Hiking Trails and Trips
Trips
then up to Cape Mountain for the 2 mile hike up to the summit where there are historical markers from an old fire lookout there in the 30’s. There was an old wheel left over from the garage that was there along with other signs showing photos of what it used to look like up there. Much had grown back on the summit in the 70 years since. We were afforded some...
We started the afternoon off by checking out Sutton Creek Dunes just north of Florence. Our guidebook said to check out the area at the Holman Vista viewing deck first where we got a cool panorama of some smaller dunes near the beach. We then headed off on the 4.1 mile loop trail following the creek and then out to Alder Dune and back. It was a pleasant hike through...
Today I picked up my dad's car early and drove to NH for a very long climb up Owl's Head mountain in the Pemigewasset Wilderness of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Owl's Head is a very remote mountain that is about 8.8 miles from the trailhead at the Hancock Campground off the Kangamangus Highway (route 112). When I got to the trailhead at noon I noticed people with mountain...
Today I decided to head up north with my dads car to climb MacNaughton. I had mentioned this mountain in my previous posts and my intentions to climb it before moving. Although it is not on any of the 4,000 foot peaks list in the Northeast or NY I wanted to climb it before leaving. All the peak lists were made 20 to 80 years ago before accurate surveying technology was...
We got up early from Bowman, ND and headed the wrong way towards White Butte right off the bat!... 20 minutes later we discovered we were in the wrong area and had to turn around which set us back an hour. Thankfully White Butte was a piece of cake hike only about 2 miles long. Emily and I made it to the top and back to the car in less than an...
After a leisurely morning of sleeping in because the snow still sucked for skiing and rain was predicted in the mountains Emily and I decided to head to the coast instead for a hike and then to meet up with Kevin and Alexa who went surfing at Otter Rocks. The hike was super easy at only 5 miles and Drift Creek Falls was beautiful. The suspension bridge 75’ over the river below...
After the helicopter training yesterday I decided to go exploring MacDonald Dunn on my bike again. This time I rode over Chip Ross Park up Dan's Trail over to the Oak Creek trailhead from my apartment. The Loop was about 10 miles and was awesome. I got home and ate a burger... not really a burger because I couldn't find a bun to go with it. I spent yesterday evening trying to...
Before picking my mom up at the airport I decided to go for a hike in the Columbia River Gorge up Wahkeena Falls. The trail I took climbed steeply up to the top of Wahkeena Falls and then up to where the spring that feeds the falls comes out of the ground. It was amazing to see a decent sized creek simply come out of nowhere in the ground. The trail crossed...
After Sunset Bay we drove to the Umpqua Sand dunes. I can't wait to come back here in a month or two with my buddies from Corvallis for a weekend of ATV rentals and bbq's. There are also shops for sandboarding, a new sport that is blowing up on the coast and on sand dunes around the U.S. There are actually boards made specifically for the sport with special slick coatings on the...
On Saturday Kendra, Adam, Emily, Brendan and I decided to hike up Mt. Tumalo while the others returned to ski the cinder cone across the road from us. We never saw them from our climb but new they were there. It was a truly beautiful day and we all ended up hiking in long sleeve shirts to the open summit. Kendra and Adam brought their dog Jake along who seemed to have...
This weekend Emily and decided it was time to go on another short hike before I had to work at Ruby's. We drove out towards the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area with guidebooks in hand. When we passed by Detroit Lake I was absolutely amazed at how low the water level was. When Kalin and I had passed by the lake in mid July on our Jefferson attempt it reminded me of Lake...
Today after we left Shilo's Eleanor, Chris, and Toshi and I headed down 126 to south of Florence on the coast to the Tahkenitch dunes for a 7 mile hike. Eleanor was in a little under the weather from last night but she decided to go along which I thought was great. The hike took us over some dunes to the ocean where we walked down the beach for a few miles...
Got up around 10 today and decided to go for a nice ~10 mile hike in the very scenic Silver Falls State Park just east of Salem about an hour away. When I got there I realized the ticket machine for the parking pass couldn't break a ten so had to beg for a buck from passing motorists in the parking lot. The first guy I asked, a nice looking older guy,...
Today I woke up so hungover I didn't know if I wanted to do anything but Anna called me and motivated me to make a plan for the day and make the most out of the weather. Her and Eleanor were downtown at the Farmer's Market where I met them briefly to say hi before heading East towards the mountains for a day hike up to Rooster Rock, a really cool volcanic...
Today Emily and I wanted to get out of town and go for a hike so we decided to head to Santiam Pass and go for a short hike. We looked in my book of hikes in the area and chose a 4.2mile roundtrip hike up Middle Pyramid. I had to go to work at 4pm so we had to be down from the mountain by 2pm for me to make it...
Today I took Julie and her friend Jill on some hikes up in the Columbia Gorge. We also took Jill’s cute dog Lou who almost has as much energy as McKenzie but a little bit smaller. Neither girl had really seen the Columbia Gorge yet so I really enjoyed introducing them to it. I purposely chose light hikes to save Julie’s knees. For the first hike we headed in at Horsetail Falls...
Today I decided to go for a hike up Mary's Peak, the tallest mountain in the coastal range at 4,098 feet and only 30 minutes drive from Corvallis. I drove the road up (very cool winding road with banked turns) to the Connors Campground parking lot and then hiked up from there as Jason had suggested in my Keene Sandals. It was a 3 mile hike through some of the most beautiful...
Saturday - Breakfast with Rachel & Jon then the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park. After a wonderful breakfast with Rachel and Jon at the same place we went to with Kenny Emily and I hit the road towards Glacier National Park. This time we only had an afternoon to spend in the park so we went by the short trails Kenny and I had gone on. I wanted to finally hike...
Too big with too little time is how I would describe our effort to climb Mt. Jefferson this weekend. Kalin and I thought we'd have enough time to climb the 2nd tallest volcanic peak inOregon in just a night and a day but we were very wrong. I had a very foreboding and nervous feeling about the climb all week long. I guess my instincts are right on still. We left Corvallis...
Today I went for a hike up Iron Mountain with Ashley Hatfield and my roomate Jason Killian along who brought McKenzie along. I had gotten up early and went to Firestone to have 4 brand new tires put on my truck. I got the Bridgestone AT Dueler Revo's, a sick tire that performs amazingly in wet conditions ie, the Pacific Northwest. Thus, I was anxious to test them out so I opted...
