Adventures

John's friend Joe plans an annual guys camping trip near Lake Harriet every year around the trout stocking schedule. This years trip fell in the middle of April and John invited me to join them.

Lake Harriet is a 22 acre reservoir on the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas River. It is located about 47 miles Southeast of Portland. There is a campground on the East end (upriver end) hosting 11 primitive sites.

I had the whole day Wednesday with my Mini-Adventurer, so we took advantage of the weather and headed to the Columbia River Gorge for a waterfall hike. Ever since we moved out to the country with a small creek on our property, he has been enamored with water. I figured a hike full of waterfalls would really impress him. Our plan was to hike the Multnomah and Wahkeena Falls loop. It's just under 5 miles round-trip.

After seeing very little snow this winter, I was happy to see a few Spring snow storms roll over the Mt Hood area the past week. Enough snow fell in the higher elevations to afford me another snowmobile trip. It's like Christmas in April!

After dropping my son off at Grandma's for the day, I met my friend John at the Swan Island boat ramp to try my hand at catching a chinook. John and his dad were nice enough to pick me up in their boat with everything ready to go.

This has been one of the warmest winters in Oregon that I can remember. We have had very little snow accumulation in the mountains and no snowpack at pass level. It has been a disappointing season for snowmobiling. One positive is many roads are open that are usually impassable by passenger vehicles in the winter. This fact allowed my friend John and I to drive to the little bit of higher elevation snow that does exist.

I wanted to take advantage of the snow while it's around, so I planned a snow camping trip with my friend John. I had Friday after New Years off, so I went up alone and spent the day scouting out a spot and setting up camp for the weekend. I had to make two trips pulling gear behind my snowmobile since I was alone. I found a secluded spot just below Frog Lake Buttes (right above Green Lake). The weather was pleasant Friday and the snow still deep up higher.

Almost a foot of fresh snow fell this weekend around Mt Hood. My friend Jordan and I drove up to Frog Lake SnoPark for a fun day of snowmobile riding. I was sure just how much snow had fallen in the area, but I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the snopark Sunday morning. I nearly got my truck stuck parking, due to how much fresh snow was on the ground.

Merry Christmas! While we didn't get a white Christmas in town, Mt Hood finally received about 4-10" of snow at pass level. I had Friday off from work, so I decided to go up to Frog Lake SnoPark and check it out.

Its looking like another late year for snow unfortunately. I have had a snow camping trip planned for months with friends, but it was shaping up to be more of a wet weekend than a snowy one. We waited until the last minute to choose our destination hoping snow would come. Unfortunately that was not the case. We all took Friday off and I headed up early in the morning. Our destination was High Prairie just below Lookout Mountain at about 6,000 feet elevation. High Prairie is East of Mount Hood about 45 minutes (26 miles) from Government Camp off Hwy 35.

Most of our mountain snow melted during the week, but some fresh snow fell this weekend. I found reports of snowfall amounts from a couple inches to almost a foot! I was excited to get out snowmobiling again, so I convinced my friend John to go up Sunday morning with me. Our plan was to head to Little John SnoPark and drive up road 44 as high as we needed to before unloading the snowmobiles.

It has been a while since our last adventure. We gave up our search for a house and instead decided to have a new home built. Before construction started in September, we sold our old house and moved in with Katie's parents. We were hoping to be in our new home by Christmas, but it's looking like it won't be finished until the end of January. Most of my free time has been spent at the new house, but we finally managed to plan a quick trip up to the mountain.

Katie and I took a couple days off to enjoy a longer camping trip with our Mini-Adventurer. We planned on camping in our travel trailer along Barlow Creek near Barlow Crossing Campground. This weekend also happened to correspond with my friend's annual birthday camping trip, so it worked out perfect. Barlow crossing is located close to the junction of NF-43 and NF-48 South of Mt Hood. The actual campground is small with only four sites, but there are numerous dispersed camping sites farther down road 3530 along Barlow Creek.

After a disappointing several months looking for a new home, we finally made time to go camping with our one year old Mini-Adventurer. Katie and I decided to celebrate our 10 year anniversary with our son while staying in a yurt at Devil's Lake State Park near Lincoln City, Oregon. Normally we camp in a tent or our trailer, but decided to try something different. This was our first time in one of the many yurts available in campgrounds across Oregon.

I wanted to go out snowmobiling one more time this season before calling it quits this season. My friend John was back from vacation in Panama, so we decided to go riding Saturday out of Bennett Pass SnoPark. The snow is gone from all the lower elevation snoparks, so Bennett Pass was our only option. It's right across from Mt Hood Meadows at almost 4,700' in elevation. We often rider here early and late in the season as it's the first place snow falls and the last place it melts.

Even though it is officially Spring now, I am clinging to winter as long as I can. My reward for loyalty was some fresh snow in the mountains. My friend Nick and I took advantage and drove up to Frog Lake SnoPark early Sunday morning to go snowmobiling in the fresh snow.