Jefferson Explorations

Hi everyone!  The adventures have been grand this summer so far as I keep exploring the Pacific Northwest.  Recently, two friends and myself headed to Jefferson Park to explore.  It's been high on the list for a while and is renown for its lakes, views and meadows.  Which makes it a popular spot, although it is a couple hour drive to most cities.

We were definitely not the first to the parking lot and passed multiple people on the hike in.  It's about 6 miles up to the lakes, and due to a recent forest fire, we had some epic views on the way up.  All smiles going in, due to excitement, nature and some fun stories being passed around. Something about hiking with good friends that gets you laughing a lot more. 

You get up towards the lakes and are rewarded with views that are straight from postcards.  How can you top a trail curling along hillsides with lakes and mountain views all around?

Wildflowers were still in full effect all over, with multiple colors booming in different patches.

Mt Jefferson is the 2nd highest mountain in Oregon, and stands mighty fine.

Little ponds dotted the landscape on the valley floor.  Pretty much wherever you are down there, the view is fantastic and you are close to a lake for swimming.  Or a pond for catching reflections.

One of the 8 or so lakes that you could hike around, find campsites at and relax.  Loads of people with hammocks out enjoying the vibes, and swatting the ever present mosquito population.  Was it super beautiful?  yes.  Were the mosquitoes horrible?  Understatement of the century.

We did a day hike up part of Mt Jefferson and were rewarded with the valley floor below and Mt Hood in the distance.  I'm a happy man whenever I have a view of Mt Hood, and being up on Jefferson made it even better.  So much grandeur all around!

Here is our campsite, right next to a running stream, with a mountain view.  Can't beat that setup. 

Loads of creeks around to drink from as I'm partial to river or stream water. Lake water just has a certain taste to it that makes me look for running water.

Hello!

Hi everyone! Here are some fun pictures from a recent hike on Mount Jefferson. We blazed the trail up, found a spot with amazing views of Mount Hood in the distance, and soaked it up. Down below in the Jefferson Park wilderness, lakes, ponds, meadows and mosquitoes awaited us. Wait, the mosquitoes came up the hike with us. Apart from the mosquitoes, this was one of the most beautiful places in the NW. 

Back to nature

Well, it's summertime and that means I'm normally out backpacking around the mountains nearby Portland.  I got up this past weekend for the first time in 6 weeks, due to multiple adventures outside of Portland.  Two separate week+ long trips to the San Juan Islands/Olympic National Park and to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming were mixed in with camping trip in Central Washington.  It's been a great summer so far, full of adventures and it felt so good to be back on Mt Hood.

I hiked up around a reflective lake to a mountain spot perfect for hammock camping (see above) and enjoying the fine views of Mt Hood.  A perfect spot that was idyllic in it's view, silence and bountiful nature.  The mosquitoes did their bit to keep me awake all throughout the night, but waking up to the sunrise two mornings in a row was well worth it.  Here's how the sun progressed to rise over Mt Hood in the mornings:

And if I walked 10 feet, I was able to see the lake down below. Pretty damn good:

Another fine backpacking trip in the books.  More to come this summer as I keep exploring the NW and living the good life.

I hope the summer is going well with everyone!

What's that?  It's been a long while with no blog posts?  Has there been a white out?  Well, it's been winter and I've been out playing in the mountains, exploring the amazing city of Portland and catching up on my basketball.  Early summer is in full effect here, so expect more posts to come soon!  Here's a shot of me having fun while staying at a hut 5000 feet up on Mount Hood.  Always good times up on the mountain!

Some say that one baseball game is too long. Some would say that 3 in a row is way too many. I differ on both fronts. As noted in the below post, I went to Seattle to catch my beloved Dodger play the Mariners for 3 whole games. You bet I was there for that series!  This Ian just the third time the Dodgers have played at Safeco afield and I was at the last series as well. Can’t pass up a good weekend in Seattle, just a few hours north with my Dodgers in town.

