November 12, 2013

10.12.13 : cascade falls

November 12, 2013/ Chelsea Tuttle

I skipped Washington. Don't worry, I definitely did the Washington coast, but I had a goal to be in British Columbia for their holiday weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving!) and my plan just didn't leave enough time to do the Washington coast on the way up.

Having visited the greater Vancouver area three times in the last few years, I'd have thought I'd exhausted the local waterfalls, but in fact, there was at least one I hadn't seen yet, so my friend Jeff and I headed that way on my first day there.

It was a perfectly beautiful fall day, only tainted by some unfortunate graffiti on the rocks surrounding the falls…left for us by the class of 2014. I'll try to avoid a soapbox rant, but seriously people…if there's one thing that should be left untouched by the hands of miscreant youths, it's nature. Go graffiti something manmade and leave my waterfalls alone!

Ok. Rant over.

I also have to give some photo credit to Jeff, whose hand is pictured in the photo of him taking a photo of me on my iPhone (a gal's gotta Instagram). He came up with that one all on his own.

November 11, 2013

10.11.13 : shipwrecks and goonies.

November 11, 2013/ Chelsea Tuttle

Since I took so long to go up the Oregon coast, I was unable to hit my goal of making it into Washington in time to camp on the 10th of October. I wasn't bummed to stay overnight near Astoria, as there was plenty to explore the next morning before heading north.

After waking up to a giant slug on one of the trees used as my hammock anchor for the night, I made my way down to the beach nearby to check out a shipwreck I'd seen there about four years earlier. The morning sun was just glorious as it shined through the rusted out skeleton of the ship.

Astoria is also well-known for it's role in the movie The Goonies. I love that the house used in the movie has made a point to welcome visitors to politely come check it out from the outside. Sorry folks, but I didn't do the truffle shuffle, as I saw there were some people home and didn't want to scar them for life.