Urban hiking Ruth Bascom north river loop on foggy January morning – long hiking miles without driving a car! Time was allocated for a long hike, but the recent cold weather had left snow in lower elevations, i.e., Mary’s Peak … Read More

Selecting new ultralight sleeping bag is hard given all the options: sleeping bag, quilt, down, synthetic, waterproof, etc. There are also a myriad of resources posted to help one select the best to buy. I default to a simple ‘supplier … Read More

Urban hiking Eugene’s river buttes allows for a 10+ mile urban hike on sidewalks, bike-paths and bark-dust trails with no car time – all from my front door. The urban hike route Starting on Gillespie Butte up Spyglass 2x and … Read More

Spencer Butte storm seam sunrise fast hike reached the top of Spencer Butte twice before sunrise and once after – between big winter storms coming from the Pacific Ocean. A perfect morning, for January 17 on Ridgeline Trail. The Hike … Read More

Gillespie Butte foggy morning started with clear skies and a crescent moon and morphed into a foggy, foggy morning Carbon karma tax ratio: hike time 150 minutes / drive time total 0 minutes (walked out front door) = 150, car … Read More

Spencer Butte January sunrise fast hike from Blanton Ridge to Spring Blvd on Ridgeline Trail with two walkups ‘The Butte’ From weather sources, today was to be the only long duration ‘no rain’ over the next many days. Perfect time … Read More

A couple of mornings walking around town camera in hand found a few birds holding still in the cold, grey day. Even an odd bush flower was still blooming in early January (a camellia?). A Blue Heron (Cornell reference) standing … Read More

Carless urban hiking Sunrise at Gillespie Butte & Alton Baker Park started on northwest hills and then down around Pres Trail – 10+ miles from my front door. Weather report again showed a break at dawn between rainstorms, a perfect … Read More

Hiking Ridgeline Trail & Spencer Butte between winter storms perfectly timed to catch sunrise, fog in the valley and the second storm’s arrival. I left Spring Blvd trailhead around 6:30 with headlamp on and quickly encountered two trail runners with … Read More

Spyglass sunrise after days of rain with just enough breaks in the clouds for some sun light painted clouds. The birds came out in song during the rain break along the entire 10+ miles – the redwing blackbirds were remarkably … Read More