The Discovery of Three Ravens

Kona and the Three Buttes.

Scooter and Kona at The Tower of Power.

   The Story of Three Ravens.
   I had started camping up along Panther Creek outside of Carson, Washington, at the recommendation of my buddy Mike H. At that time I had my lab, Andromeda, my ridgeback hounddog mix, Cepheus, and I was still living in St. Johns. This had to have been way back in 2010. I had just discovered the Bridge of the Gods Boulders by accident, and on an Easter Morning, happened to meet Matt from the Circuit Gym in Portland, and that day he showed me the upper "Dome" stuff.
  Panther Creek had become my camp after seeing crazy refuse near the BGOT area; not that it's much better, just more spread out. For some reason, lower level campgrounds invite trash, but in the deepest of winter or early spring, it's all you've got.
  One early spring weekend, I had got there early enough to get the good creekside site that is almost always tidy, and we set up the tent and got the fetchathon going. Andromeda was still around then, so she and Kona must have been jousting it out.
  Near towards twilight a BMW sedan went up the road past the camp site, this is a gravel forest road, mind you. I knew they were lost, and didn't know where the hell they were going. I've hiked up that road, it dead ends to nowhere. Sure enough, not twenty minutes later, they came back down.
They stopped by my camp and showed me a curious book, called Curious Gorge, written by Scott Cook. It showed directions to a Lava Tube Cave just up the road. I pointed them in the general direction, but had not been so far north myself, and yet, it piqued my curiosity.
                                                                   ...
 Probably a few years had passed between the recession and my crazy movements through weird houses in Portland. At some point I moved into an apartment/shop space in SE, which is how I met Leslie and her whole crew of kids ands dogs, which could be a story on it's own. I spent a summer working on a cabin out in Molalla, doing some exploring, but more around rivers and coastlines, seasons passed. At some point, Cepheus, who was 13 years old, died of a winters night, his friend Andromeda, followed 6 months after. Scooter, Sadie's Aussie Shepherd, was at the house at the time and helped me through my darkest moments, with just a lick and a nudge to go for a walk, that dog saved me.
  At some point, I took a job with a contractor for some months, I guess this was 2016, I was making good money, and figured on the weekends I should explore more. I found Scott Cook's Curious Gorge used at Powell's on Burnside for 10 or 12 bucks, I found the directions to the Fall's Creek Lava Tube and we were off!
  Almost all of these early exploratory journeys feature Kona, the Rottweiler, she's another big dog in our circle of big dogs, she was always out at the Molalla River with us, after my two dogs passed away, and then Sadie came back for Scooter, it was just me and Kona as far as adventures go. She's a Mama's girl, her Mama don't like hiking no more, but Kona can't get enough.
  Anyway, we got to exploring deeper and deeper into the Pinchot up that particular set of roads, we found the lava tube, too gnarly for a dog to go into, and also a mountain bike trail network. I made a mental note to come back minus dog so I could A: Go into the Lava Tube. and B:Go ride the trails.
We both went back home happy, but for myself, I had schemes going already.
  So at some point in September of 2016, I rode the brand new section of the Falls Creek Trail. When I got to the first lookout, I was like, "looks like there's boulders down there." I hiked down and found some decent sized boulders in the Talus, then rode back to my car to get back into town for a map. Needless to say, I found the way in, and since 2016, 80 plus boulder problems have been sent here, more to come.

Wind Over Mountain. V4