I awoke for no good reason at 4:30 AM. Don't ask me why, except I think God had something to show me that day. In retrospect, I can't even tell you what day of the week it was or what day of the month it was. I remember it was in early October. But I was wide awake and could not go back to sleep. So I decided to go to the beach.
I was working a job in Oregon, and I was staying at an extended stay hotel in Salem... so it wasn't far to the beach. I think it took me about an hour to get down to Lincoln City, where I stopped for breakfast hoping that the heavy fog would lift while I was eating. It didn't...
Daylight was trying to break through as I left the restaurant and started south down the coast highway toward Depoe Bay, and then Newport. I had no idea where I was going or what I would find, but I had my antiquated 35mm SLR, and I was going to get some pictures of one of the most awesome edge habitats in the world, the Pacific coastline. Funny how edges draw people to them... and animals...
When I got to Depoe Bay, daybreak was trying to cut through the fog. But it wasn't having much luck. I stopped on the seawall in downtown to watch the surf pounding the rocks below the road. I could see only about a hundred yards, but you could tell the sea was angry.
I parked beside a car with a lady sitting in the passenger seat with her window rolled down. As I got out of my PU, I said something to the effect that the sea was really kickin' butt this mornin'.
She got out and stepped up to the rail beside me with no concern at all about me being a stranger and it being the crack of daylight. She was in awe of this raging sea, same as me, and we stood there talking about it and why we were both there at the same time.
Maybe 45 minutes later, her son awoke from the backseat and stepped out to join us. Turns out they had been traveling north up the coast highway when the fog got so bad that they pulled over here and waited till morning for the fog to lift.
Our chance meeting and conversation became, what felt like, a friendly connection between strangers. We didn't exchange names, but I could tell that she had enjoyed the connection too. And when she left we shook hands and said as much... I knew it was going to be a good day...
As I traveled further south down the coast toward Newport, the fog began to fade in and out allowing some views to open up ever so slightly. It would tease me just enough to get me excited about what was unfolding around me. Man, what a day this was going to be...
When I got into Newport, I stopped and asked where I could park near the beach to get some pictures of the surf when the fog lifted. They pointed me in the direction of a county park just a few blocks off the main drag, and off I went.
The park was a small parking lot with a public bathroom and a circular pavilion overlooking a bluff over the mouth of the bay... but the fog had it socked in... However, the surf was definitely audible below, probably 200 yards away. It was a surreal experience, to say the least, but it was just getting started.
There was a crew of roofers putting a new roof on the pavilion in the fog that morning which interrupted the scene regularly. But they simply added to the background noise, which was muffled constantly by the sound of the surf.
Sitting on a bench at the head of the sandy trail down to the beach was a clean shaven middle aged man wearing jeans, a hooded camo jacket, and a baseball cap. Beside him sat a neatly packed large backpack, the kind that might be used if going camping in the mountains.
I asked him, if he minded, if I sat on the bench beside him with my camera to watch and wait for the fog to lift and expose the surf below. And thus began 4+ hours of conversation between this guy (turns out a homeless man) and me.
The conversation started out slow with mostly small talk, but soon progressed into another friendly connection between two complete strangers. The guy's name was Bartley (the only Bartley that I've ever met in 63 years), and you would never guess that he was a homeless man even though he carried a pack. He was too clean and neat...
I thought, at first, he was simply trekking the beach with his backpack for the experience. Only after he found out where I was from and found out that I knew where he was raised (Soper,OK) did the conversation evolve into a more personal one about his past and his current situation. It was truly a fascinating morning...
Bartley was a welder, by trade, and a good one too, according to him. But he had climbed into a bottle several years back following his son's suicide after returning from Iraq.
Subsequently, he had determined that he really did want to live and that the bottle was surely killing him. So he quit! And he was doing his best to pull himself up by his boot straps and become a contributing citizen again.
And he shared his perspective of his situation with me that morning in a way that changed my whole idea of how homeless people cope. But what impressed me the most about Bartley was his apparent integrity. And the fact that he had any...
Becoming a good welder again isn't always easy when there's a huge hiatus in your resume where you've been living among the Redwoods for 5 years+. And the unemployment office only wants to re-train you... or at least that's the best plan they can devise for you.
We talked, as I said before, for 4+ hours while waiting for the fog to lift. Bartley filled me in on many things about the area as the fog lifted that day. Some of which I will share here before I'm done.
But the main thing that I learned from Bartley that day was that homeless people are people, just like the rest of us, that find themselves in a life predicament that has them boxed in... not trapped, but boxed in... And some of them, like Bartley, will find their way out of it.
