WOW! Two epic hikes in one week! I think that is a record for me…. Today’s hike was not intended to be epic or nearly as long as it turned out. We were just having a good time on trails … Read the rest
Tag Archives: Epic
Epic trip – refers to long or trips with highly significant finds
9/7/2026 – Plaza Trail to Salmon Mountain – 783,787
Today’s trip – wow – where to begin. Since everything past Fish Creek is still closed due to the fires, options were limited, but we originally planned the trip to go up the Plaza Trail and then out the Salmon … Read the rest
5/8/2026 – Triangulation Peak
Today’s hike was a memorable one. It was (for me) a last minute hike decision, but I’m really glad things worked out so I could go. It merits the “epic” tag for a hike for sure.
Since we knew it … Read the rest
5/2/2026 – Tarzan Springs to Mt Lowe – 595, 564
Today’s trip had a couple of purposes:
… Read the rest - Replace my trail cam at the second rockslide – the battery was at 7%
- Try and make it up to Mt Lowe
The second objective was a little ambitious, but I’ve done this
1/24/2026 – Cottonwood Meadows Snowshoe – 705
The plan for today’s trip was to head to the lower Cottonwood Meadows trailhead and walk up as far as we could until we hit enough snow and then put on our snowshoes and go as far up as we
… Read the rest 9/6/2025-Fish Lake, Lodgepole, Red Lake, Potato Butte
Friday was Zack’s birthday so he wanted to get out in the woods to celebrate. We decided to hike the Fish Lake trail but the day ended up a lot different than I was expecting (with a REAL surprise at
… Read the rest 9/1/2025 – Bagby Trail South
Today’s hike I had been looking forward to all week. Kirk and I had planned to go hiking – he asked where and I offered several options, including a couple of “wild” options. One of them was to hike up
… Read the rest 6/5/2025 – Burnt Granite and Mt Lowe
Today’s hike would be my only opportunity to get out this week due to other commitments. I wanted to find something interesting. After looking at snow levels, I landed on hiking the upper Burnt Granite trail. The original plan was
… Read the rest 11/16/2024 – Shellrock Cache Meadow Serene Lake Loop
Since I’m going to be having cataract surgery this week (which means I will be down for a week or two) and because I didn’t get out last weekend, I wanted to make sure I got out this weekend. My
… Read the rest 9/4/2023 – Schreiner Peak
Today’s hike is one I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Kirk suggested we do it on Labor Day. I will be doing my annual backpack trip with Carly next weekend and needed to do some conditioning anyway, so
… Read the rest 1/1/2023 – Fish Creek – Post Fire
Today’s hike was my annual New Years Day hike – I’ve done it 10 of the last 12 years. Since you can now legally enter burned areas on foot, we decided to head up the old Fish Creek road (road
… Read the rest 6/27/2022 – South Sister Summit in Snow
Today’s hike was Carly’s request. We had a family vacation in Sisters and since she didn’t get to climb South Sister in 2019 when did the Three Sisters backpack loop, she wanted to do it during this trip. Nicholas wanted
… Read the rest 6/4-6/2021 – Eagle Creek Headwaters Backpack Trip
This trip was a trip dreamed up by Zack – he named it the Eagle Creek Headwaters trip and it seemed very appropriate. This was the plan:
… Read the rest - Day 1 – Head down the Eagle Creek trail to the Douglas Trail
5/1/2021 – Fanton to Old Baldy to Squaw Mountain
Today’s hike plan was to drive up 4614 as far as we could, and take the Fanton trail up to Old Baldy and then head east over to the Squaw Meadows area to explore. The day threw us a few
… 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 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
4/28/2018 – MP3 Trail to Rimrock Overlook Snowshoe
Today’s hike was going to be quite an adventure. Based on the weather reports, we were planning on getting rather wet, however things turned out quite different than we expected. The plan was to hike the MP3 trail to the
… Read the rest 1/1/2018 – Fish Creek Epic
Today’s hike was something that has become somewhat of a tradition – hiking on New Years Day. Six out of the last eight years, I’ve done a hike on New Years Day. Last year I had planned to, but the
… Read the rest 10/28/2017 – Plaza and Salmon Mountain Trails
The plan for Today’s hike was to hike up the Plaza trail to the old plane crash site, then see how we felt and maybe press on to the old lookout on Salmon Mountain. The weather report was supposed to
… Read the rest 7/26/2017 – Grand Tetons – Delta, Surprise and Ampitheater Lakes
This hike was the first hike with Carly in the Grand Tetons. This was a partly offtrail hike (up to Delta Lake) and then up to Surprise and Amphitheater lakes.
