I remember thinking that yesterday in the windy cove was the worst picturing taking experience of my life. The wind was blowing ferociously, sea mist was flying everywhere and I almost lost the camera. It was horrible and all for what probably was a mediocre shot. It was the worst. The worst that is up until I set out to take a picture of the sand dunes at Dunes National Park.

While nothing catastrophic happened to the camera or anything, it was without a doubt the most miserable picture taking experience yet. I drove for quite a while before finding a good spot where no dune buggies were racing everywhere. It was a short hike to the edge of the dune and then near impossible to walk up them. One step forward, two sliding back. I kept remembering all those movies you see where a whole legend of men with large packs, etc..  troding off across some middle eastern desert full of sand dunes and thinking it would have been impossible for them to get anywhere.

Well, after I made it up to the top of one of the larger ones, I set everything up. Right about then a huge wind storm rolled in. Sand was blowing everywhere. It was blowing so hard that the sandblasting effect  hurt at times. Since I was already set up and just about ready to go I decided to get the shot. The problem was, the wind was blowing so hard that I couldn't keep the focusing cloth in place to see if things were in focus. After yesterday, I knew better than attach it to the camera again while the wind was blowing so hard so I attached it to me instead. I could barely hang on to it, it was totally flapping in the wind behind me. I must have looked like some kind of idiot wilderness superhero with my black and white cape waving in the wind. I never could be sure that I got the camera focused or not, but I got two shots. I am convince now that the act of setting up my camera attracts bad weather.

After that I was fed up with the coast and all its fog and wind so I headed off for crater lake and found a nice little lodge to stay in so I could clean the camera and get the sand out of my ears.

I sure hope this as is bad as it gets for this trip.