Category: Travel

It is difficult to explain the scale and peculiarity of the Catlow Valley. It’s as if everything is stretched out wider and thinner here in this mysterious part of southeastern Oregon. Distances between things are far, far, as if the land were inflated beneath you like a balloon. Such strange places, with such vastness. Catlow [...]

One dusty day about two years ago, I, solo, in the Catlow Valley, after suffering misdirected starts and inaccurate maps, found the ghost town of Blitzen, Ore. You can see photos from that endeavor here. This time I brought David. This time at sundown. This time someone had graded the mud-rutted road enough that it [...]

Lakeview, Ore., named for its vantage over “formerly larger” Goose Lake (now shorelined some 15 miles from the town), is the county seat of the eponymous Lake County in south central Oregon. With about 2700 folks, it’s a veritable bustling metropolis, when considered against the vastness of Lake County–fully a third of the county’s population [...]

North of Eugene, above tract houses so cheek by jowl they appear tesselated, a single mylar balloon is escaping. It’s metallic and draws the eye because there are no clouds and it is sunny. Likely someone below, likely someone young, is momentarily sad.

I-5 south near Eugene; I am driving. “You know what I’m going to do?” asked David. “What?” “I’m going to start an algae oil colony. Normally you need glass tubes but I don’t have glass tubes and I don’t want to buy them. But I can still have an algae colony in our garage. I [...]

Car conversation near Millersburg, Ore., I-5 Southbound “You know what I’m going do to?” asked David. “…?” “I’m going to go to the bars near us: Roadside Attraction, Squeez, that creepy bar and grill we never go into.” “[acknowledging sound]” “I’m going to ask them what they do with their used frying oil. And then [...]

To get to where we’re going this weekend we are going to travel through the Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge in southeastern Oregon, where I have not technically been. We were driving south on I-5 near Salem and I had anticipation. I asked, “Do you think we’ll see ‘lopes?” “Probably,” said David, “unlike bighorn sheep, which [...]

Mosquitoes with such animosity that they happily bit me on the face. Literally the densest, most aggressive mosquitoes I have ever endured. I am ridiculously allergic to mosquitoes–each bit I get swells to a tumor the size and hardness of a quarter. Sunburn. Oh, hell ouch. Totally our own fault. Look closely at this photo [...]

Of all the blasted-out storefront parades of small town America, Oakridge, Ore., always seems one of the saddest. Timber times gone, everything pulled out. Rectilinear faces of buildings saying “pick me, pick me,” before giving up entirely. It’s a soft and pretty landscape, treed and mountainous. But sad. (Bridge Near Oakridge; over the North fork [...]

Mr. Pencil, me, Morocco.