Meetup Picnic at Champoeg Park, August 24th

Ok, you’re right, this is not a hiking or backpacking trip, but it is an outdoor event. Does it count? Either way, I just wanted to share the story because, among other things, I took a really nice picture of Shia. This event was organized by fellow hikers Marci and David and was held at a near by park called Champoeg. They arranged with the park to reserve one of the big picnic areas just for us that included running water and a sink, a BBQ and enough tables to sit about 100 people. Pretty nice when you consider it’s only 3 dollars per person. The park is close to the river and has some really nice pathways to go for a hike or bike ride which we didn’t do. We just spend the time cooking, eating and having a fun time. Towards the end of the afternoon, I did go to the river to let Shia go for a swim and take some pictures. After all the strenuous activities I’ve been doing, it was nice to have a fun and relaxing day with friends.

Hike to Devil’s Peak, August 23rd

What a steep hike! Although it does not top the hike to Elk Mountain I did some time ago regarding how strenous it is, it’s very close. The only worse part is that, as soon as you hit the trail, it starts going up on a very steep incline. There’s no warning, warm up or anything. After about one hour we got to a turn where it seemed that it would level off a bit. It didn’t, it was just a turn. The trail continued like that until we reached a ridge that opened the views of Mt Hood. Being such a beautiful, clear day, the mountain looked really great. Further up in the ridge, just above tree line, we got to a point were we could see all the way north. From this point, we could clearly see Adams, Rainier and St Helens. With such a wonderful view, we decided to stop for lunch. After that short break, we continued our ascend to the fire lookout. Strangely enough, the views from the lookout were not as good as the views we got from the ridge. The lookout itself was very well maintained and fully equipped so some of us are thinking of doing a trip there in the middle of the winter and staying overnight at the lookout. Our return was uneventful doing the same trail and enjoying the same views we got on our way up. Another excellent day in the mountains.

Hike to Bald Mountain, August 16th

This hike was done on one of the hottest days in the summer. Perhaps that’s why only six of us showed up for it. Luckily it was a short hike so it wasn’t that bad. We did a short trail that goes around Bald Mountain right in front of Mt Hood (actually part of the Mt Hood Wilderness). If some pictures look a bit similar to last week’s pictures, that’s no coincidence. This trail is the same section we did on the last portion on our way down last Sunday. This time though, we did it in reverse. Also, instead of doing the Top Spur trail to get to it, we did a portion of the PCT. Overall a very nice hike, enough to get the weekly dose of nature.

Hike to Mt Hood, Aug 10th

This hike was originally called Ice Caves in Mt Hood, but I had to change the name of it since we did not get to the intended destination. Still, it was a great, long and very strenuous hike. Probably the longest I’ve done so far. We started at the Top Spur Trail up in Mt Hood climbing steadily to McNeil Point. As we climbed up the views behind us started opening but we could not see the mountain in front of us. After a short stop at McNeil, we continued our ascend to a point were we veered of the trail and started crossing sideways towards the snow fields. This part of the hike was both beautiful and difficult since we were bushwhacking all the time. We passed a meadow before climbing to the next ridge that opens the views to the upper side of the mountain and the snow fields. From that point on, we had some hard sections with loose rocks and gravel and also ice fields that we had to cross. While we were doing this portion of the hike, the weather started acting strange with fast moving clouds. We went thru periods of sun and heat and clouds and cold. We then continued thru a second ridge and a second snow field before getting close to the ice caves. Unluckily there was a third snow field and ice on the other side separating us from the cave. Since we did not have proper gear to cross and it was already getting late, we decided to turn and head back. Trying to avoid the hardest part of the bushwhack we did on our ascend; we took a different route straight to the trail crossing two ridges. From there it was just following the trail back to McNeil and then back to our cars. We did take a little detour at the end though. We did a small loop that gave us wonderful views of the mountain and the valley in front of us. All in all, this hike was excellent. Is not everyday that you get the chance to see mountains, falls, flowers, snow, ice, clouds, blue ski and meadows all at the same time!

Hike to Burnt Lake, August 3rd

Finally back to Mt Hood. It’s been a while since I’ve been there. On one side well there’s not enough snow to go skiing but on the other, there was too much snow to do anything else. But now it seems like finally we get to enjoy this beautiful place. We started our hike right above Lost Creek on the Burnt Lake trail. This trail goes all the way to the lake ascending about 1500’ in a bit over 4 miles. It is a gorgeous trail with plenty of green and lots of water. A true vision of spring and summer. Once we got to the lake we took a short walk trying to get around but were not able to pass thru some big patches of snow. After a short break next to the lake and enjoying the view, we continued further up on the Zigzag mountain trail to a fabulous view point that not only gave us a magnificent view of Mt Hood but also of the northern cascades. From that point we were able to see Mt Adams, Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens right in front of us. At that point we decided to head back down and made a stop again at a hollow tree to take some pictures. We did notice in that area a lot of old burnt trees, perhaps that’s were the name of this trail and lake comes from.

Flugtag, August 2nd

Ok, this is not a hike or camping trip but still worth mentioning just for the fun of it. This past weekend was the second time that Red Bull brings to Portland the Flugtag. For those of you who have never heard of this before, this is a competition style event where teams of five people have to build a flying machine. Then, the day of the show, the get to do a little sketch on the platform before pushing their contraption on a 100 feet deck to try to make it fly as far as it will go (pilot included) until it lands or crashes into the water 30 feet below. The idea is to fly as far as they can. Most of them actually crash making it very funny. Just take a look at some of the pictures and you’ll get an idea.