Category: Backpacking
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20200927-30 PCT – Walupt to Old Snowy, GPNF GRW
DAY 1 I took a long weekend to go hike the Goat Rocks Wilderness. I got turned around a bit sooner than I had hoped – the trail over The Knife looked sketchy after the season’s first snow, and I was not feeling like taking a risk. Regardless, it was a gorgeous hike. I parked…
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20200920 PCT – Tipsoo Lake to Bumping River, WOD, GPNF OWNF
Autumn is here! I spent two days hiking the PCT from Tipsoo Lake, MRNP to the Bumping River at Fish Lake, GRW, and then back again via Swamp and American Lakes. Lots of elk bugling, a few hunters and a few hikers out.
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20200719 Carlton-Summit Loop via Historical Crossing, GPNF, WOD
Historical trails have been something of an interest for me for some time now. I’ve been researching and traveling the Cowlitz and Klickitat Trails in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, among some of the oldest in the region, dating to some thousands of years old. I’ve traced much of the Cowlitz Trail from Randle up to…
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20200702 Packwood Lake, Chimney Rock, Lost Lake, GPNF
Desire to get very high and far away finds me setting off from the Packwood Lake TH around 11:00 AM – I had gotten there nearly 45 minutes earlier, but need to finish charging my phone and packing my food. While there, the parking lot fills. A steady stream of people are going up and…
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20200530 Cispus Valley Trail #270, Takhlakh Lake, GPNF
With a crash and a boom, I crossed the Tom Music Bridge over the Cispus River. No, it wasn’t my truck, it was the sky. Often, when I make plans ahead of time to take a long weekend, the weather gets the last laugh. Today, for example, with a very active day of thunderstorms forecast.…
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20191014-20191020 Lakes Basin PCT, PNF
I took a road trip with Julie R. down to Portola, CA so she could attend a family wedding. While she did that, I hiked about the nearby Lakes Basin, PNF, making my way to and along the PCT from Graeagle, CA to the Sierra Buttes Fire Lookout. We finished up by spending a night…
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20191006 Walupt-Nannie Loop, GRW, GPNF
Hiked a loop from Walupt Lake along the PCT & Nannie Ridge Trail
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20190712 Lily Basin Trail 86, GPNF
A scheduling fluke provided me a four-day weekend, and I made tracks for the Goat Rocks Wilderness. Unsettled weather was forecast, I was pretty certain my horrid mood was going to turn into a migraine, and my I made some poor packing choices leading to a rather heavy pack – it was going to be…
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20190620 Boundary Trail 1 – PCT to Dark Meadow, GPNF
Continuing my efforts to hike the Upper Cowlitz watershed, I took a couple of days off work in celebration of the summer solstice, and headed to Council Lake. The weather was cool, damp, and grey – everything was socked in, and there were only a couple of campers up at the lake. I arrived in the…
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20180923-20181002 Wonderland Trail 2018, MRNP
And on your left, Mt. Rainier. It seemed a continual refrain as my brother Barry and I circuited, counter-clockwise, the imposing presence of Mt. Rainier along the famed Wonderland Trail. A celebration of cancer survival, it seemed the only thing big enough. I had applied for a permit the minute the website opened on March…