Today’s hike was another attempt to find the old location of the Eagle Creek Lookout. It was a lookout that was not in operation for too long, about 20 years or so and has been gone for over 60 years
… Read the rest 3/6/2021-Douglas Trail
Today’s hike was to explore a portion of trail I’ve not been on before. It was to explore the west end of the Douglas trail. Last year, Kirk and I did a bit off an adventure to head up to
… Read the rest 3/2/2021 – Eagle Creek
I was supposed to help my father in law with cleanup from the recent ice storms, but that fell thru. I had already arranged for the day off and the weather was beautiful, so I decided to do a hike.
… Read the rest 1/23/2021 – Devils Peak Lookout
Today’s trip we had talked about for a while. Originally we were thinking about doing this as the 1/1 trip, however the weather that day was terrible, so we changed plans. I’m glad we did, because today was just about
… Read the rest 12/23/2020 – White Iris Trail
With most of the Clackamas district still closed due to after effects from the Riverside and Lionshead fire, options are extremely limited. The weather was supposed to be nice today and so I decided to head up the lower portion
… Read the rest 12/5/2020 – Bissell and Old Baldy Trails
Today’s hike was planned to be one of the few trails we have access to due to the Riverside fire. Originally we were going to do the White Iris trail, but we decided to head up the old abandoned Bissell
… Read the rest 11/28/2020 – Wildcat Mountain
Today’s hike was an idea that Kirk had. Since pretty much the entire Clackamas district is inaccessible due to the Riverside fire, he had the idea to head up to Wildcat Mountain. Initially, the idea was to go from the
… Read the rest 11/21/2020 – Fanton to Old Baldy to Squaw Mountain
Today’s hike was intended to be short (however it ended up shorter than I expected). The weather was supposed to be beautiful, and I hadn’t been out in a couple weeks, so I knew I had to go out this
… Read the rest 11/7/2020 – Shellrock Lake to Cache Meadow to Cripple Creek Trails
The goal for today’s hike was to get down to the Cripple creek trail to see how it fared in the recent Riverside fire. I knew it was going to be a tough day and I knew it was going
… Read the rest 10/3/2020 – Eagle Creek (Clackamas) – 501
Today’s hike was very interesting, and VERY different than what was originally planned. Originally, we had planned to do a little “civil disobedience” and technically violate the forest closure order. We were hoping we could get up to the White
… Read the rest 9/27/2020 – Mosier Creek – BLM Land
Since the Riverside fire has completely closed the Clackamas district for the foreseeable future, I was looking for other “off the beaten path” hikes that I might be able to do. This area on Ridge Road – a parcel of
… Read the rest 8/19/2020-Bull of the Woods Trail – 550
Today’s hike was my birthday hike. I have the week off and today was my birthday, so I decided to take a hike (no pun intended). I decided to hike the Bull of the Woods trail up to the lookout
… Read the rest 6/20/2020 – White Iris Trail
Today’s hike was a quick run up to the White Iris trail. Carly had come down for Father’s Day and we had until early afternoon so we did a quick hike to see if the white iris were in full
… Read the rest 6/13/2020 – Rho Creek Trail – 569
Today’s hike was to revisit a trail I haven’t been on for over 6 years. Kirk and I hiked this trail on New Years day of 2014 (a winter with way below normal snowfall). When we were coming back down
… Read the rest 3/15/2020 – Cripple Creek Trail
Today’s hike was kind of unique. Normally I would be going to church on Sunday, but due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) our church services have been cancelled for the next two weeks. Since I can’t go to church, I thought
… Read the rest 3/7/2020 – MP3 Trail to Rimrock
Today’s hike was literally just to get the dogs out of the house for a while to burn off some energy. We’ve been babysitting Otis for the past 4 weeks and he has a lot more energy than Thor can
… Read the rest 2/17/2020 – Fish Creek
Today’s hike was mostly intended to get the two dogs out to wear them out a bit. The weather was supposed to be nice and I had the day off (President’s day), so it all seemed to line up. Since
… Read the rest 2/9/2020 – Helion Creek Rescue Attempt
After the disaster last week where I lost my new drone, I had been thinking about it and I couldn’t let it go. The weather for the following Sunday was supposed to be rather nice, and I thought it was
