December 28, 2011 - Hike 35

Hoyt Arboretum - Spruce, Wildwood, and Fir Trails - 2.1 miles

Rainy, windy day in the Portland area. Time for a hike anyway, so where to go? Thank goodness for Washington Park. We started out at the Hoyt Arboretum and decided to take whichever trail looked inviting. Mostly we were looking for the least muddy trail. It is nice to get out and hike even if the weather is not ideal.

Soggy Ken

Having a great winter break so far. We were in California for the first week and then came home for Christmas. Now we are spending time enjoying the company of each other as well as Lindsey and Brian. Lindsey will be home until the middle of January. Around the 7th a friend of Lindsey's (Carl) will be staying with us until the dorms open at Reed.

Trying not to think of school too much, but I spent most of the day on Tuesday grading papers. Those dreaded International Baccalaureate Internal Assessment papers (about 75 this year) take about 15 minutes each to grade. I have about 30 left to grade. I have piled them into three piles of 10 to make it more manageable. Well I should attack one pile now! Take care.

December 22, 2011 - Hike 34

Ventura Beach Hike - 3 miles

Our last day in California we headed off to Ventura Beach. Ken and I wanted to do a hike along the California coast. One thing I definately LOVE about Oregon is that all the beaches are public. It seems almost criminal that there are private beaches in California. I am truly appreciative of Tom McCall who was able to help pass the Oregon Beach Bill. The beach bill declares that all "wet sand" within 16 feet of the vertical tide belongs to the State of Oregon. It also entails public easements of all beach areas up to the line of vegetation. The public has "free and uninterupted" use of the public beaches!  YEA Oregon! 

Ventura beach was occuppied by quite a few surf boarders. After our hike, we walked along the Ventura Boardwalk. The culture was very distinct. I certainly felt a strong vibe of "Bob Marley". There were many smells of certain herbs that kept drifting my way during the walk.

There were many vendors along the sides of the walk, lots of incense, sage, and t-shirts. There were also many talented artists and some not-so-talented or actually, not to my taste, artists. Enjoyable hike along the beach and walk on the boardwalk, but not a place I would seek out again.



December 21, 2011 - Hike 33

Santa Ana River Trail - 3.2 miles

We spent our morning at Disneyland with the kids. After lunch, as they were napping, can you believe it they still take naps, Ken and I escaped for a local hike in Santa Ana. We had no idea what to expect from the Yorba Park other than it followed the Santa Ana River. When we arrived there, we realized that they had completely cemented in the river. Not as natural as we had expected.

The hike was not going to be the quiet-natural escape we had envisioned but we decided to enjoy ourselves anyway. We dug out the GPS and found several geocaches alon the trail. This made the 3.2 miles rather entertaining. One particular person had hid several micro caches along the trail. They were quite challenging and engaging as well. Ken and I were able to get some sun, exercise and enjoyment from each other's company.

After the hike, we headed back for an evening at Disneyland with the Kids. 



December 20, 2011 - Hike 32B

Castaic Lake Recreation Area - California

1.2 Miles
DOES NOT COUNT AS ONE OF MY 50 HIKES - DIDN'T QUITE MAKE THE REQUIRED 2 MILES




After a break for a late lunch, Ken and I headed out for a 2nd hike at Castaic Lake. This time, the trail started high on a bluff above the lake. It decended very steeply to the lake. It was a beautiful hike but we knew we would have to do an upper trail to make my required minimum 2 miles in order to count as one of my 50. Unfortunately, the hike back up was so steep it took longer than expected and the kids called and wanted to be picked up early so I had to abandon the plan of hiking the upper trail.

Still, it was a beautiful hike and I wanted to add it to my blog.....so it is officially hike 32B. At the bottom of the trail near the lake we were able to log a geocache. The terrain was very steep but the cache was easy to find. Yea!

As you can see from the picute above, I was really enjoying the fact that I had to wear sun glasses. Ken too! (See below) The view was very nice from lake level.

