Hole-in-the-log-falls reborn, Ramona Falls 10/19

[pdxgene]

With the nice warm sunshiny day I managed to turn Ramona Falls into a seven hour day today. A couple of those hours were taken up by waiting for the sun to finally get in the right place for a bit of a rainbow across parts or all of Ramona Falls. With the unseasonably warm nights we've been having the vine maple is still mostly green or light yellow in the forest. It seems pretty rare for it be so late. Usually it's all pretty much done by now.
I got to the trailhead about 9ish and was surprised to see a bunch of cars. I think they were mostly mushroom pickers as the trail was pretty deserted most of the day. There are mushrooms of all shapes, sizes and colors but a couple of them I talked to were looking for matsusakes (spelling on that could be off).
Starting at Ramona Falls at 11a..


Looking down at the Sandy Guard Station Cabin from the shortcut that goes down the hill behind it..


A shot of the inside thru the broken window.. I think the blue is probably from the flash. I almost never use it but I needed it for this..


Back to Ramona Falls for a little more wait time and the a series of rainbow shots..


The best time to see it is now between 1230-130. That'll move back when the clocks do.


The sun should be a lower angle as we move forward too so it'll get a bit brighter as we move towards the winter solistice...








Just a bit of a double rainbow here..


And one last one before leaving..


Maples in the rocks going up the canyon..


Maples in the forest are still a light yellow and there's still a lot of green too, not normal for this late in October..


Vine maple growing right out of the cliff walls..


Ramona Creek is filled with lots of little minfalls. Some come and go over the years as high water in storms re-arranges things. This one was always a really nice one but has been clogged and dry for the last couple years and that's really been annoying me. I had tried to unclog it from behind where it's dry to stand but never succeeded. But the water was low enough in the creek to stand on a couple rocks and use my hiking pole to push thru it from the front..


And voila.. Hole-in-the-log-falls is reborn Yay! A couple came along right as I finished and stopped to take a picture so I had to tell them if they'd been 15 minutes earlier it wouldn't have been running yet..


Another batch of trailside vine maples..


And finishing up with a couple shots of Mt Hood from just below the loop trail junction spot.


There's a little path down, you can't miss it..


Just a pretty amazing day up there for this late in October..
Album here.. http://picasaweb.google.com/pdxgene/RamonaFalls57

There was probably more little pieces of trash and food wrappers and coffee cups on the trail than I've ever seen before. I filled a whole big food storage bag full of $#@!, some of which was not there on my way in. That doesn't even count some of the stuff I put at trailside that I saw on the way in so I could get it coming out when I had something to put it in that someone else must've been nice enough to pick up before I got back to it. What's so damn hard about not just throwing $#@! on the ground? Especially big styrofoam coffee cups... Grrrr...

[Sean Thomas]

Dude you are f'ing awesome!! I bet you can tell the time by reading the waterfall's rainbow!


"What's so damn hard about not just throwing $#@! on the ground?"


Ugh, it seems this question will haunt those of us who care enough to clean up after others until we go extinct! Not to launch into a mini-rant but whats with the folks who take the extra time and effort to shove their trash up under something, like under a rock, or inbetween a couple of branches etc? It seems like it would be less trouble to just put it in ones bag or coat pocket, but no lets just shove a bunch of dirty diapers under a downed log next to the Nestucca River, that'll show em! Saw that when camped at the primitive Elk Bend off the stucca a couple years ago when my bro and I were staying there.

I actually think there should be a test before you're allowed out of the valley when driving to the coast. The first question would be, "where do rivers that flow west out of the coast range go?" the hint would be "the ocean" and would answer the question as to allow even the stupidest of visitors the ability to visit the coast(wouldnt want to dry up that tourism money for those beach towns ) The second question would be, "do you think its ok to leave your trash by a river that flows directly into the ocean?". If they have to ask for a hint or god forbid answer "yes" then they will be asked to return home or in special cases just be shot on site of the exam An answer of no will grant access to the next set of questions which will go something like, "do you think its ok to drive 45 mph in a 55 zone only to rev up to 70 whenever you hit a passing lane?" Rinse and repeat with the formula listed above, if they ask for a hint or say yes, you know what to do

[pdxgene]

Hey, thanx Sean... The bigest pieces of trash I found were the ones 5-10 feet off the trail under a branch or conveniently stashed somewhere. They probably didn't amble there under their own power. I didn't even bother to mention the bag of trash someone dumped in the parking lot at some point during the course of the day. And it was almost all recent. It wasn't like that a month ago..
I don't even want to get started on the passing lane part or a lot Oregon drivers in general..
Like say the ones that take it upon themselves to be the speed limit police and go exactly the speed limit in the fast lane so everyone else must do the same or squeeze by in the slow lane ..

[Waffle Stomper]

Love the rainbows, perhaps they made up for the $#@! I don't understand why people leave that stuff, disrespectful slobs.

The blue on the fireplace is cool. That's from natural light slipping into the cabin. The shade will pick up the blue from the sky and the camera intensifies it especially when you are using a flash to light the other areas. I think it looks kinda cool.

Thanks for the trip report.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I've seen plenty of pictures of Ramona Falls, but the rainbow is really nice. Can't remember seeing that before.