Oregon City Day 1

Oregon City is close enough to Portland that you can take a city bus right to their transit center. It's in that weird space where it's a hassle for day trip, but also stay down there and people find it weird. It's a 2 hour bus ride each way for me. I've been wanting to go back and do a lot more photography, so I grabbed a cheap ABnB room and went down. Here is my post from my last trip down there in 2018, where I talk about wanting to go back soon to redo shots. Only took me six years?

Oregon City has a lot going on. It's the end point of the Oregon Trail and there was a huge push to make it the capital of Oregon, a major site of industry, and now it's got a mix of abandoned and still in use old factories around a waterfall that is in the top 20 worldwide for size as determined by sheer volume of water. Historic buildings, nature, infrastructure and a city walk with a view of decaying factories, it's a lot.

Or, to put in another way - I saw this historic sign on my walk there:



But, nature is healing. The factory used in filming Twilight has been deconstructed as part of the project to repair the ecosystem, restore access to the river and build housing for indigenous people. The actual land is now owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.

I plan to do a lot of day or short trips down there because there is a LOT to shoot and I want to spend more time on the factories while they are still there.

Day 1 - Stranded and smelling like wet dog

Even though this was going to be a short turn around to a city that I can get to on Trimet, I decided to take two bags. I wanted to bring my usual camera bag and carry that around, and just put everything that didn’t fit in a separate bag. My usual camera bag is the one I’ve been carrying about 9 hours a week for eight years and I’m very attached to it. I credit this bag with helping me get back on my feet, literally, after my 2016 medical issues. But, things did not go to plan.

The good news is that Peak Design’s lifetime warranty is no joke and my replacement bag is on it’s way to me. The bad news is, yeah, fuck. Zipper gave out.

So, I brought my Travel Pack which is a great bag, but it’s designed to make full use of every centimeter that airlines will allow for a carry one bag. It’s a bit awkward to walk into certain shops with this bag, which is why I didn’t plan on bringing it.

The owners of the tiny house have a dog. The dog would not stop jumping on me as the guy lead me to the door. It was raining hard and the ground was muddy, so I was getting covered. I tried expressing repeatedly that I was having trouble even walking due to the dog, but the owner seemed to not even process it. He kept acting like I was all 'aw, the cute little dog is so excited I can't even walk!' rather than 'no, seriously, dog keeps trying to be underfoot, I have a heavy pack on and it's muddy, help'

One of my rules of packing is that I always bring two pairs of pants, even for an overnight. You never know when something is going to happen. If I don't want to pack jeans, I pack something as pajama pants that I could, if I needed to, wear on my legs. Just this once, I broke this rule. Because I wanted to take some #AmWriting pictures on the trip, I brought cozy plaid PJs. I knew I was getting filthy, but it wasn't until the next day that I put the jeans back on that I fully realized that somehow that dog's furry paws had transferred a significant amount of wet dog scent onto me.

I walked around a bit to get my bearings and stretch my legs, but then fire trucks and police cars rushed to block most of Main Street. There are intersections in Oregon City that I just don't walk due to how people drive there. They come off the 205 and flow through stop signs like Main Street is a highway they are merging onto. The way cars were pushing through past the accident was just not possible to pass on foot. Trucks where pushing onto McLoughlin aggressively and there was no way to even try to walk through it, but, as I was trying to figure out a path, I saw why the street was being blocked.

CW - Death

The accident was giant SUV/truck versus pedestrian. First responders were trying to do CPR, but things looked bad. That is actually the second time I've seen someone die in public within about 10 days. When I was taking the train to the airport in Chicago a lady had a massive seizure and died three seats down from me. I cannot remember ever having seen people die before that. Maybe I have, but I've tried and tried to think about it and just, nope, can't think of anything.

So, I turned around and went to the McMenamins Pub and had fish and chips. It had been raining heavily all day so I looked like a drowned rat, but there are worse places to be stranded. I hung out there until everything was cleared and walked back to my room.



My plan for the trip was to use being away from the internet to get a lot of typing done. I have a nearly full composition notebook from my Truckee trip. It just feels more private to handwrite than to use my laptop. In one of my photos from my Truckee trip I can clearly see the phone screen of a girl on the train and I could see the words and the pictures... and it was uh... yeah. People, please if you are going to sext like that, hold the phone closer to you, especially if you are sneaking pics of that like yourself and sending them.

