Tumble Lake and Dome Rock via French Creek Rd 31 Jan 2015

Ann and I headed out of the fog on Saturday after BSF to hike to Dome Rock and Tumble Lake via French Creek Road.  This makes the hike a lot shorter and easier to get to both of these spots.  The trail is a little tricky to find but we saw the footprints in the snow so were clued in.  The hike was about 5.2 miles with about 1500 ft gain.  Most of the gain is on the way out!  The trail is not in good condition near the lake.  We lost the trail on the way down, but found it before we headed back.  We could not get to a viewpoint for the 100 ft falls and the huge canyon of Tumble Creek because we couldn't figure a way over the lake outlet.  We could see it would have been impressive!

all the favorite mountain peaks!

Tumble Lake from Dome Rock

ice covered Tumble Lake

the lake is in a bowl surrounded by huge rocks

Lunch spot

Tumble Rock (I think)

trail??

Alaskan cedar

Tumble Lake from Google Earth - park the car just past the fork

Jefferson on the way down the road

Bayocean Spit 25 January 2015

Beautiful, God-blessed with sunshine and warmth, day at Bayocean Spit.  The spit is undeveloped, camping is allowed.  The loop hike all the way to the jetty is about 8.5 miles and beautiful!  Get there early for a parking spot.  We walked a figure 8 - out down the road a mile, cut through the forest, continued north on the beach to the jetty, headed around the end of the spit and walked on the old road south towards the car.  Took a right turn at the gate and headed south on the beach for a mile then turned east at a marker back to the car.  Beautiful!

A wrong turn led to this view of Cape Lookout and Netarts Spit from the north

view of Cape Meares from the jetty

lots of great blue herons in the Tillamook Bay

by the time we got back to the beach the fog had rolled in

back to the car

Cape Meares Lake and Cape Meares

Cape Horn 16 Jan 2015

A pretty decent day for mid-January.  Partly cloudy skies, mid-40s for a high.  No rain. Arrived at the trail around 10a and hiked the 7-ish miles for 4 lovely hours.  Only the birds for company!  This is a pretty hike but the trail is very new and you can tell because of the disturbed ground.  But someday it will all grow in and look every bit as wild as the other trails in the gorge.

a bit foggy early on

crossing a field

the lookout

the Columbia River

the tunnel under the highway

a train had just come by...didn't wait for the next one

rocky pillows

Maxwell Butte snow shoe 9 Jan 2015

Jean and I started out early and it was a good thing because I didn't get home until 4:30p! We snowshoed about 7 miles and gained 1200 ft.  Parts of the trail were very easy because of the packed snow, but other parts were more difficult as we tripped over smashed bushes and climbed over downed trees.  We had to take our snow shoes off on more than one occasion.  We got turned around a couple times but we made it back to the car in the end. Great day of adventure!

some of the old trees were still standing

starting out

view of Jefferson

the trail deteriorated to a stream

views of Washington and the three Sisters

lunch spot

heading back

I thought we had to climb that hill, but we didn't!  Yay!

melting!

Silver Falls 2 Jan 2015

Sharon and I enjoyed an icy brisk day at Silver Falls State Park ice hiking!  We cheated death on several occasions as we dipped under wicked icicles.  We did have poles and Yaktrax .  Praise God we safely made it back to the car. 8 miles/9 falls

Rim Trail

South Falls

Huge icicles...we hurried under

pretty frost

Lower North Falls

Double Falls

we were praying one of these didn't whack us in the head

Middle North Falls

North Falls

Upper North Falls

Cape Lookout and Netarts Spit 1 Jan 2015

Our car added to the total of 4 or so cars parked at the trailhead to the cape on New Year's Day.  It was brisk but not freezing, though the trail had some icy spots.  The ubiquitous mud was actually easier to handle being half frozen!  At the viewpoint two couples had sighted some migrating gray whales, but we only saw their retreating spouts.  On the way back we spotted a group of sea lions way down the cliff and a bizillion hikers coming out to enjoy the cape on the beautiful day.  The parking lot was filled to over-flowing!.  We opted not to take the beach path, but headed over to the campground parking lot and Netarts Spit to have lunch and walk out and back for an hour and a half.  Mileage for the day - about 8 miles.  Of all of the places to be in Oregon on 1 Jan, Netarts Spit was probably the warmest!

view of Pacific City and Cascade Head

Cape Lookout from Netarts Sit

gnarly trees on the spit

sand sculpted by the wind and waves

happy new year!