After Monday’s walk thru 3-Finger Jack’s burns, time in a green, vibrant forest seemed the right call – as well as staying close-in to both avoid fire smoke and burn as little carbon as possible (car) to a trailhead. The … Read More
On the way to backpack the Middle Fork Willamette River National Recreation Trail, some serious elevation work seemed the right first day hiking. Hiking Hardesty Mountain from the Hwy 58 trailhead to Sawtooth Rock, and maybe June Mountain if conditions … Read More
For a hot, sunny day when driving long distances just does not seem like the right thing … Hardesty Mountain right west of the Willamette National Forest boundary can be a good idea. Recent years, Hardesty was a good conditioning … Read More
Heading out to the trailhead, I thought that another cloudy forest hike was in the cards. Getting started on the trail, the lower elevation flowers were amazing. But it was the Rhodies that were just spectacular, and every once and … Read More
Hardesty Mountain is just spitting distance inside Willamette National Forest. The trail is a common training hike and a mountain biker challenge. I’ve hiked it a couple of times every year for the last several years … today’s was the … Read More
This last week reinforced an important lesson for hikers: Hike YOUR hike, nobody else’s. As I explained to my parents and friends, that is REALLY easy to say, but very hard to do. Between the gear company’s marketing and social … Read More
As the OR fire season rages on at the end of July, hiking gets increasingly challenging to find smoke-less trails. A recent article in Salem’s newspaper demonstrates how widespread the fire impacts are closing the woods. The busted backpacking trip … Read More
After last week’s rather slow and easy week (only King Castle day hike), a good elevation workout was desperately needed. I had just posted at Kestrel a piece on individual internet usage and its impact on carbon footprint, aka Carbon … Read More
That’s a mouthful. Yet, a wonderful trail. My partner and I hiked this several years ago and it was not this nice – the trail is in great condition, and one can hike further than All Trails curated trail. This … Read More
Early season backpacking when the snowpack is so deep and wide-spread is a challenge. Rivers seem to be the best plans, like hikes a couple weeks ago, Smith Rock/Crooked River, John Day River, Deschutes River. The plan was open and … Read More
