Girls Gone Wildwood

The Enchantments is probably one of the most photographed areas in the Cascades and there is a good reason. The drama of the sharp peaks of the Stuart Range reflecting in the blue waters of the lake basins makes it hard to take a bad picture. The picturesque beauty has made a popular area even more popular, which makes it extremely difficult to an overnight permit in the permit lottery.




Last year John and I got a permit to the Eightmile Lake zone, but there was a forest fire and our pass got pulled. We put a reminder on the calendar for the lottery in 2018, but somehow missed the reminder. When we finally got around to getting a pass we got one for midweek the first week of October for Eightmile Lake. I was happy to have a pass but weather at the beginning of October can be a little iffy. 




Looking at the weather before we headed out there was a 50% chance of rain and was suppose to be close to freezing overnight, so we decided to camp in the van and to do day hikes instead. The nice thi…

In March I adopted an underweight, stubborn, wild but very loving German Shorthaired Pointer named Cedar. Very quickly everything in my life seemed to be about the dog, especially my running. Luckily, he loves to run long distances as much as Susan and I do, and also gets antsy if he hasn't gone on a run in a few days. His longest run to date is 20 miles. 



I wish I could say it was easy running with Cedar from day one, but it wasn't. He is 5 years old and has never been leashed trained and pulls like crazy. He is also a bird dog and is obsessed with small animals, which includes small dogs. So, he is never going to be the dog that I can run with off leash with and pass people with other (smaller) dogs and say, "oh don't worry he is friendly". 



Over the last several months he has gotten better on a leash, but not great. He has had the chance to hang out with other dogs his size and he doesn't mind them, he mostly ignores them. When people with small dogs approac…

For our August day-off run, we had wanted to find some trails near Mt Adams. With Ann's (newish) dog, Cedar, our options were to go shorter than usual with him, or to go near Mt Hood so we could drop him off at her moms' house. We chose the former and made it Cedar's best day ever.