knary
looking for a coal mine
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Click on images for larger view.
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Part 1:
Still in my pijamas, I had survived three conference calls and run out of design ideas for the latest project. The sun was shining and it was lunch time. If I was only gone for an hour or so, I could afford to spend some time on the bike. If there were ever a truth, it is that Sun in spring in Portland should never be squandered. Giddy Up.
East out of the city, I turned up along the Sandy River. The fishermen were out in droves. Pickups and american cars lined the road in every direction. My destination was Larch Mountain, a vista point with spectacular views of the Cascades. On such a clear day, you can see a half dozen or more volcanoes rising high and white above a sea of green forest.
![](http://www.conary.org/bike/assets/trip/gorgelunch_small/IMG_3847a.jpg)
The view from one of my favorite vista points, the gorge as beautiful as ever. Down in the gorge, shadows layer upon shadows, trees upon rock and moss and fern. The wind pushes in, funneled by the mountains and hills and bluffs. Water squeezed and drained from snow fields miles up and rain from minutes or hours earlier. Time is tangible in the decay and forgotten in the urgent growth. Up high on the bluffs that define it, you can see the gorge for what it is, a massive cut through a mountain range - the Cascades. Here the the Columbia River has bisected these mountains for millennia, exposing their history, laying open a story of two ranges of volcanoes, one, the rumbling peaks of today, built on a much older one, both built on vast ancient basalt flows from hundreds of miles away in Idaho. From the rocks at the base of the cliffs, to the crumpled lava and ash at the tops of the peaks, you are looking at moments in time from 15 millions years ago to the present. This is one of those places where the making of the world is seen. And it is but a short ride from my home.
![](http://www.conary.org/bike/assets/trip/gorgelunch_small/IMG_3853.jpg)
<i>part 2 coming soon...</i></td></tr></table>
Click on images for larger view.
---
Part 1:
Still in my pijamas, I had survived three conference calls and run out of design ideas for the latest project. The sun was shining and it was lunch time. If I was only gone for an hour or so, I could afford to spend some time on the bike. If there were ever a truth, it is that Sun in spring in Portland should never be squandered. Giddy Up.
East out of the city, I turned up along the Sandy River. The fishermen were out in droves. Pickups and american cars lined the road in every direction. My destination was Larch Mountain, a vista point with spectacular views of the Cascades. On such a clear day, you can see a half dozen or more volcanoes rising high and white above a sea of green forest.
![](http://www.conary.org/bike/assets/trip/gorgelunch_small/IMG_3847a.jpg)
The view from one of my favorite vista points, the gorge as beautiful as ever. Down in the gorge, shadows layer upon shadows, trees upon rock and moss and fern. The wind pushes in, funneled by the mountains and hills and bluffs. Water squeezed and drained from snow fields miles up and rain from minutes or hours earlier. Time is tangible in the decay and forgotten in the urgent growth. Up high on the bluffs that define it, you can see the gorge for what it is, a massive cut through a mountain range - the Cascades. Here the the Columbia River has bisected these mountains for millennia, exposing their history, laying open a story of two ranges of volcanoes, one, the rumbling peaks of today, built on a much older one, both built on vast ancient basalt flows from hundreds of miles away in Idaho. From the rocks at the base of the cliffs, to the crumpled lava and ash at the tops of the peaks, you are looking at moments in time from 15 millions years ago to the present. This is one of those places where the making of the world is seen. And it is but a short ride from my home.
![](http://www.conary.org/bike/assets/trip/gorgelunch_small/IMG_3853.jpg)
<i>part 2 coming soon...</i></td></tr></table>