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Subscription postcards: Sinkholes and snow

April 24, 2013 by campbell Leave a Comment

Postcard collage of a fish in front of a stream in the woods, hovering above the word "crappie".

Message on postcard:
I was at the coast last weekend, and on the way home I stopped in Corvallis at the Oregon State University library. I needed to track down a paper from the proceedings of a 1984 conference on sinkholes. Okay, maybe “need” is too strong a word for that. But it sure was fun to read.


 

Postcard collage showing budding flowers in front of an outhouse. Text reads "the art of serenity".

Message on postcard:
Spring is here. Yesterday I did a 17-mile out-and-back run to Powell Butte, a nature park in Portland. I got stuck behind horses on a narrow trail. Horses have a reputation for grace and elegance. It was earned from the opposite end of the animal.


 

Postcard collage of an angry crocodile near some orange flowers on the California coast. Beneath him is are the words "Justice Is Served".

Message on postcard:
I’m camping near the Salmon River here in Oregon. It snowed overnight. It is the middle of April. It’s really pretty, but then again so is summertime. Yeesh.

Picture of trees at a trailhead covered with a little snow.
April in the Oregon Cascades. Presumably the mountains got more snow up higher; we were camped in the valley near the Salmon River.

Subscription postcards: Washington State, where specialists can help

December 12, 2012 by campbell Leave a Comment

Collage made from Washington state postcard
Hello Mollie! Greetings from Seattle. I’m visiting the city for Thanksgiving. Here is a short list of things you can buy in Seattle:

– Sleepless in Seattle shot glass
– Space Needle T-shirt
– Kurt Cobain memorabilia
– Coffee

I am always worried about a big earthquake hitting Seattle. My friend here has a magnetic knife holder in his kitchen. I asked him if the knives would fall off in a strong earthquake. Would it be safe? He said his plan is to be in another room.
Postcard collage of cartoon dog overflying Mount Saint Helens
Hello Elizabeth! Greetings from Seattle. Seattle is a city in Washington state. There are mountains on one side and water on the other. On the way here I passed Mount Saint Helens. It erupted in the year 1980. That was 32 years ago. The top of the mountain came off in the eruption! Thankfully, scientists told everyone to go somewhere safe before it erupted. Smaller eruptions are making a new mountain inside the crater from 1980. Mount Saint Helens is very neat. I climbed to the top once. It was cold and snowy up there!
Postcard collage about mountains
Sacha — Greetings from Seattle! I’m up here for Thanksgiving. It’s a little late in the year to visit St. Helens if you’re not climbing it. I climbed it on Mother’s Day in 2003. The tradition is to climb the mountain wearing a dress. I had a frilly yellow tutu on over my pants. There’s an extra incentive to be safe when you climb in a tutu — it would be embarrassing for rescuers to find your ridiculous-looking, tutu-clad body at the bottom of a cliff.

Later that year I duct taped the tutu to a satellite dish I found on the curb. I dragged the tutu-satellite-dish combo behind my truck while I drove down a forest service road. I wanted to see what would happen. I’m not sure what I was expecting.

As an added bonus, here are some pictures of the above-mentioned satellite dish and tutu. Here you can see my friend Tom helping to set up the experiment, plus a live shot of the test rig.

Letters from the road: The Indian Heaven Wilderness report

October 17, 2012 by campbell Leave a Comment

The full comic. Click to embiggen.
Collage from reverse side of the comic. Click to embiggen.

The Alvord Desert

October 16, 2012 by campbell Leave a Comment

After leaving the Steens Mountain high country, I spent a night at the South Steens Campground — where uncouth visitors in need of firewood were hacking down large tree limbs within the campground proper — and then proceeded on to the Alvord Desert. My stay at South Steens was unremarkable. There’s a reportedly amazing trail that ascends Big Indian Gorge, but the amazing part demands an overnight backpacking trip that I couldn’t squeeze in. The first three miles or so that I hiked out and back are rather pretty in their own right, though.

The Alvord Desert was more my cup of tea. It’s a large, desolate, beautiful playa that sits at the eastern base of Steens Mountain. This time of year it’s dry enough to drive across, and I even saw a handful of little sail-powered cars zipping along the windy flats. I spent a few days out there exploring, including some long walks to nowhere and also a scramble up Tule Springs Rim, just to the east of the playa.

Here are some pictures of the playa. Since then I’ve driven across Nevada and Utah. I’m writing this from Colorado, where I’m retrieving stored personal belongings in anticipation of resuming a normal life with a roof over my head.

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Letters from the road: The scene in Hood River

October 16, 2012 by campbell Leave a Comment

Hey Duncan! Greetings from Hood River, Oregon. I started drawing this in a coffee shop, but left when it was invaded by a skater kids. Now I’m parked on a patch of gravel near an I-84 on-ramp, and it’s way more peaceful.

I just moved. Now I’m at a nearby county park overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. When I finished writing that last paragraph I realized that I could probably do even better than a gravel patch near an interstate. I’m sitting at an oak-shaded picnic table overlooking a beautiful river … near an interstate.

Today I woke up near the east fork of the Hood River, hiked up to a place called Lookout Mountain, and then hiked another trail out to the tricky-to-spell Tamanawas Falls. It was a pretty good day.

The night before last I camped up on a Forest Service road near treeline on Mount Hood. When I woke up there yesterday I met two vegans, one of whom explained the outcome of the Vietnam War as a result of our adversaries’ ability to subsist on rice alone. He also explained that you can eat moldy rice. I am skeptical.

This is a bonus comic that I sent to Duncan. He’s a friend, so I figured he would forgive the hastily made drawings. Click to embiggen.
This is a collage from the reverse side of one of the pages in Duncan’s letter. Click to embiggen.
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A photo of the Grand Canon on a sunny day, with a tilt-shift effect applied in post-processing.

Some desktop-wallpaper-sized photos from my last trip to Grand Canyon.

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Illustration of Jar Jar sitting in front of a gas station.

Star Wars Camping Adventures: Episode One

photo of Grand Canyon

Public comments on proposed revisions to NPS Director’s Order 21

Photograph of blue VW Vanagon in the desert, with the phrase Greetings from the Back of My Van overlaid above it

Greetings from the Back of My Van

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