“The Trail Entices”

Olympus TG-6 @ 4.5mm, f/8, 1/50s, ISO 200. Trail at Mount Pisgah.

Trail leading up a hill into the skyline

“Sand in the Gears”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 14mm, f/10, 1/125s, ISO 125. Driftwood near the John Dellenback Dunes Trail.

#mbjune Day 9: wood 📷

Driftwood with grains of sand

One sign that I’ve been vegan for many years: tofu-based “cheese” sauce actually tastes pretty good on noodles.

“Candystick”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 42mm, f/5.6, 1/100s, ISO 2000. Close-up of the weird and wonderful candystick plant along the Rainbow Falls Trail.

Candystick plan shoots

“Who Dat?”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 15mm, f/8, 1/40s, ISO 320. The best travel is foot travel. This is me on the Cummins Creek Trail a few months back.

#mbjune Day 8: travel 📷

Backpacker standing under a mostly fallen large tree

“Bears and Diamonds”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 14mm, f/16, 1/1250s, ISO 2500. Diamond Peak over flowering bear grass along the Eugene to Crest Trail.

Mountain behind a meadow full of flowers

“Moonscape”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 14-42mm kit lens @ 14mm, f/8, 1/400s, ISO 250. A high-intensity burn scar on the Eugene to Crest Trail along Bunchgrass Ridge.

Forest fire scar

Trump deploys National Guard to quell Los Angeles area ICE raid protests

Looks like we’ve reached the “military occupation” stage of the fascist takeover. Perhaps the most troubling part is the deliberate attempt of the Trumpists to erode the distinction between “protest” and “rebellion.” This is not to excuse every action taken by protestors in LA - but they’re clearly setting the stage to use the military anywhere, any time, for any reason.

“Steepness”

Olympus E-M10 IV with 60mm 14-42 kit lens @ 14mm, f/7.1, 1/50s, ISO 4000. Looking back at steep switchbacks on the Eugene to Crest Trail.

#mbjune Day 7: switch 📷

Steep and rocky hillside trail

Supreme Court hands DOGE big wins in Social Security, records cases

If we’re getting this shit on the shadow docket, I can only imagine how bad the remaining merits decisions this term will be. Unfortunately the judiciary can’t be much of a long-term restraint on illegal executive branch thuggery when 2/3 of the Supreme Court are worthless trained seals.