mulasawala

I was taking the bus over to Bingen when I saw the words 'Report Paranormal Sightings Here' out of the window. I immediately started tracking where it was in relation to where I was staying, and as luck would have it the bus loop back around and my stop was just two blocks up the slope from it.







There is a laptop on the table to type in your reports there. Also love the sign with info on the reports and the... everything.

I've never heard of the Klickitat Ape Cat and I'd be 0% surprised if they made it up themselves to add some extra flavor to the area, but I don't care. I believe in the Klickitat Ape Cat.

The place is an outdoors store, which is basically a convenience store with goods meant for people hiking or climbing in the area. They carry trail food, pack soap, etc. Theirs was also a paranormal center and pot shop. Perfect, 10/10, no notes. My 'if I win the lottery' dream has long been to open an outdoors store, but I never considered adding paranormal center into my business plan. Their actual reality outshines my dream plans.

So far I'd stayed at a perfectly maintained mid-century sprawl and a semi-basement that felt like an obscure form of punishment. And the third and final place is...





Bougie Capsule Hotel. Or you consider it like a hostel, but hostels typically operate under special rules and have exceptions to the rules hotels and inns have to follow. This had none of that stuff, so I tended to not think of it as more capsule vibes.





Way more my speed. I stayed where because my train was super early and this was right by the station and I've always wanted to stay here for a night. I thought an upscale capsule/hostel seemed amusing. I had a great time. Jury is out if I'd do it again because the bunk area is pretty packed. Things went well, but it's a risk. One couple there had a crock pot and was making a spicy bean soup and also had the door propped open to keep the smell down, but that meant the bunk area was fully open to passersby. I wasn't stressed by it because the smell did dissipate and I kept my bag with me, but it's easy to see how easily one overly entitled person can wreck everyone's stay in the bunk area. Super glad I checked that place off my list.

There are normal rooms and even private cabins with hammocks. Also, a general hammock area:


White Salmon didn't go well, Bingen was amazing. Bingen delivered.

Then my return train was actually on time and I got back to Portland.

I spent the hot summer evening as one does, watching Twilight in an alley projected against a bar





(I've still never read the books and only watched one of the films very recently. But, it sounded hilarious. They've got a Twilight drag event next. I'm debating going. The organizers and attendees were wonderful, but doing too many of these events as someone who isn't a fan feels odd. I got asked what 'team' I am and was confused for a moment.)

I finished up the trilogy while I was away. My main take-away is that the plot:pages ratio is wild.

( No plot spoilers, but some plot structure talk )

Ending spoilers under the other type of cut

I had trouble vibing with the way the story resolved because Alina spent way more time homesick for the Little Palace or even the army tents than where they grew up. Them not feeling like they ever had a home was a recurring theme and even a plot point. Them going back and making it a home is a lovely idea, but it's kinda sad to me that they are mostly isolated from the other survivors and just have staff that think they are loony tunes.

Also, happy or tragic I wanted more resolution for poor Nicolai, who could only really be understood by Alina or maybe Mal. Even just as friends, I wish they where still in each other's lives and not just rare visits.

In certain ways the ending was beautiful and bittersweet, but I never got the impression that that's what Alina would want from anything in the previous pages of the series. Protect the kids and get away from positions of power? Sure, but actually run the orphanage herself? Have all the other adults, besides Mal, profoundly mis-understand her? I'm glad they are together and the place is under their control, but...idk maybe I'll feel differently if I read more of the books in the series or re-read them later.

* Found one of the Little Free Libaries with The Librarians swag and nabbed one of these coin thingies:





It took a good bit of walking because the first I went to didn't have any of the items. They are also supposed to have free Librarians books, but I haven't found one with those yet.

* Am back on my quest to do all the Portland stairs. I've done the Washington park ones before, and actually photographed these stairs before, but not since I started tracking my journey to conquer them all:



* Books With Pictures Con was today:







They really get a great line up of artists each year.

I did the Mt Hood Railroad. It doesn't go all the way to Mt Hood, but climbs into the foothills of it and gets to about 500 ft elevation. Get get let off between a fruit orchard and winery.

We also get views of Hood:



And Adams:



It was cute and I like being able to get out and do these excursion trains. They are so couples focused it used to be impossible to even buy a single ticket for a lot of them. That's part of why I've gone from never having done any to having done a bunch recently.