… Read the rest 2/1/2020 – Helion Creek Explorations
Today’s hike was something I’ve had on my hiking todo list for a number of years. Brian had posted photos of the waterfall on Helion creek and what might have been a blasted trail bench on it. I wanted to
… Read the rest 1/20/2020 – Cripple Creek Trail – 703
Todays hike was a bit different than normal. I had the day off (MLK Day), and the weather was supposed to be pretty good (for January). Alyssa was bringing Sadie over for Gail to babysit in the afternoon and she
… Read the rest 1/1/2020 – Lower Cottonwood Meadows – 705
This was my (mostly) annual new years day hike – I’ve done this 8 out of the last 10 years now. One year there was just too much snow to go ANYWHERE (2017), and I’m not sure what happened the
… Read the rest 12/27/2019 – Wentachee – Burch Mountain
This was another “short” hike while we were in Wenatchee with Carly during Christmas. I put short in quotes because it was originally intended to be a relatively short hike as the one yesterday was. Carly thought this would be
… Read the rest 12/26/2019 – Wenatchee – Saddle Rock
We spent Christmas with Carly in Wentachee – Carly said we could do a quick hike the day after Christmas. This trail started out behind her gym and climbed up to a view of Saddle Rock (or Hill – I
… Read the rest 12/23/2019 – Fish Creek Mountain – 541
Today’s hike turned out to be a “Plan C” hike. We’ve had a lot of warm, wet weather and it has melted a lot of snow. I was hoping I might be able to make it up to the South
… Read the rest 12/14/2019 – Elk Lake Creek – 559
Today’s hike was just to get outside and enjoy a fall/winter day. The higher elevation trailheads are inaccessible now, so I had to choose something a bit lower. The Elk Lake Creek trailhead is relatively low (2400′) and didn’t appear
… Read the rest 11/16/2019 – Pansy Lake and BOTW Lookout
Today’s hike was an exploration to see if we could find the “old” Pansy Lake trail. In my picking thru historical stuff at the Forest Service, I found an old document that showed a pretty major trail re-route of the
… Read the rest 11/11/2019 – Rimrock Trail – 704
Today’s hike was a “just because” kind of hike. I had the day off for Veteran’s Day and it was a nice day. Even though I went out on Saturday, I did it because I could, and I couldn’t pass
… Read the rest 11/9/2019 – Whetstone Mountain Trail
Today’s hike was pretty low key and somewhat short – but it is that time of year – short hikes for short days. I asked Nicholas if he and Jet wanted to go and I was thrilled when he said
… Read the rest 10/11/2019 – Thunder Mountain and Skookum Lake
I took today’s hike because I need to use up a bunch of vacation before the end of the year. The snow seems like it is coming early this year, so I wanted to try and do a few trails
… Read the rest 8/31/2019 – PCT – Breitenbush to Jefferson Park
Today’s hike was intended to be with Kirk and Sarah, but things didn’t quite work out as planned. Originally, Kirk was going to do a 3 day backpacking trip to the Olympics but that fell thru, so he decided to
… Read the rest 7/13-7/18/2019 – Three Sisters Loop Backpack
This was the “big” backpack trip for 2019. It was the annual Father/Daughter trip with Kirk and Sarah and Carly and I, along with Jeff, a member of our scout troop.
… Read the rest Originally we were thinking about going to Glacier National
5/11/2019 – Memaloose Lake Explorations
Today’s hike was quite different than planned. The original plan was to hike an abandoned trail in the Fish Creek drainage, but we got turned back at around 3900′ with a foot or more of snow on a sheltered section
… Read the rest 4/13/2019 – Fish Creek
Today’s hike was interesting. The plan was to hike with the scouts – they were heading up Fish Creek to do a one night backpacking trip. While I couldn’t spend the night (I had to watch the animals while Gail
… Read the rest 3/30/2019 – Cripple Creek Trail -703
The weather was forecast to be really nice today, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a nice walk in the woods. Since options are still limited due to the snow, I decided to head back to the Cripple
… Read the rest 2/18/2019 – Cripple Creek Trail – 703
Today’s hike was a “get out in the woods” hike. Between being sick most of January and issues with my mom, I haven’t been able to do much hiking this year. Today was president’s day and the weather was supposed
… Read the rest