The Oregon Experiment

Every great adventure has its lead players, each needs to play off the others differences and it somehow needs to jumble together into a progressive moving mass that takes them somewhere. Our team seems to assemble some interesting qualities, each of us have our vices and problems and we each are going into this looking to get something different out of it. Derek and I have known one another since Kindergarten and Jared I have known each other since middle school; so knowing each other this well enables the best kind of constructive criticism as well as the inherent ability to crush the others spirit at any moment. Lets face it, when you know someone long enough, you know how to make them hurt. So all that aside we have great potential for success and utter failure, which seems promising enough.
So the trip starts with its challenges, 25 hours straight of driving in a position where you cannot fall asleep. Also getting lost somewhere on the one past the golden gate bridge and harassing some AAA agencies for maps. Needless to say we made it to crater lake just in time to catch the sunrise and it did not disappoint. The deep orange streaks spread from the distance and with every passing moment the water grew from the ultra still dark black to a blue that borders on crystal clear. The cliffs gave the area this unapproachable reverence that made the prospect of hiking down a dark shot in hell and as soon as we soaked in the magnificence of the scene we passed out next to some lookout point on a trail .
Derek and I were walking on no sleep, but Jared somehow found a way to sleep in the most awkward of positions, Jared is an awkward guy though so it makes sense. We took the rest of that day looking for a good camp site along the 138; every quarter mile seemed to present a more incredible camp ground, completely vacant and teeming with towering waterfalls and dense forest. We nestled in along the shore of some river and relaxed under the trees for the night, we even found some logs laying around so when the night passed we roasted some wieners and played some bridge by the fire. Oh, and got pretty drunk.

We finally made it to Portland and my cousins welcomed us with a place to hang out and plenty of food, later my Aunt and Uncle completely spoil us with their amazing cooking and hospitality. Then pasta and beer rained in from the heavens and for the next couple days we strolled the gorgeous streets of Portland and enjoyed the company of good family. We also owe Greg and Suzi a huge debt for all they threw in for us in preparation for this crazy endeavor. Greg had some awesome stories and helped us map our route and gave us some good survival tips. Also took us out on the town and got us some gear and beer, go together pretty well i think and tomorrow he leads us out of the city by bike and the insanity is close to beginning.


Didn't have time to fix spelling and speech so deez with it