PICTURES + TRIP REPORT: Evan's Creek Area - Near Mt. Rainier (Pac Northwest)

[lupinsea]

Evan's Creek Area Exploration
2-10-2007

Pacific Northwest backroad and trail exploration

This saturday was spent with the Jeep and some members of my local Jeep club and the forum exploring the backroads of the Pacific Northwest. The trip was organized at the last minute to head toward our usual ORV park about an hour southeast of Seattle in the foothills of Mt. Rainier. The day started out overcast but dry as our group headed over the last bridge on the Carbon River. Not long after leaving pavement we encountered a pile of debris that had washed over the road covering it under a 10 ft high pile of rock, mud, and logs. It took about 30 minutes to traverse this which included time to recover one of the rigs which had sunk into a 3 ft deep mud hole.

Back on the road again we made our way under several fallen trees and needed to haul a big log out of the road that impeded progress. Rigging up a winch line off a snatch block made short work of that task. Soon we hit snow as the road continued to climb the side of the mountain. At this point the road condition begand to deteriorate significantly. With the heavy rains and snow melt, water courses were carving up the road bed. Large chanels opened that we crossed. Eventually we hit a point where erosion was so severe the road had washed out on either side leaving a narrow strip covered in 18" of snow to cross. Between that, more snow ahead, and certainly more downed trees to deal with we decided to turn around and head to the ORV park.

On the way back across the debris pile a stump root became wedged in my wheel well and pinned my Jeep down. This took some time to saw through the wood. Then logs had rolled under my Jeep in some unhelpful places and I needed help from spotters to get through. Eventually our group made it after some winching work and an extraction from another mud hole.

With the remaining hours of daylight we crossed back over the Carbon river and headed up the back side of Evan's Creek to run an old logging trail at the top of a water fall. The trail was very rocky and washed out. Many downed trees needed to be cut through on this trail and it slowed progress. By the end of the day we'd have cut through about 10 good sized trees. Fortunately one of the guys packed a chain saw. At the top of the waterfall were two old, time ravaged log bridges. The first of which is partially destroy and makes for a fun obstacle to cross. With less snow on the bridge this time compared to my last trek over it, the 6" gaps between logs were much more apparent. While disconcerting the bridge held and no tires jambed anywhere. At the top of the trail we looped around and headed down, back across the bridges.

By 5pm we tried making it the rest of the way to Evan's Creek. We made it but just barely. Deep, wet, slippery snow confounded our efforts on one trail and I needed to winch myself out of a snow bank I had unsuccessfully tried to plow through. And as we attempted to head out the front side of the park the snow became deeper. With several rigs becoming suck (again), we opted to turn around and head out the way we came in. By 8pm everyone was back on pavement and heading for home. It was a good day.

Crossing the debris pile covering the road.




Getting stuck in a 3 ft mud hole (btw, those are 37" tires)




Crossing under falling trees




Moving logs out of the way




Water courses cuting through the road bed




Snow and erosion made the road ahead challenging




Working our way up the road.




Our stopping and turn-around point. Here the road was washed out on both sides.

[lupinsea]

Driving back across the debris pile




Getting my Jeep wedged against a stump root




Another rig crossing the debris pile




Negotiating the jumble of logs was tricky




Crossing the washed out bridge above the waterfall




Making our way cross the washed out portion




Crossing the upper bridge heading back down the trail.




Taking care of downed trees. This one was precipitously perched and we
helped it down the rest of the way for safety.

[slimP]

Nice, great pictures as always.

[C2kraft]

Seems like you guys had a great time.
Always enjoy reading and looking at your story's lupinsea.

[grogie]

Thanks for the story and the cool photos! My dad use to carry a chain saw when I was a kid, up in those part of the woods for clearing the trails. That brought back some memories.

[lupinsea]

No problem. It's fun reading and seeing everyone's adventures here.

[I FLEX]

Man looks like it was fun. I wish i could've gone, maybe next time. Looks like that logging road was a little easier to navigate without as much snow. I probably wouldn't have needed nearly as many winch-outs and could have navigated the log bridge faster.

[DamiJab]

Those are great pictures. Are you a professional photographer?

[GrimJeeper91]

Spectacular pictures as usual. Thanks for sharing...

[tahoe wheelers]

as usual your pics are amazing

[03XJeep]

I will have to say it one more time nice pics. I love these what kind of camera do you use. I am into photography myself. I have yet to purchase a really nice digital camera but I will in the near future.

[tcourdin]

Nice pics, nice jeeps, and a beautiful area! Thats the kind of wheeling I like to do, some of those log crossings look tough!

[lupinsea]

Thanks guys.

