Grand Ronde River Float 6/17/09-6/21/09

I got a call from Ryan about a week in advance. "We're planning to run the Grand Ronde River next week, and we have an extra seat if you can go. It's looking to be a great trip! You really should come, it will be a lot of fun!!" Having some extra vacation time on hand, I requested the time off and started gathering my gear together.

We headed out early Wednesday morning. We arrived at the Minam State park about five hours later. The campground was empty except for a few overly tamed deer.

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Soon after getting our camp set up the campground began to fill up with other river goers. The next morning we were not the first to make it to the boat launch, but we still managed to squeeze out and get on the river ahead of the other groups.

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The timing of the trip was just about perfect for both water levels and the flowers being in bloom.

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Despite the rain almost every night, the weather was good during the day with the exception of the last day. This trip was a fun and relaxing good time.

Rooster Rock Hike 6/7/09

Wendi had just picked up a set of new macro filters for her camera and was looking to try them out. We decided to give Rooster Rock in the Table Rock Wilderness a try. There always seems to be a lot of fun and interesting things to photograph up there. As it turned out it we were still a few weeks early for the flowers to be in bloom (no real surprise), but we still managed to find a few early bloomers and other things to photograph.

Wendi offered to let me play with her camera, which was cool and a lot of fun. On the other hand, this meant that I didn't take many pictures with my own camera, and makes me want a DSLR even more than before.

The following pictures are some of the few that I managed to take with my camera. Enjoy!

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We had a great time despite the cool cloudy afternoon. I hope to make it back up here in a few weeks to catch the meadow when it's in full bloom.