Blow Lake - Oregon Cascades - with Shane and Nico

It's magic when, out of the blue, your teenage son says "hey, let's go backpacking". You drop what you're doing and go gather gear to head out. Shane had the brilliant idea to just get out and so we did. It was 45 minutes of driving from Bend, Oregon up to the Six Lakes Trailhead, just south of Elk Lake. An easy 1 mile hike in and we were searching for a camp site at Blow Lake.

Here's the other thing that's amazing about this simple trip. Shane torn his ACL a few weeks back. He'll have surgery soon. As part of the prep, he needs to build his strength. He can't do much. A little too much movement side to side could be really bad. A short flat one mile hike with a 100 foot gain would work.

We had a very mellow, fabulous time.

Six Lakes Trail - Headwaters of the McKenzie River

Black Butte Father's Day Hike with Drake

There's nothing like the simple times. The singular focus of a hike. The experience when you do it with someone you love. The memory that'll always be there.

Drake, knowing that I'd really appreciate all of the above, offered to take me on a hike up Black Butte on Father's Day. We'd done it before. It was just over 10 years ago when the six year old boy and I climbed the Butte in snow and cold and camped on top.

2007

2017

Now he's a young man and the joy is still great.

Dad, Nico, and Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood

Mt. Washington

Three Fingered Jack

Odell Lake to Elk Lake - PCT

48 miles on the PCT from Odell Lake to Elk Lake. For this journey, I was helping the PCTA (Pacific Crest Trails Association) with some survey work. The challenge that faces the Pacific Crest Trail is the proliferation of hiking phone apps. The apps use GPS to tell hikers the distance to the next water source and camp site. Trouble is, fragile areas, often too close to water sources are being promoted on these apps. It's like putting up a billboard in a fragile area inviting people to camp there.

The app makers and the PCTA worked together to have volunteers like me go out and survey the camp sites listed on the apps. We were to target sites that were too close to the trail or water, take pictures and recommend the most troublesome ones for closure.

It was a nice trip getting out there in October to survey a section of the trail and hopefully help it heal a bit. I was out for three days and did not see or talk to another person. In fact, I very quickly started to develop a flee instinct when I heard human created noise. A couple of ATVs came to within about a mile from me and I found myself thinking about hiding. It was a weird feeling. Was I afraid? I just very quickly developed the sense that I didn't want to be around people.

The video shows the quiet and zen vibe of the hike:

Walking from California to Bend - Expedition Film 2015

Walking from California to Bend-Day 9-PCT mile 1884-1913

It's before 5am. This is when I like to get up. It's all about beating the heat. If I can be up before 5am, I'm on the trail by 6am and can get 10 miles behind me by 10am. Once you've cruised in the cool air of the morning and put away some mileage, you can slow it down, take a siesta, a swim, and relax a bit more in the afternoon.

Today's goal is Odell Lake. There is a resort there with lovely prizes like potato chips and beer. The alternate trail for this reach, The Oregon Skyline Trail has NO ONE on it. I camped at Oldenberg Lake last night, about 15 miles shy of Odell. 

Oldenberg is nothing super special, though it was very calm and it had another element that made me very happy. The mountain in the left middle of the photo is Walker Mountain. For those that drive Highway 97 between Washington and California, this is very noticeable mountain south of Gilchrist. The mountain is prominent for the area and has a fire lookout. Waking up and seeing this scene, knowing the mountain's proximity to my house (about an hour drive) was really inspirational. I hiked fast! I'll end up with under 20 miles today, light day.

Oldenberg Lake @ 5am

Creek flowing into Odell Lake

Diamond View Lake, with yes, a view of Diamond Peak

Crescent Lake

Tower Mountain - Umatilla County

Hiking the highest peaks in all of Oregon's 36 counties
#21-Umatilla County-Northeastern Oregon-Tower Mountain-6,850 feet

Eastern Oregon is gorgeous. Isolation is the word here. The nearest 'city' to to this county high point is La Grande and it's 50 miles away.

See the short film:

Hike Length: 4 miles Hike Duration: 2 days

Hike Configuration: Two day out and back Blaze: double track

Start Elevation: 6,340 feet Elevation Gain: 510 feet

Hike Rating: Easy

Trail Condition: Snow in mid-November

Starting Point: North side

Trail Traffic: Saw NO one else

Access: I initially wanted to approach from the south at Big Creek Meadow Campground but early season snow prevented that. I instead approached from the north from Hwy 244. It's all public land so no permits are needed.

How to Get There:

From Pendleton: Take US 395 South to Ukiah. Turn left heading east on Hwy 244. After about 17 miles, Look for the Tower Mountain Lookout right turn heading south NF 5226. On a good day, you can drive about 11 miles right up to the summit. The road is pretty manageable for a regular auto. I went as far as was reasonable, parked and hiked the last few miles.

