King’s Mountain loop, Dec, 4th

This is one of those hikes that can be done almost any time of year. Even though it has considerable elevation, it’s rare that it would be covered in snow. What was a bit unexpected though was to have a nice fall weather day with plenty of sun. We started from the King’s Mountain trailhead and headed straight up on a very easy to follow trail. On the lower sections, we were welcomed with rays of sun filtering thru the forest illuminating details here and there. It made the forest look like very well arranged showpiece in a museum. As we gained elevation, views to the valley of the Wilson River and Lester Creek opened up on both sides of the ridge. Soon we reached the summit and spent some time signing the book and leaving our mark. We got pretty good views from a small open field just below the summit where we stopped for lunch. Unfortunately, the low lying clouds were obscuring a rare occurring view of Mt Hood from this point. On the way down, and to spice the hike a bit, I opted for taking the group back on an alternate route. Instead of following the same trail all the way to the parking lot, we veered off on the Coronary Ridge trail. This is not an official trail and the only sign is at one of the view points. It certainly requires a bit of route finding skills and a lot of bushwhacking, but after some ups and downs and minor scratches, we reached the actual ridge and followed the contouring trail enjoying the vies and keeping away from the steep drop off. Then, it was all downhill on a steep slope back to the Wilson River trail. Once there, it was all an easy walk back to the parking lot meandering thru a fern covered forest. It was kind of a shorter hike, but with all the variety we got out of it, it certainly felt like a much longer adventure.



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Old Man Pass Snowshoe, Dec 3rd

Wow, I’ve been out of the loop for a while. It’s not been because I’ve not been out as much as I’m used to but also because I had to re-do all my maps… technical difficulties I guess. But know those are all fixed and I should be able to get back on track (hopefully). That out of the way, I just wanted to share this little trip I did with Val back in December. I’ve had Old Man Pass in my to-do list for quite a while but never went there because it’s a bit of a longer drive. When I commented that with Val, she told me she had gone several times and that it was a great place to snowshoe. So we woke up a bit earlier than normal and decided to head over to Old Man Pass. The first treat of the day was to get there and find the snow parks deserted. Besides two cars we saw on the road nearby, we did not see anybody else the entire day. Weather played nicely with us so we did a loop that we made up as we went. It ended up being a fantastic day with Val exploring different routes, going off trail in places and enjoying the scenery that was fantastic.



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Silver Star via Grouse Vista, Nov 13th

Silver Star is a great destination. Even though it doesn’t seem to be too high, it certainly can give you that sense of reaching a high summit. Part of it might be due to the surroundings but more than that, I think it’s the views you can get from the top… when weather permits that is. In the past I’ve done several hikes in the area and covered most of the trails on the north side of the mountain that offer different challenges ranging from distance, elevation gain and really bad roads. I had also done a couple of trail on the west side of the mountain but never reaching the summit so there was a bit of room for exploration there. One trail that was on my mind was the Grouse Vista. The reason I had not done it was because going up and coming back down the same route was not enough of a hike to compensate for the drive. Looking at the map and knowing there are several approaches to Silver Star, I started looking at how to extend this trial and maybe do a loop. One option was combine this with the Sturgeon trail which I haven’t done either for pretty much the same reason. The other possibility was another trail further north that, as the Sturgeon trail, descend to the Tarbell trail which ends at the Grouse Vista trail. With these two possible options, I had a plan. So I headed off with a small group of hikers and bad weather to Silver Star. The hike was great, the views weren’t. In fact, there were barely any views. On our way we were barely able to see a glimpse of Pyramid rock, a rock formation that invites you to climb it. Further up, the wind, the snow and the low lying clouds blocked everything to the point that from the summit, you couldn’t see the saddle right below it. I’m not going to say I didn’t like the hike, Silver Star is always great and we got a very descent amount of exercise out of this one. I was able to only take a handful of pictures that you can see bellow. In the future I might revisit this with good weather and get the pictures though.



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Hunchback Mountain to the Rock Pile, Oct 22nd

Here’s a short and sweet hike that has a lot to offer. On this first section, even though you don’t do a lot of distance, you gain plenty of elevation and get some pretty descent views. It also offers the possibility of going further; way further to Devil’s Peak or even make a loop coming back down via the Salmon River trail. On this little adventure, it was only Valarie and I in need of some exercise and outdoor time. Weather was not very good as it was a bit chilly and rainy. That obscured the magnificent views you can get from the ridge and further up from the rock pile, but even with that, we had our fair share of magnificent views and colors. The best part of the hike was the company... The views were icing on the cake!



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Eagle Creek, Oct 8th

This hike, along with Multnomah Falls, is probably the best well known and most visited trail in the Gorge. Reasons are many, it offers multiple waterfalls along the way, it can be a short or a very long hike depending on how far you want to go and it’s relatively close to town. I’ve done this hike many times, to different destinations and even as an exit route from a backpacking loop. This time it was a jaunt to Tunnel Falls and back as Kim was training to become an assistant organizer in my group. We started on a very foggy morning that offered some great views of the canyon but limited possibilities for pictures. We also noted that the creek was running a bit lower than usual which left some waterfalls a bit less impressive than usual but equally pleasing. One thing’s for sure though, if you have a chance to do a single hike in this area, this should be high up in the list.



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