hometown tourist: pre's rock

I've been searching for Pre's rock since I moved to town. Not heavy-searching, mind you, but every now and then I'll get a wild hare and set off on a drive, and sometimes I end up in the hills.

Driving through the south hills, the sign points you up a curvy mountainous road lined with pretty houses with steep driveways. This is where Steve Prefontaine was driving the night he lost control of his MGB.

And invariably, seeing no further signs along the way, I have always continued straight (the left fork) up the hill when driving. Pre's Rock is on the right fork.

A former high school runner in the PNW can't escape the mythology of Oregon's runners. It was here, after all, that Nikes were invented, here where the Olympic Track and Field trials have been held five times, and here where Pre won 78% of races he ever ran. Looking at just his college races, that percentage leaps to 100% at the UO. Our coaches would wax poetic about what might have been, and what could be for us.

We found it in the rain one day when out for a drive and pulled over quickly to take a couple of photos with my phone. It's a bit of a shrine, really, which I was prepared for. Runners leave shoes, race numbers, singlets, flowers. Lovely how new generations of young athletes keep his memory alive.

Thanks for reading.

hometown tourist: Dee Wright Observatory in the Santiam/McKenzie Pass

Hello again! We've been away on a bit of a cross country road trip, and so I haven't been around to update the ol' blog in a couple of weeks. June was a busy month anyway, and our trip (to my little sister's wedding, as mentioned in the last post of June) kinda took over my time/house/life for awhile.

As with any road trip of 1000+ miles, this one started at home.

You may know, if you've been reading awhile, that I do an occasional series here called "Hometown Tourist" in which I talk about our little adventures around Lane County and the whole state of Oregon.  I'm always game for a little adventure, especially if it can be found a short distance from my house, and we were lucky enough on this loooooong road trip to see parts of Oregon we haven't seen before on the way to and from our destination.

Enter the Dee Wright Observatory, at the top of the McKenzie/Santiam Pass between Springfield and Sisters, Oregon.

The McKenzie/Santiam Pass itself was clearly built by and for madmen who enjoy driving along narrow, mountainous roads with steep drop-offs, sometimes on both sides at once. (I took a large portion of it at 10-15 mph.)

The structure of the observatory looks equally mad, built of lava rocks atop a large pile of lava rocks. I'm not sure what the underlying structure is made of, but the observatory has been in place since 1935 so they must have done a damn nice job of it.

The staircase to the top is also built of lava rock.

Who knew that past the deep green Oregon forests there's a huge lava rock field up there, the remnant of some extinct volcano? And who can picture settlers to the area trekking across it in 1860? I imagine someone's long-suffering spouse gritting teeth as yet another wagon wheel busted out on the rocks. "I told you we should go around!" that person may or may not have complained. 

This plaque (inside the tower) might tell something of that story, but the lettering is time worn and I didn't have paper or crayons with me to make a rubbing. The wagon is a hint, though.

At the tippy top is a large (3 ft. diameter) cast brass disc with rays pointing towards Cascade Mountain peaks, craters, and other geographic features. I took this next photo for the Mister, who stayed at the car with the kiddo as I took the hike to the top.

There he is down there in the parking lot, taking a photo of me at the top. Hellooooo down there!

You can see for miles in any direction from up there. Miles and miles. And if the brass round at the top isn't clear enough, you can enter the tower where several notches left open in the lava rock walls give a clear view of one geographic feature each. This one shows Little Belknap Crater, a dormant shield volcano two miles distant.

Here are the columns inside the tower.

And one of the large windows.

And finally, some foliage along the (scarily narrow, I promise you) road on the way down the pass.

And there you have it: yet another Hometown Tourist adventure. If you choose to go see this marvel for yourself, travel in summer as the pass closes in the autumn and winter as snow makes it impassable. Also, vehicles beyond 35 feet in length aren't permitted to pass through, as hairpin turns along the way aren't possible for anything that long. Yikes. Can you imagine?

Thanks for reading! I'll have some Out-of-Town Tourist adventures to post sometime, too; we took in a few National Parks and Monuments along the way. Man, what a trip!

climbing structure for a climbing climber

I said my last post ended in a cliff-hanger; well, I guess this is more of a climbing wall than a cliff, but I'm going to pretend it counts.

My kid is an enigma. Climbing thrills him. And I mean climbing anything, from stacks of unstable patio chairs to the furniture I pulled out of the shed to donate, to crawling into the hammock or up a set of stairs or on top of the sail / awning on the top of his pirate sandbox. But slides: slides make him nervous most of the time. He'd rather clamber over a pile of something certain to shift than slide down a nice, safe playground slide any longer than 3 or 4 feet.

As a deterrent to climbing stacks of unsafe stuff, we decided to build him a climbing structure, something on the small side (so if the daredevil launches himself off the side, odds are he'll escape without serious injury) with steps of varying sizes and some climbing rocks. Also on our wish list was something we could fold up and store during the winter months. (There are enough tarps in our backyard at that time of year already, thanks.)

I found a similar structure on Pinterest before starting this project (and we used it to guide our design), but I apparently didn't actually pin it, and now I can't find it. If this was originally your idea, please send me a link!

As far as building one  goes, it's pretty straightforward. I will say, though, that we aren't professional builders of children's play equipment, and it's possible that something we've done here isn't up to current safety standards. We plan to be in the yard with him every time he's playing on it, so we're not too worried. Stay tuned for the end of this post, where I'll talk a little about things I have planned or might change later, FYI.

We bought cedar for this project rather than pressure-treated wood, to limit exposure to toxins.

We used: 

• six 8-foot 2x4s (cut to eleven 4-foot lengths and two 2-foot lengths)
• a 3x4-foot scrap of plywood
• a used set of three door hinges
• exterior paint
• a 4-pack of climbing rocks
• exterior screws in 3-inch and 2-inch lengths

As you can see in the photos, we have three vertical supports on each slope. On side 1 (the "ladder" side), we also have three full-length horizontal supports (4-feet long) and two 2-foot ladder supports. We left about a foot of space at the bottom, because the kiddo doesn't need a step there.

On side 2 (the "climbing rock" side), we have only one horizontal support at the top, and the painted plywood provides the rest of the support when attached directly below.

We made sure that the vertical supports on each side line up, so that we were able to attach it at the top with hinges.

Though probably not necessary in the grass, we used the leftover 4-foot 2x4 as a support to keep the structure solidly supported at the desired angle. You can see that support, and a hinge, in this next photo.

We still need to get the sander out to knock down some roughness and edges, and I think a top piece of some sort is going to be necessary for the gap at the top (the kiddo thinks it's funny to stick his leg in there. I do not), so that'll be happening soon. And maybe some stain for the cedar?

I'm also aware of the possibility that the 4.5-inch space between the ladder steps on side 1 might be too narrow, so it might get altered if we notice any issues with it. I'll do a future post with updates soon to let you see the FINAL final product.

We've also got our eye on one of those tire climbers, but we'll have to see if it fits into our plans. It looks really cool though, right?

So: what kind of crazy outdoor projects are you planning or working on? Here in the northwest, we've been spoiled with a ton of sunshine the past couple of weeks, so projects like this climbing structure and the arbor have been possible and necessary. Have you been having an early summer where you are, too?

Thanks for reading!

p.s. to make these photos larger, just click!

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