Pine Mountain

[MarkBC]

This is starting as a pre-trip-report right now...but this afternoon I'm heading up to what I call the "Summer Solstice Summit" of Pine Mt, about 25 miles east of Bend, Oregon, on US Highway 20 -- a couple of days of camping and hanging out...shooting panos and other photo stuff (and napping). At ~6400 feet.

I call it the Summer Solstice Summit because that's where I usually go with friends to view the sunset on the summer solstice (though we didn't this year), a tradition of many-a-year. It's also known as the "Launch Summit" 'cause it seems to be a favorite launch spot for para-gliders....which is why there's a wind-sock on the summit knob. (for some reason, even the 24k-scale topo maps don't show that the road leads up to the base of that summit. It's like that 4x4 road has been drawn SE of it's true location, which actually takes off at the apex of the hairpin turn)

I think I'll have broadband access up there, so I may upload any worthwhile photos from there.

I may also head over to what I call the "Radio Summit", so-called because of all the radio (microwave and cellular) towers and radio shacks up there. With all that technology humming it's not exactly a wilderness experience...but it does have a mighty-fine view to the south/east (as well as north).

Later...

 

[Lighthawk]

Nice pre-post, Mark. How do you get those topo's online? Jpegs? From what source?
I use Backcountry Navigator which can use MyTopo.com for on or offline mapping, but it doesn't allow me to cut & paste as it appears you have done.

Have a great trip and good shooting!

 

[MarkBC]

Nice pre-post, Mark. How do you get those topo's online? Jpegs? From what source?
I use Backcountry Navigator which can use MyTopo.com for on or offline mapping, but it doesn't allow me to cut & paste as it appears you have done.

Have a great trip and good shooting!

Andy -
I use National Geographic TOPO! State Series -- the CD sets, one set of 8 -10 CDs for each state (~$80-$100/state). Over the years I've bought a set for each/all of the Western states, and I've copied them all to the harddrive in my laptop, so they're always with me when traveling. Each map has 5 levels of zoom, each corresponding to the scale of a "real" map (e.g., 1:24,000). There's a function for selecting a region (draw a rectangle) and copying to the clipboard, etc. The only downside is that these are "dumb" maps -- just bitmaps, really, (rather than a smart GIS format) -- scans of the USGS series' (24k, 100k, etc.) I should add that the maps are "aware" of the elevation of wherever your cursor is, so they're not completely "dumb".

Of course, whatever source puts a map on your screen, in Windows OS you can always do the [Shift] [PrtSc] (that is, print screen), which copies the whole computer screen to the clipboard from which you can paste into whatever image editor your want and crop/edit...as I'm sure you know, but maybe somebody else doesn't.

It's clouding up now...but I'm hoping that leads to dramatic skies -- maybe thunderstorms -- and not just flat overcast. Anyway, tomorrow and the rest of the week are supposed to be clear, and I'm still heading out, in any case.
- Mark

 

[Alley-Kat]

Of course, whatever source puts a map on your screen, in Windows OS you can always do the [Shift] [PrtSc] (that is, print screen), which copies the whole computer screen to the clipboard from which you can paste into whatever image editor your want and crop/edit...as I'm sure you know, but maybe somebody else doesn't.

- Mark


I use Screen Hunter, it's free and has all the features for capturing any part you want from a computer screen. The technique I like the best is the rectangular capture tool... just drag the size and shape of rectangle you want. You can specify to save to your clipboard or to your hard drive and also choose the exact folder you want to store the image to.

 

[MarkBC]

I use Screen Hunter
And if you have Windows 7 there's a function built into the OS, called "Snipping Tool" (under Start>Accessories), that sounds similar to Screen Hunter.

 

[billharr]

And if you have Windows 7 there's a function built into the OS, called "Snipping Tool" (under Start>Accessories), that sounds similar to Screen Hunter.


Thank you I did not know about Snipping Tool I just pined to my task bar.

 

[brett13]

And if you have Windows 7 there's a function built into the OS, called "Snipping Tool" (under Start>Accessories), that sounds similar to Screen Hunter.

Awe, and I just bought SnagIt for this very purpose! Ah well, a business expense.

 

[simimike]

Come on Mark, stop beating around the bush. Where exactly is this "Pine Mountain" you're going to? If you want to keep it a secrete that's fine but don't tease me with vague details. Just kidding, I like that mapping info you provided.

Mike

 

[DirtyDog]

Looking forward to some HDR Photos!

 

[MarkBC]

After spending last night camped at the northern/Solstice/Launch summit of Pine Mt., I'm parked about a half-mile of road away from the "radio summit", waiting for a construction (transmitter? tower? cable?) crew to get out of the way...I had to back down the road this far 'cause there was no place to turn around!

Anyway...

A few "getting there" photos -- mostly for simimike's benefit, to try to make up for my crappy directions.

The turn-off from US Highway 20 at the ruins of Millican, 26 miles east of Bend:

The road that leads to the Observatory, though that's on a different summit than my destination. I'm headed to the obvious pointy peak (which is the true summit):

Much of the Ponderosa Pine forest on Pine Mt. is open and park-like with little understory. This is the 2-track that leads to my destination (after turning off the main road):

The beautiful, flat saddle -- 250 feet below the summit knob -- where I come to watch the summer solstice sunset most years and where I'm camping. My truck is pointing west-ish, overlooking the Millican Valley 2000+ feet below, and west to Horse Ridge, Bend and the Cascades in the distance:

I shot a couple of 360° panoramas from the summit knob last night and one this morning. They're too big and wrong format to post here, but I'll post links to them.
Here's a thumbnail snapshot from one of them -- "pre-sunset":

Here's a link to the full 360° rotatable "pre-sunset" panorama. You need Quicktime viewer/player to open/view it and the file is 3MB in size.

More later.
- Mark

 

[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.