Month: August 2018

August 8th, 2018 Cigar lake mm 2044 to Rockpile Lake mm 2015 Distance: 29 miles 0600-1830 On today’s agenda: walking around Mt Jefferson, another volcano. I love it! I had first spied it from the slopes of Mt Hood 3 days prior and now it loomed large. Incidentally, back at Timberline lodge, I observed a father pointing at it and telling his son, “see, that’s Mt. St Helens!” Ok, for starters, Helens is the only volcano with a flat top and should be easily distinguishable from all the others. Furthermore, it lies 60 miles to the NW from Mt. Hood and is not even in Oregon, it’s in Washington. Wrong state, wrong direction, wrong mountain, Dad! Let’s hope Jr. has[…]

August 7th, 2018 Mm 2071 to Cigar Lake mm 2044 Distance: 27 miles Today started out as a bust but ended in a bang. My campsite was one of the most unremarkable but it did the trick. Something was making a weird barking sound all night…I suspect it was an elk or deer. I had a hard time falling asleep. I was on trail at 0615 and surprised to see a NOBO within 15 minutes. Quite a few more followed early in the morning. By lunch time, I had picked out a nice creek from the map. But when I got there, Lemiti creek turned out to be dry, or nearly so. I walked a few meters up the bed[…]

August 6th, 2018 Timberline Lodge mm 2097 to mm 2071 Distance: 26 miles I was packed and down at the lodge when it opened at 0600, to maximize phone charging time. I was amazed to see hundreds of people showing up to go skiing and snowboarding. They run summer camps, so most were kids. All the action is taking place on a tiny patch of glacier that they groom throughout the season. Maybe I’m a ski snob but I’d rather wait for real snow in the winter. Summer is for tramping around mountains. I wasn’t feeling in the mood for the infamous breakfast buffet so I went halfway on an overpriced bagal sandwich at the cafe. Then I got my[…]

August 5th, 2018 Indian Springs CG mm 2127.5 to Timberline Lodge mm 2097 Distance: 30.5 miles plus 2 miles I mistakenly walked on the Timberline Trail A popular belief on the trail is that it is flat through Oregon, at least relative to the relief found in WA and CA. This may be true for the most part but today was anything but flat. In 31 miles, I gained over 7000′ and lost over 5000′. And I set my record for longest distance hiked in one day, EVER! My watch says I actually did 33.6 miles and 71,584 steps, which accounts for a costly navigational error I made to the tune of 2 miles. It was also a fantastic day[…]

August 4th, 2018 Cascade Locks mm 2147 to Indian Springs CG mm 2127.5 Distance: 19.5 miles I woke at 0630, still with so much to do in the morning. I showered again and finished up my last minute details. Origionally the plan was to drive Spatz and me back to the trail but his foot was hurting and he needed to take another zero. So they made the trip just for me, and I felt bad about that. I had offered to take a bus but Shelly nixed that idea. Ray, Shelly, Skybird, and me The whole family was going to a wedding that night, then Skybird was going to hike with her sister and dad starting Sunday morning. Skybird[…]

August 3rd, 2018 Portland, OR Distance: too much shopping! Whew, what a day! It was NOT a day off or of rest, but I got most everything done on my list and then some. Just a heads up, I only included one picture for this day because I was too busy doing mostly mundane things. First we had an awesome breakfast where we kind of munched for over 2 hours. Yes, we had “second breakfast”, thanks to Shelly who kept making food for us. I ate yogurt with cereal and blueberries, then bacon, eggs, and toast with avocado smear. I went outside to fetch my shoes, which I had washed the night before, and was surprised to find a slug[…]

August 2nd, 2018 Mm 2162 to Cascade Locks mm 2147 Distance: 15 miles I was very motivated to get moving on this morning. For one, I woke up in a cloud and condensation was raining down on my tent. The longer I stayed, the wetter it was going to get. But more importantly, it was a town day and I had lots of new goodies awaiting me! I was hiking by 0530 and enjoyed seeing the sunrise through the fog. There were a lot of banana slugs on the trail, active while it was still humid. Poor things must have been drying out over the past few weeks. I met the first hiker at 0600 and passed a lot of[…]

August 1st, 2018 Mm 2190.5 to mm 2162 Distance: 28.5 miles It was a great night of sleep, on which we all agreed. It was very quiet, right up until the 0430 alarm. I made oatmeal and took my time sipping coffee, so I was on the trail later at 0545. We had another 28 plus mile day planned, but with such early starts, there’s plenty of time. I shortly caught up to Spatz and then Skybird. She wanted to go slow all day to nurse an inflamed tendon in her foot. I slowed down to chat for awhile but resumed my normal pace after the first creek we came to, Panther Creek. The trail had gone down all morning[…]

July 31st, 2018 Mosquito Creek mm 2219 to mm 2190.5 Distance: 28.5 miles It was very warm overnight, so I didn’t sleep as well. Someone was snoring and then I was disturbed by something walking over my tent. I looked up to see the silhouette of a frog in the moonlight. I love frogs but I didn’t want the noise to continue, so I gave the tent fabric a light flick. The frog got a free flight somewhere else. I woke to Skybird’s alarm at 0430 and went with the flow. On the trail at 0520 and it was still quite dark in the forest, almost a little spooky. At least the mosquitoes weren’t quite awake so early but they[…]

July 30th, 2018 Road23 mm 2229 to Mosquito Creek mm 2219 Distance: 10 miles I didn’t sleep all that well, despite a very comfortable bed, and I woke up with a pretty bad migraine for some reason. It got really hot overnight, so maybe that was why. I got up at 6 am and decided to do a soak in the hot tub that I didn’t get around to the night before. Everyone was up when I got back and Shelly was immediately handing me coffee to help with the headache. What a great mom! We went to the continental breakfast at the inn, which was one of the best. One waffle plus some fruit hit the spot and was[…]