25 replies to this topic

[MarkBC]

Just uploaded another 360° pano -- "post-sunset", the thumbnail:




Here's a link to the full-size, rotatable, "post-sunset" pano.

[Mark W. Ingalls]

cool!

[Lighthawk]

Wow! I'm impressed.
Nice job, Mark.

[highz]

Really nice! Love those panos.

[MarkBC]

Here's one last 360° pano from that same summit...but this was from this morning, so the light/shadows are significantly different. There are also a couple of weird photo-overlap artifacts that I'm too lazy to figure out and fix right now, the thumbnail:


Here's a link to the full rotatable 360-pano "sunrise".
By the way, that post/pole sticking up through the top of all 3 of these panos is flying the wind sock for the benefit of the gliders (hang and para).

I have a few "regular" photos from today (including photos of some logging/road-improvement I did!) that I'll upload later/tomorrow -- the 360-panos are just more fun...for me, anyway.
(I'm home now. After shooting some pre-sunset shots in another area, on the southeast flank of Pine Mt. late this afternoon, I decided I'd had enough fun.)

[MarkBC]

Thanks for the kind words, all.

And there was more to my trip than "getting there" and panoramas, so here's a more-complete story -- with supporting photos.

OK, the attached map shows where I went, from where I left 20 to back to 20.


I only spent one night out, at the planned spot I showed in the first post -- on the summer-solstice/launch-site/northern summit. I spent not much more than 24 hours on-site...but it was photo-fun and exploring fun.
---------------------------------------------------------------
About an hour after I got to that great big flat spot near the northern summit -- my camp-spot -- an SUV showed up with some para-gliders scouting the conditions. As I said before, it's a popular take-off spot for para-gliding and hang-gliding, with steady smooth winds and a smooth tree-free slope wind-ward. But apparently the winds were too high for their liking, so they drove down.

Besides the panos I already shared links to, I shot a couple of pics from a spot above my camper, about 100 yards south of the summit where I shot the panos.
Shot at sunset and sunrise (sunrise on the left):

I got up before dawn and shot the sunrise pano, had breakfast, then took a nap to make up for only getting 5 hours sleep. Around 9am I re-awoke -- to the sounds of a crew from "Heart of Oregon" (teenage boys and their adult leader) hacking at the ground with pulaskis, removing knapweed (an invasive species). Apparently they'd hiked up the slope from the road below -- there was no vehicle. There wasn't much to remove, so after enjoying the stupendous view they wandered down the road.

I packed up and headed down the road soon after they left. After driving up to the Observatory area and checking out a view-spot west of there I decided to head over to the "radio summit", where I planned to spend the second night.

(to be continued)

[MarkBC]

I took a secondary road (shown in the middle of my map) to cut/traverse across to the radio summit , one that I'd never been on before, though it looked well-traveled. A couple miles into this road (approximately marked by the yellow flag on my map) I came to a problem :


A tree had fallen across the road and was hung up in the trees on the other side.
(a lower-profile vehicle would have been able to slip underneath)

I didn't want to turn around and back to the main road and then down that a couple more miles, etc., and then I remembered that I'd put a saw in the camper, one that I bought last winter "just in case" -- for a "case" just like this! It's super sharp! I'd owned a similar style -- though not as sharp -- for years, to cut Xmas trees.


Done!

It only took a few minutes and was actually kinda fun. Now that I'm retired...if I need some extra cash I might try logging -- it must be a fun job!

Along this road and several other roads on the Mountain, I saw where there'd been lots of thinning -- removing little trees which had then been piled into hundreds, maybe thousands, of slash piles for later burning (I assume). This is a common practice, but I've never seen that many slash piles. I wonder how they'll ever burn them without burning everything around them...and creating a forest-fire worth of smoke. Maybe there's another means of disposal? Anyone know? I guess I could call the FS if I wanted to know.



