Elk – King Traverse short version, May 6th

After doing Dog Mountain with heavy packs, Val and I were ready to tackle something with a bit more distance, elevation change and overall difficulty. And what better place to do this than the Elk – King traverse. The hike to the Elk Mountain summit might not be the highest or the longest but it’s certainly on the steepest list. That combined with the lack warm up time before you start climbing makes this an excellent training route.  Adding the King’s Mountain summit makes it even more interesting as the trail has numerous ups and downs before reaching the second summit. At that point, if your knees are not suffering enough, the steep descent to the parking lot will complete the job. I posted the hike for a small group of people on my meetup group asking them to bring heavy packs to train, if they wanted to do so. In the end, it was only Val and I carrying extra weight which made it a bit of a challenge for us to keep up with the rest of the group. But even with that, I t was a fantastic day with plenty of scenery, green, fresh air, friends and all the good stuff that makes a hike memorable

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Dog Mountain – Augspurger loop, Apr 28th

Val and I had been talking about backpacking for a while and placing potential trips on the calendar. While doing so, we thought that it would be a good idea to do some training hikes with some extra weight to get our backs and legs ready. So we pulled our bigger packs, filled them with a sand bag and some pillows to maintain shape, added water and our gear. By the end, our packs were about 35Lbs each. With packs ready, we decided to try them out doing Dog Mountain which would offer plenty of elevation gain on a very good trail plus the possibility of a nice wildflower display. Unfortunately the weather gods played against us that day so we got an overcast day with some very consistent wind. We were still hopping for the flowers thought. At first Val was not very optimistic about her ability to do the hike with the extra weight. I was very confident she would be able to do it without a sweat. So we started climbing up and, as I expected it, she was flying up at her normal hiking pace which is a bit faster than mine. As we gained elevation we got some pretty good view of the Columbia Gorge and increasing winds, no flowers though. We were too early for those. Without a lot of work and in a very normal time, we got to a very windy summit. Trying to find a place to take a break, we walked around but then decided to get under a big tree and cover ourselves with an emergency blanket so at least we could have some lunch while enjoying the views. After that, since we were feeling good and the rest of the hike was downhill, instead of going down the way we went up, we opted for the longer Augspurger trail that would be softer on the knees. This trail is interesting as it traverses in and out of the forest keeping you all the time in line with nice views. We got to see some wildflowers but not too many but the best part of the hike was getting back down to the car with a broad smile and the sense that we were in better shape that we thought we were.



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Tom, Dick and Harry, Apr 7th

Tom, Dick and Harry is one of those classic summer hikes that can be done in the winter as well. The problem is that a few years back, the ODOT decided to stop cleaning and plowing the parking area for this trailhead leaving the winter option almost closed. If there’s snow on the road, the only option is to park at Ski Bowl and walk next to the highway for about a mile to the trailhead. As you can imagine, that portion of the hike is not very scenic and would certainly leave a sour spot on an otherwise great day. But, if you look at a map, there’s the possibility of doing a backcountry route to Mirror Lake and the join the trail to Tom, Dick and Harry. This route requires some good navigation skills and crossing several creeks which, depending on the season, can be very challenging. If everything goes well though, after about an hour of forest navigation you come out of the trees at Mirror Lake with wonderful winter views all around you. As you walk around the lake you can enjoy the frozen surface and view of Mt Hood behind you. From that point on, it’s easy to re-join the TD&H trail and go up. Depending on snow levels though, it’s possible that the trail becomes difficult to follow so you may find yourself navigating thru pretty steep slopes. If something like that happens, there’s always the option to veer a bit to the south and start climbing towards the ridge which eventually will cross the trail again. Once there it’s easy to follow the topography towards the summit as you are out of the tree line. The rewards for all that hard work came right the moment we reached the ridgeline to the summit as the view to Mt Hood opened up right in front of us. We continued a bit more to a good flat spot where we stopped for lunch and to enjoy the sun. We had the option to go back the way we came but to make it more interesting, we opted for descending straight to the lake. As you can see in the map, it’s a far quicker but steeper route so we had the opportunity to do some glissading down to the lake. The rest was easy as we just retraced our steps to the car.



