2025 Trips To Date
Mount Hood
7 miles of hiking • 5250' elevation gain • 1 night
Went up through the Old Chute. Steaming sulfurous fumaroles, rock and ice cleaving cliffs. Steep upper chute with sketchy footing. Intense.
Felt out of shape and struggled with nausea on this trip.
June 3 – June 4, 2025
Cook Hill
8.5 miles of hiking • 3000' elevation gain •
Mazama hike, Russ Jolley meadow is in full bloom
May 21, 2025
15 Mile Creek
3.5 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain •
Multisport day- went skiing at Tline in the morning, then mushroom hunting in the afternoon
May 20, 2025
Surveyor's Ridge
8 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain •
Pleasant day, wildflowers looking good. Found a few morels.
May 16, 2025
More Desert!
10 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain • 1 night
Added on some mellow hiking to another Smith Climbing weekend. Still nursing a tender knee. Camped and hiked along the Deschutes at Steelhead Falls and Mecca Flat.
May 9 – May 10, 2025
John Day Canyon and beyond
11 miles of hiking • 1500' elevation gain • 2 nights
Visited a new spot on the Wild and Scenic section of the fabulous John Day River Canyon. You can drive down to the Thirtymile Creek boat launch west of Condon from 4/15-11/30. Wonderful rimrock, flowers and deep canyons, it's so gorgeous down there, but starting to get too hot already. Ventured upstream to Devils Canyon. Camped at the TH, would like to come back and do it as a backpack.
Met a rattlesnake in the JD Fossil bed area near Blue Basin. Found the pictographs in Picture Gorge.
Climbed up a cool summit in the Malheur NF north of Burns; Black Rock Peak. Enjoyed an evening soak at Crane Hot Springs.
May 1 – May 3, 2025
Coldwater Peak
14 miles of hiking • 4250' elevation gain • 1 night
Great way to enjoy Earth Day. We rambled up Coldwater Ridge, and stayed at the Ridge Camp. Had a fun evening scramble up Blastzone Butte. We summitted Coldwater then next day and then hiked out.
April 22 – April 23, 2025
April 17, 2025
April 5, 2025
March 23, 2025
March 15, 2025
Oregon Desert Canyons
20 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain • 1 night
In the first week of March, I had the pleasure of going to the Oregon high desert twice, visiting the John Day and Deschutes rivers. The first trip was a bikepack up the Deschutes from the confluence with the Columbia River. We biked up about 11 miles, and camped at the Fall Canyon campsite. Had a nice hike up Harris Canyon to the top of the rim. The camp had a resident Western screech owl. It was so cute and charming at first, but not at 3 am. Hiked 4 miles, 1000 feet.
A few days later I came back and stopped at the Deschutes again enroute to Cottonwood Canyon. I hiked upstream from the state park using the Blackberry and Riverview trails, 5.5 miles, 500 feet.
At Cottonwood, I did some hiking and biking, and was able to get into the Lower John Day Wilderness Study area via the Hardscrabble trail. Explored a section called the "Ruggles grade". It is so magnificent there! Stayed solo in a cabin for 2 nights, and did lots of art. Also had a wonderful morning encounter with a herd of 10 sheep. They were down low, right by the river trail. Usually, they are up high and barely discernible. This herd of females and youngsters allowed me to cautiously circle around them and take lots of pictures and videos. They were wary and kept an eye on me, but didn't bolt, and continued to browse. Two had tracking collars, and one had a broken horn! Very cool to observe them for a long time. Hiked 6 miles, 1500 ft eg
On the way home, I stopped at Catherine Creek and enjoyed a nice loop amongst the grass widows. 4.5 miles, 1500 ft
March 3 – March 4, 2025
Crown Point Basin
4.5 miles of hiking • 750' elevation gain •
Meant to ski up Larch Mountain road but the snow was down pretty low and road in bad condition. Plus creepy dudes in big trucks. This was plan B. Visited the cardavers, and the swans down on the lake.
February 9, 2025
Hamilton Mtn
8 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain •
Cold clear day. We added on some extra fun scrambles, and checked out Little Beacon Rock.
January 21, 2025
January 16, 2025
Klickitat Haul Road
7 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain •
Beautiful day on the Klickitat River, it gets pretty wild up there. Saw quite a few eagles.
January 12, 2025
January 8, 2025
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