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December 30, 2015 5 miles 2,500 feet gained
(Dec 31) One last hike this year. We hit snow around 1000 feet elevation. It was packed down and icy. Traction helped. There was about a foot of snow at the summit and bright blue, sunny skies! After the hike, we drove to Lookout State Park on the coast, walked a couple miles on Netarts Spit, and carried on a sort of tradition for us the last few years - to ...
December 26, 2015 10.45 miles 1,750 feet gained
We wanted to do something new to us, so we decided on Clear Lake Butte. We were expecting snowmobile traffic, and there was a lot of it. This is a great little snowshoe, but the exhaust from snowmobiles was overwhelming at times. It is probably better to do this one during the week, or at least, not on a holiday weekend! (We were the only ones snowshoeing to...
December 25, 2015 5.88 miles 2,500 feet gained
This wasn't our first hike on Dog Mountain on Christmas Day! After a week off the ankle, it was time to test it out with the help of a shoe adjustment. Not much snow until the lower viewpoint. Great views, but, clouds were covering all of the mountaintops, except Defiance. We entered the clouds shortly after the viewpoint and we were pleasantly surprised by ...
December 15, 2015 9.9 miles 1,750 feet gained
I had an ankle injury from a previous day's cross country skiing, and just about every step of this hike was painful for me. Still, it was a great time spent in beautiful country.
December 14, 2015 2.93 miles 500 feet gained
A shorter than expected snowshoe... but, it was nice to be out in the freshly fallen snow.
December 6, 2015 7.25 miles 2,250 feet gained
We escaped the rain for a moment, and hiked two loops in the Catherine Creek area.
December 4, 2015 22.5 miles 4,250 feet gained
A fun day hiking in the rain!
November 29, 2015 11.4 miles 1,500 feet gained
It was one of those days where we thought things were just going to go wrong, but, it ended up being a fantastic day! We planned on hiking on the east side of the Gorge, but, once on the freeway, we saw clouds in that direction. By the time we reached Hood River, the clouds were thick. We decided not to do our planned hike. We drove up highway 35 to Mt. Hood...
November 26, 2015 9.92 miles 3,000 feet gained
Thanksgiving Day hike with some friends.
November 25, 2015 12.76 miles 5,000 feet gained
A friend and I hiked this trail shortly after the lower elevation snowfall last week. Once past the Dog Mountain junction, the trail had just a bit of snow for most of the way, with several inches at the higher elevations. We continued past the summit down to the opening with views of St. Helens, Rainier, and Adams. We did not have enough time before sunset ...
November 21, 2015 20 miles 5,250 feet gained
A really great day hiking with some wonderful people. Congratulations to Rhonda and Mark on their first 20 miler and congratulations to Jim on returning to the trail. It was a pleasure to meet all of you. And thanks again, Karl, for inviting us to join the hike!
November 20, 2015 10.86 miles 3,750 feet gained
Part two of a fun day of post-windstorm hiking!
November 20, 2015 6.96 miles 1,750 feet gained
A fun day visiting the gorge after the recent wind storm.
November 15, 2015 7.5 miles 2,000 feet gained
A quick hike in the rain. Hardy Creek was raging. We did not have any views, but, the clouds always add a unique element to a familiar trail. We saw about six other groups on the trail, who also appeared to be enjoying the day!
November 13, 2015 5.33 miles 1,500 feet gained
I wasn't feeling that great, so we went to see Tanner Creek and Wahclella Falls. We had not been on that trail in a very long time. The creek was full of water, and water was falling everywhere from the canyon walls. Quite a sight. It's pretty amazing what we have here in the Gorge! To our surprise, we saw only one other person. After finishing up, we went o...
November 10, 2015 9.53 miles 2,000 feet gained
November 8, 2015 14.38 miles 4,000 feet gained
A very rainy and cold hike from Multnomah Falls to Larch Mountain. No views at Sherrard Point, but Multnomah Creek was full of water again and the forest was foggy and lovely as ever.
November 6, 2015 13.51 miles 3,000 feet gained
This was a late decision to hike up to McNeil Point before the snow starts to add up. We wanted something a little different, so we hiked the PCT from Lolo Pass instead of going up to Top Spur. This added 5 miles round trip and ate up a bit of time, but, it was a very pleasant forest hike, with a section that had a view of Mt. Hood. Once we were on the Timbe...
November 4, 2015 6.87 miles 1,750 feet gained
It had been a while since I hiked the loop. A beautiful sunny fall day with lots of maple leaf color.
