May 1st, 2021. View of Diamond Peak from south shore of Crescent Lake. Today I was excited to finally make the hike around the circumference of Crescent Lake. Although the 11.8 mile hike is perfectly level, its difficult nonetheless as you slog through a loose mix of pumice, mud [...]
Sauteing freshly collected California Mussels (Mytilus californianus) with butter, scallions and garlic over a camp stove on the Oregon Coast. Be sure to avoid collecting mussels found on rocks near sandy beaches as wave action will ensure your delicacy is diminished by gritty sand when served. To avoid grit, find [...]
With the heavy rains of winter in Oregon's Western Cascades comes the surface and subsurface movement of water through volcanic soil. This gathering of water begins to trickle into tiny forest rivulets and then creeks, until we see the raging torrent which has become the upper Middle Fork Willamette River. [...]
Oregon’s powerful waves churn up sand and make a variety of foods available for the surf perch who call this tumultuous, high-energy environment their home. The diet of surf perch species commonly includes: shrimp, small crustaceans, amphipods, algae, small crabs, mussels, marine worms and mole crabs. Surf fishing offers [...]
On a crisp morning in March, two fly fishermen work Davis Lake in the Oregon High Cascades. To the north, and rising through low clouds are the snowy peaks of Mount Bachelor and the South and Middle Sisters. Before suffering a series of setbacks, Davis Lake was once a premier [...]
A small patch of Giant Horsetail (Equisetum telmatiea) emerges from a moist gully alongside Salmon Creek in the Willamette National Forest. The Giant Horsetail is a herbaceous perennial which reproduces both by spores and expansion of its rhizome. Often they are found growing in large dense colonies; with shoots growing [...]
The Wall Creek warm spring, with its blue mineral waters and bubbling sulfur gas from the Cascades underworld is beautifully nestled amidst maple leaves, dense forest and the rush of a soothing mountain stream. Aptly called the "Meditation Pool", what it lacks with its lukewarm temperatures of 96F, it more [...]
Oneonta Gorge is a spectacular moss, lichen and fern clad slot canyon located on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge. With cliff walls towering some 150 feet to the forest above, the lower gorge has been cut by Oneonta Creek through layers of basalt flows dating back 25 million [...]
Odell Lake is a 3,582 acre natural lake which rests in a trough created by glacial action some 10 to 12,000 years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch. At an elevation of 4,787 feet, Odell is just south of Highway 58 in the Deschutes National Forest, and is close to Willamette [...]
A Fall run, male Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), has arrived at its natal stream and is making its way to the gravel spawning bed from which it was born. After having spent between one and three years at sea, these anadromous fish begin their return journey to the clean-flowing freshwater [...]
