The Good Life

by ctbooth on June 7, 2012

Mt. Hood, my summer turf.

After being in remote mountains and wildernesses for a while, coming back to the real world was somewhat of a culture shock. Here in Portland and all I can see is people, buildings, traffic and more industrialism. I enjoy the city but it isn’t where my heart lays, so I immediately tried to get back into a program I can dig. Out to the Deschutes River I embarked on a little journey to follow the famous Salmonfly and Stonefly hatch.

Pulling out these babies all day long!

I’ve had some eventful last few months, however I hadn’t actually had one full day to myself in what felt like forever. Therefore, I ended up on a solo camping trip along the river fishing for Oregon Redsides. After ripping lips all day, I’d spend nights catching up on good reads. Sometimes it is within days like these where everything seems so perfect. No outside influences, just me and a passion for doing what I love. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to photograph fish solo, but rest assured most were larger than 30 inches…

Maupin, OR.

Rain clouds forming over the Deschutes River.

Lazy afternoon.

After a week on the river I pushed back to Mt. Hood to build a big step-up and surf some cornice waves with friends Mark Kelsic and Meg Pugh. Our time was cut short however as they left for New Zealand to pursue snowboarding down South.

Mark Kelsic hiking.

Surfing waves. Meg Pugh photo.

Back in Portland I received a call from my good buddy Brandon to go explore the Ape Caves. These caves are lava tubes first explored in the 50’s on Mt. St. Helens and provided an exciting underground labyrinth to explore. As we took to some non-traditional routes and squeezed through tiny tunnels we found hidden rooms deep underground, while others popped us out to the forest outside.