Oregon – A Darker View

The Futility of Going Home

I had not been back for over four decades.

My parents sold my childhood home shortly after I joined the Air Force in the mid 1980’s. They abandoned the suburbs and bought a very nice home in the city, which they still own today. It is this home I stay in when visiting Portland. For four decades, this is now “home” in many ways, but not the house I grew up in.

My childhood house is still there, along Sunrise Lane in the far southwest of the Portland metro area. This is the home featured in childhood memories spent roaming deep forests and neglected orchards. A green childhood of trees, sheep and chickens, endless mowing, picking blackberries and plums, or wandering a wonderland created by another ice storm.

Telescope Walkabout

Sunset Telescopes

Telescopes awaiting darkness at Oregon Star Party 2023

A Forest Hike

It has become my habit to take a forest hike whenever I find myself back in the Pacific Northwest. Hawaii Island offers relatively few good hiking trails, and I do miss the deep green forests of the PNW.

80' tall University Falls in The Tillamook Forest — 80′ tall University Falls in The Tillamook Forest

I spend some time researching and selecting the hike before I go. Since I dedicate one day of the trip, I do want to make the best of it.

After considering a few possible plans I selected University Falls this year. As the falls hike is pretty short, under 2 miles, the plan included the nearby Nels Rogers Trail to add some distance and additional photographic opportunities.

There was some thought to my choice… Selecting the Coast Range rather than the more heavily used Cascades or Columbia River Gorge offered less risk of a fire season restriction. And while there were other hikers about, I was generally left to my chosen solitude on the trail.

The result? Not a bad plan.

The Mitchell Point Tunnel

I do not recall when I first discovered the Mitchell Point Tunnel in period photographs, I would have been quite young. I do recall thinking that it was one of the coolest roads I had ever seen. A road tunnel cut just inside the face of a cliff with wide windows open to the sunlight.

The old postcard photos show a fascinating scene, a tunnel large enough for the cars of the early 20th century to pass one another on a smooth roadway. Big openings with heavy stone pillars separating them holding up the tunnel roof. The scenery would have been lovely, with views of the Columbia River well below.

The Columbia River Highway features prominently in my childhood memories. I grew up in the Portland area, and for many years my grandparents lived near The Dalles, as a result our family often traversed the area.

As the line from the old song stated “Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go,” we went. For us the river was the Columbia, and the woods were the thick forests of the Columbia River Gorge.

Another Hop Across the Pond

Starting out on an adventure, a couple weeks on the mainland. A bit of visiting family, the annual tribal meeting, then off to Alaska for a little fishing with family. A lot of camera gear loaded, will be making time for some exploring along the way.

Yet another hop across the Pacific, leaving the island behind and headed to Portland.

Cinnabar Mill

Equipment for extracting mercury from cinnabar in the Mother Lode Mine mill

Mill Furnace

Cinnabar furnace at the Mother Lode Mine

Cinnabar Mill

Mother Lode Mine

On a past visit to the area I had tried to find this mill building, I missed it by mere yards, a few trees away. This time I was going to succeed.

The Mother Lode Mine is a mercury mine in the Ochoco Mountians of central Oregon. Here cinnabar ore was crushed and roasted to release quicksilver that would have been used in the region’s gold mines.

First claimed as a gold mine in 1899, mercury was discovered in 1900, mining continued off and on under various mining companies until 1968. Total production was likely around 352 flasks, or about 2,900 pounds of mercury.