November 3, 2015 9.99 miles 1,500 feet gained
A day with waterfalls, fog, fall color, a little rain, and eventually, some sun. After taking the rim trail from Upper North Falls, I decided to go back into the canyon instead of continuing on the rim trail next to the road. I'm glad I made that decision, because as I approached South Falls, misty fog was forming around the falls just as the sun was nearing...
October 31, 2015 7.08 miles 2,250 feet gained
We were not intending to hike this day, but, a friend called, saying she needed to get out. So, we headed over to Wildwood and the Boulder Ridge Trail, intending to reach Huckleberry Mountain. The trail was cleared of all of the huge downed trees that we came across last winter. However, once we got about 3.5 miles in, and crested the ridge, the winds picked...
October 29, 2015 7.3 miles 2,000 feet gained
It rained the whole time, we were soaked, we saw no views, but, it was a great time in the forest, catching up with a friend!
October 24, 2015 11.51 miles 3,000 feet gained
We really wanted to visit a higher elevation before snow starts falling. We decided on Gnarl Ridge and got a pretty late start - around 11:00 am. We stopped at the meadow briefly, then reached the Timberline trail and Gnarl Ridge. We just saw a couple other people, who were on their way out. We continued up the ridge and a bit further - to about 7000 ft elev...
October 23, 2015 10.32 miles 2,500 feet gained
A great day enjoying Mt. Hood views on a trail we hadn't visited for a couple of years. On the way out, we ran into Karl and Harleigh! So awesome!
October 16, 2015 10.35 miles 3,750 feet gained
We started at the Bridge Creek trailhead, got on the PCT and immediately ran into a through hiker who needed to finish up in two days so he could catch his plane back home. Hopefully, it worked out for him! After a few different junctions, we reached the spur trail to the former lookout, which is no longer maintained. The brush (including the devil's club) h...
October 15, 2015 9.82 miles 3,000 feet gained
The trailhead had about 20 cars parked there when we arrived around noon on a Thursday. We suspected everyone was at Lake Ingalls. We opted for the quieter hike to Lake Ann and we had the whole trail to ourselves. Around Lake Ann, a few larch trees were still golden, but most had lost their needles.
October 13, 2015 5.82 miles 500 feet gained
I was pleasantly surprised by this trail. I hiked up and down river from the hatchery. Most of the leaves were turning brown and falling off, but still some color out there. On the drive out, I noticed that the western larches around Camp Sherman were turning golden. There were quite a few of them in that area, especially near the Lake Creek Trail. If I had ...
October 12, 2015 4.82 miles 500 feet gained
I hoped to see fall colors at the lake, and probably missed the best of it by a couple weeks. But, a good deal of color was still out and the lake was lovely, as usual.
October 9, 2015 10.88 miles 3,000 feet gained
We planned on hiking up to Larch Mountain from Multnomah Falls. But, we reached the area where the Larch Mountain trail breaks into the scree and it was raining, so we decided to just head over to Multnomah Basin instead. We got on the Franklin Ridge trail and then cut over on the path that goes to the Nesika Lodge area. We also detoured on to the ornament t...
October 4, 2015 16.38 miles 4,000 feet gained
We really enjoyed this hike. The first 5 miles is along or near the Sol Duc River in beautiful forest. We saw a lot of backpackers coming out from camping along the High Divide loop, which is also a great hike (we day hiked it a few years ago). At 5 miles, we reached the Appleton Pass trail junction, and once on that trail, we only saw one other set of hiker...
October 3, 2015 8.68 miles 3,000 feet gained
October 2, 2015 6.91 miles 0 feet gained
October 2, 2015 4.03 miles 500 feet gained
Cloudy day hike. The first part is a trail made of an old road. It was a pleasant forest walk, but, the trail was high above the river. We were hoping the trail would be closer to it. After two miles, we still had not neared the river, and glanced at the map. It looked like it would eventually meet the river at some point, and then move away from it again. M...
September 27, 2015 13.68 miles 3,500 feet gained
For some time, I had wanted to go to the lake beyond Stuart. The way there is not on an officially maintained trail. The last .8 of a mile gains about 1100 feet. Fun! There were only a couple of people at the lake, who soon departed. We enjoyed craggy mountain views and golden needles!
September 26, 2015 12.15 miles 5,500 feet gained
The Wolverine fire impacted my plans to check out some hikes with larch trees at the end of Entiat River Road. With that area closed and maybe even burned, we decided to try out some hikes in the eastern part of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. We decided to climb up the Chatter Creek trail and go over the ridge on the Icicle Ridge trail to Lake Edna. Once we ga...
