Oy, am I tired – been out having fun in the field. Which ties in wonderfully with Evelyn’s Accretionary Wedge #50 theme, so that works out splendidly.

We’ve definitely had some fun moments on this field trip so far. I’ll start with one from a place that I definitely want to take Evelyn to – she’ll adore it. It’s called Clear Lake. I looked at it and immediately thought of kayaks. This is a lake that begs to be slowly explored from a few inches above the water. I shall have to purchase kayaks (no kayak rentals, alas) and then get Evelyn and Jackie out here. I’ll post pictures soon that will have all of you clamoring to come along.

Oregon’s all about basalt, and there’s plenty there. Here are some nice basalt pebbles.

Nice, aren’t they? You can see the variety of colors basalt can take on – there’s some black, and gray, and rusty orange. They’ve got a little bit of stuff growing on them, but still, they’re fine examples of the local rock.

Also, they are underwater.

Hard to tell before I stirred things up, wasn’t it? That’s why it’s called Clear Lake, my friends – it is clear.

It’s fun to dabble in that water, but it’s near-freezing year round, so don’t dabble your digits in it too long, unless you don’t mind freezing them off.

We also did some fieldwork up at the Dee Wright Observatory. Here I am having some quality hammer time with the lava flow.

Mind you, I’m faking it, not making it – Dee Wright is not a place where you start wanging on rocks with hammers. But holding a hammer gently against the flows for fun and scale is perfectly all right.

And, for our final fun moment, a bit of basalt that looks like a Pokémon.

Nearly died laughing when I saw that. Pareidolia is teh awesome. So is this trip – and I can’t wait to show you the rest!