Paddling Along
After a bit of a hiatus from blog updates, I just want to say I’m still here – still paddling along! I’ve been completing assignments for publications, non-profit organizations and businesses in the Portland, Oregon area more than fourteen years. It’s always a pleasure to meet new people, see new things and dig a little […]
Soaring Above the Oregon Coast
Hovering in a tiny helicopter above a colony of seagulls, suspended in the salty breeze above the Siuslaw River, I realized I was in a dream. I’d always wanted to be high in the air, looking down on members of my favorite taxonomical rank: aves. I see birds at the feeder in the yard and flitting between trees […]
Age Nine on the Willamette River
I love the idea of just putting down the paddle and stepping up onto the gunnels of the canoe. You do it not to be silly, nor to show off, but because you want to to see if you can. I love the idea of fishing for hours and hours, not even needing to land […]
Spring Break Run
A few weeks ago during the boys’ Spring Break, after days of snowy Oregon activity, I finally had the chance to get out for a run and found my new favorite place: the Salmon River Trail which hugs and cradles and sleeps along a spectacularly wild river. all content © Tim LaBarge 2014
Message in a bottle
I thought it was a pop bottle that was snuggled tightly into the sea kelp near Crescent Bay, on the Juan de Fuca Straight. The canoe bumped it gently and the boys reached to retrieve the discovery. It quickly became clear the bottle had a different story. Upon noticing the papers tucked inside, Leo shouted, […]
Mount Hood: Trees, à la mode
Just before Thanksgiving, 1859 Magazine asked me to head up to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood to make some pictures for the January/February issue. It was a thrill to explore the lodge and the side of the mountain for a few days as snow fell and skiers rejoiced. After dinner, editor Kevin Max and I ventured out […]
Timberline Lodge in 1859 Magazine
It was raining in Portland. No surprise there. I wasn’t sure, however, what was happening up on Mount Hood where I was heading for a wintery story. I’d heard snow and I’d heard rain. Thankfully the driving drops turned to graceful flurries below Government Camp and the accumulation got deeper and deeper as I powered […]
Salmon catch (in the van)
From the rocky precipice that is the northwesternmost point of land in the contiguous United States, we watched a half-dozen bald eagles perched in the trees and an otter frolicking in sea. Waves crashed against sea stacks. Sea birds circled and dove and rode big swells. The wind carried bits of rain. And always the […]
The Leo and Jack Trail
When you become the proud owner of two explorers, it’s best to just sit back and observe. I try to direct the flow, to keep up, but in the end I wind up watching. They dig, throw, study, pick, prod, poke, run, swim, whittle, balance, heave, crunch, crank, grind, balance, jump, leap, run, sprint, crawl, […]
Traveling the Backroads of Oregon
It’s one of those places where you announce, though quietly so as to not disturb the silence: I could live here. That rarely happens to me these days. But as I drove backroads chasing motorcycle riders across the northeast corner of Oregon, it did cross my lips. The peace, the beauty, the elk, the rivers, […]
Silcox Hut – Mount Hood
That’s not snow falling out of the January sky. Those are stars. Everywhere I looked, there were stars. Last Sunday night tucked in a little lodge up on Mount Hood, we celebrated a friend’s birthday. At 7,000 feet, we enjoyed meals, drinks and a fire. And while Silcox Hut itself is charming in its rustic, […]
Snapshots from the trail
I still carry my little Canon camera each time I run, I’ve simply neglected to post images here. This little camera has brought me more joy than I predicted. I am usually excited to head out for run on some trail or another, but coming home with an image or two lets me relive it […]
An early morning walk
I cursed, for sure. The stretch of time between closing my eyes and opening them again had been too brief. It was still very dark and at least one child was awake and the dog was squirming. I had expected to remain asleep, comforted by the drone of crashing waves, at least until I saw […]
PDXCROSS – On pause
Each Monday, we’ve gotten several inquiries: Where are the pictures? It’s true, we have not updated the site with a gallery of images from the weekend’s cyclocross race as we have done the past four seasons. PDXCROSS is on hold, you might say. A few of the contributors moved away last year, a few are […]
Mount Adams: It’s the water
My sons asked if I would bring them a rock from the summit of Mount Adams. At the location of the question, in our kitchen at about 75 feet above sea level, I thought it was a good idea. But then the reality of packing a couple of rocks down, no matter how small, seemed […]
Life in the trees
San Juan Island, Washington I might have to start calling him Cosimo, after Italo Calvino’s character in The Baron in the Trees. Leo has been spending a lot of time in trees these days. It’s no doubt a quest for a little independence, a search for his own place, a spot to sit and think. […]
The Hills of San Juan Island
June 18, 2012. Above South Beach, San Juan Island, Washington June 18, 2012. South Beach, San Juan Island, Washington I shut the door of the van, turned and started running up a gradual hill. For just a split second, I thought I was in the rolling hills of northern Nebraska. But then the smell of […]
Great Leaps of Time
Neskowin, Ore. I just realized that I’m still stunned by the incredible beauty of watching wave after wave crash into the powerful remnants of an ancient forest. Trees that stood tall, some say, 2000 years ago. Trees that collapsed into the ocean, perhaps, after an earthquake. Their torsos, their hips, their knees preserved by salt […]
Shadowy Future
I just overheard the boys, now five and three, chatting in the bath. “Jack,” Leo said, “dinosaurs are dead. People have never, ever seen them alive.” Saturday, while on a little adventure in The Columbia River Gorge, we found ourselves face to face with a ten foot long sturgeon named Herman. He’s the freak show […]
Cyclocross: Alpenrose
Well they turned out in droves today for the first Cross Crusade race at Alpenrose Dairy. They negotiated the parking lot first. Then the check in. And then the real race began… Riders ran up the famed staircase, sprinted through the old-timey townsite, crept along the off-camber grass, bounced through bumpy pastureland and they finished […]
Rapha Gentlemen’s Race
Many times throughout the day, riders asked me if I was doing okay. How was I holding up to the heat, the miles. Was I getting enough water. It was, after all, closing in on 100 degrees and the race snaked through the Coast Range for 123 miles and more than 6000 feet of elevation […]
Summer of the Fish
First fish. Timothy Lake on Mount Hood, Oregon We’ve already spent a good chunk of these summer days out camping somewhere in the Cascades. Mount Hood, the Metolius River, the McKenzie River and two different Clear Lakes. The driving force and unexpected thrill of all of this has been watching Leo, 4, dive into fishing […]
Passing Time
My dad, brothers and I heading out to go fishing in Colorado in 1977 Leo, age 4, with my dad in 2010 Photo editor and fellow PDXcrosser Mike Davis suggested on his blog just before Father’s Day to “make a picture of your dad, if you can, to remember him as he is this year, […]
Finally Summer
Huckleberry ice cream The sun was watching the calendar up here in the Northwest. On Monday, as if on cue, the weather and my attitude changed with the flip of the switch that sent us into Summer. High lake, still snowy We were up in the Cascades on the Metolius River when it happened. The […]