December 19, 2011 jon 6 miles 2,750 feet gained
Recent Hikes
December 19, 2011 Chris 12.5 miles 2,750 feet gained
We chose to do another Larch loop because of its flexibility and guarantee of good views above the inversion. I love how well graded the Multnomah trail is up there. The rocky section was nice and slipp'ry. Nice views again!
December 18, 2011 Joe Omundson 21 miles 5,000 feet gained
December 18, 2011 Erin Ralph 2 miles 250 feet gained
Just a quickie at our local short hike. We do this 1-4 times per week, so I probably wont write up a report every time. 2.14 miles, elevation gain ~300ft.
December 18, 2011 Bosterson 11 miles 4,250 feet gained
Hot Springs TH<br> Dick Thomas trail is a mud pit as always<br> descent via NW Ridge, some snow<br> tagged Aldrich Butte cause I'd never been up there before<br> Cold and misty, no views.
December 17, 2011 Water (Matt) 8 miles 1,250 feet gained
Never heard of or did this hike before but found it this weekend when my pops was visiting us. Great little jaunt and actually had a ball. Saw 1 other group out. Low amounts of snow helped make it very accessible. Still had to start from a gated road about 2 miles shy of the normal trailhead. I'll be coming back here for sure! Beautiful trees/water.
December 17, 2011 Christophe Deppe 3 miles 1,250 feet gained
December 17, 2011 Joe Omundson 12 miles 4,750 feet gained
December 17, 2011 Jen 7 miles 1,000 feet gained
My first time visiting the east arm of the Archer mtn Complex. I started from Duncan Creek Road and came up the powerline, turned south just past Cynthia Falls. I did not see any signs indicating the area was closed. The true summit is viewless, but you can continue south along a nice rocky spine to get viewpoints into the gorge.
December 17, 2011 Eric Peterson 22 miles 5,250 feet gained
Great hike with some pretty funny and loony guys! :)
December 17, 2011 Chris 22 miles 5,250 feet gained
A great hike with the loonies! We started at Don's house, where he showed us some neat ideas for a trip based off of the LIDAR maps in an area that looks like it could be the remainders of the Bonneville Slide. The drive to Silver Star pretty quick from Vancouver—we went a new route I hadn't gone before, past the Larch Corrections Center, and the road starte...
December 17, 2011 Roman 7.5 miles 2,000 feet gained
The original plan was to visit Johnston Ridge again, but my Subaru's alternator decided to die, and our Buick is only able to go to the Gorge. Oh well, Hamilton Mtn. hike is a good one - especially in a weather like this. 8.5 miles to go for my years' target...
December 16, 2011 Water (Matt) 2.5 miles 2,500 feet gained
Went for a southside jaunt with a friend. We should have just slept more and done a later-day summit. We hung out about at the top of palmer for an hour in a snow cave I made but it just seemed like we were in a cloud and didn't know if it would clear. By the time we got back to Portland it was clear and was so sunny for the rest of the day. Kind of a major ...
December 15, 2011 Joe Omundson 5 miles 750 feet gained
December 14, 2011 ChurchFish 9 miles 3,750 feet gained
December 13, 2011 Chris 5 miles 500 feet gained
I was going to do a quick trip to Wildcat Mountain, but the road was continuous ice, several miles from the trailhead. Option B was to do Salmon River. Just hiked up a few miles and back—always nice.
December 12, 2011 jon 4.5 miles 1,750 feet gained
December 11, 2011 Roman 3.5 miles 750 feet gained
Went with my dad to take a photo sunset from one of the points (my dad is professional photographer); if we knew the road is open all the way to Observatory if could be quite a snowshoe trip! It snowed lightly but it won't be much this time.
December 10, 2011 Water (Matt) 4 miles 3,500 feet gained
Partner was definitely not at 100%. decided to bag going for Leuthold's Coulior and just enjoy sunrise at Illumination Saddle. Partner's feet looked like hamburger back at the truck (new boots), plus his appetite and energy were not normal, so, probably made the best choice. disappointing with the mountain in utterly perfect shape..next time. Lunar Eclipse d...
December 10 to December 11, 2011 Sirhikesalot1 10.5 miles 2,250 feet gained 1 night
December 10, 2011 Eric Peterson 24 miles 5,500 feet gained
Awesome big wintry hike with 4 PH legends!
December 10, 2011 Roman 7.5 miles 1,250 feet gained
Hiked with my dad on Gray Butte trail from seasonally closed Rd 5720 to a small summit overlooking Smith Rocks state park. Initially planned to include Smith Rocks in the loop but ended out taking more photos and slowing down the pace, and we didn't want to hike 1.5 hours in the dark. The weather was gorgeous, almost no wind. We took some freezing fog pictur...
December 10, 2011 Bosterson 11.5 miles 5,000 feet gained
Starvation>Defiance. Crazy frost spikes in the trees on Starvation around 2000ft. Partial snow on the trail when the ridge dead ends into the headwall. Warren Lake frozen solid. Continuous snow from there to the top. The trail is pretty well beaten in, though we did follow a dead end path and end up getting a little lost on the talus field and improvising up...
December 9, 2011 Jen 8 miles 2,000 feet gained
I've been working a lot lately. Really needed this hike today. Brought along my friend Seeger. No snow on the trail. It was very windy on top, hazy in the gorge, but very clear to the north. We could even see Rainier!
December 8, 2011 Chris 7.5 miles 2,500 feet gained
I had just a few hours so I though I'd do Silver Star from Grouse Vista. The Discover Pass sign has in fact been ripped down, and there are no indicators that a fee is required (so go now!). The trail has hard packed snow for the last mile or so, and microspikes are not necessary, but are supremely helpful for coming downhill faster. I saw no one else the wh...
