Week Off, Travelling around Oregon

I spent last summer and two months of this spring/summer working in the Wallowa Mountains. We finished up the lodge, opened for business, and I stuck around as the last carpenter to finish up some projects. We had writers from Travel Oregon coming in so I didn't want to bother them with a skil saw and nail gun as they enjoyed their wilderness experience.

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2300 of the 4000 sq ft of flooring done
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Monday - Flight out to Enterprise, Drive to Hood River, Ride Post Canyon. No Pics but the trails were in pretty good shape. A little dry and some brake bumps but big, flowy berms and jump lines.

Monday Night we drove to a SnoPark just south of Hood
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On our way to the Mckenzie River Trail
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There were some wet spots
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Why do they call it the Blue Pool?
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One buddy had to head back to Bellingham, the other & myself camped up near Three Fingered Jack. Skies were clear.
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Headed back towards hood in the morning, rode the trails out near FR-44. Fast & Dry.
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Up to the Climbers Lot for a 4 am start to the summit.
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We topped out around 8:45. Waited til 9:30 or so until we dropped in. Could have waited an hour longer to get better corn up top. Snow was perfectly corned around the top of the Palmer lift at Timberline.

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And down to Bend to spend time with other friends & ski other volcanoes.

4:20 wakeup call, on the trail to South Sister by 5:45.

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Had to boot the first 1000 ft or so.

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Up & up

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More booting on the ridge

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Topping out

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Hot Corn. Snow was good up high, a bit too sloppy down low.

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Back to down for a mellow Saturday on the Deschutes River Trail.

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And up again for a sick hour-and-a-half wait for a Bachy Ticket.

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Free bike park tickets with a ski lift ticket purchase.

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Shuttle Laps in town on Monday finished with a river float. Drive back to the Wallowas for the Fourth. Too much tequila to make it off my buddies property, so here's a repost from last year's fireworks.

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Back to 90° heat and these goddamn floor boards. Mahalo.

impressive!

Awesome TR!

been following on IG. awesome stuff, super jealous

very nice TR.

thank you for taking the time to share

Fun times, but any more pics of the lodge, and story to go with it?

You asked for it! First, you don't work for OSHA, do you?

It's called the Minam River Lodge, based on the western end of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. It was originally build in the mid 50's before the Eagle Cap was designated by the wilderness act. There are four neighboring properties which have been grandfathered in as a private holding within a designated wilderness area. No roads, only access is by horse, foot, or plane.

The property went up for auction in 2011 and was picked up by a guy named Barnes Ellis of Portland. 127 acres split by a wild & scenic river, air strip, hanger, barn, and the old lodge for something like $800,000. His original plans were for a renovation to which he hired a renovation contractor to gather a crew and start the project. They started with building a handful of cabins on the property, entirely constructed by materials on site. The original contractor got in way over his head, especially when they realized they would be better off with a new construction rather than trying to renovate the old lodge. The owner hired a project management company out of portland to coordinate with the existing contractor and things got a bit messy. Eventually they hired out one guy from the project management company to run the entire show.

They originally had guests on site staying in the lodge while they built a few more cabins on site. Last March, they began demoing the old lodge in preparation to break ground for the new. I was hired on the project and started May 10. When I arrived the area was graded, string lines were set, and we began driving pin piles for a foundation. 4000ish sq ft timber frame. Open floor plan downstairs, four bedrooms upstairs.

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Rather than a typical 40 hour week, we worked nine hour days, Monday through Saturday, for three weeks and had a week off. This gave time for the family man to head home to the wife & kids and vagrant degenerates such as myself to explore the PNW.

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Commute out to town in the 206 and my first week off send me on a wild goose chase to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Turns out rivers run downhill which isn't necessarily "Top to Bottom" while reading a map and "Middle Main Salmon" means more than just running the four miles of the Main to the takeout. Fourteen hours of driving later, I make it to the put at Boundary creek at 7:45 am, not so ready for my 10 am launch. Five days and 180 miles later, I was in Riggins waiting for my shuttle, which was in Salmon. Another all-nighter and five cars worth of hitchhiking from Lolo junction to Salmon, I hopped in the top raft of the four stack and rode the trailer the next 150 miles to my car at the put in.

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Had an extra day to get home, so spent the night in Stanley with a highschool friend, safety duckied (read; swam first rapid) an upper main, and took the long route home through Hell's Canyon.

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Since there is no road access, all of our building materials came by air. We tried to get as much in the plane as possible, but most of it had to come in long line via helicopter

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Had to check out the neighborhood on our first non-rainy Sunday. No sneakers, no problem. Fourteen miles and 3000' later I got some killer shots and IT Band syndrome. I need to ski the Wallowas.

