Road Trip!

gagrice

@xwesx said:
No, it's fantastic right now. But, that's after a few "early" nights of heavy frost, so garden is gone. Sadness.

The weather looks rather good in Prince William Sound. Friend sent these pics of his fishing trip to Whittier last week. halibut was 5 foot long about 100lbs.

fintail

Something else I seem to remember around Moses Lake - beets. There's a lot of hops in the Yakima valley, too.

Those roads I drove on have similar memories for me. My parents were hobbyist antique dealers, and my dad was a metal detector enthusiast, so we went down many of these roads on various excursions when I was a kid - I remember being on that road with the house. There are many tiny virtual ghost towns in eastern WA, and spots where a map has a place name, but almost nothing remains. It must have been really tough out there before large scale irrigation arrived in the 40s.

Drove along the Columbia today, and down into central Oregon. Didn't take any pics, but the scenery is similar.

@imidazol97 said:
The great pictures caught my eye because it's like when I drive back into my home area of eastern Indiana. I love traveling along some of the same roads I drove as a kid. I also love driving through a lot of the rural areas of Ohio and Indiana where the farm country is mostly all there is. Returning to my roots.

fintail

You're from like Hermiston or Pendleton, right?

@xwesx said:

stever

@gagrice, I like the ones under 50 pounds but if your friend wants to send a couple of filets out, I'd manage even with the bigger flakes.

@xwesx, the scablands link was interesting - they just had a glacier lake blow-out down in Kenai Fjords last month and it really changed the lake in front of Bear Glacier out of Seward. Wiped out part of the barrier beach there and created a new outlet channel to the Gulf.

imidazol97

@fintail said: > Something else I seem to remember around Moses Lake - beets. There's a lot of hops in the Yakima valley, too.

Hops and beets. Not something commonly grown in eastern Indiana/Ohio. Interesting.

Were the pictures taken by a cellphone or something from the GoPro family?

xwesx

@fintail said:
You're from like Hermiston or Pendleton, right?

Pendleton area... Helix to be exact. Good luck finding that town!

xwesx

@stever said:
gagrice, I like the ones under 50 pounds but if your friend wants to send a couple of filets out, I'd manage even with the bigger flakes.

xwesx, the scablands link was interesting - they just had a glacier lake blow-out down in Kenai Fjords last month and it really changed the lake in front of Bear Glacier out of Seward. Wiped out part of the barrier beach there and created a new outlet channel to the Gulf.

Intriguing! I had not heard about that, but it was a good read. As for halibut, I like them best in the 30# range, but with a daily limit or two and the expense of a charter, I'm all for quantity over quality. LOL

gagrice

@xwesx said:

Biggest one I ever caught was about 30lbs. It was good eating. Being bottom fish I wonder if Mercury would be an issue in a big old one?

jpp5862

@fintail said:
Fintail is definitely faster, although the 240D driver drives his car hard, and generally keeps up. It's the hills that get to him.

Some other pics:

Great pictures, I need to get back out to the NW, one of my favorite parts of the country.

The fintail looks good too, great car for the drive!

stever

Makes you wonder. I think I only caught three in my life - I get seasick so only went on one charter in 20 years and got two ~50 pounders on it. And then I got the captain to swap out a smaller fish with me with someone who wanted more filets for their cooler.

The other was a 3 or 4 pounder I caught in shallow water futzing around in a sea kayak. It was like pulling up a ton of concrete blocks and I was sure it was going to be a 40 pounder. Wound up paddling to shore dragging it behind since I didn't want it to flip me. Tasted real good.

xwesx

@stever said:
only went on one charter in 20 years and got two ~50 pounders on it. And then I got the captain to swap out a smaller fish with me with someone who wanted more filets for their cooler.

Wow! Two 50# fish on one trip; that's pretty good!

On the charter I took, the captain intentionally took us to a "chicken" area because he knew we'd all catch well, but that they'd be small. He was big into conservation and said the bigger fish were the breeders, so he hoped we would all catch small ones. Actually, he wouldn't leave the site until we all had our limits, including a couple guys from Texas who argued with him for a while about it because they wanted to keep one tag open "just in case."

Well, later on, when we were fishing for rock fish, sure enough that very guy lands one that is on the order of 110#. He was PO'd; I thought the captain was going for a swim. LOL

stever

I would have been bummed if someone had hooked into a big one. We were on the boat too many hours as it was without having to take an hour or two to horse in a 400 pounder. Not to mention the 50 pounders will try to kill you.

