Loomis Adventures

My friend Kevin and I went snowmobiling from Frog Lake Sno Park on Saturday morning. We arrived just before 8 AM to a slushy parking lot and a temperature around 32°F with wet snow showers. We were one of the first ones there, but I wasn't expecting f very busy day as there is still not very much snow in the lower elevations around Mount Hood.

Katie and I both took Friday off to celebrate my birthday up in the snow. We had hoped to go snow camping, but the weather was not looking good overnight (rain in the forecast instead of snow). We ended up going snowmobiling for the day near Lookout Mountain (same place we were two weeks ago).

Katie, our Mini-Adventurer, and I drove up to the base of Lookout Mountain (about 6,000' elevation) Saturday to play in the snow. We took Katie's Ford Escape for the first time in the snow and it handled amazingly well. No skill was needed to keep it safely on the road. We came across several other people out having fun in the snow. There was maybe 5-6" of snow by the time we made it to High Prairie (the base of Lookout Mountain). The weather was mostly cloudy with only a calm breeze and right around freezing. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day.

We had our first real snow storm Tuesday night into Wednesday. The snow came down below pass level on Mt Hood finally. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever get cold with the record warm days we have been having this month. Being the first storm and a forecast of rising snow levels this weekend, I took Thursday off to see if there was enough snow to snowmobile. I took my friend Kevin and we headed to my customary early season riding area at Bennett Pass Sno Park.

On Sunday, Julian, Katie, and I decided to hike the Old Salmon River trail #742A. It's a short (about 2 miles each way) out-and-back hike along the Salmon River.

We took the boat out again on Saturday, this time with my parents. This was their second attempt for the season. The first time we had motor troubles (the starter blew up and we never left the boat ramp).

Today we launched from Meldrum Bar on the Willamette River just downstream from Oregon City. My Grandpa was with us too, so we had four generations aboard.

With upper 90's forecast for the weekend we got an earlier start at the boat ramp Friday (Chinook Landing). We met my sister and her family at the ramp. Everyone piled in (8 of us total) and we cruised downstream. It was windy which helped it feel a little cooler. We tried to find a calm place to anchor, but the current was ripping everywhere.

On Sunday we took our friends, Jordan and Melanie, out on our boat to have some fun on the Columbia River. It was busy, but still plenty of parking at Chinook Landing when we arrived around 10:30 am.

We headed upriver and found a spot to anchor downriver from Rooster Rock. We tossed the tube out and Julian had a blast just floating around.

We decided it would be fun to go on a day hike Thursday while we were camping along Barlow Creek. We started from Barlow Creek campground (actually right across the creek from the campground) following Bonney Meadows trail #471 for about 2 miles. This trail intersects Catalpa Lake trail #535 (about 3/4 of a mile) just before it ends at FS road 250. The hike is approximately 5.5 miles round-trip with 1,000 feet of elevation gain.

We took most of the week off to go camping as a family near Barlow Crossing Campground in the Mount Hood National Forest. The campground is off forest service road 43 near its junction with road 48 on the SE side of Mt Hood. We left on Tuesday morning and arrived just after noon.

After getting our boat fixed (bad starter) we were eager to take it out and enjoy our beautiful Oregon summer. We took Katie's mom and friend Tracy out with us Saturday. We launched at Chinook Landing around 10 am. It was crowded due to a outrigger canoe race taking place Saturday.

We headed upriver toward Rooster Rock. We found a nice wide stretch of the Columbia River where there was very little boat traffic and calm conditions. It was perfect for Julian to experience his first time being pulled behind the boat in an inner-tube.

With a beautiful weekend forecast, we decided to go tent camping to Bonney Crossing campground with our friend John. Bonney Crossing is a small (less than 10 sites) primitive (no drinking water) campground at the Eastern edge of the Badger Creek Wilderness right along Badger Creek. It is located off FS road 2710 (about 2.5 miles North of Rock Creek Reservoir as the crow flies). Wamic is the closest town.

Shad have started going over Bonneville Damn, so that means its time to start fishing the Willamette River for them. Katie has every other Tuesday off from work, so I have decided to leave early from work on corresponding Tuesdays to take the whole family shad fishing.