Mountains of Fire, Beaches of Ice

One of the weird things about northwest Oregon is that on a hot August day, it is generally much warmer and more "summery" up in the mountains that it is at the ocean beaches. The Oregon coast has very cold water all year long, and is often chilly, windy, and cloudy even in summer. It is hard to overcome the psychological association of beaches with summer and mountains with cold, but once you do, Mt. Hood makes a great summer destination.

I spent this weekend at the mountain, and one of place I went was Trillium Lake. I took this picture on Saturday. On Sunday I went back with my inflatable raft and floated around.

While taking this picture, I was crouched down by the water's edge, trying to get both the ducks and the mountain in the frame. The ducks came right over to me, expecting to be fed. After a few minutes, when they figured out I wasn't going to feed them, they started purposely splashing me! I guess they wanted something in return for posing for the picture.