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Finished floor joists but ya gotta have some fun, too.

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Another week off, spend lots of time on my bike. First stop, Leavenworth. Then Bellingham. Stopped by the BBW at boarder patrol and the gal I was riding with was surprised that they searched us even though there was half a spliff in the glovebox.
Destination: Bike/Camp, Squamish, BC.
"You're going to a bike camp?"
"No, we're going to camp and ride our bikes".

Squamish is cool. Turns out Whistler is just up the road, so we went there, too.

Roadside Camping

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This Bike Camp sucks.

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Sidenote, check your gray water before dumping it into the woods. Your new knife might be in there.

Back to Bellingham to check out the trails at Jabroni Mtn, Sandy ridge trails, Newport, Govy Camp, Fourth of July at Wallowa Lake, and time to figure out how the hell we're supposed to set a 8" x 20" x 28' timber without a crane and stand up a 30' truss.

Science, that's how.

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Twenty employees are hard to fit in a kitchen, so we had a staff cook. Good thing our boss likes to eat well. We got to reap the benefits.

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Flights are expensive, grow what we can on site.

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Before.

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Sundays for resting

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Highest point up, Time to have a party.

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How're those steaks doing, anyways?
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Family came to visit, so we toured the "Seven Wonders of Oregon". Hood, Gorge, Wallowas, Painted Hills, Smith Rock, Crater Lake, and the coast.

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Tumalo Falls in Bend

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Shit, Sorry mom. Y'all were like twenty mins behind.

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Had a few extra days before I had to be back at work, so I opted to walk in instead of fly.

From Wallowa Lake through Lakes Basin

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To Minam Lake

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To Copper Creek in the Morning

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Note: Up to this point I had all trail junctions mapped out and pinned on the GPS, entire elevation gains and losses charted, high points, ect. I figured it was all easy enough down to the Lodge. That was a steep 3500'.

Down to swamp Lake

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and Steamboat

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to North Minam Meadows

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It was 102 at the painted hills a few days before. And what was obviously a wolf that was kept me up all night magically turned into a doe when I shone my light on it.

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Six weeks on so I could have two weeks off for a visit back to NY for my brother's wedding.

We camped, it decided to rain for the first time in six week. Before, it looked like this. After, I heard a helicopter that I thought was the forest service looking for fires and I thought we were in a burn ban so I jumped in the river to fill my dry bag to put out the fire to actually just soak my coworker, his dog, his sheepskin sleeping pad, and break his headlamp in the process. No, it wasn't the cops. No, we weren't in a burn ban. But, damn, that was some good fungus.

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We had a community potluck for Labor Day. That was the second time it rained in ten weeks. The band came in on a helicopter and they got too drunk to play by the time their set came. The lead was one of our carpenters.

First guests to arrive

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Yeah, set it down right next to those EZ-Ups, that'll be badass.

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That should feed a few

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I tried taking this pic without a headlamp. I tripped over a log in the field, smashed my filter, and my lens won't autofucus anymore. But, damn, a keg of 9.4%? For Free?

Bye, Plane.

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Looking like a building

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Sabai, one of two new cabins for the season.

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Later, Nerds.

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Ok I'm back

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Last week off I loaded up the 'Rester and brought a bunch of my stuff down to SLC to get ready for the winter. Carried on from there to Moab and Crested Butte.

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Mag 7 Stuff

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Ahab

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CB 403

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Four more weeks. Bring yer Muck Boots.

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Aaand I'm out. Off to Alta for a dry start to a deep winter.

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Got P'Dogged for New Years, had to make it up to myself with a dawn patrol

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Jesus fuck.

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Picked a bad year to be a shoveller.

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Wait, what?

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Ropes are neat

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Sunrises, Too.

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Lazy Pow is alright.

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End of season trip on Gates of Lodore

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After the Green River Trip

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Back to work, slacker. Four of our guys stayed in sixteen weeks straight through the winter with only two helicopter loads to bring in supplies. The building is supposed to be air sealed and heated solely by the wood fireplace. They said they got it up to 36° (F). They did some alright work with the finishes, though.

Back in the Chariot.

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Been slamming down 2"x8"x16' rough cut floor boards ever since. Ouch, my back...

What's next? Hard Sayin.

As a carpenter/ski bum/river junkie, I salute you sir! And damn I need to leave Montana a bit more.

Fantastic.

killing it. you know how to work that camera, too

Fuck yeah! Awesome pictures of awesome places

Gittin shit done! Impressive adventures, building and a bunch o sweet pics. Good stuff!

God damn, I say, god damn.

Wow, looks like an awesome year.

i love Ted