September 7, 2015 17.59 miles 3,500 feet gained
We parked at Dee Wright and took the PCT to the Matthieu Lakes trail, eventually getting back on the PCT to go out to Opie Dilldock Pass. We stopped at Yapoah Crater and hiked to the top along the way. We had not intended on hiking to the top of Collier Cone, but we went up a bit to see a better view of North Sister and kept climbing the ridge, so we just co...
September 6, 2015 10.66 miles 500 feet gained
The Cascades were socked in and rainy, so we headed over to the Badlands Wilderness to enjoy complete quiet and an empty trail, despite seeing cars at the first trailhead and horse trailers at the trailhead where we parked. This hike was a great variation from mountain hiking. We enjoyed spending the day with twisted old juniper trees, sagebrush, and lizards...
September 3, 2015 8.23 miles 1,250 feet gained
September 1, 2015 10.24 miles 2,250 feet gained
Quick hike while in Tahoe to Upper Velma Lake. It was a weekday, so the trail was not crowded. I bet it is very busy in the height of summer here. Poor planning on my part by not junctioning with the PCT and doing the loop through Fontanillis Lake.
August 19, 2015 13.19 miles 2,500 feet gained
With limited access to the internet, we were having a difficult time in deciding where to hike to avoid smoky conditions. We ultimately decided to hike up to North Lake from the Gilbert TH at the end of Twisp River Road. We were the only ones at the TH around 11:00 am. It was really hot and windy out. I had a bad feeling about this day, and a number of times...
August 18, 2015 12.63 miles 4,250 feet gained
In an effort to hike some areas without smoke, we decided to drive up to the east side of the North Cascades. This decision ended up not being a very good one. But, on this day, we had a nice hike. We hiked up to Heather Pass and continued on the boot path from there in the direction of Lewis and Wing Lakes. There is no official trail to the lakes, but there...
August 16, 2015 19.82 miles 5,500 feet gained
We got a shuttle from the Snow Lakes TH to Stuart Lake TH and set out at 7:00 am. We got to Colchuck Lake before 9:00 am and after a break, we started to climb Aasgard Pass by 9:30 am. As we climbed, it became apparent that the smoke from the nearby fires would be impeding views at the top of the pass. We hoped the lakes basin would not be smoky, but, it was...
August 15, 2015 9.07 miles 3,000 feet gained
This was the first hike on our hiking vacation week. You have to cross the bridge-less Chiwawa River in the beginning of the hike. On the way in, we followed the maze of downed logs until we reached the other side. On the way back, we just removed our shoes and walked across. There were a ton of very tiny baby frogs. So cute. Schaefer Lake was quite beautifu...
August 9, 2015 12.04 miles 1,500 feet gained
We started at the Thomas Lake TH and intended on getting to Lemei Rock, but we were majorly sidetracked by ripe huckleberries!
August 2, 2015 14.11 miles 3,500 feet gained
A quick hike up to Cispus Pass. The weather was not great, but Curtis Gilbert, the Goat Rocks massif, and Ives Peak were visible. Great scenery- we wished that we had better weather so that we could spend more time there and go down into the basin. The many huckleberries bushes along the lower reaches of the trail and along Nannie Ridge were pretty much devo...
August 1, 2015 15.77 miles 4,750 feet gained
We hiked the Wonderland trail from Box Canyon to Indian Bar. The flowers were all gone and the meadows were getting pretty dry. It was a beautiful hike, but, it would be really nice to hike it when the wildflowers were at peak. It was a very hot day, and the trail has some elevation gain and up and down moments, including a 500 foot drop into Indian Bar. We ...
July 26, 2015 4.66 miles 500 feet gained
The Wallowa Mountains were socked in with low clouds, so we headed east and found sunshine along the S. Fork Imnaha River. It was a bit of a drive from Joseph, so we only had time for a short hike. The trail goes through an old burn area and it is brushy. The trail is some distance away from the river and you need to cut down a side trail to see the Blue Hol...
July 25, 2015 11.01 miles 2,500 feet gained
We hiked to Laverty and Chimney Lakes from the Bowman Trailhead. We did not get an early start due to our hiking activities from the prior day. Our intent was to go further along the trail to Hobo Lake, but dark clouds moved in. The ridge up to Hobo Lake did not have tree cover and Hobo Lake itself is pretty exposed, so we decided not to risk getting caught ...