Chickens - I'd forgotten that term. Sure miss my hook and bullet friends; my larder is too bare these days.

fintail

Just with a phone, quick grab on a straight deserted road while driving.

A few Crater Lake shots from today:

@imidazol97 said:

fintail

The natural wonder of this area is no doubt a part of why population is growing.

I hope to have the old car finally out of the shop in the next week - it had some hiccups. Been in the shop for over 4 weeks this summer, most of that idle time.

@jpp5862 said:
The fintail looks good too, great car for the drive!

fintail

I've heard of it. I also know those tree farms you mentioned earlier.

My dad liked exploring north central OR, I remember towns like Shaniko, Fossil, Antelope, etc.

@xwesx said:

gagrice

@fintail said:
Just with a phone, quick grab on a straight deserted road while driving.

A few Crater Lake shots from today:

Beautiful day for sure. I don't see any smoke. Did they get all the fires out. How warm up on the rim?

berri

Gorgeous blue water. Interesting how one side of Crater Lake is wooded and the rest looks more high desert from your pictures. Now you might as well keep the hammer down and hit Lake Tahoe

berri

I dunno Gagrice - those fish pictures remind me of Lynrd Skynard from Alabama and their song "...that smell"

stever

Did you see the Edmunds CL65 AMG at Crater Lake? Suppose the timing was wrong.

fintail

Quite a bit of smoke between Bend and the lake, then it cleared out. In the 50s at higher elevations, about 85 in Medford.

@gagrice said:
Beautiful day for sure. I don't see any smoke. Did they get all the fires out. How warm up on the rim?

fintail

The blue really is amazing. I have some pics from the barren side, too. This is as far south as I am going on this trip. Heading up to the coast tomorrow.

@berri said:
Gorgeous blue water. Interesting how one side of Crater Lake is wooded and the rest looks more high desert from your pictures. Now you might as well keep the hammer down and hit Lake Tahoe

fintail

Ha, nice coincidence. I didn't notice anything like that, no. I seem to recall seeing a C215 somewhere, but I don't remember. But I did snap a similar pic:

@stever said:
Did you see the Edmunds CL65 AMG at Crater Lake? Suppose the timing was wrong.

gagrice

@fintail said:
The blue really is amazing. I have some pics from the barren side, too. This is as far south as I am going on this trip. Heading up to the coast tomorrow.

Sounds like a wonderful road trip. Hope the coast is clear, that makes for a beautiful drive. When it is 85-90 down in the valleys it is a short drive to cooler weather. It don't work like that around here. The higher you go this time of year the warmer the weather. Beach is cooler but way too crowded.

fintail

I got lucky with perfect weather. Nothing terribly hot, no rain in sight anywhere on my route, can't ask for more. One more day inland, then out to the coast for a few, I have family there. Nice week away after some long workweeks. I think it'll end up being about 1500 miles.

@gagrice said:

imidazol97

@fintail said:
A few Crater Lake shots from today:

Beautiful pictures.

xwesx

@imidazol97 said:
Beautiful pictures.

No doubt! Thanks for sharing, fin. It truly is amazing how quickly the Cascade forests change from lush to dry. It was night the last two times I drove near Mt. Mazama, so I have not stopped there with the kids yet, and I was a kid myself when I saw it.

stever

@xwesx, turns out that glacial blowout is the newest surfing hotspot.

jpp5862

@fintail said:
Just with a phone, quick grab on a straight deserted road while driving.

A few Crater Lake shots from today:

Great pictures, I fell in love with Crater Lake the first time I saw it. It really is too bad those places are getting discovered.

fintail

Hey thanks. No scenic pics today, but I can report it was very smoky north of Medford this morning. I hit recirc a few times. On the agriculture theme, I saw a huge truck full of pumpkins south of Eugene - can't recall seeing that before. It is pretty cool how things become lush as you go north. Tomorrow is Mt. St. Helens, to compensate for an earlier trip where it was socked in. Then out to the coast.

No doubt! Thanks for sharing, fin. It truly is amazing how quickly the Cascade forests change from lush to dry. It was night the last two times I drove near Mt. Mazama, so I have not stopped there with the kids yet, and I was a kid myself when I saw it.

fintail

It wasn't terribly crowded, given the weather and time of year. My trip to Mt. Rainier in July saw many more crowds of tourists. Beautiful area though, a good use of a little trip.

Great pictures, I fell in love with Crater Lake the first time I saw it. It really is too bad those places are getting discovered.