On assignment in Lincoln City this last weekend I was lucky enough to enjoy appetizers and Happy Hour at the Bay House. I had the Steak Tartare and Stephanie had the mussels. It’s hard to say which plate we enjoyed the most but the Tartare photographed better, so here you go. Click on photo for larger view.
Ponytail is one of those wonderful Northwest cascades that you get to walk behind; which is wonderful. I always loved the little section of trail leading up to it, however.You turn a blind corner and you see it up in the distance. There’s suddenly a scenic creek, a lush grotto, an inviting waterfall; the whole scene is pretty damn magical. Click on pic for larger view.
I now have a Facebook page where I will be posting all sorts of pics and stories from my travel assignments and guidebook research. Click here to check it out and give it a “like” if you would be so kind.
This year I inked a contract with Falcon Guides to write my first book. The guidebook, “Hiking Waterfalls in Oregon” will be a comprehensive list of what I consider to be the best waterfall hikes in the entire state of Oregon. And even though some of the state’s most scenic cascades require little or no hiking at all, I’m throwing those in as well just so folks don’t miss them.
Obviously this is a bit of an undertaking. There will be a lot of road hours, hiking, waterfall hunting, picture taking, camping, lodging, and eating involved. Bummer. Lucky for me the state of Oregon is chock-full of, and I mean chock-full of people that want to help me make this guidebook: Visitors Associations, hotels, resorts, restaurants, Chambers of Commerce, helpful locals, etc, etc. This book will be an amazing amount of work, but imagine; I’m getting paid to travel the state and hike to waterfalls. For me, this is the gig I’d always hoped to land when I left the information technology field a few years ago, and it is un-flipping believable.
It seemed like a good idea to do a blog post about some of the major “research” trips I take for the guidebook. So here we go….Central Oregon!
First and foremost, massive, heaping piles of thanks go to Kristine McConnell from the Central Oregon Visitors Association for putting this trip together. She put hours of work and research into coming up with an itinerary that would optimize my time out there. She also assembled a “Coalition of the Willing” that would generously provide lodging for the trip.
I would be joined on this expedition by my best friend, housemate, and fellow waterfall enthusiast, Kassidy. As a man without wheels I rely on friends to take me out on waterfall research excursions. While the promise of an appearance in the Acknowledgements section of a guidebook might seem like a carrot to some, the opportunity for a nearly free waterfall hunting vacation appears to be what does it for my friends. These arrangements are win/win in the truest sense.
On day 1 Kass and I loaded up and left Portland for Central Oregon. It was a magnificent fall day for a drive. A drive that got all the better when we made it to the McKenzie Scenic Byway. 
I have to chuckle to myself in retrospect because calling this drive “scenic” is like calling Marilyn Monroe “cute”. Our first official stop was along the McKenzie River. We took a 4 mile loop hike that gave us every conceivable view of Sahalie and Koosah Falls. Thundering waterfalls, clean rushing waters, and lush forest all played an equal role in the appeal of this hike. I had never done this hike before, and it was a heck of a way to kick off the trip.
We continued on to Proxy Falls. Upper and Lower Proxy Falls were perhaps, more than any other waterfalls we were scheduled to see, the ones I was looking forward to the most. 
Before this trip I had never seen them with my own eyes, but lower Proxy is one of the most renowned falls in all of Oregon. It draws photographers in droves and is one of those “Must be seen in person” waterfalls. Those are my favorite. They lived up to and even exceeded my expectations, in part because Lower Proxy is just so large. Look at this picture. If you gaze hard enough you can spot Kass in the lower left-hand corner. This is just a small segment of the left branch of the lower falls! What also made these falls well worth the trip was the hike to them. It’s a short 2 miles, but along the way you get 2 waterfalls in a dense forest setting as well as a delightful open and arid lava field. This I would come to find out is one of the most incredible things about the region. 
Remarkable geographic diversity, often within a single hike!
We were done with waterfalls for the day but that didn’t mean we were done checking out the things that needed to be checked out. Along the Scenic Byway on the drive into the town of Sisters, is the Dee Wright Observatory. Constructed out of lava rock, the observatory sits like a witch’s castle at the summit of the McKenzie Pass. Within the structure there are “lava tubes” or little viewing windows showing all of the named peaks in the area. If you’re in the area and you fail to stop at it you will bring shame upon your family.
After a leg stretch at the observatory we got back into the car and made the final push to our home for the night; the Five Pine Lodge in the town of Sisters. 
The green built Five Pine Lodge is an amazing place. It is essentially a campus with a gift shop, a spa, the Three Creeks Brewing Company, the Sisters Athletic Club, and the Sisters Movie House all on the property; and of course, the cabins. We stayed in one of the Classic Cabins, and by no stretch of the imagination were we roughing it. Our rustic little guy was equipped with two beds, including a king deluxe, pillow top Simmons FivePine mattress, a 42” plasma flat screen television, a fireplace, an Italian tiled shower and a Kohler Purist waterfall soaking tub. How’s that for a classic cabin?
It was a very memorable and productive day, and this was just the start. We settled in for the evening and were both asleep relatively early. Unfortunately as we rested, illness would settle in on the both of us.
My girlfriend and I were in Skamania County, Washington last week doing research for an upcoming Northwest Travel Magazine feature. She had never been to Panther Creek Falls before. She now has a new favorite waterfall. Click on photo for larger view.
Colors, layers, textures….I’ll admit that there’s a lot going on in this photo. But maybe that’s why I enjoy this particular shot so much. Click on pic for larger view.
My latest write up for What’s the Soup is about the St Honore Bakery in NW Portland. There are no big cooking stoves at St Honore. Instead, soups are made from scratch, by using their one and only bread oven. First, they slow-roast or braise vegetables and meats in the oven, typically for 2 to 3 hours. This process not only makes the ingredients tender but brings out their natural sweetness and flavors, giving soups richer and more complex notes. Ingredients are then carefully mixed together and cooked in the oven, slowly. The end result is an offering of soups that contain true depth and honest richness. Read the whole article here.
Fall hiking in the Northwest is special. There is of course the smattering of oranges, reds, and yellows that appear thanks to our deciduous friends. But there are also the rich, bright, and occasionally florescent greens of the mosses and lichens that re-emerge thanks to the return of rain. Backdrop it with evergreen Doug firs and Western red cedars and you have an almost unbelievably vibrant setting for a walk in the woods. Click on pic for larger view.
I ate and drank a lot for the latest issue of Northwest Travel Magazine. Here’s a link to the Meriwether’s piece I did.
In the latest edition of Northwest Travel Magazine you can read all about my Happy Hour “research” on Mississippi Avenue. Here’s a taste, but you’re gonna have to subscribe or pick up a copy if you want to read the entire piece 🙂
Adam Sawyer 