Articles

A little over a year ago, Adriane brought home a Behmor 1600 Plus coffee roaster. We had a shop near where we live in Portland, Mr. Green Beans, that sold green coffee beans and every time that we walked past it, I mentioned that I thought it would be fun to roast our own coffee.

Dominguez Canyon is part of the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area south of Grand Junction, Colorado. It is so name since it was first "discovered" by the Dominguez–Escalante expedition in 1776.

It is a bit of a stretch to call the Young’s Peak Trail a hike. It is not very long, but that isn't the issue. It is very steep, but that isn't really a factor either. The reason that I don't call it a hike is that it is right outside of Crawford. I mean like a block outside of Crawford.

We have a friend, well, truth be told we have several friends, but this particular friend comes from a family that has lived and ranched in the Roaring Fork Valley for generations. Way back when in the early '40s her grand parents purchased a chunk of land up behind Snowmass ski area.

When we first moved to Portland we were a little dismayed that all of the campgrounds near Portland were always crowded. We wanted to head up into the mountains to get away from people, but we wanted some place that we could get to in a reasonable time leaving after work on a Friday afternoon.

This past weekend we decided to venture over the Washington side of the Gorge, so first we went for a hike up Wind Mountain, a beautiful, cinder cone just west of Dog Mountain. The trail is not well maintained, in fact some parts are a little scary.

This could easily have been title Waterfall Porn since this hike takes you past several incredible falls. It is a short hike, 5 miles or so, about an hour out the Gorge from Portland.

This hike is out the Gorge, outside of the bustling metropolis of Mosier, Oregon, pop. 430. It starts at the Rowena scenic overlook off of historic Highway 30. After a short climb it reaches the meadowed slopes overlooking the Rowena Plateau.

Since Mother Nature is refusing to rain on us, we were forced to get out and about for the second weekend in a row. The "it rains in Portland nine months out of the year" ain't no joke. Well, it ain't no joke most years, but this year the jokes on us because it hasn't rained very much.

Mother Nature, or climate change, or a freak occurrence in our natural weather patterns, has been wreaking havoc with our winter. Our long, dark months of drizzly rain have been replaced with sunny warm days in the 50s. Now, I’m not one to complain, but we will rue these days come summer.