Category Archives: Photography

Sneaky New Friends

During this Infernal Isolation I have been unable to get close to friends, so I’ve been forced to make new ones. Although there’s not too much communication, I’ve found that Squirrels and Scrub Jays make fairly good, but somewhat limited, company. The squirrels seem to have only two expressions. The first is relaxed and adorable, a lot like puppies.

The second and more common look is “Caught in the Act”. These sneaky little devils are friendly but always seem to up to no good.

We are really drawn to the little Red ones. We have formed a bond with a pair of these skittish little rascals.

We’ve named the female Roxy and the male Rocky. Roxy won’t get too close, but is still hugely demanding. She will sit in a tree and squawk at us insistently until we put some goodies in her favorite spot. Although Rocky’s very nervous, once you’ve established a little trust he’ll take a peanut from you. Over time Rocky has become equally demanding. The little guy will sit on the rail and chirp at us in the kitchen until we bring him a treat. The two squirrels get along most of the time, but if Roxy gets a little too close to Rocky’s nuts all Hell breaks loose and they chase each other frantically all over the yard, all the time switching roles as the pursued and the pursuer. I think they must be married.

The Scrub Jays have only one expression and it’s way more nefarious. Every encounter with them feels like a stand-off as they give you that Evil Eye Stare. I’ve taken to wearing an amulet and reciting “no evil eye” three times to ward off any dark spirits.

Vacant Places

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With everything either closed or out of business, it feels so much more sedentary and unchanging now. The whole world is on pause and slowly turning into one big vacant place.

In town, all I see are solitary masked figures scurrying away in order to maintain proper spacing. Social distancing seems to becoming, if not easier, then at least more normal.

People seem very reluctant to engage at all. When you suddenly come upon someone they seems startled and taken aback, not exactly sure how to react in this new paradigm.

Of course that’s just for people. The world around us hasn’t even paused.

Quiet Roads & Empty Trails

Fair warning, if we live through this I’m going to hug more.

Strange Days

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“Strange days have found us
Strange days have tracked us down
They’re going to destroy
Our casual joys” The Doors

Road Sign – I’m thinking this is a passive aggressive reprimand.

Well, strange days have definitely found us, as to whether or not it will destroy all our casual joys, the jury is still out. I like to think there’s still a lot left to do just around the neighborhood.

“When you’re strange
No one remembers your name
When you’re strange” The Doors

We can all dress up in funny clothes. Sure she’s strange, but she’s festive.

Our Version of Isolation

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Isolation is a relative term. We live way out west in rural Washington and it can feel pretty remote sometimes, but during this period of self-imposed seclusion, it has been a blessing. We have friends living in city apartments and their idea of isolation and ours are two very different things. Even though we can’t hug and kiss friends and love ones, as long as we take precautions and avoid people, our mobility is in no way hindered. We have taken to long solitary walks on the beach. A beach that, now free of tourists and tire tracks, feels somehow more vast and expansive, and still has small untouched details.

Road Trips

Yes, like all good Americans, we just couldn’t wait to get out on the open road, at least for the day. So we packed a lunch, filled the gas tank, loaded up the face masks, latex gloves and hand sanitizer and set out on a little excursion to some very small towns where there just aren’t many people around in the best of times.

Fort Stevens, Oregon

Fort Stevens was an American military installation built near the end of the Civil War to help protect the mouth of the Columbia River. Now it’s a small settlement built around a military history museum.

Fort Stevens is named for former Washington Territory governor and slain Civil War general Isaac Ingalls Stevens. A little guy with a lot of courage. Isaac stood just 5′ 3″ . He is said to have died holding the Regimental Colors high and shouting “Highlanders! Highlanders! Follow your general!” while leading his men in a charge against Confederate forces at the Battle of Chantilly on September 1, 1862.

Brownsmead, Oregon

With the exception of a hand full of very creative souls there is not much in this tiny unincorporated community. It was built out on the flats on the south side of the Columbia River along Saspal Slough. Located on a bend in the river, Brownsmead’s chief claim to fame is as the northernmost settlement in the state of Oregon

Warrenton, Oregon

The area began developing as a small fishing community in the late 1840s. Warrenton was platted in 1889 and incorporated as a city in 1899. The town was built on tidal flats and relied on a system of dikes constructed by Chinese laborers to keep the it from flooding.

U.S. Coast Guard Sector Columbia River Warrenton, Oregon

St Francis De Sales Mission Hammond, Oregon

Raymond, Washington

Founded in 1907, Raymond was named for it’s first postmaster, L. V. Raymond. The downtown was originally built on slits, six feet above the tidal flats below. Starting as a rough and tumble lumber town Raymond fell on hard times but has now reinvented itself as Pacific County’s marijuana manufacturing hub.