In my first post I'd mentioned how "park-like" the forest was on Pine Mt...but I guess some areas need some help to make it so (due to decades of fire suppression, no doubt).

(to be continued)

[MarkBC]

So I continued on up towards the radio summit. I wanted to camp there 'cause it's almost as high as the other summits and has an "infinite" view to the east and south-east -- a cool spot despite the radio towers and humming radio shacks.
That morning while shooting the summit sunrise pano I'd noticed dust-trails on a couple of roads below, including the one that goes up to the radio summit...so I figured there was a chance I wouldn't have it to myself, that there might be some kind of workers up there.
When I got about 50 yards from the summit parking pad -- on a steep pitch that had me in 1st gear 4WD -- I saw a couple of work-pickups and a couple of back-hoes, parked and working so that I couldn't even pull up there to turn around. So I backed down that steep road about half a mile...ok, maybe 1/4-mile, but it seemed longer...and when I could pull off I pulled into the shade, had lunch, and made the posts/photos here from yesterday, thanks to the connection with the cell tower(s) on that forbidden summit above me.
Mid-afternoon, as I sat waiting for the workers to finish their day and vacate my intended campspot , 3 more trucks drove by up towards the radio facilities ...so I decided to forget about camping up there. I figured that if I camped up there I'd have to get up very early since they'd probably be back very early -- I'd seen those dust-trails at 6am. And I didn't want to hassle with being in their way or be blocked in and not be able to leave...didn't want to have a bunch of pissed-off guys glaring at me, waiting for the lazy non-worker to get out of their way.

I decided to head back up toward the Observatory summit to find a spur road with a big view.

[MarkBC]

Just past the Observatory I checked out a spur road that looked promising, but ultimately didn't lead to an unobstructed view, so I continued on down east then south, down a long, long, sloping road -- not technical, but studded/strewn with fist-sized sharp rocks, so I had to drive slow for fear of of puncturing tires and shaking the camper to pieces.
I dropped down into the Kotzman Basin, which I've driven through several time in the past, but usually mid-winter or early spring when higher elevations are still snow-covered.
The road through Kotzman basin passes under a group of power lines -- 3 of them -- carrying clean and refreshing Northwest hydroelectric power down to the teaming millions of California. I sure hope they appreciate the sacrifice that those salmon are making.

Usually, it's a pain to keep power lines out of big views, but here I am featuring them!
The lowest lines aren't all that far off the ground, and they're constantly crackling loudly -- like they're angry! ...

I was headed for a big concrete cistern (to hold water for cattle, I assume) I knew about on the southeast flank/ridge of the mountain. I knew it had a big flat campable area. I got up to that cistern and noticed that there was a primitive road heading higher up the ridge maybe 1/4 mile before it crested out of sight. I checked it out first on foot and found that it ended at a nice flat-ish area (with sign of previous camping) with a great view in several directions. I drove up there, popped the top, and as it got later-afternoon took a few photos and another pano. I marked the spot (approximately) with a black camera icon on my map.

Just right of the center of the crest of the mountain ridge at the top of the photo is the "radio summit".

[MarkBC]

From up on my perch on the southeast flank of Pine Mountain, though I was far below the summits, I still had a nice broad view to the east and south.
Paraphrasing the motto on Bruno's mugs, "Where the forest ends and the West begins!":

A few islands of trees venture out in the sagebrush and rabbit brush:

It's kind of a significant boundary: To the west the forest extends across Oregon unbroken to the Pacific Ocean, but to the east there are no similar large tracts of forest for hundreds of miles (I think that's true...)

I noticed this weird stack of rocks on the ridge. It's obviously man-made, but I don't know what it is or how old. It's flat on top without obvious purpose :

I did one more 360° pano on that ridge; here's a thumbnail view, with link to full-size version below:

Here's a link to the 360°-rotatable-panorama version.

After these photos I decided to go home...just felt like it. It's only an hour drive, so not a big deal.
It was a nice little get-away in practically my own back yard.