August – Just Another Beautiful Month
The calendar page was turned and a fine weather for August showed up. There is much to do on the mountain at these times. And we get plenty of visitors and/or cabin owners who also find this is a good time. We call cabin owners visitors whether they hail from Portland, or east coast, or even from foreign countries. So our roads are congested by our standards, we avoid local restaurants on busy nights, and don’t see our friends out and about much (and they don’t see us). Locals tell us that during their morning hikes they are seeing more families with little kids (up to rug rat age) camping near the rivers. This is a good sign, I think.
But not all is sunshine, camping, and hiking. We actually have real cultural events up here.
For instance on Monday night, Garth Stein (from Seattle) and author of The Art of Racing in the Rain stopped by for a reading and book signing at the Wy’east Book Shoppe. Mr. Stein’s visit was scheduled on short notice but a whole litany of literary locals heard about it through the grapevine. He also came up here to experience climbing a tall tree – as an experience which will help him write his next book. He told it better than I’m doing. It was a wonderful event and I even bought two signed books.
Monday was the 1st of the month and that is significant because it’s when our local, monthly newspaper is published. And advance notice of our local events are usually printed in there. For this month I counted over 50 events. Just to give you a flavor of the variety of cultural events we enjoy here:
Aug 13 – the annual Steiner cabin tour. Henry Steiner was a craftsman known for building rustic cabins nearly 100 years ago around Mount Hood. I don’t know anyone local who goes on this tour, but I’m sure it could be interesting as I have designed floor plans on paper with little squares using pencil and rulers.
Aug 16-21 – Government Camp Blacksmith Week. According to the Mt. Times the Western States Blacksmith Conference is being held in Government Camp this year. There will be some events for the public as well. I’m not sure why I mentioned this. I rarely go to Government Camp at all, and especially not this time of the year. And you’ll notice they were smart enough to avoid the big relay event the following week.
Aug 20 – Great Annual Brightwood Tavern Slug Races. The games begin at 2pm and proceeds go to the Hoodland Women’s Club. I understand the event will not be televised this year. We’ll have to wait for the videos.
Aug 26 – the annual Hood to Coast relay race, which is accurately billed as the “Mother of All Relays”. This is really a big deal. The 200 mile race starts at Timberline Lodge (Mt. Hood) and ends at Seaside (on the Oregon Coast). Last year they raised $500,000 for the American Cancer Society. I told you it was a big deal. One of the improvements for this year is an increase of honey buckets to 502. This event is so huge that the only time I end up seeing it is when I forget it’s happening and go out to Hwy 26 by mistake.
Just another beautiful month with lots of stuff for visitors to do and me to be wary of.
