Parking place for High Lakes Trail

This past week we went on a little family outing to the east of Ashland. We have done the trail from Lake of the Woods to Fish Lake before, but this was the first time we all made it for the entire round trip.

To avoid paying the $7 day-use fee by parking at one of the lakes, we parked at the sign pictured above which is approximately where the A is on the map below.

Biking trail map for Lake of the Woods

At this point we made a mistake and went to the right since the sign says Fish Lake is to the right. This does not put you on the High Lakes Trail (which is what you want if you are hiking or biking). Instead, it puts you on the Resort Trail which looks like an old car trail. The Resort Trail is anything but resort-like, and it eventually disappears, but not before you have to carry your bike over lots of fallen trees and ride over other rather difficult terrain. To avoid this pitfall, keep going down the road (to the left toward Brown Mountain Trail) in the top photo a bit (maybe 20 yards) and then hang a right on High Lakes Trail.

More photos and info to come in the next week…

Posted on August 14th, 2011 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: biking, fish lake, high lakes trail, hike, lake of the woods, trails. Comments Off on High Lakes Trail No. 6200

Lake of the Woods, Southern Oregon

Another photo from the archives today… This one is from June of 2009. I took this picture (with my LX3) just before taking the one featured here.

Posted on August 8th, 2011 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: clouds, lake of the woods, lx3, water. Comments Off on Lake of the Woods

Ashland Springs Hotel and Ashland, Oregon from the base of Grizzly Peak

I took today’s photo back in mid-June. Alas, things are browner now. The location I took this picture from was the same as this prior blog entry.

The Ashland Springs Hotel is in the distance on the right. Empty box cars can be seen on the train tracks that cut through town (even though trains coming through are extremely rare these days).

Posted on August 5th, 2011 under nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: ashland springs hotel, trains, valley. Comments Off on From the east side of Ashland

Mt. Hood from an airplane

On my way back to Ashland from Europe on Sunday the plane spent very little time over water. We went over Greenland, Canada, and didn’t enter U.S. airspace until the state of Washington. We came south from there to land in Portland. This was the view of Mt. Hood shortly before landing. I think the water you see in this photo is the Columbia River.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a window seat on the flight from Portland to Medford.

Posted on August 3rd, 2011 under nature, outside of ashland, places. Tags: aerial, mount hood, mountains. Comments: 1

The last time I showed you this scene was from right down by the water’s edge in a vertical shot. This landscape-orientation photo I took from the road that runs through Lithia Park.

Posted on July 27th, 2011 under lithia park, nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: lithia park, water. Comments Off on Ashland Creek from the road

Vineyards (and wineries) aren’t exactly new to the region, but there seem to be a lot more now than when we moved to the Rogue Valley 11 years ago. In the distance, you can see Pilot Rock in this photo to the right. The east side of the valley (which is what is in this picture) has a number of bluffs as you can see.

Posted on July 25th, 2011 under nature, only in ashland, places. Tags: pilot rock. Comments Off on Ashland Vineyard

Deer, squirrel, and raccoon are common sights in town. I have also seen bear, fox, turkey, and skunk. This was the first jackrabbit I’ve encountered in Ashland.

Posted on July 23rd, 2011 under nature, only in ashland. Tags: wildlife. Comments: 1

Today’s photo was taken by Ellie on Interstate 5 on the way to Salem, from inside of a moving car, back in May. I’m not sure if that is a rainbow or just glare from the window she was shooting through. In any event, it looks like it was a pretty drive. Oregon has a lot of these kinds of scenes.

Stick around for tomorrow’s entry to find out why Ellie was going to Salem.

Posted on July 10th, 2011 under nature, outside of ashland. Tags: clouds, ellie, i-5, skywatch. Comments: 1

Back on father’s day I was trying out my 24mm prime lens while on a bike ride up in the Siskiyous. As luck would have it, just as I got my D7000 out of the bag to take a photo of the Caterpillar Trail sign, a few riders came down so I got to test out the responsiveness in low light.

For the first rider I had the dial in the “Auto-No Flash” mode and didn’t have time to change it. Needless to say he blurred a bit as they were coming down the trail fast. That first shot was taken with a shutter speed of 1/160, ISO200, f6.3. I had a few seconds to adjust for the second guy pictured above. I quickly spun the dial over to Scene and then moved the scene to “sports.” I then fired off the above three shots in rapid succession. The camera fired at 1/1000 with an ISO of 500 and f4. I was pleased with the result of three well focused, sharp images (in poor light even), with a frozen rider in each.

Posted on July 8th, 2011 under nature, only in ashland, people, places. Tags: biking, photography, siskiyous. Comments Off on Caterpillar Trail