A few months ago John and I hiked Bald Mountain and I kept commenting to him what a great running trail it was. I have been secretly trying to teach him to recognize good running trails for me since he hikes a lot. Susan and I finally got a chance to run it, and I have to say I think I impressed her.
The first 1.4 miles of the trail is a fairly gradual sometimes sandy climb, around mile 1.2 you cross over the Sandy River on a seasonal bridge. Head north on the PCT, before you start the 2.2 mile climb up to Bald Mountain you have to scramble over two fallen trees to cross the river. The climb can be steep at times, but I kept telling myself and Susan it is only 2.2 miles and then the rest is a lovely gradual down hill.
Once you reach Bald Mountain the forest opens up into fabulous alpine meadows, glacial streams and an unbelievable view of Mt. Hood. You can also see several stunning waterfalls coming down the slopes of Mt. Hood. The trail continues down to the Muddy Fork of the Sandy River, which you have to cross not once but twice without a bridge, so be prepared. The water wasn't raging when we crossed it, but it wasn't a little stream crossing either. The first crossing we found a stick that helped us cross over the slippery rocks, but our shoes were completely soaked. The second crossing was much easier, there were rocks that we were able to "hop" across.
The trail continues down past the Yocum Ridge junction, to Ramona Falls. If you haven't seen Ramona Falls before, you are in for a treat. Then you follow the trail back to your car, crossing the Sandy River one more time (on a bridge).
The route from William L. Sullivan's "100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington"
Susan cross the "tree bridge"
wild blueberries
Susan taking a picture on Mt. Hood from Bald Mountain
Our family hiking trip this year was to the Dolomites, more specifically Alta Via 1. John and I have done several hut to hut hiking trips in the Alps and planned them all ourselves, we never had any problems. As I started to plan our trip to the Dolomites, it became clear to me that it might be easier if we used a local company to help us book our accommodations and transportation. That way when questions came up from family members there was someone we could ask. Also letting the ultrarunner of the group plan the daily hiking itinerary probably isn't the best idea.
I ended up contacting Dolomite Mountains, I sent them my itinerary, the places I had already booked and a few other specifications and Monica created an agenda pretty similar to the one I already had in mind. As much as I like to plan things myself, it was nice to have someone local and not feel responsible for 5 other people's vacation. Plus if they thought the hike was too hard they couldn't blame me.
This originally was going to be a much longer post, but we have gotten so far behind on blogging that this is more of a tl;dr (too long didn't read) post. In early April I had a work trip to San Francisco that kept me in the city over the weekend, so Susan decided to fly down for a running weekend. I didn't spend a lot of time planning a route, I pinged a running friend of ours, Guf who lives in San Francisco and asked for suggestions on a 30 mile route in the Marin Headlands. The night before our run he sent us a 30 mile Strava route, which we decided to use. The weather was absolutely perfect for running, sunny and in the 70s. Though it felt pretty warm to us, since it was still winter like weather in Portland. We didn't think to bring sunscreen and we both ended up with some nasty sun burns. We roughly followed Guf's route but got off a few times, but we were able to piece together a really nice 30 mile loop. We started at the Tennessee Valley trail head and ran to …
We completed the Loowit trail, 34 miles circumnavigating the volcanic lands and forests surrounding the squat, smoldering Mt St. Helens. It was amazing, but I cannot rightly recommend this route to others.
Not because it's not beautiful, mostly fun, diverse in ecosystems, and full of fascinating wildlife. It is all of those things. But it is also full of washouts and utterly terrifying descents, ascents, and traverses on huge dunes of kitty-litter-esque scree.
Granted, I have a particular fear of scree washouts after our Mt Hood circ attempt. But some of these washouts were incredibly precarious. Each foot placement had to be strategized and the few rocks to hold on to often came away in the sandy scree, sending an avalanche of gravel and dust down the side of the slope, the sound of which reminds one what will happen if you should misstep.
We started at June Lake trailhead, from which you run about 2 miles up to join Loowit trail. From there we had heard there would be lots of walk…
Ann's story (the planning)
Ever since I did my first multi-day
backpacking trip 10 years ago, I have wanted to circumnavigate Mt. Hood. We
actually planned a backpacking trip to do in 2007, but after doing some
research realized part of the trail had been washed out and was closed. So the Mt.
Hood circumnavigation was put on the back burner until I started running long
distances.
I mentioned to Susan last summer that we should do it, but it wasn’t
until early this year when we were trying to find a race during the summer that
was 40 – 50 miles and fit both of our schedules that I mentioned we should just do Mt. Hood. It worked out great, since we could do it during
the week when there is less traffic on the trail and we wouldn’t have to give up a
weekend day with our families.
I really love planning hiking, backpacking, and running routes / trips. I loved being able to pull out all my maps and books, and comb through them for training runs and the circumnavigation, but single
mo…
I have wanted a dog ever since I used to run with my friend Karrla's sled dog Oscar years ago. I really wanted a dog that was capable of running long distances and I didn't particularly want a puppy. Karrla researched breeds years ago and decided that a German Shorthaired Pointer would be the perfect breed for me. I researched breeders numerous times, but never followed through on contacting one. I also felt a little guilty not getting a dog from a shelter, but it all was really moot since for one reason or another I never got a dog.
Two weeks ago while Susan and I were running my husband who was in Germany sent me text to an article about 53 dogs who had been rescued from a La Pine, OR breeder and 22 of them were going to be available for adoption at the Oregon Humane Society in Portland. The article said that Labs, German Shorthaired Pointers (GSP) and Dachshunds were going to be available for adoption starting on Friday. Since 2 days had passed I wasn't sure if any of…
Yes, and I'm still impressed!
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