Recent film.

Photos from my trusty point and shoot can span a good time frame and cover a lot of different territory.  These few rolls were no exception.  Here are some things that happened some months ago. 

 Karaoke happened.  The new Chopsticks is weird.  It used to be a strip club and that's exactly what it feels like in there.  Going to karaoke means a call to Cheyne.  It's not the same without him.  Glad he could come a dish out a classic.

Dorian and birthday boy, Conor, belt out a duet.

Ryan doing slappies.

Cows at the state fair.

This was at the very start of summer and the only time I made it to the sweet beach at the long hike river spot.  The water was still too cold for me to go all in.  It didn't stop Mark though.  Piney wanted to play with Igby so much that crept in to the shot.

A late summer visit from my heterolifemate.  He was staying downtown so going here was a no brainer.  It was the first bar that both of us, on different occasions,  went to in Portland - thanks Verg.

Conor loves bolwing - actually all bar games.  We bowled a few frames at the new alley out my way.

Mackenzie was here for a few days this summer. Log jump at the Sandy.

Forever photos of Igby at the river.

 Early morning camping photo.

It's nice when Chelsea and I have weekdays off together.  We hit up this river spot on a quiet day.  Bonus light leak from an overexposed frame on this one.

Bartender life has limited the shows I can attend.  I got off work just in time to catch this Mean Jeans set at the Know.

Montana

Our original plan was a camping trip.  But the only time we could go was late September.  At that time of year in Montana the weather can be anywhere from summer heat to dumping snow.  We ended up with nice Autumn weather, but that was still a little too cold at night for sleeping in a tent.  So I made some last minute sleeping arrangements that included a tiny house, KOA cabin, yurt, and fire lookout.  This made life a lot more comfortable.

 

Our first stop was Troy, MT.  There's a hike out that way I've wanted to do for some time.  We didn't end up doing it though.  We wanted to save our energy for Glacier and it felt like we hadn't left enough time for it.  But we did get to stay at a rad tiny house right on the river with really awesome hosts.

The Kootenai River in Troy.

Then it was on to Glacier National Park.  We chose to do the Grinell Glacier hike.  This is bear habitat and that made Chelsea nervous, but we were prepared with bear spray and read up on what to do in case of an encounter.  This is shot is from the beginning part of that hike.  We didn't end up going much beyond that point on the right.  Why?  Because of a big old grizzly bear!  He was there walking down the trail towards us.  Not mad, but completely unfazed by our presence and wanting to walk where we were.  So we abandoned that hike.

And we ended up here.  September is nice in Glacier.  So many less people!  The fires on the west side of the park had closed Going To The Sun Road which left Logan Pass almost empty.  This allowed us to do the hike to Hidden Lake.  It was a nice hike with great views as you can see from this photo and the few below.

Hidden Lake overlook.

Chelsea looking happy because there were zero bears on this hike. 

 Somewhere between East Glacier and St Mary.  I had never driven through this area.  It was really beautiful, especially with the fall colors starting to pop out.

There are so many stars visible in the Montana sky.  I wanted to get a Milky Way shot, but I guess that requires someone in the foreground with a head lamp pointed at the sky.  Haha.  This will do.

Our yurt on Flathead Lake.

Morning on the lake.

Wildhorse Island.

 We made a stop in Missoula to stay with the Bacons and see as many other friends while we were there.  And then it was on to this fire lookout close to the Idaho border.

 

The view was stunning from up there.  Unfortunately the lookout proved to be too much for Chelsea's fear of heights.  So we drove back to civilization and looked up hotels.  Our search landed us in Kellogg, ID at the lodgings for the ski resort.  Which turned out pretty cool because our room included passes to their indoor water park.  This was a fun way to end the trip.

Until next time, Montana!

Dorian.

I shot this the other day of Dorian doing a back tail pop out on this ledge.  I've never been able to get anything on the inside of the ledge.  It was fun to watch him figure it out.  Check out the footage on his gram.

A Little Friday Mission.

Steve, Sam, and I got together on Friday for some skating.  I hadn't been out to Scappoose for a while so it was nice to rip around that park.  Except that there were 3 terrible kids there just running their mouths about stupid shit.  And I had to yell at them not to break bottles next to the park.  As we left one of them asked another if he was a poser.  Yes, you're all posers.

Anyway, Sam was ripping which made for good photos.  With the exception of his rail ollie.  He rolled up and did it first try so I barely had time to frame it and the focus is off.  Oh well.  We then did slappies for a while.  Maybe check Steve's instagram for some footage.

Steve.

 Over the hump. What time is it?

Hang time.

Back D.

The aforementioned blurry rail ollie photo.

Camping.

For some reason we didn't camp at all last summer.  It just never worked out.  So I've been itching to get out this summer.  Chelsea and I had a free night so we threw everything together and headed to the mountains.  We brought Igby along and this was the first time he had ever been camping.  It took a little adjusting for him, but in the end I think he liked it a lot.

How long will a street spot last?

Portland isn't known for awesome street skating.  Sure, there are spots and some have been really good.  The rain takes its toll though.  An awesome spot can become pure crust after a winter or 2.  And all the growth in this city has prompted a much more liberal use of skate stoppers.  Then, out of nowhere there's a brand new spot and the minute I started skating it I thought, this was designed by a skateboarder.  If it wasn't, then there's some serious Love Park/EMB type of skate vibes manifesting in an architecture office somewhere.

The spot has been a go on the weekends and hopefully it stays that way.  Let's keep picking up our trash and staying out of the way of pedestrians.  And hopefully we can skate this all through the summer.

I forgot what Ryan was doing here.  I'll guess nollie tailslide.

Derek down.

Niles with the back tail.

Healy tailsliding.

Lurking.

Spencer was in town and ripping.

Silas was shredding the spot.  This was in a line and is one of those blunt variations that's hard to name.  I think fakie front blunt to fakie is best.  Or switch nollie nose blunt? haha.

Peep that footy.

Derek and Sam.

Sam with the lipslide.