The other approach is from Ukiah taking NF-52 to Big Creek Meadow Campground. It's then a 5 mile hike up from the south.

Tumalo Mountain area-unnamed caldera butte

Sledding on Butte with South Sister & Broken Top in back

We needed an overnight and the mild winter weather provided. Lows were set this weekend for about 30 overnight. We figured that might be about 20 where we planned to be camping just shy of 6,800 feet. No snow remaining in town so in order to get some decent sledding it's up to the Cascades.

full of stoke at the TH at Dutchman Flat

Broken Top on the left, Ball Butte on the right-hiking along Dutchman Flat

The hike is along a snowmobile trail. We anticipated that there wouldn't be much traffic due to the thin snow pack and there were only a few machines. Once we broke away from the trail and started gaining elevation we followed a creek bed.

Sunrise over Tumalo Mountain

 We set up camp a few hundred feet below the unnamed butte (we are calling it caldera butte) and hiked up. Check out the map above and you can see the depth of the butte bowl. We hiked up the steep side to do some sled runs, but the other prize was the view!

Sunset over Mt. Bachelor from Butte

The crew en route back to the TH

The short film:

Hike Length: 4 miles Hike Duration: 2 days

Hike Configuration: out and back Blaze: mostly on Flagline Trail, some x-country

Start Elevation: 6,348 feet Highest Point: 7,145 feet Elevation Gain: 797 feet

Hike Rating: easy to moderate, some postholing in the snow, slick areas.

Trail Condition: On the trail, packed down by snowmobiles

Starting Point: Dutchman Flat 

Trail Traffic: a few snowmobiles around Dutchman Flat, no one else on Butte.

Access:  Oregon Snow Park pass required for TH parking. 

How to Get There:

From Bend, County Road 46 (Cascade Lakes Highway) about 20 miles to Dutchman Flat TH. 

Trask Mountain-Yamhill County

Oregon 36 Project

Hiking the highest peaks in all of Oregon's 36 counties

#32-Yamhill County-NW Oregon-Trask Mountain-3,424 feet

Nico and I headed west of Portland...

Lassen National Park & surrounding area (California)

This trip was a bonus. I was headed back to Oregon from a hike along the John Muir Trail and decided to poke around the Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta areas. 

The Lassen area is sparsely populated and gives you the chance to explore in isolation.

Lassen last erupted about 100 years ago and still smolders. You can see active vents still producing scalding steam. 

Steam still lingers...

Mt. Shasta at dusk.

In it's beauty, Mt. Shasta, 14,179 feet, along with Lassen, the two prominent peaks in California that are part of the Cascades Range.

Looking the other direction

Hot springs pool at an abandoned resort.

Timber equipment left behind.

Near Mill Creek Falls in Lassen National Park.

Lassen formations

Mill Creek Falls

Lassen Peak

More abandoned timber infrastructure.

Morning in the fields near Sierraville.

Morning sky near Mono Lake

Cool building in Sierraville

John Muir Trail-Mammoth to Tuolumne Meadows (California) - Mountain Rescue

John Muir Trail - Mammoth to Tuolumne Meadows

This journey was a trip down to California to bag a reach of the John Muir Trail. Instead of hiking the trail in as little as 6 days as I've heard some people do, I have been climbing over the JMT passes for 6 years. Each year I have completed a reach of several dozen miles finding solitude at a slow moving clip.

Above Duck Lake

This year was originally a hike from Mammoth to the trail end at Yosemite National Park. However, as it always is in the backcountry, you need to stay flexible with your plans. Paul and I met Kastle (rhymes with Nestle) and John in Mammoth to begin the trek. 

John and Kastle mock the flow out of the Thousand Lakes basin.

JMT just north of Duck Pass.

Donahue Pass on the north side.

Chuck and Paul ham it up on the trail.

Chuck after a swim at Duck Lake.

Basin just north of Mt. Lyell.

Banner Peak at sunset

Snow north of Donahue Pass on August 7th!

Our pretty little hike took a scary turn. We were about 10 miles in from the nearest trailhead and we came across a young woman who was in a panic. She spoke a moderate amount of English and explained to us that her father was laying in a meadow and could not move. He was complaining of internal problems possibly related to surgery he'd recently had.

The woman had tried to get other hikers to stop and help, but no one would. She explained that even a pair of nurses had past by and she that he should just hike out. This guy was clearly NOT going anywhere when we found him. John, an experienced backcountry trip leader didn't hesitate. He took the role of first responder and for the next few hours we all jumped in. A CHP helicopter was called in to lift the man out of the backcountry and to the hospital.

The video below shows a short summary of the experience. We never learned what happened to the victim...