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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Hamilton Mountain, Sep 17th

Hamilton Mountain is one of those classic hikes in the Gorge that gives you very nice views and a descent amount of exercise. It’s definitely a weird summit though. Most times, the word summit comes accompanied with 360 degree views which is not the case of Hamilton. This summit actually “point” to the east so you can only see that way. Better than the summit itself though, is the actual hike up there and the walk thru the saddle after the summit. Both of these offer great views of the Columbia River, Bonneville Dam and Mt Hood on the other side (only visible on clear days). This hike was like any other time I’ve done Hamilton in the fall. Great colors and amazing scenery. The only unexpected thing that threw me off a bit was finding a group of about 200 kids up at the saddle. I talked to one of the “leaders” and he told me it was a group from a Christian school that hiked all the way from the horse camp. Other than this “encounter”, the hike was very nice with a fun, small group of people.



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Trapper Creek, Sep 10th

With many things going on, I was about to post a hike on my own when Zach, one of the hike leaders in the group, posted a hike in Trapper Creek. Since he had been doing some really nice hikes that involved considerable distance and elevation gain and I needed a bit of exercise, I decided to join him instead. I’m not sure what was it but the day did not start very good. I guess I might have been a bit dehydrated which combined with the high temperature and humidity triggered a headache that left me walking almost by remote control. I was not happy. As if that was not enough, my well worn hiking shoes gave out and started bothering me. About half way thru the hike I opted for taking them of and hiking barefoot. That didn’t work well in the long run as I couldn’t find a god way to keep my socks and insoles in place (despite the duct tape) to protect my feet. At some point Val came to my rescue (thank you sweetie) and gave me her shoes which worked nicely for the rest of the hike while she wore mine. I guess the way I break shoes didn’t affect her at all… go figure. Anyway, despite all of the above, the hike was not terrible at all. The Trapper Creek wilderness is wonderful and incredibly beautiful forest with some old growth sections, many creeks and streams and some great scenery. It does offer some trails for backpacking adventures and explorations as many spur trails cross the area giving you more than a couple of options to reach different destinations. Zach’s choice was great as it gave us a good sample of all that and left the possibility open for future hikes in the area.



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