December 20, 2011 - Hike 32

Castaic Lake State Recreation Area - California

5.0 Miles













2011 Christmas present for the family was a trip to California. For the kids, well actually adults now, the highlight was Disneyland. We spent December 18th, and 19th at Disneyland. We have not been since Lindsey was 12 and Brian 15. Now they are 18 and 21. We love Disneyland, but after two days, I was definately ready for a hike. Since the kids wanted to ride the extreme roller coasters at Six Flags, I felt it was a perfect day for Ken and I to get our hike on!

All I did was look at a map, found Six Flags and then picked the closest natural area to go hiking. It was a perfect day for a hike, probably about 67 degrees outside. That temperature is way too cold to be outside for most Californians so we nearly had the park to ourselves. We only ran into one other person on the trail and he was dirt biking. The trail was fairly steep so I started to work up quite a sweat and was able to pull off my over hiking shirt leaving me with a tank top. I am sure my skin just soaked up the vitamin D. It felt glorious to say the least. I think I even got a little pink on my cheeks and nose from the sun.

At one point, Ken and I found a nice spot to sit and absorb the sun, relax and just be with nature.  After hiking high above the lake, the trail dropped us down to the lakeside. It was beautiful. On the lower part of the trail, we did run into a couple of people fishing but the trail was otherwise devoid of people. Our round trip hike put us at a little over 5 miles. Not a bad start to the day.

December 10th, 2011 - Hike 31

Forest Park - Wildwood

About 5 miles on a cold frosty day.


At the top of the hill, all the trees were covered in white frost. It was very lovely and peaceful. Only the very hardiest of joggers and hikers were out this morning so it was a wonderful hike.


Ken and I had a great chat about the class for At-Risk students that we will be co-teaching at SRHS this spring. He will be offering a 4 credit graduate level course at PSU for teachers, science and math majors who would like to explore teaching applied math and science to students who are at-risk of not graduating due to failing math or science courses. I will be teaching, along with a math teacher, a credit recovery course afterschool for juniors or seniors who need science and math credits. The graduate students will act and co-teachers and mentors to the at-risk students.

Anyway, hiking along the quiet trails of forest park offered a very nice way to discuss and think about the details of the course. It is interesting that the idea for this class was conceived during a hike at Eagle Creek this summer. I find the mind works amazingly well when out in nature.

December 3, 2011 - Hike 30

Wilsonville Memorial Park - Wilsonville, OR

About 3.5 miles with another .5 miles of geocaching wandering around in the woods.


We had to go down to Corvallis to transfer keys to our new tenants on Saturday. On our way back we looked at the navigation system map to find a nice park to go for a hike. We found this park that is just minutes off of I-5 in Wilsonville.

It was a wonderful find. It is an amazing park along the Willamette river. It had the most exciting play area for kids that I have seen in a long time. There was a giant rubberized mountain with a slide on one side. See the picture below. I can imagine all of the hours of "King of the Mountain" that have been played here.  I also loved the geodesic dome climbing structure. Ken enjoyed climbing to the top.

After playing for a while, we started on our actual hike. There were miles of hiking trails in the park and along the river. It was nearing dusk but we were able to get some really nice pictures of the river. The green sign on the post in the bottom picture indicated the level the river reached during the 1996 flood. Can you imagine that!

Near the end of our hike, we did a couple of geocaches. We found one of the best geocaches I have ever searched for. It was titled "A Bear ate my lunch" . We found the bear geocache in a hollowed out tree. It was so cute that I had to take a photo.

Isn't he adorable. He was tucked away in the tree hollow.

November 27, 2011 - Hike 29

Cook Park - Tigard Oregon

3.5 miles round trip




Thanksgiving weekend - second hike. Another cold day, but the sky was clear and the air was crisp.

Cook Park is located on the banks of the Tualatin River. It is a 79 acre park in Tigard Oregon. The park's river access is great for canoeing and kayaking. Ken and I have put in our canoe at this park many times for great paddles up and down the river. This was the first time we have taken the time to hike around the park.

The river offers access to some beautiful wildlife. If you look closely at the center of the above photo you may recognize a great blue heron. There are also many river otters along the river. The park has a couple of miles of paved and and some unpaved trails. We had a pleasant hike along the river and into the nearby wetland.

