Forest Park Portland, OR 14 December 2012

Jean and I took a little jaunt up to Forest Park on a rainy Friday.  We hiked the Balch Creek/Wildwood Trail Loop for about 5 miles.  Pretty forest in the middle of the city!

It was a dark, misty day  - too dark for decent photography.

Silver Falls State Park 30 November 2012

It has been soooo long since I went on a hike!  Between getting back into school, being sickly, and bad weather, well, it has been baaad.  So, today, despite predictions of rain, I went out to Silver Falls State Park anyway.  And it turned out to be a great day - no rain while hiking, only while in the car - to and from the park, and the sun even came out for a few minutes.  It was actually quite warm as well...
I hiked the loop and mostly photographed the waterfalls and mushrooms.  (Sorry the 'shrooms aren't in the greatest focus...low light.)

sun!

Beach Walk 28 Sept 2012

Jean and I went for a relaxing walk on the beach today.  Started out at Neskowin and turned back because of high tide.  Headed over to Lincoln City and walked along Road's End, lunched and headed home.  :)

Iron Mountain 21 Sept 2012

Garnet and I went on our first  hike together since we were kids.  We headed out to Iron Mountain on a very overcast, even drizzly day.  By the time we rounded the bend to the back side of the Cascades, the sun was breaking free of the clouds.  We hiked above the clouds the entire hike and so were able to see all the mountains, except Hood, in the distance.  The smoke from various fires and the moisture from the clouds made it a little hazy though.  This has been a hot dry summer and the vegetation was fried in the woods and meadows until we were heading long the shaded northern sections.  Even huckleberry bushes passed from green to toasty brown without turning red, except for some damper, cooler locations.  I don't think Iron Mtn will put on the usual show of fall color this year.  But it was a nice, solitary day, just the same.

Coming up on the meadow, Cone Peak on left, South Peak on right.

Garnet

my favorite woods

The view as you come out of the woods looking southwest

She made it!

The thumb of Iron Mtn, Mt Washington and the three Sisters in the way distance.

looking south east

This is all this cone flower does!

aster

Salmonberry?

Woods on Wagon Road section

Grizzly Peak 14 Sept 2012

This week Jean and I trekked to the view the western side of Mt Jefferson via the Pamelia Lake trail.  The first mile of the hike travels through a relatively flat old growth forest between two creeks - the main one being Pamelia Creek.  The understory is covered in moss and it resembles a very lumpy golf course.  Along the banks of the creek many large trees have become uprooted, and the rootballs are exposed showing how they tree has made its home among rocks from fist size to huge boulders.  As the creek erodes away at the sides of its banks, the trees just topple in.  I imagine this area can be quite a mess at the beginning of the season.

the Pamelia lake section of the trail

a table of 'shrooms'

Pamelia lake at this time of year does not look like much of a destination.  However, this area is so popular that you need a pass to enter (the forest service restricts the number of people entering the area).  We arrived at the lake at around 9:30a and a little fog was still hovering over the lake.

You can see Mt Jefferson all the way to the left.

The next half of the hike heads up the ridge line to Grizzly Peak.  The gain is 1400 ft in 2.8 miles.  The forest is populated with lots of bear grass and rhodys.  The trail is pretty skinny in a lot of spots as it is really just cut out of the side of a very steep slope.  As soon as we started up the ridge, we could feel the temperature change - nice and toasty.  The trail was not very well kept up this year, crumbled away in parts and overgrown too.  We met some people on their way down, and another couple on their way up when we were leaving.
We reached the ridge line and got our first glimpse of huge and beautiful up close Mt Jefferson with the sun in the right place for nice photos.

This hike doesn't have much in the way of flowers unless beargrass or the rhododendrons were blooming, but the view of Mt Jefferson, Mt Hood, the Sisters, and Three Fingered Jack plus the foothills, the lake below...all so pretty, make up for it.
We had lunch at the top and headed back at noonish.  Beautiful day!

Pamelia Lake down below Mt Jefferson

Pamelia Creek