summer time, and the livin’s easy…

This was the first fourth of July that I can ever remember where I didn’t hear so much as a “snap”. Wend Publisher Ian, myself and some friends decided to go interior Oregon for the long weekend, rather than deal with the zoo that would be heading to the coast. Oregon is like its own little world–we have many, many distinct micro-climates within a hundred miles of each other, so truly, anything you could want as far as the outdoors is concerned is within a couple hours drive of Portland. The picture above is part of what’s known as The Painted Hills, a natural geological occurrence caused by exposure from glaciers moving through. All the different colors represent different geological time, stratified. The reds are from mineral oxidization. Mind boggling. Another:

But given that this area is a desert (though in climate history it was once a jungle), camping near water is a necessity. We camped on the bank of the mighty John Day River, so named for an early explorer of the area, who came after the Lewis and Clark expedition.

But as is true in the desert, all living creatures must come down to the river to drink at some point. For those creatures that don’t need daily rations of water, they will often follow to prey upon those who do. We had an uninvited guest in our campsite, Mr. Rattlesnake (please excuse the crappy, shaky photo–I’m scared as hell of snakes.)

During the hottest part of the day, and well, most of the time, cooling off in the river was the only thing that would keep us from expiring. We did some deep water bouldering to jump cliffs, dove after fish, shot rapids, sat half submerged on sandbars, and, well, drank a lot of beer. The photo below was one I snapped of a visiting geology field student, taking the day off. She was also drinking beer, but probably not as much as the guy on the air mattress below who shot some rapids on that air mattress that a few passing boaters portaged around. Thanks to who ever you are Mr. White Water Air Mattress Guy, your antics were much appreciated.