I have no doubt that Bartley will be fine. He told me as much... after he declined my offer of a ride somewhere. We shook hands when I left, and I wished him luck. After all, this stranger had just shared a lot of his life with me... along with some of his vacuum sealed smoked salmon from his pack...
The Yaquina Lighthouse was one of the places that Bartley recommended that I see while I was there. As you can see the fog was rolling back in when I was there. The lighthouse is just out of Newport on the way back north on the coast highway.
As the fog lifted, the breakers were pounding the rocks out in front of the lighthouse. This is the northern point of the bay, and it catches the full fury of the Pacific. I will hope to return someday when the view is not obscured by the fog, but this day was still a powerful experience. The Pacific never ceases to amaze me...
As I traveled back north toward Lincoln City and eventually Salem, I stopped again somewhere near Otter Rock, south of Depoe Bay. I believe it was Otter Crest, but it might have been the Devil's Punchbowl. I can't remember... I've slept since then, don't you know...
But I remember a large parking lot and a rocky point that jutted out to where these breakers were putting on their show. This was mid afternoon and the fog was all gone, but the power in the breakers was still there.
These pictures were all taken with a 22 year old Minolta SLR with a telephoto lense. Not bad for a fat old man who can barely afford to pay for the development anymore of 35 mm film... IF I can find someone who still develops it. Talk about feeling antiquated...
Finally, I made one more stop in Depoe Bay where daybreak had found me talking to that nice lady and her son. The very first picture in this post is from that spot and so is the next one to follow here. You can see the same rock outcrop in the top of the picture below that was in the first shot at the top of the post.
No doubt, some of you may wonder what all this has to do with Edge Habitat. Edge in nature refers to the edges of ecosystems. The Pacific Ocean/ Continental Shelf is a mega-edge where two powerful ecosystems collide, each composed of smaller edges and ecosystems within them. Bartley was a guy living on the edge in more ways than one. I have no direct evidence to prove it, but I believe from the conversation with the nice woman at daybreak that she and her son were on an edge of sorts.
Point is, people are drawn to edges of all kinds in life... So are animals... And so are plants... Edges are powerful phenomenons in nature... These pictures are proof of some of the most powerful examples that I can provide. Be aware of the things around you. They are all tied together to make this world where we live.
This country is on the edge right now as well. And we as Americans, not Republicans or Democrats or whatever, need to realize that everything we do creates an edge that becomes a part of the whole of things.
I was working a job in Oregon, and I was staying at an extended stay hotel in Salem... so it wasn't far to the beach. I think it took me about an hour to get down to Lincoln City, where I stopped for breakfast hoping that the heavy fog would lift while I was eating. It didn't...
Daylight was trying to break through as I left the restaurant and started south down the coast highway toward Depoe Bay, and then Newport. I had no idea where I was going or what I would find, but I had my antiquated 35mm SLR, and I was going to get some pictures of one of the most awesome edge habitats in the world, the Pacific coastline. Funny how edges draw people to them... and animals...
 |
| Later that afternoon at Depoe Bay |
When I got to Depoe Bay, daybreak was trying to cut through the fog. But it wasn't having much luck. I stopped on the seawall in downtown to watch the surf pounding the rocks below the road. I could see only about a hundred yards, but you could tell the sea was angry.
I parked beside a car with a lady sitting in the passenger seat with her window rolled down. As I got out of my PU, I said something to the effect that the sea was really kickin' butt this mornin'.
She got out and stepped up to the rail beside me with no concern at all about me being a stranger and it being the crack of daylight. She was in awe of this raging sea, same as me, and we stood there talking about it and why we were both there at the same time.
Maybe 45 minutes later, her son awoke from the backseat and stepped out to join us. Turns out they had been traveling north up the coast highway when the fog got so bad that they pulled over here and waited till morning for the fog to lift.
Our chance meeting and conversation became, what felt like, a friendly connection between strangers. We didn't exchange names, but I could tell that she had enjoyed the connection too. And when she left we shook hands and said as much... I knew it was going to be a good day...
 |
| A window to the surf between Depoe Bay and Newport |
As I traveled further south down the coast toward Newport, the fog began to fade in and out allowing some views to open up ever so slightly. It would tease me just enough to get me excited about what was unfolding around me. Man, what a day this was going to be...
When I got into Newport, I stopped and asked where I could park near the beach to get some pictures of the surf when the fog lifted. They pointed me in the direction of a county park just a few blocks off the main drag, and off I went.
