With five days of rain headed our way, we decided to get a hike in while the weather held. We decided to try Angel’s Rest again which is less than a half hour away from our house. The temperature hovered around 50 degrees with overcast skies. About half the parking lot was full when we […]
We’d been waiting for a month for road construction at the Chiricahua National Monument to be completed before visiting. With time running out, we took a chance that a spot would be open at Bonita Canyon, the monument’s campground. Arriving at 8:30 am Monday morning did the trick, and we scored the only open spot […]
We signed up for the last ranger-led hike of the season in Fiery Furnace, one of the permit-only areas inside Arches National Park. This complex sandstone labyrinth is unmarked and can be difficult to navigate both logistically (GPS signals do not work in there) and physically. Many National Park rangers are furloughed for the winter […]
Wow! This first part of our hike, Lookout Mountain Loop is a keeper, featuring the most dramatic views in the shortest distance for the least effort. True to form, our arrival at the High Prairie trailhead was straight up noon. On the dot. That left less than six hours to get back to the car […]
Since both the school year and the rainy season started three weeks ago, our weekly hikes have been on hiatus. September set records for rainfall throughout much of Oregon. When the clouds cleared over Mount Hood in early October, we were surprised to see it completely blanketed in white. Saturday dawned bright and clear so […]
We’d hiked McIntyre Ridge trail three summers ago with our sweet little whippet, Willow, and have wanted to give it another try ever since. When we tried to reach the trail head in March we were stymied by too much snow so we hiked the Clackamas River Trail instead. We’d read about trouble with people […]
The Opal Creek Wilderness is the site of a former mining operation that dates to the 1850s, an hour east of Salem, Oregon. The Opal Creek Trailhead is 100 miles from our house, and several hikes depart from this point. To celebrate David’s birthday today, we hiked both Jawbone Flats and the Cedar Flats. Opal […]
We thought we’d switch it up from our recent Mt. Hood hikes so we focused on the Columbia River Gorge, settling on the Herman Creek Trail to Indian Point. The trailhead is a few miles east of Cascade Locks and, being relatively early on a Monday, parking was readily available. The trail immediately starts climbing […]
We thought we’d try an overnight on the mountain by starting at the Hood River Meadows Trailhead. Before departing, we each weighed our packs and came out pretty even at 27 pounds. In addition to our clothes, sleeping pad and bag and three liters of water, David hauled the tent and I carried the cook […]
In typical fashion, we got a late noon start from Timberline Lodge. This time, our goal was to head east on the Timberline Trail #600 from the lodge and get over to Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Area where Umbrella Falls is located. To do so, we’d have to drop about 1300 feet down to the […]
After a donut run to Joes Donuts in Sandy to fuel up and a pit stop at the handsome new Zigzag Ranger District Office, we arrived at the Top Spur trail head at noon Monday. On the weekends, the parking spills out along the road for a long way in both directions, but today we […]
We vowed to get an early start for Sunday morning’s hike from Timberline Lodge. Which means 10-ish. Expecting the parking lot at Timberline Lodge to be sparsely populated at that hour, we were surprised to see it nearly as full as during a prime winter skiing day. Apparently for many, July 14 is also a […]
We had made plans to climb Mount Saint Helens in Washington and reserved climbing permits months ago. With the climb less than a week away, we double-checked our equipment and did more online research in preparation. Recent reports included words such as “ice ax”, “crampons”, “snow field” which really got our attention. We read that […]
We finally found Pup Creek Falls, after two unsuccessful attempts earlier this year. Once, we ran out of time when approaching from the west via the Fish Creek trail head. On the next attempt, we started from the east at Indian Henry trail head, but the water was too high to make the final 1/3 […]
The forecast for the Memorial Day weekend was nothing but rain so we headed to central Oregon for a spur-of-the-moment excuse for a meeting with David’s client, Kara Wilson Anglin of Wilson Ranches Retreat in Fossil. The bed and breakfast was full up, so she graciously offered us the use of an unfurnished house on […]
Today was a beautiful Spring day so we decided to head up to the Salmon River Trail for a hike. It’s an easy 30 minute drive to the trail head just south of Welches on Salmon River Road. We’ve been on this trail a few times, but never all the way out to the Goat […]
We started out the day intending to hike up McIntyre Ridge to Wildcat Mountain, but encountered the true meaning of “snow line” 5 miles before the trail head. Stymied by sudden deep snow on the road, we changed direction and headed to a lower elevation to try the east end of the Clackamas River Trail […]