Reference to above spoiler-cut topic

But, when I got to the room all I could think was that I'd just seen someone die doing what I do constantly, in a crosswalk and everything.

So I opened Twitch on my phone and listened to Detune recap the news that came out of the Game Awards while faceplanted in bed.

Oregon City Day 2

So you've booked a tiny house with an outdoor bathroom in December

I did read the fine print, just not recently. I'd bookmarked it as where I wanted to stay if I ever did this trip. I looked at the basic info and the pictures when I booked, but didn't read through every bit of info where you have to click to read more. I did shower outside, because I knew I'd be smelly otherwise. The tiny house has it's heater high up on the wall and the bed is in a loft, so the main area is chilly and the loft very warm. I didn't want to be smelly, but then I put on my jeans after and was like oh, wow, shower or no shower wasn't going to make a difference.



And then I walked down to the municipal elevator, one of 8 municipal elevators in the world, a unique accessibility project because there is a pretty sheer cliff down the center of town. It's the elevator or a 177 step staircase to get to the other part of own. The info center for the town is up in the UFO portion and they keep an eye on the elevator itself.



Partway down the stairs, looking at the UFO:


I then walked, and walked and walked. I don't know how far because I wound up walking past the next town but not all the way to Canby. I spotted a lot of great spots to take a picture of a passing Coast Starlight train and I will get those shots. It's going to be a project and I need to get better at shooting trains first, but I will get the shots.















Celebrity sighting:


I love this building, but need to figure out a better shot of it:



The old brick boilers with stuff growing out of them!



Later shot from the UFO - Better angle but the glass affected the clarity:



View from my lunch spot:


I knew roughly when the train would be through town, but by the time I got back to Oregon City all I wanted to do was sit in the tea and book shop there I like and rest for a bit.



The rain came back and I didn't want my lens rained on again, but I had an idea! I could shoot from the UFO! However, I messed up. The train was running late. I checked online trackers and they showed Coast Starlight southbound as already in Salem. I was like, I could not have missed the train... I know this is the right track. I was just on this train and looking at this view. It was seeing this from the train that made me finally get back here. I eventually gave up, only to hear the bastard honking as I walked away. So I had to rush back and I'd lost my settings and I shot from the wrong angle, so this is the best I got:



Then I went to reshoot the pedestrian underpass of the damned:


It's part of the same structure as the car tunnel:


Next, I wanted to shoot the elevator's holiday lights. I went into a brewpub and hung out and did some writing while I wanted for it to get dark enough. The only good angle is from a crosswalk and while typically I'd be find with a run'n'gun snagging a shot while in a crosswalk, no, not in this town.

Then I went back to Mcmenamins. They can feed me, so I figured why not.

(no subject)

* My NYC trip is mostly planned and booked. It's coming together fast, usually getting this far takes me months. You might think it's because I grew up next to Manhattan, but this NYC is not the NYC I grew up with. The NYC I know is one where tourists do not go to Times Square, unless someone tricked them and is about to mug them. How safe and how navigable NYC is these days is nothing like the city I know. Penn Station used to be best described as industrial grade nightmare fuel and I am going there by choice.

When I was looking at hotels the sites were showing the total for 3 nights and I just assumed that was the per-night rate. That hotel rates there are mostly in line with other US cities it's size is freaking me out a little.

It will shock you to hear I will be taking the train into and out of the city, but it's going to make more logistical sense that usual. NYC airports are horrible and insane to get to and from. Lake Shore Limited to NYC and Cardinal back to Chicago. I may see if I can avoid overnighting in Chicago this time.

One thing I need to work on is finding out if there are any stores I need to hit. I live in small city and I am about to be in a big city. Portland is a great place to buy things made in Portland, but not great for anything else. Actually, the sheer amount of things in my home that are locally made is kinda nuts.

* Outside of randomly throwing myself at Oregon City, I have one other trip planned for next year but I have no idea how it's going to work. I may just rent a car. I'd really rather not, but I have time... I'll figure this out.