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Our Trip to Oregon
Aug 24 - Sep 7, 2012
Before we started our adventure, we had our "last meal" at Tippy Canoe restaurant in Troutdale, on the outskirts of Portland near the Columbia River. There were turkey vultures circling above us!
Mt. Hood
The 2 no-fee campgrounds maintained by the forest service - Barlow Creek and Barlow Crossing - have several sites of cleared ground with fire rings in between. We stayed at one of these. It was far from any people and completely free!
Aaron gathering water to purify at the creek below our camp.
Our first camping lunch - chips in a bag with cheese from a bag.
The camp site was on the old Oregon Trail, and there were some posts still up.
The trees were hundreds of years old and HUGE! That's me for some scale.
The trees were all covered with a lichen called "Witches Hair" that's bright green and AMAZING for starting fires.
Our camp! Not a soul to be found nearby. Except some cows. More on that later.
Aaron already in full-on hillbilly mode. It took about an hour outside Portland for the black pants to come off, and the camoflague hat and knives to go on. He's my Yankee redneck, and I love him.
Our first night and a full moon on the way...
If you can bear it, the long shot of the moon and clouds concludes (jump to :52) with a shot of Aaron being utterly Aaron - by the fire in the dark with a headlamp on studying a map.
We came back to our camp after a hike and heard the sound of a loud bell. Arron takes a look and says "You're gonna love this!" And there were cows. In the forest. The lead one (troublemaker is my guess) had a bell around her neck. Talk about free range...
If you look real close you can see Aaron just waking up.
Aaron chopping wood for the night...
This is what the break of dawn looks like when you're nestled in the forests of Mt. Hood. BEAUTIFUL!
Catalpa Lake trail, Mt. Hood
The trailhead for Catalpa Lake started with traversing an old broken down bridge...
Aaron traversing said bridge, agile as a cat.
On the way to Catalpa Lake...
The plants and ferns in this forest are as big or bigger than my legs!
A patch of ridiculously big "skunk cabbage".
Spider web!
Cool old carved signs
After hiking for hours without seeing anyone, we finally came to the lake. We had the place to ourselves, and it was so enchanting!
Huge boulders were all around it.
Sappy Tree is sappy.
Aaron pleased at the lake.
Timothy Lake trail, Mt. Hood
This picture isn't colorized - it's Little Crater Lake. An aqua blue tiny lake (about 100 feet across, 45 feet deep) that was formed not far from the larger Crater Lake over a hundred miles south. Such a wonderful thing to come across.
Cool logs at the bottom.
Us in the forst surrounding Little Crater Lake and Timothy Lake.
HUGE spider in it's web. I'd say it's 4 inches long. Shudder.
Mount St. Helens, Washington
We took a day trip to Mount St. Helens just over the border in Washington - I haven't been there since 1996 and it looks more or less the same. As you can see, the crater at the top is smoking! It started a few weeks ago. Scary.
A 360 of the area at the base from the trail.
The whole area is still covered in ash from the eruption in 1980!
All those little "sticks" are tree trunks that had their bark stripped from the force of the eruption.
Peace.
The man.
As usual.
McNeil Point Trail, Mt. Hood
Our first backcountry trip! That's me and my gear in the forest that makes up the base of Mount Hood.
The side of the mountain - named "Hood" because it is almost ALWAYS covered by a cloud.
A couple of hours into the trail.
A sweet little Grey Jay all puffed out.
Where would we be without the self-timer?
A freshly dried out pond.
Wild flowers in the meadow.
Our camp for the night overlooking the tip of Mount Hood, which I couldn't make it to because I'm chicken.
The top part of Mt. Hood...
A great view of our camp. No one for miles, and it took 6 hours to get up there!
Our camp for the night!
Dusk - the little bit you see at the top is the tip of Mt. Hood, and that snow is glaciers!
The morning walk back - you can see Mt. St. Helens from the top!
Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainer and Mt. Adams visible in the clear day...
Aaron trekking back down the mountain...
It's ridiculous how many postcard pictures you can take in the forest...
Three Sisters Wilderness
Linton Lake trail, Aaron getting caught... again.
Roots.
Scott Lake campground
Another awesome free campground maintained by the Forest Service. This was Aaron's wood cutting area. We didn't have a neighbor for miles.
How we woke up and fell asleep for the next week...
The steam rising from the lake in the morning.
A butterfly on Aaron's shirt.
... and on the tree.
Morning time steam.
Dinnertime on Scott Lake.
Matthieu Lake backcountry camping
Our second backcountry camping trip took us to Matthieu Lake - beautiful.
Sitting on the lake...
We had this self-timer set up to take a cute picture of me laying on Aaron's lap. It turned out more pornographic than I had planned.
Aaron purifying water.
Our camp! Right in the middle of the forest.
Leaner, but not cleaner.
Lava forest.
On the way back through the lava filled forests...
Little Belknap Crater trail
We traversed this huge lava field to get a great view... That's one of the "Sisters" mountains.
There is an awesome observatory made from the lava rocks.
From the observatory.
View from the trail.
View from the top!
Aaron ponders the Three Sisters.
Us. Loving life.
Cool ancient trees that made it (sort of) through the volcano...
The trail.
Two forms of life, one crater.
The trail. So so hot.
The sisters and an old tree.
Where the lava meets the forest.
Proxy Falls
Hand is for scale - these plants were unimaginably huge.
You can't imagine how peaceful this place is.
Proxy Falls.
We're in heaven.
Moss. Life.
Tangled life beneath the falls.
The forest surrounding the falls was FILLED with Huckleberry bushes. We munched on them all day long.
HUGE trees - Aaron for scale.
Moss covered rocks.
Snake!
Aaron eating Huckleberries...
Silly Grey Jays...