Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Thanksgiving Week on Vancouver Island

Riding the Blackball Ferry from Pt Angeles to Victoria
Will had the week off for Thanksgiving so we headed north to Vancouver Island.  We spent a couple of nights in Victoria and then a couple more in Tofino along the island's west coast.  I had not been to Tofino before.  It has that end-of-the-road feeling that you get in Alaska, especially in November, and it was a place I would have liked to spend more time in.  The 90 minute ferry ride from Port Angeles to Victoria is an abrupt change of scenery, culture, and urbanity.  Just the ticket for this post-election funk that much of the Northwest is feeling.  After a week of green, wet, maritime Northwest I was happy to get back to Bend.  It is starting to feel like home to me.  Then again, the entire Northwest feels like home and always has.  Good to get out and explore some new parts of it.  I marveled at the juxtaposition of my time in northern Nevada with the feeling of Tofino.  I love living in a part of the world with such contrasts.  


Chinatown, Victoria


Victoria's Inner Harbor
On the way to Tofino


Meres Island old growth

Tofino's town beach

Beach trail, Tofino

The Tofino docks at sunset

Morning flight

Beach near Tofino

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Weekend Road Trip to California and Nevada

A back road across NW Nevada
This past weekend a friend from Seattle and I took off for a three-day weekend road trip.  This was an old style, point the truck and go kind of trip.  We ended up heading down to Lakeview, up and over the Warner Range at Fandango Pass, through Fort Bidwell, CA (I hadn't been there in 28 years!) and on across northern Nevada through the Charles Sheldon Antelope Refuge.  We got a flat tire out there and had to side trip to Winnemucca, which cost us a trip into the Pueblo Mountains so we headed into the Santa Rosa Mountains of Nevada instead.  All good, got to see some new stuff and revisit some old.  Beautiful weather and great evening campfire sitting.  Great to get out!

Somewhere in the Charles Sheldon Refuge 
In the Santa Rosa Mountains of Nevada


Santa Rosa Mountains

More Santa Rosa Scenes

Evan's truck

From Buena Vista Overlook, Malheur NWR