Tales from the Stump: Dublin Eagle Tanner Butt

Oregon is a beautiful place, there's no denying that. Despite our shortcomings (such as the plethora of backwards backwoods villages full of inbred racists...just kidding, Hillsboro!), our natural surroundings are some of the most breathtaking in the U.S. of A. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Columbia River Gorge and its surrounding mountainous terrain. Last summer (oh, how I wish this winter would hurry up and go the way of the Dodo) my two brothers Roofless and Briguy, Lucky, Reidseed, and I took a several day backpacking trip out into the wilderness south of the river up along the base of the Cascade mountain range...it was an epic adventure filled with raging 30-foot bonfires, lost wanderings off the poorly marked trail, clove-flavored bogue smoking, shit-shooting, and very sore anuses (thanks Dan!). I won't get into details, mostly because it was six months ago, and I can't remember much more than that the first day hiking up the Tanner Butte Trail was hell (something like 4,000 feet elevation gain over 3 miles), and the last day was absolutely stunning as we walked back towards the Columbia River on the Eagle Creek Trail...the path was a two-foot wide ledge with a sheer drop 100 feet into the creek, and amazing waterfalls at every bend in the trail. Just check out the video below of Tunnel Falls...yes, the trail actually goes behind the waterfall. Here are a few photos from the trip to help you through the rainy season and the accompanying hibernation we all experience.

Not sure what exactly I'm doing here, but seeing that I was absolutely obsessed at the time with Shaun of the Dead (and still am), this is probably me doing Nick Frost's character's impersonation of an orangutan. Yeah, I don't get it either.

Dublin Lake, full of fleet-footed fairies, and sinister leprechauns...some of the nicest camp sites I've seen in the back country and it's absolutely deserted.