After my first attempt ended in failure, I made it to Muir Creek Falls yesterday. No wonder there aren’t any photos or discussions of this place on the internet; the “easy” Muir Creek Trail is awful in its current condition. Parts of Muir Creek Trail are overgrown, parts have trees (many trees!) blocking the trail, and I completely lost the trail a few times.

After finally reaching the falls I decided not to go back the way I came. Instead I crossed the falls, via a fallen tree, to the other side. There is a house and barn on the other side. I became a bit freaked out, in part by an unrealized fear of some guy coming out of the house in the middle of nowhere and in part by the wild cows on the property. Instead of crossing through the property to get to road NF-2734 I opted to tough it out through the forest. Big mistake. I ran into more cows in the forest. Cows in the forest are scary. They never charged me, but they cursed me with their eyes, and I headed in the opposite direction. The forest terrain was very steep. I took a nasty fall at one point, did more bushwhacking than I would have liked, and ended up with blood trickling down hands, arms, and a leg.

I’m done visiting Muir Creek, but should you be so inclined, I have a few recommendations:
1) If taking Muir Creek Trail, be sure to have long pants on. Also, be sure you have the local map downloaded into your phone beforehand for offline use. GPS works out there, but there is no internet. Put the trail into your phone so you can find it when it disappears. Also, waterproof boots are a good idea as I ended up walking through 2-5″ of water several times.
2) Don’t try to get to Muir Creek from the east. The terrain is awful.
3) A possible easy route is via Road NF-2734. You’ll have to walk through the aforementioned property. I have no idea how often someone stays there or if they are friendly.

Posted on September 16th, 2016 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: hike, muir creek, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED AF-S VR, Nikon D500, water, waterfall. Comments Off on Muir Creek Falls

Took a one-day trip out to our friends’ ranch this past Saturday. Always beautiful, always a good time.

Posted on August 24th, 2016 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: beatty, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED AF-S VR, Nikon D500, sunset. Comments Off on Beatty @ dusk

Paulina Creek Falls (Bend, Oregon)

My random, desktop image of the day is this one from five years ago.

I cringe when I look at the EXIF data on photos I took back then. The good news is I’ve learned from my mistakes.

Posted on August 23rd, 2016 under nature, outside of ashland. Tags: bend, nikon 18-200mm vr ii, nikon d7000, paulina plunge, waterfall. Comments Off on Paulina Plunge Waterfall

Almost five months have passed since I began this story. I suppose I should write down a few more details before they fade from my mind.

I could not find a trail down to the water and the falls so I forged my own. It got a bit scary at times as it was fairly steep. I made it down with only a minor fall or two. I walked along Muir Creek for a while, realizing that I wasn’t going to be able to reach the waterfall without crossing the river. So I gave up on that idea and instead headed south along the east bank away from Muir Creek Falls. The views were beautiful without falls. I walked carefully as I was sinking in the snow, rather deeply, even with snowshoes. There was so much snow I was worried that it wasn’t all on solid ground, and I could plunge through the snow and into the water.

After today’s photo I turned around and began to retrace my steps. Walking was much easier stepping into my old prints than creating new ones as I’d only sink an inch or two with each step instead of many inches on my way down. I lost my fear and increased my pace. That was when my prior anxiety was realized. Although I stepped into my prior steps, this second time I went straight through the snow (more than four feet of snow) and into the water. My adrenaline kicked in like never before. It seemed to know that I was on my own, and if things didn’t quickly get better rather than worse I could be a dead man.

I think one of my snowshoes caught some wood at the bottom while my other was in water (with my foot still in it). My head and shoulders were above the snow (I’m 6’4″), my feet were in water, and my body was in snow. I couldn’t see my situation below the snow. I had no branches or other items on the surface to pull myself up with. As I struggled, snow around me disappeared into the water below. That wasn’t good as without the snow around me I had no way of getting out. Details are foggy at this point as everything happened so fast, but I think I was able to get one of my poles up and out and onto something more solid than the snow immediately around me. My right snowshoe on a log or branch or something also gave me a bit of leverage. Somehow I got myself up and out of there.

The rest of the walk back up the mountain and to my car was uneventful. My socks, boots, and pants below my knees were frozen solid as they had gone under water before reemerging into the below freezing temperatures.

Posted on August 21st, 2016 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: hike, muir creek, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED AF-S VR, Nikon D750, snow, winter. Comments Off on Muir Creek “trail”

Ashland sunrise (November 2010)

Posted on August 18th, 2016 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: landscape, pilot rock, sunrise. Comments Off on TBT

Lake of the Woods (June 2009)

Posted on August 15th, 2016 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: clouds, lake of the woods, landscape, water. Comments Off on Lake of the Woods

11-photo photomerge

@TipSquirrel #photography #phototips #photomerge #photoshop

I wasn’t thinking when I grabbed my D500 (crop sensor) instead of my D750 (full frame) to go on a hike this past Sunday. The D750 with a 24-120mm f/4G lens is perfect for hiking. The D500 turns that lens into a 36-180mm lens. I don’t really need 180mm on a hike, but I do need 24mm. When that happens the solution is to photomerge. I did so with the photo above. However, I didn’t like how much of the water at my feet wouldn’t fit. So, for the first time, I tried a different technique.

Normally I photomerge by shooting vertical images from left to right and then merge them together as a horizontal panorama. For the image below I shot vertical images from left to right, but instead of shooting one and moving right I shot one and moved down to take a second before moving right. Something like this:

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22

I didn’t know if Photoshop would be able to merge them together, but there were no issues.

22-photo photomerge

Posted on August 11th, 2016 under nature, outside of ashland, photography. Tags: california, hike, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED AF-S VR, Nikon D500, photography, photoshop photomerge, trail gulch lake. Comments Off on Trail Gulch Lake

Benham Falls (Sunriver, Oregon)

A nice walk or bike ride from Sunriver, Benham Falls is an atypical waterfall.

Posted on July 3rd, 2016 under nature, outside of ashland. Tags: bend, landscape, Nikon 24-120mm f/4G ED AF-S VR, Nikon D750, sunriver, water, waterfall. Comments Off on Benham Falls

My first photo with the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge which was shot in RAW. This is up Hitt Road in Ashland looking toward the Siskiyous from Acid Castles.

Posted on June 6th, 2016 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: samsung s7 edge camera, siskiyous. Comments Off on Castle Boulders