December 6, 2011 Roman 3 miles 1,250 feet gained
I joined my dad on his day off; we took our snowshoes and got to Timberline Lodge without a pre-determined hike plan. We thought to get to Big Zigzag Canyon viewpoint and see if we wanted to continue from there. Located PCT sign quickly but with about 3 feet of snow on the ground we couldn't follow the trail. Instead of going in the vicinity of PCT slightly ...
December 4, 2011 Joe Omundson 4 miles 500 feet gained
December 4, 2011 Eugene Smith 22.5 miles 4,000 feet gained
Snow is a rare and fleeting sight in the arid climate of the Chihuahuan Desert. You have to head north upstate or head vertically a few thousand feet and do it quickly as what little frozen precipitation that may happen to fall usually fails to linger around very long. Down in the Mesilla Valley temperatures were dropping and the cloud layer filled in earnes...
December 3 to December 4, 2011 tammy warber 8 miles 750 feet gained 1 night
Got to the trailhead around 2:30pm. The parking lot was overflowing as usual. We backpacked in with a couple friends on their first overnight hike. The four of us camped at High Bridge. Everything was pretty soaked despite the dry weather. After much effort, we were able to get a nice fire going though. It got pretty cold overnight, but the 4 of us and our 2...
December 3, 2011 Debbi 5 miles 500 feet gained
December 3, 2011 Roman 1.5 miles 250 feet gained
Since we were close, we decided to see what's Mary's Peak is about. It's the highest peak in Oregon's Coast Range. The road goes most of the way to its summit (actually, all the way but the last section is gated). Beautiful area, BIG views, open summit meadows - it's not like one would expect in the Coast Range. There's a whole system of trails in the area, ...
December 3, 2011 Roman 1.5 miles 250 feet gained
My mom wanted to try truffling for a long time, so we joined an organized group (`20 people) with North American Truffling Society. Truffles are underground mushrooms and worth their weight in gold (well, almost). You have to rake big area to find a few. We found 3 truffles, our guide determined only 1 of them as edible, and when we got home I realized I los...
December 3, 2011 Christophe Deppe 5.5 miles 1,250 feet gained
December 3, 2011 Eric Peterson 8.5 miles 3,250 feet gained
I guess if I want better looking pictures I should buy a better camera. Stupid thing seems to just constantly take out of focus images on the right side even after trying everything. Fun little 'schwack loop. Took me about 4 hours just to go from the Kings TH up to the 3 way junction. I did doddle quite a bit though and only cliffed out once. Not very many k...
December 3, 2011 Chris 17 miles 3,000 feet gained
Did a big ol' loop starting at the Larch gate. Started down the hill on a closed forest road (nice little streams along the way!), cut over to Multnomah Creek and headed up Franklin Ridge. Snow started around 3000ft, but was pleasantly solid because of the freeze, with nice "traction snow" on top. I ran into a few people that were coming up to Larch from the...
December 2, 2011 Water (Matt) 8 miles 5,250 feet gained
Turned around unfortunately. a bit later than we desired a bit less energy than I would have liked avy cast good but specifically called out steep, N through E high elevation gullies (ie: the chimneys on the route) Another time.. happy to be out
December 2, 2011 Chris 4 miles 250 feet gained
Running with the dogs. Not my dogs, but every other dog in Portland.
December 2, 2011 Roman 7.5 miles 2,000 feet gained
Family hike on Hamilton Mtn. The gate before the trailhead is now closed (for the winter?) so one has to start at Beacon Rock.
December 2, 2011 Bosterson 6 miles 2,000 feet gained
December 1 to December 2, 2011 Kyle Meyer 20 miles 5,000 feet gained 1 night
Eagle Creek has it's own climate—I need to remember this for future trips. Trying to take advantage of the beginning of this stretch of great weather, a friend and I headed out for a two night loop of Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake. We hiked to 7.5 mile camp the first night. Despite the blue skies, everything was soaking wet. Drenched. With a low in the mid 30s,...
November 30, 2011 Chris 5.5 miles 500 feet gained
A run at dusk—the park (or at least the gate, but I saw a Metro pickup doing a sweep) closes right now at 4:30. The best trails are next to the river. There's parking just outside the entrance as of Dec 1, so you don't have to pay Metro's $5 fee.
November 30, 2011 jon 10 miles 3,750 feet gained
November 29, 2011 Phoebe "BertMoss" 4 miles 250 feet gained
Lovely day for a hike. Made the proper turn this time to see the waterfall... even with all the garbage, shoes, used condoms, and beer cans it was a freaking beautiful place.
November 28, 2011 Roman 8 miles 2,250 feet gained
I forgot the camera for this one, so no pictures. Angels Rest was in the fog on the way up, but when I went back the cloud deck briefly lowered just enough to allow the "airplane view" from AR of being above the clouds - with Archer Mtn., Silver Star and the surrounding hills being islands in white sea. Of course, if I took the camera it wouldn't happen ) On...
November 27, 2011 tammy warber 4 miles 250 feet gained
We only hiked in to Rolling Riffle Camp- out and back. There was a decent amount of patchy snow around the trail. Very little snow on the trail itself. It's was a little muddy, but not too bad. Not many people were on the trail and no one appeared to be camping. A few of the sites we pasted were clear of snow and definitely usable.
November 26, 2011 ChurchFish 7 miles 750 feet gained
November 26, 2011 Sirhikesalot1 8 miles 1,250 feet gained
Did Clear Lake Butte from Skyline snow park. 2 miles of the hike were off trail snowshoe up the north side of the butte. Great views on top
November 26, 2011 Debbi 8 miles 500 feet gained