To be continued. Stay safe.

The Road to Tonopah

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We left Bryce in the euphoria of early morning sunshine and set out on the long and uneventful journey from Utah across the center of Nevada. But, before we had crossed into the Silver State, ominous clouds began to form in the west. With the road stretching out across the desert before us, Wendi at the helm, we plunged head long into the maelstrom. For half the day she fought bravely through snow, sleet, hail, fog, rain, thunder, lightening and cattle.

“The storm is threatening my very life today. If I don’t get some shelter I’m going to fade away.” – RS’s

Tonopah, Nevada

By late afternoon the clouds parted revealing a welcomed oasis ahead. Tonopah, Nevada may not be paradise but it has everything people in our predicament could want; beer, buffalo wings, a bed and a 3,275 lb meteorite.

Rags to Riches

Legend has it that sometime around 1900 prospector Jim Butler went looking for his perpetually wandering burro. Having finally discovered the disobedient creature hiding under a ledge he picked up a rock in frustration but before hurling it at the beast noticed it was unusually heavy. He had stumbled upon the second-richest silver strike in Nevada history. Jim Butler, named the settlement, from what is thought to be Shoshone for “hidden spring”.

In 1902, a some time buckaroo and cattle drover, 24-year-old George Wingfield arrived in Tonopah. He dealt faro-cards at the Tonopah Club. Once he had a small bankroll, he talked Jack Carey, owner of the club, into taking him in as a partner. Wingfield began investing his profits in mines and by 1906 was worth more than $30 million.

The Mizpah Hotel

We’re staying at the historic Mizpah Hotel which sprung up in 1907 during the great Nevada silver boom. When it was completed the following year, the five story building was the tallest in Nevada. This high class hotel’s bar and restaurant was the center of social and economic activity in Tonopah all during those heady boom days. Many political and mining notables of the day frequented the bar that boasted boxing promoter Tex Rickard and future heavyweight boxing champ Jack Dempsey as bouncers.

The Lady In Red

“Lady in Red” – Charles Webster Hawthorne

It was in the 1920s when Rose, the lady in Red, was murdered in room 501 of the Mizpah Hotel. Stories vary but the most excepted version of the gruesome event suggests that Rose’s husband returned to their room after having missed his train only to discover his wife had been in bed with another man. The husband flew into a jealous rage and savagely stabbed and strangled Rose.

She still haunts the hotel, whispering in men’s ears and leaving pearls from her broken necklace on guest’s pillows.

Bryce Canyon

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The snow was already falling as we entered Bryce Canyon. It would continue to come down sporadically for the next two days. The snow was punctuated with magnificent sunbreaks. Each one would have us dash off to the next lookout point to discover another amazing vista.

The park has hundreds of trails that lead down into the various canyons. Most are weather dependent. Before you head down into the rocks you might want to have a quick look at James Franco’s great film “127 Hours”, just so you know what you might not want to do.

The Land of The Hoodoos

These spires and ones similar show up in various places around the globe and, as you can imagine, there is a lot of science and geology around their formation, but one thing they all have in common is that they are truly magical.

“Before there were humans the Legend People lived in that place. There were many of all kinds – birds, animals and lizards, but they had the power to make themselves look like people. For some reason the Legend People in that place were bad, so bad that Coyote turned them all into rocks. You can see them in that place now; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding onto others. This is the story the people tell.”

Indian Dick – Paiute elder – 1936

Parting Shot

Do they travel with their own booties or does the bus driver provide them?

Tempe, Arizona

Yosemite Valley

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Yosemite Valley is completely surrounded by granite peaks prompting the indigenous people to name the area “Ahwahnee” or “big mouth”.

At this time of year water run-off from the high country creates so many waterfalls that the mouth is said to be “leaking”.

Killer Rocks

The name “Yosemite” means “killer” in Miwok and originally referred to the name of a renegade tribe which was driven out of the area and possibly annihilated by the Mariposa Battalion in 1851. It’s not just the Mariposa Battalion that has killed people in this beautiful valley. Since 1905 at least 120 people have died attempting to climb the 3,000 foot El Capitan.

The Legend Of The Face On Half Dome

When the old Indian woman and her husband arrived at the valley she carried a beautiful but heavy basket while her husband walked alongside carrying nothing but his walking stick. As the day grew hot they discovered a mountain lake. The old woman began to drink first. She drank so deeply that by the time her husband bent to drink the lake was dry. This caused a drought and the once green valley turned brown. The man grew so angry that he raised his walking stick to strike his wife who ran from him as her tears stained her face. She stopped and threw the heavy basket at her husband and as they faced one another in anger the Great Spirit transformed them both into stone because of their wickedness. The white man knows them as Half dome and Washington Column. Tears still stain her face.