To answer some questions:

No, I'm not a professional photographer. But I do try to pay attention. Little, cheap things make a big difference:

Composition - When looking through the view finder, I try to see not just the subject (what I'm photographing), but also how it is arranged in the overall shot. How the subject relates to the surrounding environment. How it implies a sense of motion or dynamic. I also try to varry the compositions so that there is more interest in the collection of pictures when seen as a whole (as in this thread). Some are vertically oriented. Some are close-ups. Some are more graphically centered and even. Some examples:

Example 1 - One of my all-time favorites, good energy, dynamic, texture, color and lighting
Example 2 - Vertical orientation used to capture the tall trees which frame the scene
Example 3 - Horizontal composition with the Landcruiser on one end balancing the landscape seen beyond on the left.

It's easy to get wrapped up and snap pics close to the Jeep but we often wheel in some amazing environments. One way I try to capture that is to walk far from the Jeep to take a picture of the overall landscape with the Jeep merely an element within it. These are some of my favorite examples of this technique:

Example 1 - Perched on an overlook
Example 2 - Surreal rocky terrain
Example 3 - On the edge of a valley


Lighting - Lighting has a huge impact on photography. The term photography, I beleive, is derived from latin meaning "light recording". And the biggest thing you can do is pay attention to the light sources and play of shadows across your composition. Usually you'd want the sun at your back so the subject matter is well lit. Otherwise a rig's side will be in shadow and the details hard to see.

Example 1 - I like this shot but the sun was at a bad angle to the Jeeps so most of them are in shadow
Example 2 - Compared to this image. Same spot but the Jeeps are better lit


Perspective or View Point - Moving around the "scene" (litterally, runnig around the Jeep or whatever) to see things from different points of view help. It helps you find shots and angle that you might otherwise not have considered. After doing this a while you begin to automatically survey the situation and better judge what you should be looking at. You also begin to be able to calculate where a good point of view would be based on how you want to compose an image.

Example 1 - Moving around I found this point of view intersting while on a rock garden
Example 2 - The lighting wasn't great but the viewpoint was interesting


LOTS of Pictures - Digital images are dirt cheap since you're not wasting film or paying for developing. So, take LOTS of photos with different settings on the camera and from different view points. You can always edit out and delete the stuff you're not interested in later.


LOTS of Pictures II - Monkey with Camera Settings - Again, because digital photography is cheap, you can more freely experiment. Try different settings on your camera to see what effect they have on the image. One thing I often do is drop the exposure value down a notch or two to darken the image. While this makes the rest of the image dark it also help keep the bright areas from being over exposed or "blown out". Then later, the image can be lightened in a photo editing software.

Also, most digital cameras have a two stage shutter release (button you press to take the picture). The first detent locks the exposure and focus settings, the second and final detent takes the picture. Use this. If your image is not being exposed properly in the view finder, put the center cross-hairs or focus box just off your subject, hold the shutter release to the first detend to lock the exposure settings, and move back to your subject. I use this technique A LOT. It's cheap, easy, and very fast.

Bottom line: Know your equipment and how it works. You know your Jeep, why not your camera.


Self Editing - This sort of goes with the LOST of Pictures advice. With great numbers of pictures come the need for great editing and self critiquing. Not all photos are going to be good. And there are going to be a lof of "duplicates;" pictures so similar there's little point in posting all of them. You need to step back from your "ownership" of the image and look at your collection of images with a critical eye. Keep the best and toss the others.

This is a process I do once I dump the images from the camera to my computer. I quickly go through and get rid of plain old bad images: pictures that are blurry, over exposed, have things cut off, the obvious worst of multiple "duplicates", etc. This cuts things down by about 1/3 or 1/2 of the original images. Then it gets hard. Next I try to evaluate and compare images to figure out and balance what images contribute to the "story" or narrative of what's happening throughout the day and which do not.

From this last trip I had over 110 pictures. Of that I kept 30 of them (27%) to post on my website. And only posted the best 10 or 12 here (the best 10%). And this is very typical.


Equipment
All of the above will work with any camera and do more to improve the quality of photos than any particular piece of camera equipment. Still, a good camera helps.

Personally, I run a Kodak Easyshare DX 7590. It was an ok camera - good enough with a big(er) lens, some manual controls, and enough megapixel resolution without being too expensive. . . . in case I dropped this camera in the mud, too. New it cost about $400

Despite it's 5 mp capability I almost always leave it on the lowest 1.8 mp setting since most of my images are posted only on-line. The pix above are a good size for sharing and they are about 800x600 or 0.5 mp. So, if my end image resolution is only 0.5 mp why simply go for maximu megapixelage. It just wastes storage space. Now, when I went on my honeymoon or I travel I boost the resolution to the full 5 mp because I know I'll be printing those out later.

More important to me is a good lense, crisp image quality, and the camera's ability to capture light in low-lighting situations.

[XJK]

thanks for the great pics, looked like a good time

and thanks for the photography lesson

-kyle

[03XJeep]

Awesome I have been looking into buying a new camera and this kinda gave me an idea what I would like to get into. Thanks