Trekks and Travels

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Cone Peak Scramble 14 Feb 2014

Four of us scrambled Cone Peak - the very attractive mountain one sees from the meadows on the way to Iron Mountain via the Cone Peak trail. I have wanted to get up there ever since I first saw it in 2011. We approached the mountain by angling up the side to the right. We only hit one iffy spot on the way up, mostly we found a way around obstacles and were able to avoid slipping or going back. The view from the top was beautiful - 360 degrees and clear. The way down was a little trickier because we went lower than we should have to start and ended up in a much more steep area. Ann got us back on track and we eventually spied the meadow trail and headed for it. Beautiful day - grateful for God keeping us safe. :-)
Cone Peak Map

heading up

Iron Mtn in background

yikes steep!

views of the Cascade volcanoes open up

South peak, Echo Mtn and not sure...

Jefferson and Hood

went around this section...too steep

from the top, Iron Mtn and Diamond peak in distance

Washington, the Sisters

Hood and Jeff

not particularly safe - we were too low

out of the worst of it

back to the meadow

Cone Peak!

Friday, February 13, 2015

McNeil Tarns and Bald Mtn 13 Feb 2015

Katrina and I arrived at the Top Spur trailhead at 9:30a and we were the first in the lot. We intended to hike up to Bald Mtn and decide where to go next after seeing what the snow situation was. It was a short little climb to a pretty view of Mt Hood. Snow didn't look too bad so we decided to hike to the tarns and to circle around Bald Mtn on the way. It was a great choice. Such a beautiful day! We hiked for a long while before hiking on snow, but when the snow started (around 5000 ft?) it was beautiful! Made it to the tarns and plopped on the snow for a beautiful view of the snow covered clearing with Mt Hood in the background.
On the way back, the sun came out in earnest and we had beautiful light on the mountain for some parting photo shots. Four cars in the lot when we left at 2:45p

woods on Bald Mtn

first view of Mt Hood

snow hiking!

lunch view at the tarns

in the summer this is an alpine lake

creek crossings were tricky with deep snow

afternoon light

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Salem OR downtown urban hike 6 Feb 2015

Rainy rainy weekend - everywhere within a 3 hr drive! The skies cleared at 1:45p on Friday and it looked like it would hold for a few hours so I headed downtown with my camera for an urban hike around the Capitol. Found lots of little alleys, curious art work, and austere buildings with beautiful billowy clouded skies as the backdrop. Fun! Walked about 4 miles.

heron at Pringle creek

Bush Park oaks

Bush Park

Salem Hospital

Willamette University

Oregon Capitol

Lewis and Clark led by Sacajawea and golden pioneer man

Dept of Education

Pioneer man

YMCA building

Statesman Journal building

First United Methodist Church

mural on back of Elsinore Theatre

alley off Court St

glass in sidewalk on Court St

Reed Opera House

alley off Court St

Court St clock near corner of High and Court

sign near Salem Center

Saturday, January 31, 2015

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!