November 26, 2011 - Hike 28

Washington Park - Fire Lane 10

Approximately 3 miles



Cold day during the peak of Fall. We started this hike at Germantown Road parking lot. It is a nice wide trail that was covered in fall leaves. The hike started out as a gradual decline and then quickly became increasingly steep. Once down in the canyon, it is beautiful and quiet. We were shielded from the wind while in the canyon.

Ken and I decided to do a little geocaching and what was supposed to be a quick hour long hike turned into at least 2 1/2 hours. The geocaches were rated as difficult and I certainly found out why. One of the geocaches was found up a steep wooded hillside. We had a great time but found only three out of the five geocaches we attempted. Even though we were disappointed on a few searches, we were rewarded with muddy clothes and hands. I felt just like a little kid when we returned to the car. I think I even had mud on my face. One of the things we took away from this adventure was that geocaching at the time of year when big wet leaves covered most of the ground is indeed challenging.

We were exhausted and the climb out of the canyon was a challenge. Once at the car we could not wait to turn the heat up full blast and look forward to a hot shower at home.

November 24, 2011 - Hike 27

 

Garden Home area of Fanno Creek Greenway Trail
3 - miles


Thanksgiving Day! What a great way to start the day. I went on a hike with my good friend. It was actually a very nice morning. It has been raining so much this week that when we agreed to go for a hike on Thanksgiving Day that I was sure we would be getting wet. But as it turned out, it was very nice, cold but nice.

We are both hosting our families for dinner later in the day. My family is coming over at 1:30 pm for an early dinner and hers will be at around 5 pm. So, it was nice to be able to get some time to spend with a dear friend and get some exercise as well.

Well that makes number 27. I hope to get in at least one or two more hikes this weekend. I wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving.

November 13, 2011 - Hike 26

Bald Hill, Corvallis Oregon - 2.5 miles round trip.



We were in Corvallis to take care of a rental property we own and decided to take a hike before we met with the tenants that were moving out.

Bald Hill is just a mile or so away from Oregon State University and seemed quite popular with the local people. The day was partly sunny and not too cold. We hiked a little off trail and found this nice fallen tree with some beautiful fungus growing out of the side. Ken took a few pictures with his new camera lens. It did quite well considering it was not really a lens for close-ups.

I was not feeling too well. I had been fighting a cold for a few days and did not have much energy so we did not hike far. Near the end of our hike, we stopped at a big covered barn area to get out of a brief rain shower. I was able to get a fun shot of Ken while we were there. He really is a great hiking partner...well actually a great all-around partner! I also took a great picture of a barren tree. Someday maybe I will take a photography class. There are so many beautiful things to photograph it would be nice to actually be able to do it well.

Ken goofing around in the Barn!



November 12, 2011 - Hike 25

Fort Stevens State Park - Columbia River Spit - South side of the Columbia River - 6 miles

YEA! I'm at the beach. A great day to be on the beach. It was wet, windy and the waves were making beautiful music. We started our hike at a parking lot at the end of Jetty Road at the wildlife viewing area. We walked along the beach to the South Jetty of the Columbia River.

On the way to the jetty, a fellow-courageous hiker informed us of a dead seal on the beach. She graphically described the scene to us. Which was bad news for me because I had just had dairy for breakfast which is never good for me. My stomach was already upset. But on to better things.

After hiking and being pummelled by the rain for a while, we found a nice wind swept area the created a little cave that we were able to escape from the rain in. It was very nice being snuggled up next to Ken while listening to the waves, rain and wind. I nearly fell asleep. After about 15 minutes we continued our hike toward the South Jetty.

