Loomis Adventures

My friend John invited me salmon fishing again. We launched at the Swan Island boat ramp hoping to finally catch a chinook on the Willamette River. John's friend Kirk was also with us.

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.