• Nelson Mandela.

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One of the few characteristics of mine that surprises my wife is how I transform myself from complete couch potato to hyperactive outdoor person the moment we are on one of our photo trips. In our last trip to Oregon, we averaged about 5 miles of hiking a day with at least 1000ft in elevation gain. One of the pains of hiking after not being active is that you increase your chances of getting hurt, add to that about 6-7 lbs worth of camera gear and you are really pushing it. So during the Oregon trip, my wife made me buy a lightweight hiking bad and I wrapped my trusty old D800 and Nikkor 24-70 f2.8 in a shawl wrap for our hikes. And boy am I hooked, the lightweight bag was a breeze to carry on my back and if you don’t consider the damn mosquitoes trying to lift you away, provided a quite enjoyable hike to the Tom Dick and Harry Mountain.

You can see 5 mountain peaks from the top of Tom Dick and Harry Mountain and these are the main four, the fifth one is more to the south and is diametrically opposite this view.

Mount Hood From Tom Dick Harry Mountain

I took a predawn walk up to the summit of TDH mountain where clear skies greeted me. Unfortunately, Mount...

• Philip Guston.

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Our first foray into Oregon was during a road trip to northern California. I had just moved to the west coast and we planned a week long road trip to visit the famous redwoods of northern California. This trip was the first time we visited the less populous eastern side of California as well. We drove up highway 395 all the way north to Lassen and then crossed over to I-5 exploring the beautiful countryside of Mt Shasta. From there we were to take some local roads to the coast and drive the rest of the way north on Highway 101. Well at least that was the plan when we started from Los Angeles. Near Mt Shasta we learned about how close we are to Crater Lake National Park and decided that such a stunning spot warrants a visit. So, we kept on driving north instead of crossing over to the coast and visited the stunning National Park that’s home to one of the most enigmatic lakes on the continent. At the Park visitor center, we learned more about the Cascade mountain range and about Mt Hood.

Oregon’s sheer natural beauty won us over and the very next year we planned a road trip that covered most of the top locations in the state. And two years later we were back, this time we planned to hit some of the tougher locations like this one, on top of Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain that’s afforded us a stunning sunset view of the majestic Mt Hood and reflection lake. We did the trip in summer and the hike up here was brutal, not due to the trail being particularly difficult, but because of the mosquitoes. We were pretty covered up, but they were relentless up to a certain altitude, thankfully close to the top as we kind of reached above the tree line they magically disappeared. We had the entire spot to ourselves as the sun started to set and light up the mountain in warm golden light. The mosquitoes were tough, but it was worth it for this view. I hope to one day come back here on a beautiful winter morning.

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

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One of the most stunning views of the beautiful Mt. Hood is from the top of one of its foothills, the Tom Dick and Harry Mountain. This had to be one of the hardest hikes we have ever done not because of distance or elevation gain but because of the damn mosquitoes. They were everywhere constantly buzzing and hovering over our heads and biting as they please. Plus the added weight of the camera gear didn’t help either. Thankfully my wife convinced me to ditch my full gear and just hike with the bare essentials and a use a lightweight hiking bag, which made it a lot easier. But the constant presence of mosquitoes kind of robbed the fun off the trail a bit.

We forgot all that though once we reached the top and saw the view of the 5 peaks which are visible from this summit, bathed in golden light. The sunset gave us an unbelievably pretty light show before we hurried back off the mountain. One of my favorites from the trip.