Once at the jetty, we watched the waves crashing over the jetty and the view and noise was spectacular. Normally, we would have hiked along the jetty to the parking lot and then back along the road to our car, but there was so much water that the area was flooded. We had to take a detour around the wetlands. This added a mile or so to our hike. I was greatly saddened by all of the plastic in the wet land area. Literally, if I had had garbage bags, I think I could have picked up at least a dozen large garbage bags of just plastic. I kept thinking about all the wildlife that dies because of ingesting bits of plastic. It reinforces my believe that, as a community, we need to stop using the plastic grocery bags. I would also like to see more people being conscientious about recycling their plastics. I wish everyone could see the amount of plastic on this small stretch of beach. If they could, I think they would be more inclined to help take care of our planet.

Once we were able to get around the wet land area, we visited the South Jetty viewing area. Below is a picture of Ken on this stormy day. Another fun hike and many good memories to add to my collection.

Novmber 11, 2011 Hike 24

Warrenton Waterfront Trail - About 4 miles round trip.


One of the wettest hikes so far, but also very fun. Warrenton is near the coast at the mouth of the Columbia River. It is a fishing town. One of the Captains from the early years of Deadliest Catch lives in Warrenton.

We had read about the paved waterfront trail in the Oregonian and decided since it was going to be such a wet weekend, why not head to the coast and embrace the Pacific NW weather. And....embrace it we did in between bracing ourselves from the wind. We decided to do some geocaching on the hike and were quite surprised by the number of geocaches along the trail. So not only were we wet, but were were wet and muddy from hunting around in the brush for the stashes. See pictures below. They were taken at a little waterfront park. You can see the Astoria Bridge behind us in the photos. There was a geocache hidden in the park and we were having a hard time locating it. After about 15 minutes, a local man came by and saved us. His house was on the other side of the trail and I guess he has seen many people struggling to find the cache. He was really cute giving us hints "If it were a snake it would bite you". Then he would look in the general direction. We finally found it hidden inside of a sprinkler housing hole which had a cap that was buried under driftwood and leaves. Whew!

This really was a great hike. Wet, rainy, windy, and purely Pacific NW in the Fall. Love it! It is wonderful to be out hiking. This quest to complete 50 hikes before my 50th birthday has kept me outside more than I usually would be and has been opening me up to wonderful new places. Who would have ever thought you could have so much fun in Warrenton, OR.

Below is one last picture I want to share, it really symbolizes the beauty you can find when you really look for it even on the most grey day.



November 6, 2011 - Hike 23

Sandy River Delta Park - Approximately 6 miles wandering all over the park.

This park is a great park but if you have dogs, it is fabulous. I do not have a dog but one of my hiking partners did.

This is by far the largest of Portland's off-leash parks. It has 1400 acres of wilderness trails and open areas for both humans and dogs to run, hike and just have fun.

The park is bordered by the Columbia River, the Sandy River and then I-84 on the back side. The whole park is an off-leash area with the exception of the parking lot and the Confluence Trail that takes visitors to a bird viewing area on the Columbia River. At the end of the Confluence Trail is a stunning Bird Blind. We actually did not see a lot of birds on this day mostly because there were dogs romping and playing in the river below. The dogs were having a great time chasing sticks in the water.

On this day, we hiked the Confluence Trail to the Columbia River and then did some geocaching on the way back. We took a side trip to the Sandy River on the other side. I really did not keep track of the miles, but I would guess we hiked a minimum of 6 miles on the Delta. I certainly was tired when we were done especially since we had already completed a hike on the other side of the freeway at Lewis & Clark State Park earlier in the day.

By the time we were at the Sandy River, the sun was starting to go down. It was absolutely gorgeous and peaceful at the waters edge. The photo was taken by a friend who took it with her phone. You can see how beautiful the setting was from the nice photos below.

After taking the photos, we hiked back to the parking lot. Another beautiful hike with some wonderful friends.

November 6, 2011 - Hike 22

Lewis & Clark State Park - 3 miles

Lewis & Clark park honors the explorers of it's namesake who camped and explored at the park area in November of 1805. The park is near the mouth of the Sandy river where it enters into the Columbia River. When you park in the parking lot and look up at the bluff, you will be happy to know that this is a great example of some of the Boring Basalts. These basalts flowed out of fissures near Boring Oregon. The lava is characteristically a light-gray phyric olivine basalt.

