Last three weeks

Well I just wanted to update you will everything that is going on at the moment. Probably the biggest thing is that I still have not gone out on a boat yet. That's right, I have now been paid for over a months work without actually working. No this is not a good thing, I am going crazy.

So what have I been doing with my time? I went skiing up at Mt hood which wass fantastic. I went kayaking twice, once with Craden, on a nice class 2+ section of river only 45min from Portland, and once with Jesse on a great 3-4 stretch. Now that trip was cold, it wass actually snowing when we got to the take out.

There was this one morning that I woke up to a huge thunder storm and when I looked out the window I thought that it had snowed, but no this was hail!

Then today I went clamming on Long Beach, WA. It was so much fun, as these were razor clams which is a type of surf clam, and they are fast. Thats right, this clam will burrow about a foot every 5 seconds, so you watch a wave go out, see a jet of water from the clams syphon and run to it, dig it up, all before the next wave comes in. They get to about 6 inches long, and make good clam chowder, which I just finished. The amazing thing about clamming is that they only have 1 weekend a month when it is open season and every man, woman, and child is there clamming. You can drive on the beach and there must have been hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people.
Sorry about the last photo, I took it with my phone as I didnt have my camera. You can see all the cars parked on the beach on the left, and all the people at the waters edge clamming.

Well until next time, I miss all of you, and can't wait to see you all soon.

Love Shaun

A long day in Astoria

Ok so when I say it was a long day it has nothing to do with work, in fact I have now been on standby, waiting for a boat since the 24th and it does not look like anyone will go out (weather) until next week some time. So the lack of work allows me to explore. In the morning I looked out the kitchen window and saw some radio towers on a hill out of town, I jumped on Google Earth and figured there may be a logging road to the top, so I went to find it on my mountain bike. It was not a real long road, only about 2.5 miles to the top but it gained about 1000ft so a fairly good start to the day, oh and the decent was fun!

The first photo is out my bedroom window in the house I am staying in. The second is halfway up the logging road, and the 3rd and 4th are from the top of the radio tower on the hill (no signs or fence suggesting climbing it was not a good idea, so up I went).

Then after coming home and eating I looked out my window and saw a mountain across the river (next photo) after doing some research, I found out it was called Saddle Mountain and was the highest mountain in the coastal range. It also had a 3 mile trail to the top (gaining 2300ft) and just happened to open for hiking on March 1st (coincidence I think not). I was planning to head back to Portland for a few days and Saddle Mountain was on the way.

Off I went, I arrived at the trail head around 4pm and figured to make it back before dark, a little run was in order. All the remaining photos are from the top, what they don’t show you is the wind, my guess is it was gusting about 60 mph (probably why the fishing boats are not going out). The 360 degree view was spectacular; I could easily see Rainier, Saint Helens, Adams, and Mt Hood. I only stayed on top about 10 minutes (the wind and the patches of snow had something to do with that) and then off I went, skipping back down the mountain to arrive at the car at 5:05.

So that was my definition of a long, but very good day. Until next time.