It took some time but Emily and I finally connected with our friend Clint Clow after many years. Clint is an avid waterfall chaser and budding photographer. After some debate we decided to check out the Northeast side of Mount Hood following the Timberline Trail from the Cloud Cap Inn towards Elk Meadows. It was a beautiful Sunday and we had the entire day to explore.. well, until we had to get back for the Game of Thrones season finale… :)
Today I experienced the most beautiful natural even I’ve ever seen. The 2017 North American total eclipse passed directly through Salem and millions of tourists traveled to Oregon to see it. Everyone chose Oregon because the chances of good weather without clouds is incredibly high during the summer months here. Emily’s cousins Gary & Deb with their kids Lexi and Stephen even came out for it, but unfortunately we weren’t able to meet up. With so many people coming to Oregon the news put us locals into panic mode about it. Cities were telling residents to stock up on water and gas like it was going to be armageddon. Everyone was saying that travel would be impossible. 
The Broken Group is a group of small islands and islets in the middle of Barkley Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. They are part of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the Canadian equivalent to a National Park in the U.S. Our friend Ian had suggested we join him and colleen and some others on a sea kayaking adventure this summer. It took some planning, borrowed boats and one all nighter of driving but we were able to pull it off and had one of the best trips of our life! Read on...
What a disaster of a travel situation for us! Emily and I had chosen to fly out of Seattle for our trip home for the Riggott family reunion to make it easier for us to start our sea kayaking trip in Vancouver… wrong choice. Despite the horrendous travel we endured the party thrown by Emily's father more than made up for it! 
Emily put together the best birthday for me that I’ve had in a decade and it involved a sport that I hadn’t done for nearly just as long! This year our friends Eric, Athena, Jen, Jason, Ian, and Colleen joined Emily and I on Lake Billy Chinook for an absolutely amazing day wake-boarding! Eric found us a great spot in the Cove Palisades Deschutes Campground where we had two fun nights - one drinking and one recovering… read on…
As I catch up on my blog in mid-September I write this as the massive Eagle Creek Fire in the Columbia Gorge, started by a 15 year old with fireworks, burns over 43,000 acres of old growth forest and treasured trails. In July Emily and I had the good fortune to join a rowdy group of friends for our first Canyoneering trip down the creek that is now completely destroyed by human carelessness. Looking at these pictures as I write this my eyes fill with tears knowing that nobody will be able to partake in this adventure for decades to come as the landscape slowly heals. Read on and enjoy the photography, video and memories…
This weekend we headed down to Corvallis so Emily could go to Lindsay’s baby shower and I could hang out with Jen and Jason. We had a fun Friday night at Squirrels and then the Crowbar hanging out with all our old Corvallis friends and staying out until the bar closed. It was a rough morning on Saturday but I was able to peel myself out of bed and head out with Jen and Jason to meet up with their friends Jon and Jenn Pywell for the loop hike up Iron Mountain and Cone Peak in search of wildflowers. Read on:
For the July 4th weekend Emily and I took our dog Leo for an epic 4-day, 41 mile backpacking loop in the Glacier Peak Wilderness of Washington. We encountered snowy passes, lots of marmots and walked through miles of a fresh 2016 wildfire. Leo got put through his paces and as I write this is still recovering. It had been a long time since we had ventured so deeply into the wilderness and it felt good. Read on:
This weekend against all common sense I decided to try to ride my mountain bike 67 miles over the Coast Range of Oregon from Hillsboro to Tillamook. I left the house at 6am and was on the way by 7am after stopping for some snacks and breakfast. It was a a fun ride that took me through the countryside of Hillsboro past alpacas, bison, and lots of cows to logging roads through Weyerhaeuser land through the mountains. 
For Emily’s birthday this year we decided to take a trip to Yosemite National Park and attempt an early season climb of Half Dome with our friends Josh and Alina who now live in Santa Cruz. The High Sierra’s had an epic snow year and most of the park was closed resulting in hoards of visitors and we got turned back just below the summit of Half Dome by high winds, hail, and ice but despite getting skunked on the climb we had an amazing time and came home with some great photos and even better memories. Read on:
My longtime friend Rachel from my years at Bowdoin visited Emily and I this week before a conference was attending at Skamania Lodge. We picked her up from the airport on Tuesday night and had a wonderful evening catching up with her in our backyard over dinner. She seems to have a wonderful job on the Hawaiian island of Lanai and we were deleted to be invited to visit them whenever we’d like. While chatting a big fat raccoon ran along the top of our fence delighting Rachel who doesn’t get to see mainland wildlife often and perking the interest of Leo who watched it intently
For the long Memorial Day weekend Emily and I decided to take Leo on a road trip. This is a tough time of year as the snow is too deep for any serious mountain backpacking and anything else we could have decided up on we wouldn’t have been able to bring Leo. So, on a whim we headed north towards Bellingham, WA with the intention of driving down through Whidbey Island and then around the Olympic Peninsula which Emily hadn’t seen yet. We had no concrete places to sleep and no clear itinerary yet it turned out to be a blast!