My assigned seat was at a booth with a couple and the conductor asked if he could re-seat me to spare me how awkward that was, but I'd booked an upgraded ticket for the bar car and didn't want to be moved to coach. Then he swung by later to 'just check on me'.

Also, the previous night at that beer patio, I only stayed so long because it was all couples. Hood River is vacation spot that caters heavily to queer travelers. The town's logo is a rainbow heart. A beer in a place like that after a hike, that should be as good as it gets for me, but also I'm just there alone, surrounded by couples. It gets pretty wearying.

I make to make the best of it and I'm doing real cool things, but being solo was just especially wearying on this trip. I opted out of doing the wine tasting out in the vineyard because that was just going to be like intensely coupley.

* Exit 8 is being adapted into a movie Trailer

* Phasmophobia is being adapted into a move Deadline article

* Bloodstained is getting a sequel Trailer

Whether it's good or bad, I am glad to see that Phas is getting a movie because they spawned a whole genre. Copying what they spent years developing became a massively successful business model.

Along the same lines, it's good to see Bloodstained being so successful. 'Metroidvania' style gameplay is the underpinning of so much of the entire gaming market. Iga, who designed the 'vania' half, got treated like shit by Konami. Once he was able to get away from them, he crowd funded Bloodstained during the golden era of video game crowd funding, but actually delivered unlike most other projects. Now Iga has gotten to make another game while Konami just does terrible things to the Castlevania IP.

I woke up the next day to a few logistical problems:

One - I had three conflicting sources of info on what the bus schedule was, and if it was even running

Two - Official info was that the road I needed back to town was suddenly closed due to construction, which would turn my hike from a very do-able 7 miles, to a 'I can probably survive' 14 miles. Either way, there would be about 600 feet of elevation change.

Despite all the uncertainty, I headed out anyway. This was literally my fourth attempt at knocking out this leg of the through hike and a fourth failure would be insane. Also, the weather was great and the air was clear and perfect. Smoke hasn't hit yet, but projections are this is going to be a bad year. So I was like fukkit, it's the gorge, I probably can't get into trouble I can't get out of. I need to get while the gettin's good.

Spoilers: The day went pretty smoothly outside of some stress about whether I was doing a very do-able hike or setting myself up for hell.



Finally, the damn trail! The full trail through the gorge should be completed next year, right now I am doing the existing bits in chunks. I have also hiked out to some un-restored highway ruins in the past and need to see if they are still there when I get a chance.

The original highway was not only further inland than the current one, but it also tunneled through the rock in a few sections:







( Two more tunnely pics )

Finally out at the Mosier Twin Tunnels! This took so long! Finally being there was amazing, but I hit this early in the day and wasn't sure how things would pan out from there. But hey, at least I was there and not stranded in the middle of nowhere at a connecting bus stop.

The current highway below:




When it's fully complete it will be a way to hike or bike the length of the gorge. It's a massive infrastructure project to make the gorge more accessible, but the trail doesn't go to where the current cities and towns are and there's no shuttle buses. It's a bit of a paradox. When I do the next chunk I'll need to start in Mosier again, but head the other way. Mosier isn't even a regular bus stop. The only places to stay in Mosier are extremely expensive rentals meant for groups of 12 people. Trying to do this accessible trail to support car-free travel in the gorge is a bit of a nightmare without a car.





This tree, note the roots, it's just clinging to the rock. Just hanging out, trying to thrive in an insane situation:



Lunch spot:



The road back to town was open! And a bit spicy, very curvy and not much of a shoulder:



After I got back, had showered and everything, I went out to Fermentation's beer patio:

Paranormal Detour is going to the Winchester Mansion!

Two reasons why this is a big deal:
* They've never had someone livestream there (at least not legally). They didn't think it was possible, but Jordan went up and basically did a tech rehearsal to test their set up and it worked for almost the entire space
* The management is very picky about who is allowed to do content there these days. If you are aware of the state of paranormal investigation shows wont come as a shock. It's basically taken Jordan 3 years to get the connections to get someone to vouch for them so they could get the real booking number.

I went to the Winchester Mansion when I was about twelve. I wish I still had those pictures. If anyone (besides me) is interested in a paranormal livestream from there it will be June 6th, on https://www.twitch.tv/detune probably starting around 7 PST and running 6 hours or more. Since it's a livestream, it sort of starts once the tech is online and they chat, and slowly get things rolling.