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Where I Belong?

One of the reasons I left the Oakhurst area was I didn’t feel like it was were I should be but at the same time was clueless as to where I belonged and was hoping to, among other things, figure out “My Place” in this world knowing full well that I may never figure it out…And I’m telling you, I feel so alone in this quest sometimes that I truly hope that I am the only one to ever feel this way. Everyone deserves a place to call their own and the lucky one is able to share it with someone.

Each time I leave my grandsons, Eoghan and Finnegan I am so emotionally overwhelmed that I’ve started to believe that my heart is telling me that I’m not SUPPOSED to be leaving them.

So I’ve decided that when Andy and Cortnie finish Andy’s school here in Lakeside Montana, return from what ever part of the world they go to for Andy to graduate, oh, say sometime next spring, I will move here to Lakeside to watch the boys grow and to be a burden to Andy and Cortnie.

This is such a beautiful area, right on Flat Head Lake, the Rocky Mountains to the east, rivers and lakes everywhere, plenty of places to ride my bike including a couple of local ski areas that provide lift shuttles to the tops of their respective mountains for high speed downhill runs to the local infirmaries. So much fun!

When Eoghan was a baby I did not groan as much when I had to shovel snow as I did after he had moved to Portland with his parents and I’d like to find out if he and his brother are an incentive of sorts…well I believe they are already, I’ve decided to be close to them, right?…but none the less, shoveling will be a task the winters in Montana will provide. Much more that In Oakhurst but the benefits are infinite. Maybe I can buy THEM shovels, too!

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My Oregon Trail

A compilation of moments spent with Andy, Cortnie, Eoghan & Finnegan in Oregon and a few lonelier ones as I sadly move on, alone. Happily I am back together with them in Montana for a few days. I hope that when we part this time it won’t be quite as sad…

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A Change Within A Change

Well, I’ve been gone from Oakhurst for 3 weeks now and so far I’ve spent a week with Ian in Redding, Ca. and 2 weeks in Portland, Or. with Andy, Cortnie and The Boys. The weather has been better than the norm, sunny and cool in Redding, sunny, warm and not too wet in Portland. That being said, with everyone having their own lives and jobs and distractions it’s been hard to spend a lot of time going out and “doing things” though we did anyway. I’m sure my being around added some stress to everyone but hopefully not too much. Ian has such a great group of friends and I enjoyed meeting and spending time with them, as do Andy and Cortnie and Portland is such a great town plus spending a lot of time all day with my grandsons Eoghan and Finnegan has opened my eyes to them…They are real people, not just pics and video snippets and once I got used to them (and I did need time!) I was so glad I came and spent these 2 weeks here in P-Town. Thank you to my family for putting me up and for putting up with me these past few weeks. I love you all very much and can’t wait for us to all be together again.
But the time has come to move ahead. I’ve been in a city for 3 weeks. The wilderness areas are calling to me. I have been itching to get back into the woods since I left California so the woods are where I’ll go.
Tomorrow is Sunday, June 24. I’ll get up and load Racinante, drive out of Portland, cruise along the Columbia River to Hood River, Oregon and turn south toward beautiful Mt. Hood and beyond.
People see Oregon as a puddle for the rain to fill but the state is as geologically and climatically diverse as California…And you know there are volcanoes here, right? The Cascade Mountains are wild and dramatic and grand and are full of mountain lakes, camping, hiking and mountain biking trails, fishing and hunting and if you tire of all the green just drive a little farther and the road will take you to a high desert and down into deep gorges…And I will be exploring all of it between tomorrow morning and when ever I decide to get into Idaho for a week or so and then…I will disappear for awhile…Which I might just do in Oregon, sounds like, huh?
So, I’ll be spending time at a local mountain lake south of Mt. Hood, camp there, mountain bike one day, hike the Pacific Crest Trail the next day, move onto Bend, Oregon (which is a bit of a mountain biking mecca for this area) to spend a night and go for a ride and then onto Sisters, Oregon about 25 miles from Bend, named for the “Three Sisters”, a trio of local volcanoes that dominate the southern skyline, spend a night, go for a ride, meet some of the local gentry and from there go through a local fossil deposit ground, into the high desert, through a canyon or two, into Idaho and onto Gooding…and that will be the last of the “planned and dead lined”. From then on it will be freeform…

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Big Granite

A compilation of mountain bike rides in the Sierra above Bass Lake from the past 2 years. Really, I created it as practice. I had yet to figure out how to throw together edits with the iMovie program I have on my MacBook Pro lap top. Still trying to figure it all out; hence the opening credit, “…this is gonna be bad…”.