John Muir Goes Camping With Teddy Roosevelt

As a result of the westward expansion and the romance surrounding it, by the turn of the century, beautiful for spacious skies and purple mountain majesties had become part of the American identity.

Naturalist John Muir, who successfully lobbied Congress for the Act that created Yosemite National Park in 1890, had been writing about the need for further preservation noting that wild forests were quickly vanishing under the wheel of commerce. The original rough rider himself, President Teddy Roosevelt, was familiar with Muir’s writing and, although most of his advisors argued that the wilderness was far too large to ever be depleted, he decided to see for himself. In 1903 he wrote to Muir requesting a personal tour of Yosemite saying, “I do not want anyone with me but you, and I want to drop politics absolutely for four days and just be out in the open with you.” Muir agreed and Teddy headed out for California. A small entourage began the wilderness adventure on horseback but after the first day Muir and Roosevelt slipped away from the rest of the group and disappeared. For the next three days nobody in the world knew where the President was or if he’d been eaten by a bear, a very real possibility at the time.

The President returned refreshed and full of Muir’s observations on the natural history of California. He pressured congress to protect wilderness areas and by 1905 had established the U.S. Forest Service, created national monuments, parks, and wildlife sanctuaries, saving about 230,000 million acres of public land for all Americans.

Yosemite Valley has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years, but humans first visited the area from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago

Designated a World Heritage site in 1984, the park set a visitation record in 2016, surpassing 5 million visitors for the first time in its history.

“The Hellhole of the Pacific”

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Lonesome Town *“where the streets are filled with regret”*

Anyone passing through Aberdeen, Washington might suspect that it’s seen better days. More prosperous, sure, but better, maybe not. Founded in 1884, Aberdeen lagged behind its neighbors Hoquiam and Cosmopolis until 1895 when a Northern Pacific spur line was added, but connectivity to commerce never seemed to shake Aberdeen’s boomtown mindset. By 1900 it had been nicknamed “the Hellhole of the Pacific” for its countless salons, whorehouses and gambling joints. But things may be picking up a little.

Artist’s Avenue

Sure it’s a little sketchy looking, maybe not a place you want hang around all day but, despite appearances, it’s clear that a few people around here are having some fun.

A Diamond In The Rough – Steam Donkey Brewing Company

2nd Anniversary, Great Beer, Laid Back. Give Them A Try

Some Nice People

Despite a sordid past, quite a few famous people have hailed from this lugubrious lumber town. Aberdeen’s most famous son seems to be Nirvana founder and frontman Kurt Cobain. The town also spawned world famous photographer Lee Friedlander, Patrick Simmons of the Doobie Brothers, Physics Nobel Prize winner Douglas Osheroff, “Gentle Ben” author Walt Morey, world class painter Robert Motherwell, professional wrestler Yukon Eric and serial killer Billy Gohl.

Billy “Ghoul” Gohl

By the early 1900’s Aberdeen was also dubbed “the Port of Missing Men” for it’s extremely high murder rate. Billy Gohl arrived from the Yukon already an accomplished criminal. He became a low level Union Official and bartender at the Sailor’s Union Hall where he began to prey on sailors passing through town. He would separate them from their valuables, murder them and drop the bodies down a chute below a trapdoor in the floor that led to the river where the corpses would drift out to sea. Although Billy “Ghoul” Gohl was only convicted of two murders, he was believed to be responsible for over 140 homicides.

Billy’s ghost is said to still haunt the bar.

Messages From The Underground

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The streets of Portland are still full of anonymous messages although I can not help but notice that graffiti is making a transformation. In some ways this change mimics rock and roll’s move from underground to mainstream in the 80s and 90s. Medium sized gang tagging, crude graffiti and whacked out counterculture messages appear to be on the wane as more and more wall sized murals begin to dominate the landscape. These gigantic, amazingly produced, pieces of art appear to be commercial calling cards that help businesses stand out from the landscape and visually separate themselves from the surrounding buildings.

The Rise of the Sticker

The counterculture appears to have become more automated, opting for huge numbers of preprinted minuscule wackiness that has firmly harkened in the age of the sticker. Think of it a little like Punk Music; rude, disorganized, snarky, messy, small and, yet, still loud. Clever miniature tags, notices, art and bits of wacky wisdom festoon most every pole or metal railing in town. They seem to encompass artistic expressions, clever ads, nasty pronouncements, silly doodles or simply the rantings of lunatics.