21, a Lucky Number?

Can you believe I have already written 21 blog entries (counting this one)? I doubt that my reader list is 21 people long, if half of that. So how is it going? Do you enjoy? Surf or skip the writings and just look at the pictures? Let me know, feed back, it's a wondrous thing.

Another lucky thing, Ky, Kona, and I are still alive. In our Thursday/Friday weekend we decided to head out to the Mount Hood Wilderness for an a quick backpacking trip to Ramona Falls, one of Oregon's best waterfalls.

After a beautiful hike along the Sandy River Gorge with sunny skies and warm temperatures we took our time eating lunch, setting camp, photographing the waterfall and deciding if we needed the rain fly. Later in the afternoon the sky changed shade and we decided that maybe a rain fly would be worthwhile, in case it started to rain in our sleep. No sooner than we finished staking the fly, did a wicked wind pick up and rain commence. Shortly thereafter Ky, Kona and I jumped into the tent and began to pray for a shift in wind as a lightning and thunderstorm erupted over our head. Being a good 90 minutes from the safety of our car we decided it was best to ride out the storm in our tent. Kona slept while Ky and I watched lightning strikes light up the thin walls of our tent and count the delay before the thunder crash. While the sound was near deafening, the delay never came inside of 5ish seconds, which urban forecasting says is 5ish miles.

I have been through many many thunderstorms, much larger ones, but nothing compares to riding one out in a tent under fir trees. Although, I must say a night in a single wide trailer on top of a bare hill in Alabama came in close second, literally rolling thunder. Here Ky waits patiently for our dinner to finish re-hydrating. The dinner was a scrumptious backpacker rendition of "Tamale Pie." Not until I started eating did I realize it was a vegetarian dish, some chicken would have been a nice touch, maybe some cheese and sour cream too. As you can see in the photo is more a soup than a pie, apparently when you pour soup on top of stale tortilla chips it makes it pie.

The next morning we awoke to cold and damp weather with the promise of rain, so the pre-hike oatmeal was abandoned in favor of a little bit of trail mix and a quick breakdown of camp. An otherwise uneventful hike brought us back to the car and down the road for a much deserved Sharis feast. After breakfast back to the house for rest and recouporation, I don't think I've seen Kona sleep so hard. As always more pictures can be found on flickr. Enjoy!