I wanna live in an A-frame

Hello everyone!

I had a really nice weekend. Friday night I made a huge pot of chili. I picked all the ripe hot peppers in my garden (4 varieties: jalapenos, serranos, super cayennes & anaheims). Mmmmm it was spicy good. After it was done with it’s 3 hours of simmering I headed downtown to Berbati’s Pan. Some friends of mine are in a band called Junior Private Detective. They had decided to go on hiatus so no one really know if they’ll play anymore shows so I felt inspired to go. Also I hadn’t shown my face in Portland in ages so I felt good to get downtown on a weekend. I saw a bunch of friends that I hadn’t seen in months & months. We talked, we drank beers, we laughed at the guy that pulled out the 3 foot hookah and started smoking flavored tobacco. We were appalled by the bar fight that broke out. The young, drunk guy was thrown out and then proceeded to try to fight the bouncer in the street outside of the club. We all rolled our eyes in amazement. Fighting!? Who does that? The band played to a cheering crowd, sad to see them go. It was a great night though and I was happy to be out on the town.

Saturday I woke up early and got ready to go hiking. I drove about and hour and a half to Lava Canyon on the south side of Mt St Helens. This canyon was formed from a lava flow from Mt St Helens over 3500 years ago. With time the canyon was filled in with stream sediment and debris. When the mountain erupted again in 1980 all the glaciers melted instantaneously. The south side was spared from the blast zone since it erupted laterally but it was affected by the massive lahars (mudflows) created by the glaciers melting. A huge lahar created by the flash melting of the Shoestring Glacier scoured Lava Canyon clean. Now the Muddy River, which is now quite clear, runs through the basalt canyon. The water has rounded the edges of the cliffs perfectly smooth making it supremely important that you stay on the trail. There were literally dozens of signs warning people to stay on the trail, that fatalities have occurred in this area when people went off the trail, slipped on the rocks, fell into the water and could not get back out. If you’re not killed by being pounded into the rocks, the huge plummeting waterfalls will be the end of you for sure. STAY ON THE TRAIL! It was a phenomenally beautiful hike, mossy rock walls and rainbows hanging above the waterfall mist. I hiked down to The Ship, a huge column of basalt stuck in the middle of the river. I continued on further down the trail and finally turned around at about the 3 mile mark. The whole way back to the trailhead was uphill and it was surprisingly warm that day. Unfortunately the suspension bridge that goes across the river was closed for repairs, thwarting my wishes to take pictures from above the center of the river. It was a really amazing hike, one that I hope to do again in the future. The crystal blue water against the black lava walls with only the green moss hanging on was quite a sight.

Back in Portland I went home briefly before packing up to drive to my friends Josh & Lindsay’s house in West Linn. It’s a suburb of Portland but it seemed like a world away. They live in a beautiful A-frame house in a grove of trees. There’s a thick wall of bamboo and skinny little path of ladders that leads to the Willamette River that flows by their house. It was really beautiful and I was dying of envy. They fired up the bbq and some more friends came over. I set up my tent in a soft, green corner of the yard. We ate great food and talked and drank beers. Dave finally showed up around 9 pm. Josh had got a fire going and Dave pulled out the guitar and started playing some songs. I sang along and called out requests. It was a really fantastic night and I slept very well in my tent.

Sunday morning I woke up to sunshine filtering through the thick green trees all around me. I made some coffee and Lindsay began cooking up breakfast for everyone. I walked around with my camera and took lots of pictures. We ate breakfast on the picnic table outside in the sun. After eating I walked around some more and Dave played some more music. They were going to play some bocce golf. Using a yellow soccer ball as the goal they kick the ball around to different locations in the big yard and then throw frisbees to the ball. I decided to head back to Portland. Back at home I watched some Netflix and then sat in my sunny backyard and read my book. I ate a bunch of grapes off the huge grape arbor which is absolutely loaded with winegrapes. I talked on the phone with Becky in LA for a while so it was nice to catch up with her. I spent the rest of the evening reading my book and then going to bed early. The fall term started at the college on Monday so it’s been a crazy week around here. I know it will calm down and soon enough I’ll be bored to tears.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Please let me know how you are and what you’ve been doing.

Xoxoxo,
carolyn