Games 1 and 3 were huge Dodger wins. Felt like home run city as we scored 11 and 12 runs. The middle game was definitely the most entertaining, a quality baseball game from start to finish and had  a great Dodgers comeback in the 8th inning to be down two runs. And then after the Mariners closer came out to a thunderous standing ovation, full of bumping music, Max Muncy hit a game tying homer. Epic!  Sadly we lost on a balk off, which was ridiculous, but Arnold least we all were entertained.

It felt like Seattle was taken over by Dodgers fans. People all over the city wearing Dodger Blue. High fives up and down the streets and then, inside the stadium, it was nuts. Almost felt like a home game in there with all the celebrating. Damn, it felt good. Amazing experience in there. Can’t beat that feeling and I’ll be sure to come back whenever the next time is.

Just got back from a trip to Seattle to watch my Dodgers play the Mariners and we had some fun up there.  Dodgers fans took over the entire city, made for an entertaining visit and kept the cheers up the entire time.  We even celebrated with some gatorade upon winning the series.  Good times!

Hiking up to an epic lake

The hiking fiesta on Mt Hood does not stop.  Back to back weekends up there, soaking up time in the high altitude, surrounded by pine trees and that gorgeous mountain.  This time, we decided to toss in some lakeside living to balance out the hike.  It was my buddy Mike's idea to bring our rafts/inner tubes up with us on the backpacks, to float around in the lake. Despite going straight uphill for the first 55 minutes with this extra rubber weight, it ended up being way worth it.  Nothing finer than just floating around and enjoying the view, relaxing, resting the legs and enjoying life.  Nice twist to my average hikes of long distances and resting in the shade.  One drawback was that lake water does not taste as good as river/glacier water.

The start of the hike was weird to me, as we walked uphill, pretty much with no turns.  Literally just 2 small switchbacks in a straight ascent; no turns or deviations.  Meaning, just keep moving upwards and keep that head straight ahead.  Not many trails just keep going up, with all the hills, slopes and trees out there causing turns. This one just kept going, uninterrupted. 

On top of the hike was a flat meadow, surrounded by trees, with sweet views of Mt Hood, plus a little creek going through it.  Can't beat that, just picture perfect and well worth the hike up.  After, was straight down, again without many switchbacks for another couple miles to the lake below.  Decent sized, there were some day trippers there and a few campsites already set up.  We set up our tents nearby the lake, and found a perfect grassy meadow along the shore to rest at and eat lunch at.  Turned out to be the perfect place to cook, relax, watch stars and enjoy the ambiance.  Awesome one night trip out there, with a good hike out the next day, followed by exploring the funky town of Hood River.  Great trip outside of Portland as always, beating the heat, and continuing my exploration of Mt Hood.  Here's some pictures:

Mtn + H2O + Flowers

Pure Mother Nature at Her finest on Mt Hood

Spot o' Paradise

Such an amazing 2 night backpacking trip on Mt Hood last weekend.  I took off early Friday afternoon to head to the mountain to explore, relax and soak up the good mountain vibes. Truly amazing up there, and with a hot weekend, and blue skies upon us, it was a perfect weekend.

I started at Timberline Lodge, full of life, mixed with hikers, adventurers, skiiers and people staying at the Lodge.  Heading west along the PCT, I worked my way through some ups and downs, then a major down at the ZigZag Canyon, before going way back up the other side.  Hundreds of feet over many switchbacks down, and then the same to go back up.  Well worth it to get to Paradise Park, meadows in full bloom of wildflowers, with the Mountain right above, and the rolling hills and other Cascade Mountains in the distance.  Truly magical up there and a great spot to hike around, explore and spend a couple nights.  Here are a few pictures:

 

