What a great weekend! I really needed to get out of the city so Camille and I loaded up Klaus with sleeping bags, chairs, books, firewood, food and beer, and we headed out on a road trip. First we went up to Mt. Hood to get a look at the mountain and to see some snow. We still have a fair amount of snow up in the mountains here in Oregon and Timberline ski are is still operating up on Mt. Hood. We got lunch at Timberline Lodge, which is one of the grand old lodges of the west, built by the WPA and dedicated by FDR himself. They didn't use beams to construct the interior structure, they used old growth logs! If you have ever seen the Stephen King movie "The Shinning," all of the exterior shots of the lodge, with all.
of the crazy snow piled up, that is Timberline Lodge. Anyway, we got back on the road and headed out to the desert for Smith Rock State Park and the BLM campsite at Skull Hollow. We had a terrific night camped out in the sagebrush country, with a nice warm fire. We even raosted up some marshmallows over the coals! The next day we headed over to Smith Rock for some hiking. Smith is an outstanding park, with big red rock formations jutting up out of the desert floor. It is a rockclimbing mecca, and for good reason. Back in graduate school I used to go out there all of the time with friends or teaching climbing classes for the university. It was good to be back there after so many years.
