RenegadePilgrim

November 3, 2013 10.5 miles 3,250 feet gained

With a 70% chance of rain today I will be honest. I was not looking forward to this hike! It all ended up working out great in the end, with only about 2 miles of rain. We arrived at the Wahclella Falls TH around 8:45a, and returned around 2p. The first two miles to the Tanner Butte TH were a combination of trail and old logging road, and went rather quickly...

October 28, 2013 6.5 miles 2,250 feet gained

Went out for a nice hike with no one else on the trail today with a few friends. The wind was a little annoying, otherwise clear skies, a bit of sun and all around great time exploring places new to us. The lookout is amazing and I would love to go back and spend a night there next Spring or Summer. We also went to Rooster Rock (had no idea where the trail w...

October 19, 2013 5 miles 1,500 feet gained

Quick day hike to Angel's Rest. I hadn't been up here in a few years so it was nice to revisit it. The weather was perfect and it wasn't windy either.

October 5 to October 6, 2013 6 miles 1,500 feet gained 1 night

Our original plan was to hike to Dollar Lake to set up camp for two nights, with day hikes to Barrett Spur and Elk Cove. We started at the Vista Ridge Trailhead. About 200 yards up the trail, the snow started and averaged around 2ft deep in most places. We did encounter a few people (including a hunter in camo no one noticed until they walked by him!) and th...

September 21 to September 25, 2013 23.5 miles 2,500 feet gained 4 nights

I've been sitting on this trail report for a while. It's taken me a couple of weeks to process the entire experience so I am going to try to share what I can at the risk of putting myself out there for criticism and being labeled a "wimp" by some. So, here goes. I have wanted to do the Wonderland Trail for the past two years and found a hiking partner from o...

August 24 to August 27, 2013 41 miles 8,000 feet gained 3 nights

Day 1: Timberline Lodge to Ramona Falls We got a little bit later start than we planned but still made good time. We were on the PCT all day and came across 8 thru-hikers, including 2 SOBO and 6 NOBO. One of the first we met was Hiker Box Special and we chatted a bit with him. The rest weren't too chatty and in a hurry to get their miles in. The trail descen...

August 17, 2013 12 miles 2,000 feet gained

Start Time: 11:30a Finish Time: 3:30p After spending 5 days/4 nights in the backcountry on the Bowman-Kintla Horseshoe, we had an extra day to kill at GNP, so we decided to give the Highline Trail a go. GNP has started offering a free park shuttle, which I highly recommend. We were able to park our car at Apgar, take it to Logan Pass, start the hike, then pi...

August 12 to August 17, 2013 40 miles 3,750 feet gained 5 nights

This was a 4 night, 5 day backpack trip in the backcountry, followed by 1 night in the frontcountry at Kintla Lake CG. Our Itinerary was as follows (using the backcountry campground codes from GNP): BOW to BRO BRO to HOL (must do side trip!) to BOU BOU to UPK UPK to Kintla Lake CG While lots of things happened along the way, here are the daily recaps: Day 1:...

July 26 to July 29, 2013 20 miles 3,750 feet gained 3 nights

I decided to post a trip on my Meetup group to do Serene Lake but from a different approach because I was too lazy to drive all the way to the Shellrock TH or the Frazier Turnaround TH. Besides, I had already done that trail and wanted something different. We started at 9a from the Roaring River Campground where the trailhead for the Dry Ridge Trail (#518) s...

July 21, 2013 8 miles 3,500 feet gained

We set out around 9:15a, returned at 4p. We started at the Aldrich Butte TH (I use the term trailhead loosely!) and had a great hike up and up and up! The boulder field was easily navigated and we enjoyed the challenge for sure. It was a clear day with lots of blue skies and mountain views at the top. We saw Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson (just poking out in the di...

June 26 to July 2, 2013 22.5 miles 1,500 feet gained 6 nights

1) Lots of blowdown from about Mile 4 to at least Twelve Mile 2) We saw a bear at Wolf Bar! 3) Lots of mosquitos and the creek crossings were a wee bit of a challenge.

May 26 to May 27, 2013 13 miles 1,000 feet gained 1 night

My Meetup Group set out Sunday morning with 8 humans and 2 dogs on a leisurely overnight backpack along the Salmon River. Our plan was to head to Goat Creek and hope the campsite was not taken. We were counting on the fact the weather was looking poorly and the fair weather adventurers would be staying home. Our evil plan worked! We made it to Goat Creek aro...

