Woodswalker

December 30, 2016 6.4 miles 250 feet gained

Wonderful day in the ice,sun and wind out at Swale Canyon. Very crusty snow, about 6" deep. Micro spikes were helpful but it could have been done with out them. First time I've been out there in the snow. Amazing. Perfect end to the year. Happy New Year all.

December 22, 2016 10 miles 2,750 feet gained

Beautiful day celebrating the Solstice with Karl and another friend. I'm just dittoing his report :) He said it all really well.

December 12, 2016 6.9 miles 1,750 feet gained

Another gorgeous day in the gorge. There was about 12-18 inches of snow in places and some very narrow tread. Ran into some lovely folks. Spikes were necessary and if the snow gets softer it might not be so safe. Fantastic day.

November 27, 2016 10.2 miles 2,750 feet gained

Wonderful misty day in the gorge. Still a lot of mushrooms. The washout 1 mile south of Triple Falls is manageable as long as the creek level doesn't rise. Winter creek was mostly a dry footed crossing. Great day.

November 8, 2016 6 miles 500 feet gained

Did a bit of exploring in the Pocket creek area with a friend who is doing wildlife survey work. pretty quiet day. We were on and off of the ski trails all day. BTW ski trails in summer are really just slightly lower brush with frequent blue diamonds on the trees. Looks like the Larches are almost gone needle wise. We saw lots of cool mountain views, but not...

November 3, 2016 10.6 miles 1,750 feet gained

Gorgeous day in the Gorge! The fall color is fading out once you hit the Nick Eaton Trail junction. But lots of mushrooms and waterfalls!

October 23, 2016 8.2 miles 1,750 feet gained

I have finally accepted that fact that winter is here and I need to shift towards misty day hikes. I wanted to go somewhere quiet so we parked at Larch Mountain parking lot and walked a ways down the hill to the top of the Oneonta trail with the goal of wandering down to Bell Creek. Perfect day, we saw one other person, tons of mushrooms and hundreds of spri...

October 11, 2016 5 miles 750 feet gained

Quick trip along the Timberline. Beautiful but icy near water. Once I got to Heather Canyon I had planned to head up it. But it was way too icy and the water was moving a bit fast towards that big waterfall. Great day even though it was short.

September 25, 2016 11 miles 1,250 feet gained

Beautiful day. The fall colors are at peak right now and the lakes are still looking good! We started at E. Crater trailhead and went past Junction Lake through all the lovely meadows and tarns. Deep Lake ended up being our turnaround point after a marvelous day.

September 12, 2016 12 miles 2,250 feet gained

Amazing day. The fall colors are on!! Crisp and clear and beautiful. Plus, still a few flowers. Great day in the Hood.

September 4, 2016 9.3 miles 1,500 feet gained

Easy day in the Badger Wilderness. Beautiful dramatic skies watching rain showers move across the plains below us. Had fun catching up on the fire season news and general latest happenings with the staff person at Flag Point Lookout. Wonderful day.

August 27, 2016 12.8 miles 2,500 feet gained

Three days camping at Walupt Lake with amazing day hikes. The wildflowers are still putting on a show in the wet patches, although they are bloomed out elsewhere. Fantastic views and only one small misty shower. Great day in a stunning area.

August 26, 2016 9 miles 2,000 feet gained

We just stopped off at Walupt Lake campground long enough to pick a site and park the car. Then up the trail we went to Sheep Lake. Amazingly quiet for a Friday and hot enough to take a quick dip in the lake. Some one had beat us to the huckleberries, but the views and lake beauty more than compensated.

August 20, 2016 8.2 miles 0 feet gained

Beautiful day with my goddaughter staying cool by the lake.

August 16, 2016 10.1 miles 2,250 feet gained

Wonderful day back in my "hood". Flowers still lovely in places. Dollar lake is looking small and very green.

August 11, 2016 14.8 miles 2,000 feet gained

The most beautiful place I have ever been. Nice forest and creek, beautiful glacial meadows and The Lakes!!!

August 10, 2016 12 miles 3,000 feet gained

The first few miles were rather uninspiring. But after that it was amazing. Flowers are blooming, mosquitoes calm at the lakes, but definitely around in the meadows. Wonderful day.

August 9, 2016 2.25 miles 250 feet gained

It was a gnarly weather day so I decided to go where the weather would add to the scenery. So I went to Zumwalt prairie and took a short stroll and then drove up the long gravel road to Buckhorn Lookout on the edge of Hell's Canyon. Fantastic views and tons of wildlife. Especially close to Buckhorn Lookout.

July 31, 2016 17 miles 3,750 feet gained

Fantastic day!!!! We headed up Stagman ridge with the idea of tagging Lookingglass Lake and then doing a bit of, off trail above treeline near the Bumper. The burn is coming along nicely with some fun views through the burned trees. We decided to cut off the Stagman ridge trail on a use path directly over to Lookingglass Lake instead of going up and then des...

