to give (essentially how much money to pay, since I was pulling him with no notice), but it was made moot while I was packing up and realized I had no idea how much a month of board was, so whether I decided to pay all, half, or one day, I didn't know what to base it on.  She raised the rates beginning with October, but never gave the signed copy of the rate sheet back.  So I had left a note saying to send me the bill, and figured I'd still mull it over.  (I'm pretty sure the original agreement said 30 days, but she never returned my signed copy of THAT, either, and had breached plenty of what we'd agreed to both orally and the standards of care for what a boarding agreement should imply, if not items that might have been in writing, but again, I don't HAVE a copy).  Anyway, she was there, so I just sucked it up and paid the full amount for October, and gave my 30 days notice and left with a clean conscience, and while I'm not sure she won't LIE about me to people, she can't say anything HONESTly bad about me or my integrity.

Trigger did NOT load willingly.  He reared and struck at the trainer's husbands, but with a little whip pressure when he stopped moving, and release of pressure when he did move (in the right direction), he figured it out relatively quickly and got tied in, clamped in behind the divider, and we headed out.  They said he wiggled and jiggled the whole way, but luckily it was only a 15-minute ride or so.

He didn't back out very nicely either, but the trainer and husband were nice about it, saying they'll work on that.  :-)  They settled him into a pen for the night, and will turn him out with the herd tomorrow.  I need to pick up wormer and bring it out tomorrow, too.

Trigger settling into his overnight accommodations

While we were standing around chatting, about lots of things including trying to figure the best time for me to go out to their place tomorrow to do up the paperwork, they mentioned that they're going to a riding play day thing tomorrow, and they invited me.  I demurred, talking about how out of shape and heavy I am, and they have a horse who's a total dead head that someone THREE HUNDRED SIXTY POUNDS has ridden (and apparently hung off the side of without the horse falling over), that they're willing to haul to the event for me to ride there.  So I guess I'm going horseback riding tomorrow!  Woo!