RenegadePilgrim

December 22 to December 23, 2012 7.5 miles 0 feet gained 1 night

We set out from the Skyline Sno Park with four of us, two towing pulks with much of our gear. Our fearless leader had the GPS coordinates for the Clear Lake Campground and we set off in the general direction of Clear Lake, staying mostly on the snowmobile tracks before finally cutting into the woods and making a bee-line for the lake. We got to the campgroun...

October 9 to October 19, 2012 130 miles 500 feet gained 10 nights

I spent 11 days walking along the Camino Portuguese, spending the first 4 days on the Orla Litoral/Caminho do Costa route before taking a train inland to rejoin the Central route. I walked a total of 209.1 km (best guess) or 130 miles. Here is my itinerary: Day 1: Matosinhos to Azurara, 22km Day 2: Azurara to Fao, 21.5km Day 3: Fao to Viana do Castelo, 27.5k...

July 18 to July 19, 2012 7 miles 2,750 feet gained 1 night

A friend of mine asked me to join her on this hike and I jumped at the chance to get up on the East side of Mt. Hood for a hike. I've heard this one was a lot of fun and we were not disappointed! We headed out on Wednesday and parked our vehicles by the Cloud Cap Inn, where I hear the Crag Rats use it as a SAR base during SAR operations. The parking lot has ...

July 2 to July 8, 2012 25.5 miles 4,000 feet gained 6 nights

This was actually a trip I took as a volunteer adult mentor with Big City Mountaineers. Five adults, five teens. All women. For the teens, many of them had never been hiking, much less backpacking, before. We camped our first night at the Staircase Campground, then spent 4 nights in the backcountry (2 @ Big Log, 2 @ Nine Streams) and one more night at Miller...

May 25 to May 27, 2012 27 miles 4,000 feet gained 2 nights

Originally, the plan was to go on the Eagle Creek Trail to 7 1/2 mile Camp for the first night, Wahtum Lake for the second night and Hunters Camp for the third night...basically Eagle Creek Trail to Wahtum Lake to PCT to Ruckel Creek Trail....all was going well, but I am getting ahead of myself! So, we headed up to Eagle Creek on Friday and hit the trail aro...

May 8 to May 13, 2012 47 miles 500 feet gained 5 nights

This was a 5 night/6 day backpack trip, starting at Bamfield/Pachena Bay in the north and heading south to Gordon River/Port Renfrew. Day 1: Pachena Bay to Darling River, 14km We arrived to the Pachena Bay Trailhead around Noon via the West Coast Trail Bus. We checked in with the ranger, having done our orientation the night before in Port Renfrew. This sect...

April 25, 2012 8.5 miles 1,750 feet gained

I think our actual mileage was a little longer than this, but I'm going to go with what portlandhikers has listed. I haven't spent a lot of time on the Washington side of the Gorge, but this trail is definitely one I want to go back and explore more. There are lots of options for hiking from the Catherine Creek trailhead and we had a great day of no rain to ...

April 21, 2012 8.5 miles 2,750 feet gained

What started out as a foggy morning in Portland, turned into a beautiful sunny day in the Gorge. We did the entire 8.4 mile loop (the portlandhikers link lists a different mileage than the book I used), which in retrospect, I would just go to Indian Point and go back the same way. Doing the loop is an insane elevation drop along Nick Eaton Ridge that made me...

April 15, 2012 15 miles 1,750 feet gained

This was my fourth and final attempt to get to Tunnel Falls on Eagle Creek. I've had all kinds of challenges, the most recent being a few feet of snow in January on the trail! We made good time, leaving the trailhead around 9a and getting to 7 1/2 Mile Camp around 12p, where we stopped for a nice lunch break before heading back, passing Twister Falls, Tunnel...

March 31, 2012 8.5 miles 1,000 feet gained

Originally we started out just wanting to do the trail to Pittock Mansion. I did it a two years ago when training for the Camino de Santiago and thought it would be a nice hike to do after the Next Adventure Warehouse Sale. We got up to Pittock Mansion and felt like we could walk some more, so we went down to the Japanese Gardens, stopped for lunch and then ...

March 17, 2012 8 miles 1,000 feet gained

I'm a little bit behind on this trip report. I was on vacation in Maui and planned to do a few hikes while I was there. We woke up at 3a to drive from Makena to Haleakala NP to watch the sunrise. It was fabulous, but very much overcrowded with unprepared tourists who didn't get the memo that the top of the park is at 10K and the wind gusts up to 50mph. It wa...

March 4, 2012 5 miles 1,500 feet gained

We started at the Wahkeena Falls Trailhead and made our way up the trail past the paved part. It was a beautiful day, with some fog in the lower elevations, but once we got up a little higher, you could see clear, blue sky! There was also some snow along the ridge before you get to the Larch Mountain Trail. The temperatures also dropped a wee bit up there, b...

February 17 to February 19, 2012 12 miles 0 feet gained 2 nights

I originally set out to start at the Swiftwater Trailhead and see how far I could get over two nights/three days. I checked in a the BLM office in Roseburg to check on trail conditions and the super helpful staff there told me that there was a 90% chance of rain and the snow level was going to drop to 1000' over the weekend. While I was prepared for those ki...

January 21, 2012 3.5 miles 1,000 feet gained

We started the day with the intention of hiking Eagle Creek trail to Tunnel Falls. We arrived at the trail head around 8:00a and found about a foot of snow around the area. We were the only cars at the parking lot. Nothing too difficult to navigate and since I had just bought some Kahtoola micro spikes, I felt comfortable hiking the trail in them. My hiking ...