Mt Hood Meadows Hike and Hood River Sept 2014

 The kids and I ski there during the winter and I wanted to show them what it looked like with flowers and no snow. I hiked through Meadows last year and it was very pretty. The loop I did last year was 13 miles. I wanted to make this much shorter , so we started at the base of the ski area and hiked through. It was nearly 4 miles of hiking. We came across some bow hunters on our way up the south side of the ski area (Mitchel Creek). I had no idea hunting is allowed, but it is. We reached the Timberline trail, which circles around all of Mt Hood. We took that trail across the ski area. We encountered waterfalls, many flowers and open meadows. It was interesting seeing the ski area without snow.

After the Meadows hike, we went to Hood River to visit goats, alpacas and the bakery. This was our end of season hike and visit to Hood River. School has since started and volleyball season is underway. Ski season hopefully will start sometime in November.

Click on the more pics at the bottom of the page for more pics.

Easy Rider Chair

View between Easy Rider and Vista Lifts

Mitchel Creek 

at the top of Stadium Lift

Draper Girls Farm

Exercising Goat

The white goat is Snow Flake that Ann Marie bottle fed several years ago. 

The baby Alpaca was only 2 days old. 

The swing at Draper Girls Farm

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Metolius River August 2014

The kids and I camped on the Metolius River in Central Oregon. I have visited this area since a couple years after I moved to Oregon in 1981. This is my favorite area to camp and explore. We hiked up to the top of Black Butte, which is quite a tough hike. It is only just under 3 miles up, but the elevation gain is about 2500 ft. The views on top of Black Butte are incredible. Three Sisters, Broken Top, Mt Washington, Three Finger Jack, Mt Jefferson, Ollalie Butte and Mt Hood are seen from the top. My anemia was still in full affect, so we took our time hiking to the top. Once on top, we took our time, ate lunch and enjoyed the view. The hike up was about 2 hours, and the hike down was just over an hour. We finished our hike and headed to the town of Sisters for an ice cream as our reward. The next day, we rode our bikes and enjoyed the sites around the Metolius River. Earlier in the summer, a fire was raging near our campsite. But thankfully, it had not been a problem for us. On our way home, we stopped at Scout Lake, near Suttle Lake. It is a designated swimming lake. The kids had a blast and didn't want to leave. There are logs that are floating in the lake and they climbed and jumped off them. The B&B Complex fire roared around the lake in 2003. Lots of burned trees in there area. That fire was nearly 100,000 acres. Be sure and click on the more pics here at the bottom of this page.

The Metolius River

Our campsite. 

Our hike up Black Butte

Riding bikes around Camp Sherman on the Metolius.

Residence of the fire watch person that is on Black Butte. 

Love this picture. 

The Metolius River with Black Butte in the background. 

Scout Lake

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Tumalo State Park August 2014

Each year a group of families gather at Tumalo State Park near Bend, Oregon. This group is mostly Holy Family or former Holy Family families. There were 7 families this year. This is the first year the kids and I joined the families. State parks are not quite remote camping. It tends to be crowded. The big draw with this state park is the Deschutes River. There is fishing and rafting right at the park. We walked upstream 1/2 mile from the park and floated down on tubes. It was very relaxing and fun. Each evening the families would gather and visit by the fire and share meals. One morning I manged to hike upstream a couple miles or so. It is a deep canyon that is very pretty. Any time I can spend in Central Oregon is a win.

At the state park there was a wedding and a baptism. Was interesting watching both. 

Along the canyon I hiked, there are some interesting rock formations. 

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Arch Cape 2014

Each year Grandpa Joe rents a home at the coast. Recent years, it has been at Arch Cape. His children/in laws and grandchildren gather for fun at the beach. This year I was not able to be there much, but managed to spend some days on the beach and hiking in the hills.

Boy Scout Camp July 2014

Michael is in his second year of scouts. Each summer his scout troop attends a Boy Scout Camp in the region. Last year, camp was at Camp Meriwether south of Tillamook. This year, camp was at Camp Pioneer near Mt Jefferson in Central Oregon. I spent the week with him and the other scouts. The weather was great and the location was awesome. I was still struggling with anemia so I was not able to do much hiking. I even tried passing the swim test and I bonked and was not able to finish. This was a smaller camp than last year and it was run very well. Michael had a great time with the other scouts and earned merit badges and worked on rank advancements. He went on an overnight backpack trip with the leader and another father, along with several other scouts. That short 1 night outing was the first time Michael was backpacking/camping without me. I stayed back at camp to watch over the other scouts. We did manage to go on a day hike to a remote lake. It was only a couple miles, but was nice to get out of camp.

Solo Backpack Lookout Mountain July 2014

The weather looked good for a short backpack trip in July. I decided to go solo to Lookout Mountain. I had been battling low iron anemia and my energy level was very low. I hiked along the ridge at Lookout Mountain to Opal Lake. Then back to Lookout Mountain. There were several forest fires to the south and they were kicking up a lot of smoke. A cool cloudy system was coming in over night and the next morning was extremely windy and much cooler. I had setup my tent just below Lookout Mountain and the wind howled all night. Not much sleep that night.

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Devil's Lake July 2014

Our neighbor and good friend, Lisa, invited us to stay at her lake house in Lincoln City. It is a peaceful place on the north end of Devil's Lake. The unique thing about this location is that 1/2 mile away is the Pacific Ocean. When at the lake, it doesn't feel like we are at the coast. Feels more like being in the mountains. Ann Marie and Michael learned to knee board for the first time at the lake. Lisa's son Asa was a great host to the kids.

Thank you Lisa for some great memories!!

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Backpacking Upper Twin Lakes Take Two End of June 2014

The end of May we backpacked to upper twin lakes. Although that trip was fun, Michael and I were sick. We didn't do some of the things we wanted to. So after we healed up, we make the trek again. This time we stayed for 4 days 3 nights. The kids didn't swim on our first trip, so we packed some rafts and swim gear and planned on swimming. These guys were in the water most of the time. I think they could have been fish. The bottom of the lake was silty/muddy, but that didn't stop them. We went on some day hikes from the lake. One to lower Twin Lake and the other to a look out of Mt Hood. On our way into the upper lake, we passed folks camping with Llamas. One day a couple, that was camping, walked by our camp with two of them. We chatted with them. No, not the Llamas, but the husband and wife. They gave us some history of hiking / camping with the Llamas.

Rope swing at Lower Twin Lake. Ann Marie sooo wanted to launch into the lake. 

Day hike to a lookout of Mt Hood. 

Endless fun. 

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