End of Summer Oregon Adventures 2015

Day 1:

After a night of hanging out in Portland and planning the Mt Hood day hike it was off to the coast for some surf and sunsets.  First day out had me hiking one of my favorite trails near Lincoln City then driving up to Seaside and renting a surf board and wetsuit gear to spend a few hours out in the water getting annihilated by double overhead waves.  After that is was off to one of my favorite camping spots out near Cannon Beach.  

Just north of Lincoln City is the Cascade Head Trail with this spectacular view at the top.  This coastal hike never gets old.

Cheers to the simple things in life!

Exploring the tide pools at Cannon Beach and Short Sands.  So alive!  Missing the star fish this time around. 

A nearly empty Short Sands beach.  SUPed at this beautiful place in the frigid morning without a wetsuit.. only wiped out once catching a wave, but once is enough to call it a day.

Feeling at home here.  This picture says it all.. wide open beaches, waves, wildlife,  cascading mountains, sunsets, not a human in sight!

The dark and moody but powerful and quiet Oregon Coast.

Day 2:

After getting in a couple hours of beach running on the never ending beaches in the AM straight from the beach campsite I drove into downtown Cannon Beach for some food then was off to north end, Astoria, where I still had yet to explore when I lived here.  I got into Astoria mid-day and stopped off at the Coast Guard museum then checked out the downtown area a bit.  Astoria was short lived and I headed up to Washington to check out Cape Disappointment SP and the "Longest Beach in the World". Both were short lived and I quickly headed back to Portland to get prepared for a long day at Mt. Hood.

Coast Guard Station Astoria.  Where the Columbia meets the Pacific.  Typical cloudy day, but beautiful view of the Columbia River here.

Day 3:

Early morning, quick one hour drive out from my buddy's house to the Timberline Lodge at Mt Hood to start the 40 mile, 12,000 ft ascent and descent around the big badass HOOD.  Plan was for us to stay on pace to get the Timberline Trail done in roughly 13 hours.  This would give time to enjoy the place a bit, be safe at river crossings, time for navigating, eating, and drinking, and relaxing when needed.  Packing was as minimal as possible.. jacket, lights, food, water, first aid, and a hunger for adventure.  Full disclosure this was a tough day mentally, right up there with Ironmans and Ultras.  The combination of ascents and descents and running out of food and water to drink at the end was tough. Running in boots was also not such a good idea.  But we survived and are better from it mentally and maybe physically.  This hike is called the "Hardest Day Hike in the world".

Old man Mt Hood ready to dish out some pain on its climbers.

Jogging the flats and descents.  Enjoyed the running more than the walking.  I'm much more comfortable running vs walking.  Now that I've done it, one day I may come back and try to go sub 9 hours running around the mountain. And maybe come back and take it very relaxing with camping.

At Ramona Falls.  30ish miles on the trail at this point. We did not see many people on the trail all day.  But somehow randomly ran into an old friend of mine from when I lived in Portland.

We did this hike the day prior to the Supermoon Lunar Eclipse.  The full moon lit the way back to the Timberline Lodge.  The last few hours were spent in the dark under the moonlight.  It was pretty special.  After finally finishing the 40 mile route we immediately went down to Government Camp to load up on some food (a milkshake and huge omelet) then collapsed in a nice local hotel for the night. 

Day 4:

After taking the morning slow and getting some good coffee and breaky, I then made my way out to Hood River. I rented a SUP board for the day and paddled up and down the Columbia River in the stunning gorge for hours. After a day on the river I unexpectedly met up with a few cool peoples and ended up having some fun in downtown Hood River for the night.  

One of the most beautiful places you could SUP.  No waves, but the landscape is all you need here. I wanted to spend the day Kite Surfing, but the winds weren't kickin so it was a SUP day.

Day 5:
Next day with a bit of a hangover I made my way out to Deschutes River early morning for some fly fishing and kayaking.  The weather was perfect and the cold water felt good under the hot "desert" sun.  The thing I love about the PNW is that I can just rent the gear, get my permits, and go off and do my thing.  I did have a guide for the river kayaking as I had never kayaked this place before, so the idea was better to be safe than sorry. Deschutes river around this time of year is fairly empty and I had a lot of fun on some solid class III+ sections.  After a day on the Deschutes I made my way back to Hood River for more SUPing (I couldn't pass up a free carbon board to use) then headed to the next campsite before I headed out early the next day for the airport.

Just out having a bit of fun out on the Deschutes.

On to the next great adventure..

Life Is Short, Go Get It!