Jen
Email updates
Subscribe to Jen's hikes
Hikes by Jen in 2013
4.5 miles / 500 feet gained
Brought a friend and the kids to this amazing wonderland. The area is huge, the views dramatic, and the whole place is covered with thick soft bright green moss. We counted at least 6 vision quest pits.
4 miles / 250 feet gained
Out for a romp with the dog we are babysitting. Might have been her first real hike. She was a boundless bundle of joy.
6 miles / 250 feet gained
The main parking lot is closed, so I approached via the Springwater Trail from the east. Only saw one other person in the park on a Sunday!
10 miles / 2,250 feet gained
Bushwacked up for a long ridgewalk on Franklin Ridge from low down on the Oneonta trail. Fun scrambles.
6.5 miles / 1,500 feet gained
Wandering around in the woods in my favorite area on a snowy day. Explored a few side trails that I hadn't ventured on before. Was disturbed to see someone has marked the trees with paint. Does not look like logging plans, just someone making ugly orange trail markers on trees where the trail is quite obvious (it's mostly old roads out here!).
6.5 miles / 1,750 feet gained
Hiked up the south side from 4890 via the Bonney Meadows Trail 471. Hit snow after half a mile. Signs of snow machines around, but it was quiet on my hike.
4 miles / 500 feet gained
5 miles / 500 feet gained
More wanderings in the woods on a sunny day.
5 miles / 750 feet gained
I took the old road down from the Women's Forum to Rooster Rock SP via the RR tracks. Had one bushwack detour. Good times rambling in the woods.
9.5 miles / 2,750 feet gained
I was on vacation with my family in Spain, and was granted a day to go off on a hike. I chose El Trevenque ,located in Sierra Nevada National Park, just south of the Andalusian city of Granada.
7.5 miles / 2,000 feet gained
Got a sunburn today, and saw a phlox blooming on Phlox Point. It's October!
7 miles / 1,500 feet gained
No school on my hiking day, so my friend and I brought the kids along. You can still drive to Wahtum Lake, and no snow on any of the summits around here except Hood. We did a nice loop around Wahtum Lake using several of sometimes confusing network of trails. Nice and quiet. Views limited, but fall colors and mushrooms made up for it and helped keep kids eng...
6 miles / 2,000 feet gained
Little Huckleberry is a nice little leg stretcher hike to a former LO site that gives big views of the area. I started early on a frosty morning of this bluebird fall day. Hiking alone without a dog gives you a much better chance for wildlife encounters and today I saw three elk and two young buck deer near the summit. Grouse in the forest and a rather frien...
5 miles / 1,000 feet gained
Wet wanderings trying to find parts of an abandoned trail the Trail Advocates are starting to reopen. Should eventually lead all the way down to the Wash Creek/Fish Creek drainage.
7 miles / 2,250 feet gained
Out on a quick hike/mushroom hunt with friends. The woods have already dried out from last week's rain, but we did find enough fungi for each of us to make a nice meal.
11 miles / 3,750 feet gained
This was a super dayhike. We scrambled up the eastern ridge of the mountain and had 2 miles of "Sound of Music" ridgetop rambling. Epic vistas in all directions, but mighty Tahoma took up most of the forward viewfield. We dropped down through steep hanging meadows to the Frying Pan Valley, rock hopped across the silty creek and entered Summerland. Joined the...
5 miles / 500 feet gained
Wandering around on old logging roads, looking for the first mushrooms of the season. Success!
14 miles / 3,000 feet gained / 1 night
Nice overnighter loop using the eerie half burnt Elk Cove and Pinnacle Ridge Trails. We connected the two THs using a bushwack instead of walking the road(per recent report by Adam Schnieder). The Timberline Trail was pretty busy this weekend, we were glad we arrived in the afternoon to claim a nice roomy campsite at the Elk Cove/Tline junction. Flowers stil...
6.5 miles / 750 feet gained
Took the Taconic Crest Trail to the Snow Hole. The snow hole is really just a deep crack in the ground, supposed to have snow in it year round, but global warming has changed that and locals say it is a rare year that the snow persists.
16 miles / 3,750 feet gained / 2 nights
Spent two nights in alpine wonderland on the NW flank of Mt Adams below the Adams Glacier. Marmots, goats and awesome wildflowers. Amazing sunsets and a frightening thunderstorm at dusk.
17 miles / 5,500 feet gained / 2 nights
Big Adventure on the east side of Mt Adams. A friend and I attempted to hike the Ridge of Wonders from Bench Lake to Sunrise Camp. It was extremely hot on our fist day. My friend's pack was too heavy. We ran out of water on the dry ridge. We began to get thirsty looking at all the waterfalls shooting over Hellroaring Canyon (there were a few snowfields left ...
5.5 miles / 1,750 feet gained
Had plans to bring the kids over to Mississippi Head, but it was just a little too much for them. We had fun wandering around above Timberline, and glissading some of the remaining snowfields.
4 miles / 750 feet gained
Canyoneering with kids, what a hoot! Pools, grottos, waterfalls and a beautiful forest.
10 miles / 0 feet gained / 2 nights
Fun times camping on the beach. Gorgeous sunsets and amazing stars at night. Sand in every crevice of our bodies, Kids had a blast. Sand broke my camera, hope I can repair it and recover those photos!
6 miles / 1,000 feet gained / 1 night
I was up here for a geocaching/stargazing event. Took an afternoon stroll/scramble around the southern ridgetops of the mountain.