I went hiking with three friends to the Park. It was a very beautiful fall day. The hike was a challenging hike. The trail was full of boulders and many places it had partially eroded away. But that did not stop us. I really enjoy hiking with this group of women. We hike, chat and also do a little geocaching along the way. It is also fun to explore new places with friends.

The picture above shows two of my friends loging our entries into the cache logbook. The cache was found about 30 feet off the trail. If you have never tried mixing geocaching and hiking, you should give it a try. It is quite fun.

November 5, 2011 - Hike 21

Fanno Creek Trail - 8 mile round trip hike

Trails Club of Oregon












Today Ken and I did our first hike with the Trails Club of Oregon. There were seven of us who showed up on this rainy fall day to hike the Fanno Creek Trail. The Fanno Creek Trail is part of the the Tualatin Hills’ network of paved hiking/biking paths. I love the area around Greenway. The park has a disc golf course that Ken and I played often during summer evenings. On this day, we started at 9:00 in the morning from the Albertson's parking lot in Beaverton and hiked to the Tigard Library.

Meeting new people is always fun but when they share a passion for hiking, it is really fun. We met a man who teaches remedial math at a community college. He used to have a career on wall-street but has retired. There was a real-estate broker, a contractor and a health-care administrator. The great part about the hike is the ever changing hiking partners. Learning about each other and having fun conversations about current events made the hike go extremely fast.

Once at the Tigard library, we stopped for coffee and more conversation before heading back to Beaverton. All in all, it was a great hike.

I look forward to many fun activities with the Trails Club of Oregon. They have hiking, backpacking, snow shoeing, kayaking and biking activities throughout the year. They also own and maintain two lodges just outside the Portland Metro area. One in the Columbia Gorge Scenic Area and also one on the southeastern slope of Mt. Hood. I can't wait to backpack into the Mt. Hood lodge this winter.

October 30, 2011 - Hike 20

Tualatin Hills Nature Park - 2 mile loop



From Murray Blvd, turn west on Millikan Way, which becomes SW Millikan Blvd. The entrance to the park and Visitor’s Center is about ¾ mile from Murray Blvd.







I felt a little run-down last weekend but felt I needed to get in at least one hike so we did our local Nature Park Hike. It was a fairly good fall day although it was a little cold and rainy. But what can we expect for the Pacific Northwest.

The Tualatin Hills Nature Park is a 220-acre wildlife reserve in Beaverton, Oregon. There are both evergreen and deciduous forests, creeks, wetlands, ponds and meadows. There are approximately 5 miles of trails. About 1.5 miles are paved, the rest are well maintained soft surface trails.

The oak trees had mostly lost their leaves and you could see all the oak apples. Oak apples are hard galls that are created when certain wasps inject a chemical into the leaf bud after the female wasp lays a single egg. Below is a picture of one from google images.

We did see many catepillars along the trail but other than that it was mostly quiet in the park.

October 22, 2011 - Hike 19

Medium Geocache Ammo Box

Geocache Hike in Forest Park - Cannon Trail - Approximately 3 miles













My friend loves to hike and geocache. So after our 10 mile hike out Leif Erickson Drive in Forest Park. We decided to hike a little of the Wildwood Trail to find a couple of geocaches. If you are not familiar with Geocaching, it is a hobby born when on May 2, 2000 the government switched off the selective availability to GPS. This allowed average everyday people to be able to find very specific locations using a hand-held GPS. The first Geocache was called "Great American GPS Stash Hunt".

On May 3, Dave Ulmer, a computer consultant, wanted to test the accuracy by hiding a navigational target in the woods. He called the idea the "Great American GPS Stash Hunt" and posted it in an internet GPS users' group. The idea was simple: Hide a container out in the woods and note the coordinates with a GPS unit. The finder would have to find the "Stash" using only a GPS unit. The rules were simple. Take something out of the box and leave something behind. Since that day, the hobby has exploded and gone world-wide. There was even a geocache on the space station. Others can be found anywhere. There is probably one within a 1 to 2  mile radius of you right now.

