Todays hike was intended to take advantage of some rare nice weather. We’ve been having an extraordinarily wet and cool spring and most weekends have been very wet. I haven’t taken any vacation time this year yet, so I decided
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Four Stars
5/21/2022 – White Iris Trail area Explorations
I haven’t been hiking in over a month – mostly due to really wet weather and the fact I wasn’t in the right head space to deal with getting soaked – so I’ve been waiting for a nice day to
… Read the rest 4/9/2022 – Huxley Lake
Today’s hike was my first hike in almost 2 months – I’ve been resting my knee after the arthroscopic surgery and was finally able to get out and do some real hiking again. Zack was originally going to go but
… Read the rest 3/27/2022 – Clackamas Flyover
Today’s outing was not technically hiking, but it was exploration for the burned areas in the Clackamas. Since we STILL cannot access any of the burned areas, this was the next best thing. A friend of mine knew a pilot,
… Read the rest 1/12/2022 – Eagle Creek Trail – 501
Today’s hike was a great day out with Carly and the 3 dogs. She was down visiting for a few days as a late Christmas celebration. Since pickings are slim due to all the fire closures and all the low
… Read the rest 11/13/2021-West Pinhead Butte and Skyline Trail Segments
Saturday was supposed to be reasonably good weather (for November) and I thought maybe we could get in one late season hike on the east side. It won’t be long before this area is all covered with snow and inaccessible.
… Read the rest 10/30/2021 – Sisi Butte and Skyline Trail
Today’s hike was something very different. The weather was supposed to be nice, although somewhat chilly and a bit windy and gusty. I had said we could explore some of the other segments of the old Skyline trail and Kirk
… Read the rest 10/9/2021-Cottonwood Meadows Trail
Today’s hike was intended to be a relatively easy hike to get out and enjoy the fall colors and weather. The goal for the day was to hike the entire length of the Cottonwood Meadows trail all the way down
… Read the rest 9/14-9/16/2021 – Olympic National Park South Coast Trail Backpack
This trip was a resumption of our “mostly” annual Father/Daughter backpacking trips with Carly. Last year we were not able to do a trip due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was our 17th annual trip in 19 years. We’ve only
… Read the rest 9/6/2021-Shining Lake Trail – 510
I haven’t been hiking for almost a month since I’ve been helping our son with his remodel project. I thought Labor day would be a good opportunity to get out and stretch my legs in preparation for my back to
… Read the rest 7/3/2021 – East Side Driving Tour Part 2 – Mt Lowe
Today’s hike was another long day of driving to explore the east side of the district after the Riverside fire. We did a similar tour two weeks ago, trying to rest my ankles. My ankles have been doing pretty well,
… Read the rest 6/19/2021 – East Side Driving Tour
Today’s trip was not really a hike – I sprained my ankle on the backpacking outing a couple weeks ago, and I was advised by the doctor to rest my ankle for 4-8 weeks. I really wanted to get out,
… 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
5/15/2021 – South Huckleberry Trail – Molalla Corridor
Today’s hike was really just a “get out in the woods” hike. I’ve not been out for a couple of weeks and after getting my second COVID shot, I needed some fresh air. Zack needed to get out and encouraged
… Read the rest 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 3/27/2021 – Eagle Creek Loop
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 11/21/2020 – 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 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 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
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