Lake Sacajawea

My mom and I drove up to Longview for some time with our cousins. Before we met them, my mom had a function to attend and since I did not want to go to that, I dropped her off and took a nice trek around Lake Sacajawea.  It was a gorgeous day and I enjoyed the scenery, although for some reason it did not smell pleasant there. My other recommendation for this location is to use the restroom before you go. They do have a public bathroom there, however, it is the most disgusting bathroom I have ever experienced and I am fairly certain it isn't often used for releasing bodily fluids more than it may be a spot to shoot up heroin or engage in some other type of drug use. And that is putting it lightly. I am forever traumatized from that bathroom.

Anyway, as long as you keep those two things in mind, this is a beautiful loop around the lake in the middle of town! I even came across a bench that was donated from the high school and my great uncle's name, Bud Gauthier, is on it! Fun!

• Date of hike: December 6th, 2014
• Distance: 3 Miles (roundtrip)

• Elevation gain: 35 feet 

• Difficulty: Easy
• Mile Mark: 210

The great lady Sacajawea and her son are featured along this walk

Snowy Shellburg Falls

While hitting my 200 mile mark was incredible, it was just one mile mark on my journey.  For my next trip, I had originally planned on hiking out to Cape Lookout on the Oregon Coast, however, I caught news that the coast weather was pretty nasty, windy, and hiking up to the cape might be dangerous.  Therefore, I switched gears to a more local hike at Shellburg Falls. And my friend Heather joined me again for this hike.

Shellburg Falls and I have quite the history actually.  When I was 18 years old, I started working at YMCA Camp Silver Creek.  And just so you know, I had never hiked in my life.  I also had been very sedentary during my freshman year of college and was completely out of shape.  My first week with kids, I was working with teenage Leaders in Training.  During that week, we planned to hike to an overnight spot, stay the night, and return the next morning.  I was already nervous at the sound of hiking anywhere, let alone when I found out that we were headed to Shellburg Falls.  Our camp was a good 8 miles from Shellburg Falls. I might also add that the hike starts climbing significant elevation, surfacing out for a while, and then straight down for a while down into the ending place campsite where we would stay the night.  As we set out, about 30 teenagers and 8 counselors, I hung back with the medic at the back of the line.  The terrain was rocky and the elevation was something my muscles had never experienced. Every single step was a struggle. I was unstable in balance and could never quite catch my breath enough. After settling at our campsite, we then took the kids down to the falls, which was more hiking for me. I slept deeply on the forest floor that night.  On the return hike, I tripped and fell several times and ended up significantly behind the rest of the group.

 Although I struggled with every step, I had two amazing counselors who stuck by my side and encouraged me the whole way.  A special thank you to Pancakes (Sam Lewis) and Strider (Joseph Carlisle) whom I will never be grateful enough for your encouragement and sticking with me on that hike.  They countered the internal battle of shame I had running through my mind.  Like many times in my life when it comes to health and fitness, shame gremlins always creep in with messages telling me that I'm not good enough. On this hike it was a spiral of those messages and the fact that I couldn't keep up was just proving that message.  I was thoroughly ashamed that I had a hard time keeping up, that I was breathing hard, and that I couldn't keep my body stable enough not to fall repetitively. As I shared that experience of struggle with two incredible human beings, my shame was quieted.  That hike became a point of reference for the rest of the summer and what would be the rest of my life thus far.  I always refer back to that hike thinking, if I could do that hike, I can do anything; I can do this challenge in front of me right now.

So as I hiked the Shellburg Falls area, I was transported back to my 18 year old self and remembering my camp days, but also reminded of the immense strides in health I have made in the last 6 years.

Our hike started off at the Shellburg Falls Trailhead on Fern Ridge Road.  The weather as we started was overcast, but fairly cold.  As we got to Upper Shellburg Falls, it began snowing. The magic and beauty of Oregon wilderness in the snow is indescribable. I tried to capture it in photograph, but it just couldn't do it justice.  As we hiked up and back around behind the falls area, it started hailing profusely.  Finally, in the last leg of our hike back the sun came out and shone on us highlighting the beautiful country field that we came back through.  Needless to say, we had an entirely Oregon experience, featuring 4 different weather patterns within 2 hours.

• Date of hike: November 29th, 2014
• Distance: 5 Miles (roundtrip)

• Elevation gain: 500 feet 

• Difficulty: Easy
• Mile Mark: 207

 Shellburg Falls Trailhead

In the beginning of this hike you trek through private property and get to see all their land and livestock! 

 Its hard to see, but I tried to capture the snow. It was incredible.

 At the top of Lower Shellburg Falls

 Upper Shellburg Falls

  Upper Shellburg Falls

  Upper Shellburg Falls

 Behind  Upper Shellburg Falls

  Upper Shellburg Falls

200 Miles {Dry Creek Falls}

What a journey this year has been so far! At Dry Creek Falls I hit my 200 mile goal for 2014! In February, I started off wanting to hike 100 miles, but I made that goal in June. So I thought I'd add another hundred miles to the year and with this hike, I made it! It has been such an amazing, adventurous, and transformative year! I cannot begin to explain.

My friend Heather and I headed out to the Columbia River Gorge for this special hike to Dry Creek Falls.  The trail head is actually right as you get into Cascade Locks, just under the Bridge of the Gods.  It was scheduled to rain profusely, yet it didn't! It was actually beautiful.  However, as soon as we got back to the car the rain came in with a torrential downpour. Good timing for us!

I obviously am not stopping with my hiking journeys, however I am changing from having a goal to just adding up the miles. So instead of so many miles out of the goal number, I will just be posting Mile Mark with the number!