16.5 miles / 3,500 feet gained / 1 night
My first time visiting this beautiful area. In the morning I hiked Olallie Butte. What a fantastic summit with great rock formations and bits of an old lookout. In the afternoon, I drove over to Olallie Lake and took the Red Lake Trail and the Top Lake Trail to the PCT and camped at Upper Lake. Had a nice evening hike south on the PCT to Ruddy Hill. Mosquito...
4 miles / 250 feet gained
Evening jaunt with my husband. Surprisingly quiet on the trails this evening. We saw an owl! It swooped right over us and watched us from a nearby branch rather annoyed. It might've been a barred owl, but it did not vocalize.
7 miles / 5,250 feet gained
Went with a small Mazama group, and got to the summit today. Started earlier,got up there very fast, ahead of the hordes. Snow much firmer this week for ascent, but too icy to glissade down from Hogsback, then turned to mashed potatoes below Palmer on the return. Very busy today. I ran into a friend on the summit! I forgot to put my camera battery in, so onl...
4 miles / 750 feet gained
I brought my son and a friend up to do this hike on a lovely day. We took the Old Baldy trail. Still some snow patches, but navigation is not a problem. On the way up, we met Dennis, creator of the NWhiker website, http://www.nwhiker.com/. He is adding this trip to his huge library of virtual hikes.
6 miles / 4,500 feet gained
New moon and a very dark and quiet morning on the mountain. Clear until about 7am but windy. Feeling strong at the Hogsback, but I was alone and a little scared by the looks of the traverse to the Old Chute. One rope team crossed it, but two other groups turned back here. I decided that was enough for me. I'll have to summit another day( or year).
11.5 miles / 2,000 feet gained
Wandered around up in the Clackamas Foothills visiting Miner's Butte, Round Mountain and Soosap peak. Stumbled across some old abandoned trails and artifacts. Fun times on a gorgeous day.
10.5 miles / 3,000 feet gained / 1 night
Our mission was to find some morels on a quick overnighter. We chose Romann's trip described in the PH Field Guide, but in the reverse direction, starting at the Little Badger TH. We hiked up the Little Badger Trail, and set up camp near Helispot 122 which has a spring nearby. We then went cross country, ambling up the nearby ridge looking for morels. I thin...
12 miles / 5,000 feet gained
Pleasant day and solitude on this loop up Starvation Ridge. Most of the snow is gone except for a few drifts on the north side above 4000 ft. Views were limited, but the wildflowers were delightful.
5 miles / 5,500 feet gained
Well I'll just count the uphill part because it was sort of like hiking. We rented AT skis and skinned up to about 6000 feet. Then we climbed the rest of the way up to the summit. Glissaded back down to our skis and zoomed out. What a hoot!
9.5 miles / 3,750 feet gained
Brought a friend along to show her this classic hike. Beautiful day- not much snow left on Benson Plateau.
8 miles / 2,250 feet gained
What a florgasm today in the Columbia Hills SP. I started on highway 14, where they are building a new trailhead, and hiked up to the parasailing butte on the ridge east of Stacker Butte. Met a fellow from Backcountry Horsemen who has been working on getting this trail system approved for many years. He says there will be 8 miles of trail in the area. I saw ...
3 miles / 1,000 feet gained
3 miles in 3 hours, looking for an old cabin. Lots of elk trails petering in and out, but the middle hour was all bushwack. So close to the human world, but it feels so remote in there- and not a single shred of stupid flagging!!!
7 miles / 1,750 feet gained
Brought some friends along to my favorite go-to rainy day hike.
13.5 miles / 2,000 feet gained / 2 nights
Perfect weather for a canyon backpack. We got in there the back way before the Alder Springs TH opened for the season. Followed deer trails and marveled in the geology and magnificent desert scenery. Did not see another human.
5 miles / 750 feet gained
I had higher elevation plans today up the Clackamas, but there was fresh snow on all the access roads. It got too sketchy for the mommymobile at 2600 ft so I turned around and decided to go visit this old lookout site up the N Fork Road. A lovely few hours of wandering in the quiet woods. I found and reported an illegal hunters tree stand.
8.5 miles / 3,250 feet gained
Gorgeous day for a hike up Table. Snow starts just after the Heartbreak Ridge viewpoint area next to the Two Chiefs. The snow actually makes it easier to climb the boulder field. Fresh thick stuff from this week and very few tracks up top.
5 miles / 750 feet gained
I've always avoided this place because of all the RVs and tourists at the visitor center. It's closed for the winter, but you can park here and walk around the interpretive trail and hike up to the butte. I had it all to myself today, really enjoyed the walk over the lava bed and the visit to the breach where the lava blew out the side of the volcano. WOW it...
4 miles / 1,000 feet gained
In Sunriver for the weekend with my family. They indulged me with a little hike up this little butte which is a former LO tower location. We just parked along Century Drive and went cross country heading up the hill . Just as the manzanita was getting thick and annoying, we stumbled onto a trail. Easily avoidable patches of snow the whole way up with some pe...
16 miles / 3,750 feet gained
Spent three days of redrock fun in the park with my son, sister in law and her son. The two boys ages 10 and 12 had a blast. We went on 7 trips, including a guided slot canyoneering adventure. Loved the slickrock, planning our next trip back to the area. 1. Emerald Pools Loop : 3.5 miles, 350 ft. 2. Shelf Canyon-a short dry slot canyon- what a hoot! 1 mile 1...
