Well, here we are. Mid-December, and I’m finally getting around to sharing everything we did this fall. I’m concluding a year of terrible blogging with the fourth seasonal post (see winter, spring, and summer, if you’d like). I have big ambitions of being better at documentation in the new year, but for now, we’ll all have to settle for a giant update written to the soothing sounds of Gilmore Girls (appropriate because it’s always autumn in Stars Hollow, right?).
Before we dive into specifically wonderful autumn activities, please enjoy a few of the hundreds of photos of Portland’s autumnal glory:
Alrighty, let’s do this thing. First up:
Summiting Mount St. Helens
A friend of ours had a spare permit to summit Mount St. Helens, and I was lucky enough to get to tag along. Insanely, we started our hike around 12:30 am (I’m sure I’ve mentioned that I hate the dark. Well, no one likes the dark.) and climbed all night to reach the summit for the sunrise. It was AMAZING. We had the summit to ourselves, and although we started the hike in lots of clouds, we hiked above them and had perfectly clear conditions to see a million stars. In the end, I’m so glad that we did all of our climbing in the dark because we could only see a few feet in front of us. If we had been able to see how far we had to go, I think we would’ve been a bit discouraged. And starting in the dark eliminated all the crowds (world’s greatest crowd hater, right here) for the climb.
You can see the steam coming out of the crater, which is a weird/cool/creepy thing to encounter on a volcano.
I don’t think photos do this justice at all, but that last mile to the top is STEEP.
All-in-all, it was a pretty perfect day for an incredible experience. Staying up for 36 hours straight was less than excellent, but I’d do it again.
Apple Picking
There’s something so delightfully romantic about picking apples in the fall. But in Oregon, it usually goes one of two ways for us: picking apples in the pouring rain, or it’s blazing hot, and we’re sweating through our precious plaid apple-picking attire. But this year, we caught the orchard during a break in the rain (I believe it poured on our drive out there), and it was chilly enough to wear festive fall attire. Bless you, Oregon (and Kiyokawa Family Orchards), for finally pulling through.
Silver Falls State Park
If you’re looking to fit a lot of impressiveness into one hike, Silver Falls is the place to go. We visited many moons ago, but were due for a return trip in the fall.
Astoria and the Coast
Before my dear friend, Karlie, moved away (come back, please!), we tried to fit in all of the Oregon fun we could, including a trip to Astoria. What I mostly recall from this trip were the THOUSANDS OF SEA LIONS (literally my nightmare scenario) we could hear barking (is that what it’s called?) from miles away.
Cruising through Wine Country
Ours pals, Jess and Brent (a.k.a. “Masters of Adventure”) invited us along for a bike ride and kiwi berry-picking extravaganza in Oregon’s wine country. Apparently I didn’t actually take a picture of the four of us at any point, but here are all of our bikes:
We biked, dined on fine foods in the sunshine at Red Hills Market, and picked kiwi berries to our hearts’ content. If you haven’t had a kiwi berry, they are delightful grape-sized kiwis that taste like a dream.
Falls Creek Falls
I hiked Falls Creek Falls with some friends last year, and have been wanting to take Eric ever since. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, as the actual waterfall viewing area was packed. But we continued up the trail a bit to this amazing lookout with views of the massive fog rolling through the trees. Swoon.
Eric brought his drone along and got some pretty cool footage of the waterfall that you’d never see from the trail.
Well, that wraps up our autumnal bliss. Bless you if you’ve made it this far.
-Ally
Just Jess says
“No one likes the dark…”
You win pop culture references for 2017 and probably all the other years too. And based on these photos and the fact that you CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN IN THE DARK!!!! — I would say you are in fact the master of adventure.
Betsy Ringer says
Absolutely stunning!!! Thank you sooooo much for sharing your outdoor playground with us!!
judy w. geckeler says
I know I have said this before but it is so true, your writing is amazing and I so enjoy reading about your adventures. Thanks for sharing it. Hugs to you.