Category: Hiking
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20210119 Summit Creek Campout, GPNF
More of a laze-about than an adventure… I drove up to the valley with no real destination in mind. I travelled up William Creek (USFS 47 Rd) with an eye to finding some area to hike about and camp overnight, and maybe do a bit of snowshoeing, but turned about and headed up the highway to Cortright Creek…
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20200916 PCT – Tipsoo Lake to Bear Gap, OWNF
Smoke continues to fill the air this weekend as I set off on a hike from Tipsoo Lake to Bear Gap along the PCT in the Okanagon-Wenatchee National Forest, north of SR 410, outside MRNP. With SR 410 closed at Enumclaw, and SR 12 closed at White Pass, I thought perhaps this out-of-the-way corner of…
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20200907 Leech Lake to Shoe Lake via PCT, GPNF GRW
Memorial Day Weekend is a holiday in which I generally stay home. My favorite haunts are usually overwhelmed with Packwood Flea Market tourists and hordes of recreationalists. This year, however, the game has changed. The rules were tossed out the window. Packwood was practically deserted. I start my day by heading out the door at first light, hitting the…
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20200723 Klickitat Trail, Cispus Peak & Pompey Peak, GPNF
Having left Summit Creek and passed thru Packwood, I hung a left at USFS 20 Rd, the Smith Creek Road. This road winds its way up into the mountains south of Hwy 12 a few miles before town. The road is long, and entirely passable. I was too busy drinking dirty chai to make good…
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20200628 Packwood-Art Lake-Snyder Mtn Loop, GPNF
Thinking I’d have a low-energy day in Packwood, having had a headache for days. In no hurry to leave in the morning, I arrived and parked at the Community Hall just before 10:00 am. A group of people were meeting outside the hall, using the picnic tables at the park – I don’t know if…
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20200526 Klickitat Trail #7, GPNF
The Klickitat Trail is an old one, known to be in use 2000 years ago. This trail follows the ridge of the mountains which separate the Cowlitz River Valley from the North Fork Cispus River Valley, which rises 5,000’ above the valley floors. The ridge runs E-W, the south face relatively uninterrupted above the NF…
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20200518 Eruptiversary – USFS 26 Rd to Cascade Peaks, MSHNVM
How has so much time passed? Was it really 40 years ago that I was a young child, watching in fear as the sky disappeared behind boilings clouds of ash as darkness fell one Sunday mid-morning in May? We visited Mt. St. Helens for the first time, post-eruption, in what I believe was 1984. The devastated landscape…
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20200125 Muddy Fork Cowlitz, GPNF
I really needed a day on the river, my river, the Muddy Fork Cowlitz. And what a bluebird day to be there, too. All the little creeks were full to the brim with melt-water, the sky was intensely blue and the air warm and still, and I had a new camera to play with. I purchased…
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20190930 Packwood Lake, Upper Lake Creek, GRW, GPNF
I spent Sunday and Monday at Packwood Lake – had a sweet campsite at the upper end of the lake, and enjoyed the company of a very friendly dipper. Weather was moving thru rapidly, with lots of wind and a wee little bit of rain, bringing the season’s first chill. I celebrated with an impromptu campfire.…
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20190923 Davis Mtn, GPNF
Davis Mountain rises over the Big Bottom Valley immediately north of the Cora Bridge, and is accessed by Carr Rd, which turns into 1256 Rd a couple of miles up. The road is permanently gated, but maintained, and climbs its way up the south face of mountain then the north face, before coming to an inglorious…