July 21, 2016 7.5 miles 1,500 feet gained

Totally beautiful day. We did the loop and then added on the stretch up the moraine to the view of the glacial cirque. Wildflowers full on in the lower meadows and getting ready to pop on the upper meadows. Skeeters very minimal.

July 20, 2016 10.4 miles 1,500 feet gained

Amazing out and back on the PCT Highway. Saw lots of blooms, lakes in the distance, views galore, happy people and one through hiker! Really, really good hike.

July 13, 2016 10.2 miles 2,000 feet gained

I wanted to hit the bloom in the Badger and I needed some sun. So off to the east I went. Quiet day up there saw a few people near the summit. The penstemon is peaking, with lots of other colors dotted through. I parked at High Prairie, hiked to the old lookout site and headed down the Divide trail, taking my time even though it was downhill mostly. Where th...

July 6, 2016 4.4 miles 250 feet gained

Just a couple of short strolls to check on flowers. Lovely day in the meadows.

July 3, 2016 6.7 miles 2,000 feet gained

Just a lazy looking at the views and sitting in the meadows watching the breeze kind of hike. We parked about a half mile up the 4890 rd where it intersects the 471 trail. Started out in a nice fir and hemlock forest, but it quickly shifted to more open alpine forest. We hit the summit of Bonney Butte with crystal clear views except beyond Mt Hood. Great vie...

July 2, 2016 17 miles 3,000 feet gained

It was an amazing day. Looping together several different areas. Magnificence personified.

June 27, 2016 11.8 miles 3,000 feet gained

Beautiful day, beautiful views. No bugs, no down logs and wonderful views and flowers at the top.

June 22, 2016 10 miles 2,250 feet gained

I always make at least one trip here. I usually try and hit the area when the tarns are just starting to melt and then again when the flowers are blooming at McNeil point. Yesterday was in between those two windows and still wonderful. I got a crazy late start so I didn't get pics of the slightly past peak of bloom on Bald Mountain and my camera ran out of s...

June 7, 2016 10.6 miles 500 feet gained

Nice stroll from Little Crater Lake to the dam at Timothy Lake. Great way to beat the heat. Some bugs were swarming me in the morning for about the first mile and then it was fine. The Rhodie bloom is on!

June 5, 2016 10 miles 750 feet gained

Looking to beat the heat, we decided on a stroll and dip strategy along the less crowded portion of the Lewis River. The lower arch of Curley Creek falls was actually visible. We slowly made out way up the trail as far as the theoretical ford that's shown on the USGS maps. Which as far as I can tell is not any better than most of the rest of the river for fo...

May 30, 2016 8.4 miles 2,000 feet gained

It was a four volcanoe day! We took advantage of the sunshine to hike to Burnt Lake and above. Spring flowers are still going strong above 3600' and a few tiny snow patches just to make it more scenic. No bugs at all. We stopped at Burnt lake for a quick snack, again miraculously no bugs, and then headed up the trail.Since it was a holiday weekend and we wan...

May 8, 2016 11 miles 3,500 feet gained

Fortunately the weather people were wrong! Started at Hot Springs parking lot and slowly made it to the top. Lots of wild flowers and views. Looped around north of the summit on the North Table trail to the Pct, to descend for some variety. Perfect timing for the phlox.

May 2, 2016 15.2 miles 1,250 feet gained

Beautiful sunny day. Lots of blooms and relatively quiet on the trail. The side creeks are getting pretty low already.

April 26, 2016 3.5 miles 750 feet gained

Just a very short. sweet stroll, catching up with some old friends. The Bitteroot is blooming so profusely and the bicolor lilies and lupines are still going strong

April 24, 2016 15 miles 2,750 feet gained

The weather was the perfect mix for this hike. Alternating misty cloud wisps and light showers over the canyon rocks with brilliant bursts of sun that made everything glow. Although the trailhead was absolutely packed when I arrived, we saw only a few people on the trail. We even knew some of them. Not a great photo day for me, but it was a wonderful first t...

April 18, 2016 8.2 miles 3,000 feet gained

After working all weekend, I needed some time with the forest. My first time up this loop. Recent trail work had cleared the blowdown on the Gorton, so it was an easy if slow cruise up. Larkspur is looking great in the hanging meadows on Nick Eaton. Lots of anemone. The lupines were looking a bit wilted even though they haven't bloomed yet. Did bit more dist...

April 9, 2016 10.7 miles 1,000 feet gained

Since I had a super long work week coming up, I decided to do a second day of hiking. Headed up the Labyrinth trail up towards Atwood and wandered, exploring abandoned 4WD roads, looking at flowers and the visible clouds of tree pollen in the air. Apparently the Camas is full on lower down, but we wanted to avoid the crowds, so we stayed up high.Super beauti...