The park was a small parking lot with a public bathroom and a circular pavilion overlooking a bluff over the mouth of the bay... but the fog had it socked in... However, the surf was definitely audible below, probably 200 yards away. It was a surreal experience, to say the least, but it was just getting started.
There was a crew of roofers putting a new roof on the pavilion in the fog that morning which interrupted the scene regularly. But they simply added to the background noise, which was muffled constantly by the sound of the surf.
Sitting on a bench at the head of the sandy trail down to the beach was a clean shaven middle aged man wearing jeans, a hooded camo jacket, and a baseball cap. Beside him sat a neatly packed large backpack, the kind that might be used if going camping in the mountains.
I asked him, if he minded, if I sat on the bench beside him with my camera to watch and wait for the fog to lift and expose the surf below. And thus began 4+ hours of conversation between this guy (turns out a homeless man) and me.
 |
| The two pictures above were taken from the bench where we sat. |
The conversation started out slow with mostly small talk, but soon progressed into another friendly connection between two complete strangers. The guy's name was Bartley (the only Bartley that I've ever met in 63 years), and you would never guess that he was a homeless man even though he carried a pack. He was too clean and neat...
I thought, at first, he was simply trekking the beach with his backpack for the experience. Only after he found out where I was from and found out that I knew where he was raised (Soper,OK) did the conversation evolve into a more personal one about his past and his current situation. It was truly a fascinating morning...
Bartley was a welder, by trade, and a good one too, according to him. But he had climbed into a bottle several years back following his son's suicide after returning from Iraq.
Subsequently, he had determined that he really did want to live and that the bottle was surely killing him. So he quit! And he was doing his best to pull himself up by his boot straps and become a contributing citizen again.
And he shared his perspective of his situation with me that morning in a way that changed my whole idea of how homeless people cope. But what impressed me the most about Bartley was his apparent integrity. And the fact that he had any...
Becoming a good welder again isn't always easy when there's a huge hiatus in your resume where you've been living among the Redwoods for 5 years+. And the unemployment office only wants to re-train you... or at least that's the best plan they can devise for you.
We talked, as I said before, for 4+ hours while waiting for the fog to lift. Bartley filled me in on many things about the area as the fog lifted that day. Some of which I will share here before I'm done.
But the main thing that I learned from Bartley that day was that homeless people are people, just like the rest of us, that find themselves in a life predicament that has them boxed in... not trapped, but boxed in... And some of them, like Bartley, will find their way out of it.
I have no doubt that Bartley will be fine. He told me as much... after he declined my offer of a ride somewhere. We shook hands when I left, and I wished him luck. After all, this stranger had just shared a lot of his life with me... along with some of his vacuum sealed smoked salmon from his pack...
The Yaquina Lighthouse was one of the places that Bartley recommended that I see while I was there. As you can see the fog was rolling back in when I was there. The lighthouse is just out of Newport on the way back north on the coast highway.
 |
| Right up to the Edge... looking down from the lighthouse area... |
As I traveled back north toward Lincoln City and eventually Salem, I stopped again somewhere near Otter Rock, south of Depoe Bay. I believe it was Otter Crest, but it might have been the Devil's Punchbowl. I can't remember... I've slept since then, don't you know...
But I remember a large parking lot and a rocky point that jutted out to where these breakers were putting on their show. This was mid afternoon and the fog was all gone, but the power in the breakers was still there.
These pictures were all taken with a 22 year old Minolta SLR with a telephoto lense. Not bad for a fat old man who can barely afford to pay for the development anymore of 35 mm film... IF I can find someone who still develops it. Talk about feeling antiquated...
Finally, I made one more stop in Depoe Bay where daybreak had found me talking to that nice lady and her son. The very first picture in this post is from that spot and so is the next one to follow here. You can see the same rock outcrop in the top of the picture below that was in the first shot at the top of the post.
No doubt, some of you may wonder what all this has to do with Edge Habitat. Edge in nature refers to the edges of ecosystems. The Pacific Ocean/ Continental Shelf is a mega-edge where two powerful ecosystems collide, each composed of smaller edges and ecosystems within them. Bartley was a guy living on the edge in more ways than one. I have no direct evidence to prove it, but I believe from the conversation with the nice woman at daybreak that she and her son were on an edge of sorts.
Point is, people are drawn to edges of all kinds in life... So are animals... And so are plants... Edges are powerful phenomenons in nature... These pictures are proof of some of the most powerful examples that I can provide. Be aware of the things around you. They are all tied together to make this world where we live.
This country is on the edge right now as well. And we as Americans, not Republicans or Democrats or whatever, need to realize that everything we do creates an edge that becomes a part of the whole of things.
