"Alex"dote September 9

You know you're in hunting territory when there's a taxidermy shop every couple of miles.

"Alex"dote: Pine Cone Alarm Clock

7:30 am.

THWACK! woke me up.

THWACK...! and again... and again...

"What IS that?" Candice asks.

"Someone is throwing things at the tent," I answer.

THWACK!

I sit up, "If it happens again, I'm going out there."

THWACK!

"Right," I put on my pants and boots, "I'm gonna go out there."

I prepare myself for the cold morning air.

THWACK!

Outside, I look around and, dotted all over the floor surrounding the tent are pine cones.


THWACK!

Another one flies down with force from the tree above the tent. I look up to see a small brownish black squirrel. He laughs.

Yep. He actually laughed.

{Note: To give you an idea of what that sounds like, imagine the love child of R2-D2 and a clacker. It sounds just like that. Weird.]

THWACK!

Another pine cone.

I grab my hatchet and hit the tree really hard. This freaks out the funny little fucker enough for
him to call it a day, and he starts to scurry down the tree trunk.

Me being me, I'm not about to let this go, and so stand at the bottom of the tree, axe in hand, waiting for breakfast.

He sees me, stops dead, and then runs across a branch and jumps into the next tree. i follow along the ground. He jumps again. I follow.

A game of cat and mouse, squirrel and man style ensues until he eventually finds a way to a tree that i can't follow, proceeding to sit there and laugh.

I make us a brew and get back into the tent to recount the story to Candice whilst we snuggle to keep warm. We then had to listen to the squirrels scurrying around, trying to get laid in the early morning light. Lovely.

"Alex"dote: Traveling Writers and Photographers

Whilst I'm driving through the forest to Bagby Springs, on a one way road way too fast, Candice turns to me and says, "We're writers and photographers!"

"Traveling writers and photographers," I add.

"I always wanted to be a traveling writer!" she grins.

"And I always wanted to be a traveling photographer. Worked out nicely then, didn't it?!"

"Alex"dote part 2: Hole in the leg

I write this in a small, yet uncomfortable amount of pain. We arrived back, after the "fun" of Portland, and Candice started to write in the tent while I obtained our firewood for the night.
So there i am, dressed in army cargos, a black vest and my gloves, hacking away at a fallen tree with my hatchet.
"You're so sexy!" Candice calls out from the tent.
"Fanx!" i reply with a grin, my muscles bulging in the evening light.
I stamp on the log I'm cutting, it breaks and spins through the air and connects with my right shin.
"OW!" I grunt, and hit the floor.
"Oh my God!" Candice comes running over to me, "Did you cut yourself?"
"No, I'm fine." I nonchalantly pull up my pant leg, "Yep. I did."
I look down, wipe away the blood and see a hole in my leg, right through to the bone.
Ooops. Oh well.
I strap it up, we smoke a joint and set about having dinner: Gumbo soup, fried bread and beer. Lovely end to an "interesting" day.

"Alex"dote part 1: Portland "fun"

So after yesterdays driving experience, today we headed to Portland. DON'T EVER DRIVE TO PORTLAND. It would seem the freeway system was designed by an epileptic on acid. You cant get where you wanna go, cant get back to where you need to when you make a wrong turn (which will happen a lot), and don't really wanna be there when you finally get there.
Portland, it seems to me, is a lot like San Francisco, minus the tourists. From what I saw, its ugly, depressed, suffering from the economy, and filled with homeless scum and ugly people.
[Portland: please don't take offense if I missed off any positives to your "fine" city, I just didnt see them]

"Alex"dote August 21st

Part 1
Travelled from base camp to see some waterfalls. I fucking love waterfalls! Got to see a few decent ones and the we arrived at Watson Falls. A seriously bad ass waterfall. After checking out the high viewpoint, I ventured into the basin, climbing over the rocks. I found myself 270ft below the top of the waterfall, perched on a moss covered rock, being sprayed by the falls.

Part 2
We ended up taking a hike up a hill and through some woods to a hot spring that we were told about by some weird hippy dude at Crater Lake. We spent the afternoon and evening relaxing in the hot water and talking to people, while the creek flowed by below us. Awesome. When we left we made a wrong turn. We had to climb up the side of an earth hill to find the path. Now dirty again.

"Alex"dote August 20th

Saw an awesome sunrise at Crater Lake, after six hours sleep and an equally awesome sunset there the night before. Got back to camp to find I'd left my coffee mug behind. I drove 10 mies back to get my mug, and then, when we were getting ready to leave again for the sunset, I couldnt find my keys. Now i know i had them when i got back, and I'd opened the trunk since.
"Hey Candy, you seen my keys?"
"No, I"ve got mine though."
For 20 minutes we searched the car, the camp, us, the car, etc, etc.
Irritated and done, i asked again, "Are you sure you don't have my keys? Cos I know I had them..."
No need to finish the sentence, "Oops!" she says as she pulls my keys out of her pocket.

"Alex"dote August 18th

So today we got to see beautiful Klamath Lake. Its massive, the largest west of the Great Lakes. We see wildlife in abundance, and Candice got to feed the trout and the fish hatchery. We returned to camp to find "Nut" dead. Looks like he fell asleep and didnt wake up again. (sad..., so sad) I cant work out if he died cos he left California, or because he wanted to die in Oregon. Either way, he packed his little bag and checked out.