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SOU student-athletes and members of student government (ASSOU) Tyler Burke, Lauren Aldana, Aspen Abbott, and Tyler Luebbert
Southern Oregon University had a homecoming parade for the first time since 1969 yesterday.
Coach Craig Howard and SOU President Linda Schott
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.
Preseason NAIA #2 2016 SOU Raiders football team
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball @racetodaytona
The Raiders didn’t play today, although the NAIA opened the season a week before the NCAA. There were a few key games in the NAIA today though. #6 Grand View (Iowa) got crushed by #5 Baker (Kansas) 36-13. The NAIA coaches had them about even. Massey Ratings (which I’ve talked about many times before) had Baker winning. Baker doesn’t play any decent opponents for the rest of the season. Expect them to go undefeated in the regular season and then get beat in the playoffs (like SOU did last year) when they finally face a good team. Massey has Baker at #14, but the coaches will soon have them in the top three with home games throughout the postseason thanks to their weak schedule.
In the only Frontier Conference contest, Rocky Mountain beat Montana State-Northern 31-21. Either Montana State-Northern has gotten better (let’s hope–they were awful last year) or Rocky Mountain isn’t going to win many games in the Frontier Conference. Time will tell.
#1 Marian had their way with #10 Saint Xavier 56-10. Massey predicted a similar score. Finally, #25 Montana Western defeated #21 Dickinson State 29-13. Based on the coaches’ rankings, Dickinson State was supposed to win. Once again, Massey predicted better than the coaches. Massey predicted a 34-13 score in favor of Montana Western. Pretty damn close to the actual. Massey has Montana Western at #6 in the country. SOU will face Montana Western in September in Ashland and in late October in Montana.
Took a one-day trip out to our friends’ ranch this past Saturday. Always beautiful, always a good time.
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.
Renee Yomtob @ Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament
As mentioned yesterday, this year’s tournament is in full swing. Former Southern Oregon standouts Renee Yomtob and Sarah Holgen are 4-0 as of this writing. I believe it’s a double-elimination tournament so they won’t be going home anytime soon.
The team of Friar / Goudarzian is also hanging in there, currently with a 5-1 record.
@HolgieFitGirl @RaiderVB
The world’s largest beach volleyball tournament is happening right now in Seaside, Oregon. We are not there this year. Today’s photo is from last year.
Several teams made up of SOU alum (Holgen / Yomtob, Friar / Goudarzian, etc.) are in this year’s tournament. You can follow along here.
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
Ellie and Liv
A year ago today, this happened.
I’m almost back in Ashland, after spending most of the past 45 days in Copenhagen, as I’m writing this from SFO waiting for my final leg of the journey.