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Yellow Jacket, Apr 1st

This year we got some weird snow over the winter so there weren’t many good snowshoeing opportunities. This one was one of the few where, even though the weather was not very good and we lacked the views, the snow was pretty good. The Yellow Jacket trail is one of those that can be done in full or in parts depending on how much time you want to spend there and how the weather gods are playing it. On this one, we started from the Snow Bunny Sno-Park following the forest road that connects with the trail. The trail was easy to follow as long as you could see the blue diamonds on the trees. Along the trail we found a couple of challenges in the form of creel crossings that were not completely covered forcing us to find a log or something to cross. That worked pretty well until we got to the Salmon River. In good snow years, this small river is covered with a hard pack that can easily support your weight to the point that you barely realize you are on a river. This time though, we found a big gap were we could see the river flowing about 10 below our feet. Being unable to find a safe place to cross, we were forced to turn around and head back making this the shortest version I’ve ever done of the Yellow Jacket trail.



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Parque Nacional El Morado, Chile, Mar 24th

So I was sent to Chile for work, yes I know, hard work, but somebody has to do it right? Considering most of my family is from Chile and that it was a great opportunituy, I decided to bring Val along for the trip so she could tour Santiago while I was working and then we could take a couple of days off to go hiking somewhere among other things. Originally I had thought of traveling south but that plan soon failed as just getting somewhere interesting would have consumed a full day or more. So we started looking for close by destinations and opted for Cajon del Maipo which the valley where the Maipo river starts from in the Andes. Our plan ended up being to drive to San Alfonso, a little town in the mountains were we would stay a couple of nights, do some sightseeing the first day, hike El Morado the second and return the third. Some people tried to discourage us from that plan as they said there’s nothing to see up in El Cajon del Maipo. Certainly it’s a very arid area, but far from not having anything to see. The first day, after getting to our cabin, we went sightseeing for a while and then did a short “warming” hike behind the place we rented out. That gave us some nice views of the valley towards Santiago but not even a hint of the scenery we would get at El Morado. Saturday morning came and we woke up early, had a good breakfast, packed our basic gear and drove to the park. The drive was a bit tedious on a dirt road but, the higher we got, the better it got.



Finally we got to the end of the road and a parking lot. It was early so only locals were there cleaning up their little businesses and stands. As we got out of the car we were promptly greeted by two very happy dog puppies that were rescued and cared for by a woman that was selling some handmade jewelry in the area. We spent a bit of time talking to her while she told us the story of the dogs. Then, it was hiking time. We grabbed our gear and headed to the park. From the parking lot, we took a short trail that circles a campground, crosses a creek and goes up a hill until it reaches a ranger station/park entrance. We got our day permits and attentively heard the ranger instructions for the day. Then we started hiking. This first half hour or so was just gaining a bit of elevation and getting closer to the canyon. All the views were actually behind us where we could see multicolored hills with shades of blue, grey, green and red.



Then we left behind that scenery and came up to high elevation vegetation. It was a wide area with little yellow and white wildflowers and some butterflies flying around. After passing a bend we arrived to one of the highlights of this trail, Aguas Panimavidas. This area is where water seeps from the ground and comes back up carrying calcite and iron. As it comes up, it rusts the soil around it giving it a very bright orange/red coloring that makes the whole area look like a place from another planet. Some of the holes were big enough to look like small fountains in the ground. If you look long enough, you can even see bubbles coming from the hole



The water then runs down the hill carrying all these minerals creating a lot of little channels that vary in color from a very bright red to orange to yellow. It certainly makes the whole area look toxic but some green patches of grass tell you otherwise



The trail continues up until you reach Lake Morado. This tiny lake sits by itself in the middle of a meadow with no apparent inlet or outlet even though there’s a big creek nearby. My guess is it feels with snowmelt and lasts until the end of the season when it freezes again. We circled the lake on the west side and found a nice rock to sit and contemplate the scenery while we ate some well deserved food. Most people that hike this trail come here to spend the day and then head back down but our plan was to continue up to the glacier. A trail sign indicated that it would be about a mile and a half to get there so we continued on. Soon after, all the green and full of life scenery vanished and all we could see was rocks, dirt and a big glacier up ahead. It was like passing a very defined line where life is not allowed to pass.



After that line Val and I continued on jumping from rock to rock until we got to the cave entrance were we took another break enjoying the surrounding scenery that included jagged peaks on one side and the whole valley on the other. After a while, we started our return the same way we came all the way to the car almost in silence and awe. All I can say is that, for a very arid and nothing to see place, this was very impressive.

You can check the pictures here



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