Loomis Adventures

With record rainfall in Portland for the month of September, I have been eagerly awaiting a temperature drop and the mountain snow that would follow. I got my wish this week with the first snow of the season falling in the higher elevations (above 5,000'). I am still off work for another week or two (due to knee surgery), so I loaded up my new Polaris 800 Switchback Assault snowmobile on Thursday and headed up to the mountain. Timberline Lodge was reporting 18" of snow on the ground at about 6,000' elevation.

Katie, our baby son Julian, and I went huckleberry picking near Hideaway Lake on Saturday. We had planned to pick huckleberries right near the lake, but it was way too crowded with weekend campers. Hideaway Lake is on the way to Timothy Lake (from Estacada) off forest service road 57. Take the paved forest road 58 to the left before 57 turns to gravel. At the fork, take the gravel road 5830 to Hideaway Lake. Due to the crowds, we decided to continue further along the road.

My friend Cari has been wanting an introduction to alpine climbing, so we decided to head up to Mt Hood for a day of training. My original plan was to take her to Elliot Glacier on the NE side of Mt Hood, but the road to Cloud Cap Inn is still closed due to falling tree hazards. Instead, we drove up to Timberline Lodge and hiked up above the Palmer ski lift to where the slope is steeper.

My parents and sister flew up from Reno for the weekend to meet our baby son Julian. My Step Mom, Katie, and Sister had a baby shower to attend on Saturday, so my friend John took my Dad and I out catch-and-release sturgeon fishing on the Willamette River for the day. We launched his North River boat at Meldrum Bar in Gladstone and headed downstream in search of a deep pocket with enough flow to anchor and fish.

I had been planning to climb Mt Hood the weekend of June 1st, but was instead blessed with a new baby boy! I quickly canceled my plans and as it turns out the weather wasn't that great anyway. I made the same plans the following weekend for a solo climb of Mt Hood's South route Pearly Gates variation. The weather forecast was looking perfect for Friday night into Saturday morning. My plan was to drive up to Timberline Lodge Friday night after work, sleep for a few hours in my car, then start climbing around 1:30 AM on Sunday morning.

We spent Memorial Day weekend camping in our travel trailer at Rock Creek Reservoir near Wamic, Oregon. Katie and I were both fortunate enough to get Friday off, so we made it an extra long weekend and left Portland Thursday after work. Rock Creek Reservoir is a small, 100 acre lake (when full in the spring) located in Tygh Valley within the Mt Hood National Forest. The lake is about 6 miles WSW of the town of Wamic and is stocked several times each Spring with rainbow trout.

I have always found Mt Jefferson (Oregon's second tallest peak) to be one of the best looking of the cascade volcanoes when it is snow covered. This weekend I decided to take an exploratory trip up the SW Ridge climbing route. My goal was not to summit, but possibly get as high as the "Red Saddle" a couple hundred feet below the summit pinnacle. The weather was forecast to be warm with winds around 45 mph. I hate wind, but decided to go anyway. It has been a while since I last climbed and I have been eager to get out again.

My dad, Steve, drove up from Reno, NV to visit for the weekend. I had been trying to get him to come up for a snowmobile trip for the past few weeks, but weather and timing didn't line up until this weekend. Unfortunately the warmer than usual temperatures and less-than-average snow pack limited our snowmobiling options. I didn't want to drive all the way to Central Oregon, so we decided to try out Mt Saint Helens. From other reports it sounded like there was still enough snow to snowmobile out of Marble Mountain Sno-Park on the South side of Mount Saint Helens.

Spring is here and Katie and I decided to go on our first non-snow hike of the year on Sunday. We had driven by the Dog Mountain trailhead the weekend before en route to Mt Adams and thought it might be a fun hike to try. The trailhead is just East of mile post 53 on Hwy 14. It's about 55 miles East of Vancouver, Washington across the Columbia River from Mt Defiance. The trail is marked as 3.8 miles one-way, but is probably closer to 3 miles. It's a fairly steep trail, gaining over 2,800 feet to the summit. There are a couple different route options to keep things interesting.

I am stubborn, as most would attest to, and not willing to give up on winter yet. I took my friend Ryan snowmobiling today for his first time even though Spring is here. I knew we would probably find plenty of bare road, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to go out one last time from Skyline Sno-Park in the Mt Hood National Forest. We had fresh snow the day before and overnight, so I was hopeful to find at least a few miles of riding.