
Wasco is a small town in north central Oregon. It’s primarily a farming/cattle raising area. Like many rural towns it is struggling. Below is a boarded-up storefront window that I found interesting.


I have been writing up my hiking memiors. Hours and hours and hours of working at the computer. Haven’t had much time for working on (new) photography or blogging. Lots of going through old photos that I took while out hiking.
This was one of my favorite destinations for a backpack (or just a dayhike, back when I could do a long hike in a day). Camp Pleasant probably burnt up in the North Fork Skokomish fire (AKA Bear Gulch). I will be interested to see, when they finally let folks into the area (probably a year or two). This is in the southeast corner of the Olympic National Park. Just over 6 miles in from the trailhead at Staircase Ranger Station.

I went to England in 1999 to see the total eclipse of the sun (it was cloudy). But while I was in London, my brother and I spent the day going up to Cambridge where we visited the University and I was thrilled to come upon the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics … one of the hangouts of Stephen Hawking.
We later walked over to the river Cam and I poled a punt (skiff? … ?) on the river. My brother was a little nervous with my poling … not having been with me during any of the hours I had spent poling my canoe. This was lots easier … not nearly as tippy. It was fun to pole under a bridge on the Cam.


St. David’s Day is March 1st and St. David is the Welsh Patron Saint. It’s like St. Patrick’s Day, except the Welsh get together and sing and read poetry. It doesn’t have the same marketing appeal as drinking green beer does. But, as a person of Welsh heritage, it’s important to me. The daffodil is one of the symbols of Wales. (like the shamrock is for the Irish)