Hart's Cove 26 Sept 2015

Sharon and I headed to Hart's Cove on a beautiful fall Sat morning. We hiked 5.5 mi RT to the bluffs on the head. We also saw the Chitwood Creek waterfall and heard sea lions barking from the neighboring cove. No fall colors here yet, but plenty of mushrooms had come up due to the recent rains. I was blessed by the company and the beauty of the coast.
map

Cascade head in the distance

Chitwood Creek waterfall

Lunch spot

lingering asters

Cape Kiwanda and Cape Lookout in the distance

most of the trail looked like this

Jefferson Park via Park Ridge and the "bad" road/1 night backpack 19-20 Sept 2015

Ann and friends headed into Jefferson Park on Friday via Whitewater TH but I thought it might be fun to go in a different way - via the Breitenbush TH and have them meet me part way. I had never hike over the ridge before.  The road (4220) is horrible.  It took me 50 min to go 6.5 miles. But, praise God, I did make it without meeting anyone in a tight spot, without shooting any rocks up under my car and damaging something, and without getting a flat tire from all the rocks.  The only battle scars were a few new scratches along the sides, but that is no biggie.
I arrived around 11:30a and started hiking.  Right away the scenery is very pretty, especially because of the fall foliage. The vistas open up pretty early on and by the time you are a mile and a half in, you have views all around. The landscape immediately north of the ridge is all rocks and tarns with views to Eastern Oregon and to the north.  Hood and Ollalie Butte stand out.  Getting to the top of the ridge is like the Wizard of Oz moment when Dorothy steps out of the house into muchkin land...the whole of Mt Jefferson and Jefferson Park is at your feet.  Ann and I scrambled up the ridge to the point where it becomes more dicey to explore and snapped some photos before heading down. We camped at Russell Lake near the little outlet stream.  Nice and convenient for sunset/sunrise photos and getting water.  It was pretty crowded but the team had arrived early Friday and snagged the spot before it was taken (the party was at Scout and Bays Lakes - they were elbow to elbow!).  I explored around Scout Lake over to Park Lake and up to the South Breitenbush trail before dinner for some more sunset photo ops. The next morning we explored north of Russell Lake - an area I had never see before - and it was so pretty in the morning light!  Can't wait to return.

map to Jeff Park
Jeff Park back to TH

beautiful fall colors

a river of color

Hood, Pyramid Butte, Ollalie Butte

lots 'o rocks

tarns replenished from recent rains

looking back from top of ridge

Jeff Park from the ridge...Russell Lake to left

from the ridge looking north - Breitenbush lake and Mt Hood

sunset

Scout Lake

playing around with the "night" setting

morning

love the wobbly reflections

one of the tarns north of Russell Lake

looking northeast and heading back

Pyramid Butte

George Lake via the McKenzie Lava Flow and Belknap Craters Backpack 6-7 Sept 2015

Leaving the snowy and cold Goats and Ann's sister in WA, Ann and I headed south to drier hiking. We stayed the night at my house and headed east the next day.  We made it to the PCT at the Little Belknap trail at about 11:30a. Most of the hike crosses lava spewed by Little Belknap. You cross two kipuka's (islands missed by the lava) which are welcome relief especially on the way back. Views from this hike are usually stunning but Sunday was cloudy and misty and we could not even see our destination, the flank of Mt Washington! We hiked up Little Belknap anyway for a 360 view of the lava flow. We had also wanted to summit Belknap Crater, but it was getting late and it was so cloudy, we decided to try on the way out. The trail to go up is just after the lava ends, to the left. Heading on, we still spent a lot of time on lava rocks, but the flow was older so there were also trees and bushes for color. The sun came out too and the white bark of the dead trees was stunning in the afternoon light. We calculated where the George Lake trail would be, but we weren't finding it. At the trailhead we had seen a group, two men, two girls and a cat, coming from George Lake so we thought, "how hard can this be?" We turned around and finally decided that there was no trail and we were going to have to just bushwhack. We made it, but I lost a trekking pole and we could not figure how how that family got up there with a cat!  George Lake sits in a bowl at the base of Mt Washington. You can see the spire of the peak and the flank from the east side of the lake. We camped on the west side because it was a little less windy. There was only one other group of two there and they had not found a trail either! We put on warm clothes and made dinner and tucked in to the tents by nightfall. The temps that night got down to 30 but we were very toasty because we were not chilled and wet.  Dry and cold seems to be ok. Plus it didn't get that cold until later in the evening. The clouds held in the warmth for a bit.  We woke up to clear skies and hiked out with our short sleeves and pants rolled up. It was sunny and 70! Views all around. We opted not to go up Belknap to get back earlier.  What a weekend!  Lots of adventure and variety!. :-)

map

Belknap and Little Belknap

one of the kipukas

a log cast

Belknap from Little Belknap

PCT lined with grasses in a burn

we make it to George Lake

morning reflections

Mt Washington

our campsite

route finding down

back on the PCT we can see what we missed 

North and Middle Sister

ahhh shade!

Goat Rocks Backpack 4-5 Sept 2015

So, the weather report was iffy, but it looked like  maybe it would improve by Saturday so we planned to go to Goat Rocks and do a 30-ish mile 4 day loop. We stayed the night in Packwood at the Mountain View Hotel (nice large room with a kitchen) so we could get on the trail by 10a. The Berry Patch TH was about an hour from Hwy 12 on a gravel road. The road wasn't bad, just 20 mi long. We planned to make a car drop so we could exit at Walupt Lake, so leaving the extra car also took time. We were on the trail by 10:30 with sunny, pleasantly warm conditions.  We (ha ha) thought, this is great!  By afternoon, at the campsite in Goat Meadows, the conditions had deteriorated, clouds had arrived, covered the mountains, and it had started snowing. We pitched the tents and headed out to check out Goat lake anyway. Before leaving we spied about 27 mountain goats above us on the hillside. Visibility got worse and worse and the snow began to stick. Our glimpse of Goat Lake was slim and no views of the valley or mountains. We headed back and found our tents covered in snow. It was pretty but I was too cold to appreciate it all. Got dinner going and the snow stopped and the clouds lifted, eventually clearing up all together! Too bad it was so late - we could have seen Goat Lake for sure. The next morning (after a hard night of trying to sleep when our bodies were so cold - temps around 30 but we were damp and chilled from the day), I looked out to see we had about 10 ft visibility. We hung out in the tents till around 9a then gave up and headed out anyway. Met some people with weather reports of rain on Sat and new weather on Sunday so we decided to head out the Snowgrass Flat trail. On the way down we met a TON of people coming up wearing all manner of clothing: short shorts, jeans, tennis shoes; people with goats, dogs, baby, kids...(the people with the baby turned around, wisely). I pitied them the cold, damp night they would have. When we arrived at the TH it started to pour! Decided to head to warmer climes...see the next report.  Goat Rocks will have to wait till next year!
RT map (some of it is driving)

starting out in sunny woods

views of Old Snowy open up

looks like fall!

clouds are coming

love these ridge trails

Jordan Creek basin

now it is snowing

mountain goats!

we camped by this dry tarn

Goat Lake

back at camp the clouds are lifting

sunset from our camp

morning view from my tent

we set out anyway

this grouse didn't want to fly because it was too cold

hmmmm

at Snowgrass flat the clouds lifted a bit

pretty water feature

the intrepid trio will have to do Goats on another day!