Hiking around Mt Hood

Mt Hood in reflection at 4:45am

One of the perks of getting out early on Fridays in the summer is that I get more time to explore the wilderness all around Portland.  This past weekend, I decided to head back to one of my favorite places, Mt Hood and hike around and up part of the mountain.  The goal was to get to McNeil Point, a small stone resting hut at 6100 feet.  Along the way, epic views of Mt Hood were expected, and yet, it was definitely darkly cloudy straight ahead, not the best omen for camping out overnight up top.  Still, the hike was glorious and the views around by the stone hut were awesome.  It was a steep climb up there, which was great to get the legs moving and the blood pumping.  Here are some first few pictures from the hike: 

Hiking up and looking across a ravine at the base of Mt Hood sloping up to the left

Loving the hike, full of epic views all around

McNeil Point, with views of Mt St Helens and Mt Adams, and oh so close to Mt Hood, with no peak visibility

I waited around for the mountain to show itself, teasing me among the clouds:

Mt Hood starting to break through

Mt Adams in the distance

Great views looking down from 6100 feet

 

From McNeil Point, I hiked down to a couple of ponds to camp for the night, angling the tent opening towards the mountain to wake up to great views.  And man, did that happen!  I first peaked out at 4:45am and as you can see, it was amazing.  Plenty of light already, and a perfect reflection in the pond right outside my tent.  Amazing!

Out in the wilderness

Here's a video from my latest adventure up around Mt Hood.  You get to see 3 of the major Cascade Mountains, complete with epic forests and blue skies.  Pure amazingness up there!

Weekend trip to Astoria

Looking out at the wide Columbia River headed towards the Pacific Ocean

A few weeks back me and some friends headed to Astoria out on the Oregon coast to explore and get some history.  Such a fun, eclectic and interesting town, which was founded as the primary settlement for a fur enterprise by John Jacob Astor.  This was to be the NYC of the west coast, the major port where business flowed through.  A recent booked entitled Astoria, by Peter Stark, details the two expeditions (land and sea) that set out to conquer and begin the business here.  It was a rough voyage by both parties and they couldn't make a go of it.  The War of 1812 had something to do with that as well.  Definitely a great read, full of adventure, history, comedy and life in the early 1800s.  Think you had a rough day?  Think again.

Anyways, we stayed at the Norblad Hostel, a classy spot right in the heart of town, most likely a former brothel as that was the type of town this used to be.  Perfect location for exploring the town from the cafes, to the breweries, to the local trolley.  That's right, we went on a trolley tour, a historical trolley tour, serving bloody mary's.  Can't beat that.

From the canning industry, to the logging industry to the filming industry (The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop), this town has been lots of things.  As they like to tell you, one thing they aren't, is quaint.  They prefer the rough and tumble approach, and seem to get along just fine with that.  It's a great town for a weekend visit, with great fish and chips, steady microbreweries all around (try Buoy Beer!) and a fun vibe all around.  Live it up!

Bridge over the Columbia, with Washington 4 miles away on the other side

Best fish and chips in Astoria, hands down.

View from the Astoria Column (130+ stairs high)

Gorge-ous

Well, the pun above has been well used, but man, is the Columbia Gorge gorgeous.  Simply amazing.  Lots of natural beauty out there, just over a half hour away.  Can't pass up mountain views, good hikes, sharp hills coming down to the huge Columbia.  Although there was a large forest fire last year that caused lots of trail closures, there are still some great hikes available, and my dad and I headed there early Saturday morning.  Portland is an outdoorsy town, so when we got to the trailhead before 9am, there were just 2 parking spots left.  Booted up, we started the incline, working our way up through switchbacks for the next 1.5 miles, to our first viewpoint:

From there, we soon reached a plateau and then another awesome viewpoint, with complimentary wildflowers in full bloom.  Can't beat that:

Here are some other good shots from the day, perfect for an early summer day where the sun was out, and the temperature was perfect in the trees.  Great to get out and move those legs, with my dad and I doing around 8.5 miles, full of good movement and sunny vibes.

Awesome trail!

Columbia Gorge on the drive

Mount Hood shining through on the drive