May 20, 2013 2.6 miles 750 feet gained

I am spending time this summer for one week as an adult mentor for Big City Mountaineers (BCM). This organization takes kids into the woods who normally wouldn't have the opportunity to learn about the outdoors. One of the prep hikes was on May 20th with a short hike to Horsetail Falls. It was a chance to meet the kids for the first time and introduce them s...

May 18, 2013 5.5 miles 1,750 feet gained

I joined a few friends of mine for a quick hike of Saddle Mountain. I've never been up here before so I was looking forward to the view at the top. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. We made it through the forest, with sporadic rain showers, then started the jaunt up the saddle area where the wind picked up and the low cloud cover made it impossib...

May 12 to May 13, 2013 7 miles 2,500 feet gained 1 night

I got up to the Sno Park late...about 9p because I missed the turnoff for it. I didn't feel like pitching a tent or even sleeping in the bed of my truck so I got all of my gear set up and ready to go for an early morning start. It was remarkably warm up there and I found myself way too warm in my sleeping bag in the cab of my truck. I got a solid 6 hours or ...

May 5, 2013 5 miles 2,500 feet gained

I had originally set out to do the Kings Mt./Elk Mt. Loop of 11 miles. However, after hiking 9 miles the day before on 3 hours of sleep, my body rebelled big time! I made the decision half-way up Kings Mt. that I was just going to the summit and back. It made more sense than doing something unsafe, like hiking while exhausted. That's just a recipe for disast...

May 4, 2013 9 miles 1,750 feet gained

Five hikers, three dogs. I worked the night before and was operating on three hours of sleep. Not the best way to do a hike, but I think the two energy drinks I had kept me going all day because I seemed to be functioning rather well in the morning. We started out at the Oswald West S.P. parking lot, wandering through the forest to the Short Sand Beach to ad...

April 20 to April 22, 2013 6.5 miles 0 feet gained 2 nights

This was a car camping trip, but nonetheless, it was a ton of fun and we went to all three units at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Day 1: Drive Portland to Mitchell, then to Barnhouse Campground about 20 miles east of Mitchell. On the way to the campground, we saw two elk off in the forest. That was pretty cool! We spent the night at this awesom...

April 13, 2013 8.5 miles 1,750 feet gained

One of my friends is recovering from a knee injury and wanted to still get an easy hike in, so seven humans and three dogs set out today for a wee little adventure in the Gorge. We wandered up the Multnomah Falls trail and continued along, finding the Christmas Ornament trail unexpectedly and hanging out for lunch under cover of one of the porches at Nesika ...

April 8 to April 9, 2013 16 miles 2,000 feet gained 1 night

I have been wanting to do this trail for a long time. My original hope was to do a thru-hike with car shuttle but I was only able to get one friend to go with me, so we picked the Jones Creek to Elk Creek section with the intention to do an in-n-out backpack, camping at the Elk Creek Campground for the night. We hit the trail around 9:30a and knocked out the...

March 24 to March 25, 2013 17 miles 2,500 feet gained 1 night

This was an insane two days of snowshoeing around Trillium Lake and an attempt to get to Veda Lake. We snowshoed from the sno-park at Govy to Trillium Lake, then snowshoed around the lake. The next day, we attempted to get to Veda Lake, but were unsuccessful in following the trail. The skies were blue and the free of clouds. We couldn't have asked for better...

February 24 to February 25, 2013 3.5 miles 500 feet gained 1 night

After spending a night up here just before Christmas, I thought it would be fun to go back with some friends. We picked a Sunday night to avoid crowds and lots of snowmobilers since the trail we took was a snowmobile trail. It's about 1.7 miles along this beautiful groomed trail to the campground. I used my brand new snow pulk and my friends made makeshift p...

February 4 to February 5, 2013 6 miles 1,500 feet gained 1 night

I've been itching to get out for a while so I decided to head up to the mountain for a solo backpack trip. I've only done one before with my sister's dog and this would be my first completely by myself. I stopped at the Zig Zag Ranger Station and decided on Twin Lakes since it's a winter trail with appropriate markers (blue diamonds) so my chances of getting...

January 1, 2013 2 miles 1,250 feet gained

My Meetup group thought we would ring in the new year right with a hike to Palmer Glacier for the sunrise. While I didn't make it all the way to the top of Palmer, I did make it past Silcox Hut for my first hike in this area. We started at 6:10a and arrived at Silcox an hour later. I continued past the hut for a bit before my cold fingers got the best of me ...