Ken and I first did geocaching with the kids in 2002. We loved to hike and the geocache was a way to get the kids to love it as well. They took their little hand-crafted gekkos that were made out of beads to put in the boxes. They usually got something like a fast food toy in exchange. They loved the hunt for the boxes.

If you are interested in geocaching, check out geocaching.com. It is a nice addition to hiking and a good reason to get out into the woods.

October 22, 2011 - Hike 18

Leif Erickson Trail off Germantown Rd in Forest Park - Approximately 10 miles

I went hiking with a new friend in Forest Park. We started at Germantown Road on Leif Erickson Trail. It is a very nice hike. Leif Erickson Drive is a well maintained road/trail (closed to motor vehicles now) that winds through Forest Park. There are very steep hills that boarder the road. They are all covered with mossy trees and lots of beautiful ferns.

My friend likes to geocache as told me that there are a couple of vehicles that drove off Leif Erickson Drive back in the 70s that are still there. One day she wants to go back to get the geocache that is in one of the cars. We were able to see one of the cars from the trail. It looks like it would be quite an adventure to hike down to get it. "I'm game".

It was a beautiful day with gorgeous fall colors to look at. This hike would be good for bikes, strollers or even a tough wheel chair. We went out about 5 miles when the road runs into the Saltzman Road trail before returning back to Germantown road. Good hike with good company!

October 17, 2011 - Hike 17

Photo taken from Freeway Overpass

Urban Hike around Gilbert and Higley, Arizona - Approximately 5-6 miles.
















Decided to do an urban hike around my sister's home town of Gilbert and ended up walking through Higley as well.  I started the hike from my sisters house. She lives is an very beautiful neighborhood with well kept yards and the streets are clean and well maintained. I had my phone GPS with me and decided to walk from local park to local park to local park. In my mind it would be an urban park hike. The area was beautiful. There were many samples of nice trees and pretty, fragrant flowers.

Tree about 1/2 mile from sister's house

Fragrant Flowers

As I was about to leave my sister's neighborhood, I came upon the wall that separates the neighborhood from the freeway. Here is where it really began to feel like a true "Urban hike". I love this picture below. I went from well maintained homes with swimming pools to this in a matter of one block.

After crossing the highway, I stopped into the local Walmart to get a bottle of water and ended up getting my hair cut. Go figure, but I had some time and was looking a little scraggly. After the hair cut, I decided to find the park that had that appeared on my phone GPS to have a large lake right in the center. It was only about 3/4 of a mile from Walmart. Below is what I found once I got there. It really was just a large cement pond with a little gazebo and a few ducks.

 After visiting the park, I ended up in a city called Higley. It was not nearly as nice as Gilbert but it had several farms with horses. I found it quite surprising that within one urban hike you can go from such an affluent neighborhood that is well maintained to a small community with not so well maintained farms. Higley was much more interesting though. It had pomegranate trees, big dogs, horses, old barnes, dirt roads and lots of cute kids running around. All in all, this was a very interesting hike.

October 15, 2011 - Hike 16

My sister

Hike with my sister in Phoenix at South Mountain. Approximately -
7-8 miles. Temperature High 80s











I had a wonderful time visiting my sister in Phoenix last weekend. It was nice to get away from the rain in Portland and head to such a warm area. It got up to the high 90's most of the days that I was there. The swimming pool was quite a treat. It was interesting that my sister, neice and nephew felt it was too cold to swim. I felt the water was refreshing and it felt wonderful to warm up on the pool deck after swimming. Also had the best barbeque chicken, made by my sister and her husband. I need to look for Snider's Barbeque spice here in Portland. Also enjoyed spending time with the youngsters (really teenagers).

Anyway, the hiking at South Mountain was fun, mostly because I was able to spend time chatting with my sister. The whole hike looked pretty much the same. I guess that's what you expect in the Sonoran Desert. I am sure that people who live in Phoenix recognize and appreciate the beauty and diversity of the park. I think it is just different than what I am used to here in the Pacific Northwest. I did get a few good pictures.

Cactus

Brown desert rocks with city in background