This week I was invited by BD Aerial to join them on a wind turbine inspection at a wind farm just outside of Elllensburg in Washington. It was a long drive so we decided to leave on Wednesday evening and drive as far as we could to camp before the Thursday acquisition. 
With Emily on the coast for girls weekend Eric and I decided to go for a bike ride in the Columbia Gorge. The plan was to ride from Hood River along the Mark Hatfield trail (Mosier Twin Tunnels) through Rowena Crest to the Dalles. The only problem was that we had heard about a rock slide below Rowena Crest viewpoint that might stop us.
At 4am on Tuesday I headed up to Mount Hood to meet my buddy Mike D. for our 2nd attempt at skiing the Newton Clark Headwall on Mount Hood, listed as one of the 50 classic ski descents of North America. Last year we had been turned around by high winds but this year the weather looked perfect and having lost nearly 30 pounds since January I was ready to give it a go. Read on…
What started off as a random decision to go see our friends Adam and Susan Elliott kick off a 2 year rafting journey at Base Camp Brewing in Portland turned into a 7 day adventure that we will never forget. 65 miles of rafting over 6 days through what is known as the Grand Canyon of Oregon. We saw a lot of wildlife including antelope, raptors of all varieties, and a great horned owl. Jason V was kind enough to let us take his 15’ raft and I guided the entire trip with Ryan and Emily on the boat. We ate well, drank well, and saw some of the most beautiful scenery this state has to offer. Read on for the story and more photos.
This year we had a pretty low key easter up in Portland. When we didn’t hear of anything going on in Corvallis Emily and I decided to invite about 30 people to our place. But, because it was a little last moment and most had plans we ended up with just Jason, Jen and Alder coming up to visit us for Zombie Jesus Day. Scott and Danielle stopped by for a bit on Easter to snack on dinner with us as well on their back back from family in Seattle. Jen and Emily died eggs, Alder sat on Leo’s head a few times and I enjoyed a lot of ham. Nuff said :)
Today we took Leo for a walk at Sandy River Delta Park. This park is at the mouth of the Sandy River where it enters the Columbia River. This spring was particularly wet in the Northwest so the Columbia was pretty high and much of the park was flooded. This didn’t deter us from having a great time taking Leo for a walk. In a few places we had to literally crawl across wooden fencing above the water to get by. Leo of course had fun just wading through the water to the other side. I took my 900mm lens along for some bird photography and came home with some great shots. 
Today I had wanted to drive out to the Tom McCall Viewpoint just west of The Dalles in the Columbia Gorge for some spring wildflower viewing. Because of this winter all the blooms are about 3 weeks behind when they were last year and you need to drive east to find the sun for them to be up already. We also wanted to get Leo on a hike and I wanted to get some more aerial footage and flying practice. 
This weekend Emily and I took a break from the Portland rain and drove out to hike the Chenoweth Cliffs behind The Dalles, OR. I brought the Mavic Pro along to capture the cliff face for 3D model testing. Emily and Leo were very patient with me while I flew. Eventually, the winds picked up and became too much for my little drone to handle so we packed it up and headed down the short quarter mile trail to the car. On the way out we were treated to a few eagles and hawks soaring by us.
This weekend Emily and I were supposed to be skiing powder at Anthony Lakes Resort with Chris and Paris but mother nature had other plans. We ended up driving nearly 9 straight hours to Pendleton, OR and back on roads of sheer ice only to be turned around because I-84 was closed over a mountain pass. Ice was caking on the windshield so fast we had to sweat it out with the truck heater on high to melt it. Kissed the steering wheel when we got home! Love my truck.
The upside to that horrid night was that we got to watch the Super Bowl at our place on Sunday night with friends and it turned out to be one of the greatest comebacks in Super Bowl history for our New England Patriots who came back from a 28-3 hole in the fourth quarter to tie the game and then clinch it in the first ever overtime breaking 24 Super Bowl records in the process. Although I think Brady is a complete idiot as a person he is certainly the greatest quarter back of all time at this point. Go Pats!
With Eric back from New Zealand after his grand adventure we decided to join up with Ian, Chris, Kalin and Rob for another Maiden Peak Hut adventure. We also invited along Eric’s friend Lauren whom he had done the John Muir Trail with back in 2012. She was awesome and we all had a wonderful time with perfect snow conditions. Read on.
This Saturday Emily and I headed to the coast with Leo for a hike and to do some filming and flying practice with the Mavic Pro. The rain held off and I got some great footage over Canon Beach from Ecola State Park as well as some wonderful orbiting shots from the top of Neahkahnie Mountain. Read on.
This weekend I flew to Fort Wayne, IN to surprise my daughter Ellie for her School Daddy-Daughter Dance. Weeks ago she had told me over text she had something to ask me but then she never worked up the courage to actually do it, probably thinking I wouldn’t be able to come. Unbeknownst her, Nicolette and I had been planning my visit for a few weeks and she had no idea. Read on…