• Date of hike: November 23rd, 2014
• Distance: 5 Miles (roundtrip)

• Elevation gain: 710 feet 

• Difficulty: Easy
• Mile Mark: 202

 Dry Creek

 Dry Creek Falls

Gotta love the PCT!

 Heather & I at Dry Creek Falls

 We love the Pacific Crest Trail!

 Dry Creek Falls

Dry Creek Falls

"Your grace abounds in deepest waters Your sovereign hand will be my guide Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me You've never failed and you won't start now So I will call upon your name"

#dontfallpumpkin! {Winter Falls}

My beautiful friend Pumpkin (Rebecca...whatever name suits you) and I have been talking about doing a hike together for a few months now, so a very brisk morning we went out to Silver Falls State Park.  We left especially early (8am) since I had some other things going on that afternoon. It was quite cold and icy.  When we got out of the car at the park it was 28 degrees.

As we trekked down the normal route behind South Falls, we came to the pavement portion.  Quickly we realized how the entire slab of pavement was pure ice.  Rerouting we turned around and went the way of the Maple Ridge trail instead. And the rest of the trail was relatively normal, still a little slick in areas though. Which coined our theme for the hike, "Don't fall pumpkin!" The most hilarious part though was when we turned around to reroute, there was a lone man hiker just behind us. As we passed him, we let him know how icy it was and that he may want to take the route we were taking.  He said thank you, and continued on where he was headed.  We turned around and he was crab walking, eh. more like sliding, down the hill, then flipped around on all fours face down, all in an effort to get down this hill. We were dying of laughter.

It was such a joy to spend time with Pumpkin and talk about our lives and our common camp lives and just enjoy the landscape.  As cold as it was, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

• Date of hike: November 15th, 2014
• Distance: 5 Miles (roundtrip)

• Elevation gain: 670 feet 

• Difficulty: Easy
• Miles thus far: 197/200 miles this year

 Winter Falls

 Pumpkin and I at Lower North Falls

 Pumpkin and I at Lower North Falls

 Lower North Falls

Eagle Creek to Punchbowl Falls

Hiking in the fall is incredible. The fall leaves just color the landscape really making you feel as if you are Mary Poppins and just jumped into a painting.  Last weekend I had planned on going up Eagle Creek up to high bridge with my step-dad, but he hurt his back, again. I always plan to go regardless if someone is coming, but my mom asked if she could come, but we'd need to modify the hike to be shorter.  So I shortened it to just go to Punchbowl Falls.  I have been wanting to go up the Eagle Creek for some time and it proved to be just as beautiful as I imagined. I cannot wait to go back and explore further up this incredible section of the Columbia River Gorge.

The hike went almost exactly as planned, but as tradition seems to be, theres always one hitch.  We got almost to Punchbowl Falls when we came to an intersection, where one trail said Punchbowl Falls, or so we thought, and the other kept going.  Apparently, the other went to lower Punchbowl Falls. So we hiked all the way down to the creek, saw a measly little lower Punchbowl Falls, but could not see the real thing from where we were. So we had to climb back up to the other trail and go further a quarter of a mile to have an overlooking view of upper Punchbowl Falls. Like I told my mother, even if it didn't seem worth it to climb down and back up, our butts will thank us for it later! ha!

• Date of hike: November 8th, 2014
• Distance: 4 Miles (out and back)

• Elevation gain: 500 feet 

• Difficulty: Easy
• Miles thus far: 192/200 miles this year

The sun beautifully piercing through the clearing fog onto Eagle Creek

My mother looked like such a badass climbing up this hill. Had to snap a photo so she would believe it.

 Lower Punchbowl Falls area

 Punchbowl Falls Overlook

Mom and I above Punchbowl Falls. Thanks for hiking with me mama!

Mt. Jefferson {Whitewater Trailhead to Jefferson Park}

Well, my hikes don't always turn out the way I'd like. But at least my body will thank me for them later.  This Saturday of hiking was not ideal. First, there was a mix up in communication of when this hike was happening, so the friend that was planning on going with me ended up bailing. However, I was determined to hike regardless, and I really wanted to do this hike. So I trekked out toward Detroit on my own. At the same time, I did let at least two people know where I was going and what time they should start to be concerned if I had not contacted them.

The other hangup I ran into was the weather. It had just rained, so the fog and clouds were still low. This meant that the "stunning" sights of Mt. Jefferson were all but something to picture in my head. And then, I didn't make it all the way to Jefferson Park because I did not feel like crossing a freezing cold creek.

I am sure this hike would be WONDERFUL on a nice day. However, this day was not a nice day. I was sorely disappointed.  The terrain was pretty rocky so it was tough on my ankles and knees. And all these things would have been super worth it, except I didn't get much of a view. Oh well!

I still recommend this hike! Just make sure its going to be a nice day, and be prepared to cross a creek if you want to get all the way to Jefferson Park! I also recommend bringing an extra sweater, being this high up on the mountain, it gets pretty cold!

• Date of hike: October 11th, 2014
• Distance: 8 Miles to the creek and back  (11 miles round trip to Jefferson Park)

• Elevation gain: 1800 feet (that is all the way to Jefferson Park)

• Difficulty: Moderate
• Miles thus far: 188/200 miles this year

 The sun finally came out for a little while at the end of my hike, but not enough to see much.

 My supposed amazing view of Mt. Jefferson

 Loving the fall colors

 The creek I ended at, I figured it looked too cold to cross that day.

Needless to say I wasn't jazzed about the trip, but at least know it was good for my body!