… Read the rest We started out and headed up the Lupine Meadows trail,
7/6 – 7/10/2016 – Enchanted Valley Backpacking
Hike description
This was my annual backpacking trip. Unfortunately, Carly was not able to join this year, so Kirk, Sarah and I went to explore the Enchanted Valley in the Olympic National Park. The trip took us up the long … Read the rest
1/23/2016 – Eagle Creek Trail – 501- Clackamas
Hike description
This was kind of an unplanned hike. I had planned to stay home today and do some things around the house. Zack texted me about 7:30 and asked if I was going anywhere today. After a few back
… Read the rest 12/14/2015 – Eagle Creek Trail – 440
Hike description
Today’s hike had been planned for quite some time. Zack and I wanted to do Eagle Creek (I had never done this hike before), but we wanted to do it with a minimum of crowds. Today worked out
… Read the rest 9/11 – 9/14/2015 – Devils Dome Loop Backpacking
Description of Hike:
This trip was one of our annual father/daughter backpacking trips – it may be our last – certainly for the next 2 years at least, since Carly is heading off to the Peace Corps for the next
… Read the rest 9/6 – 9/7/2015 – South Sister Climb
Description of Hike:
Kirk invited me on this hike – it was to be a rather quick overnight trip to go up to the top of South Sister. I had not been there before, so it sounded interesting. The idea
… Read the rest 7/28-7/31/2014 – Enchantments Backpack Trip
Description of Hike:
An epic backpacking trip if there ever was one. It started with the lottery that you have to go through to get a permit to stay the night in the Enchantments (an area in the Alpine Lakes
… Read the rest 9/27/2013 – Pansy Lake, Motherlode, Schreiner Peak Trails – 551, 558, 555
Description of Hike:
This hike is one I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time. In fact, I had tried to do it with Kirk last summer, but we missed the junction of the Motherlode and Schreiner trails, and
… Read the rest 1/1/2013 – Abandoned Broughton Log Flume Exploration
Description of Hike:
This was a hike I had originally heard about on the Portland Hikers website. It combines two of my interests – hiking and history. This is an old abandoned log flume that was used from about 1913
… Read the rest 7/21/2012 – Bull of the Woods Epic – 551,558,554,550,549,556
Description of Hike:
This hike was one of my “epic” hikes. Anything over about 10 miles and/or very ambitious I consider an epic hike. This hike had LOTS of variation, and LOTS of elevation gain (3700′), some interesting landscape after
… Read the rest 4/14/2012 – Salmonberry Canyon Epic
Description of Hike:
Well, where to start…..This was a hike I have been wanting to do for several years now. Earlier this year I had made a recon hike to see what the two trailheads were like, how accessible they
… Read the rest 10/29/2011 – Wash Creek Exploration
Description of Hike:
A truly epic hike. The weather was absolutely fantastic, although we did get very wet due to the brushiness of the “trail” (an old road that was decommissioned after the ’96 floods). It was one of the
… Read the rest 9/26/2010 – Surprise Lake Quad Trip
Description of Hike:
This was not a hiking trip, but a very tough trip with 4 quads down old decommissioned roads to Surprise Lake in the Fish Creek Basin. The roads are very rough and becoming overgrown with alder. We
… Read the rest 8/13/2010 – Elk Lake Creek – Welcome Lakes – Geronimo – Motherlode Trails
Description of Hike:
This was a rather long hike, one I like to call an “epic” hike. Essentially, it is a long hike that is rather challenging for me. I invited my daughter to accompany me, and to my surprise,
… Read the rest 11/1/2009 – Olallie Lake Trails – 719, 723, 735, 733
Description of Hike:
I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather for what may end up being my last outing this year. After asking some questions on some online sites, and some info from the new caretaker at Olallie
… Read the rest