April 8, 2016 10 miles 1,000 feet gained

Beautiful sunny day at my favorite go to hike. Glacier lilies are a bit wilted, larkspur is awesome, chocolate lilies, blue eyed Mary, mimulus and plectritis are all going strong. Tish creek was easy to cross. A wonderful restorative day.

April 6, 2016 3 miles 500 feet gained

Took two of my dearest friends on a picnic outing to the Columbia Hills area. We strolled and scrambled around Horsethief Butte for a good long while. On the way out we ran into a group of students learning how to do cultural site assessment. Then we drove down to Crawford Oaks and actually used the picnic table, to have a wonderful lunch, with a tablecloth,...

April 3, 2016 8.2 miles 1,250 feet gained

We headed out to join the hordes of flower seekers. To our delight, it was surprisingly uncrowded. We modified the basic loop a bit and added some lower plateau wanderings. Balsam root is spectacular right now. Lupines are blooming but not at peak yet. Phlox were looking good and of course the car is still there is the densest flower meadow of all. Wonderful...

March 30, 2016 6.35 miles 1,500 feet gained

Just a short flu recovery hike. I made a big loop with some side explorations around Tracy hill area. On the east side the grass widows are now few and far between. Some shooting stars, Lupines and Larkspurs getting ready to go. Wonderful day out there.

February 29, 2016 7 miles 1,750 feet gained

Decided to do a hike up to Multnomah Basin and see how it was doing. We just went a bit beyond the toothbrush trail, picked up some garbage and hightailed it back down to our cars. Winter creek is fine to cross right now, and everything is covered in glowing electric green moss.

February 25, 2016 16.5 miles 4,500 feet gained

Glorious day to hike. Wonderful companions and one stellar view after another. Starting at Hamilton mountain TH, we went up to the summit and down to the saddle. Took Don's cutoff trail from the saddle, crossed the creek at the upper bridge and proceeded up to take in Phlox point. Took the westside trail down and then looped back east, crossed the lower brid...

February 15, 2016 14 miles 1,750 feet gained

Perfect waterfall weather and a day with a great hiking buddy. The road up to the Lower Lewis falls in passable but really had major cracks in places with large sunken sections and gaps. That basic post apocalyptic look, so we parked a ways before the Crab Creek trailhead. Right away there were beautiful waterfalls, just by the side of the road. So many ever...

February 9, 2016 5.2 miles 2,000 feet gained

Glorious day! I talked a friend into playing hooky from work and snowshoed up to the Tilly Jane shelter. Tons of views, just a few people and perfect temps. I smelled sulpher from the mountain for the first time ever. The snow was hard packed up to about the burn. From there it was mostly packed. Hood stole the show, but Rainer, Adams and St. Helens were all...

February 7, 2016 10.8 miles 2,500 feet gained

10 of 10 on the Bluebird scale! Started up the west side of the Hardy ridge trail. We hit snow at about 2300'. There wasn't solid cover, but where there was snow it was almost thigh deep in places. a lot of post holing. As we came out onto Hardy ridge proper, there snow was much less, but it seemed to be sticking in the rock fields. A lot of melting snow cov...

February 2, 2016 8.5 miles 1,750 feet gained

This is my go to hike for when I want to just wander with no particular goal in mind. It didn't hurt that there was the chance of more clearing to the east. It was cloudy until noon, then the sun burned away the clouds for a stellar view day. I so needed the open vistas and sunshine! No flowers or even buds up above. But so many beautiful creeklets and seeps...

January 30, 2016 5 miles 1,000 feet gained

Did a quick out and back, up the Winter climb route from the sno-park to just above where Chocolate Falls would be if it was flowing. We had thought to go up a bit further, or try to make a loop over to June Lake. But the word coming from those descending was that it was deteriorating above. And that there was no track on any of the eastward routes and peopl...

January 24, 2016 11.7 miles 2,000 feet gained

At last a little sun and some clouds and just a dash of misty rain. We started at the Wahclella parking lot and took the #400 over to abandoned Tanner creek Rd and down the tanner creek trial. There are now two washouts, on the road section, both easy and tons of down trees, also easy. Water is really flowing and all the seasonal creeks are stunning. Althoug...

January 15, 2016 9 miles 1,500 feet gained

Forecast was mostly dry, so I went out to the gorge. I wanted to add a bit of newness to a route I had done many times. So I started at Multnomah Falls and took the #400 trail over the Oneonta Trail. Big but safe washout on the 400. Lots of new waterfalls in the distance I had never seen and even a stone foundation left over from the days when there were mor...

January 10, 2016 9.2 miles 1,500 feet gained

Some sun, some clouds,and a wonderful day. Took the Dick Thomas Trail over to the Two Chiefs trail up through the amphitheater of Table to the creek crossing of Greenleaf. Microspikes were handy in a few places but not required. The snow was about 6 inches once we hit about 1000 feet, but it is melting fast. Beautiful ice and snow formations. Great views thr...