Cabin Fever Chronicles - Getting Outdoors with Rod | Travels and Outside Adventures with Rod

Backpacking to Mt. Jefferson and Jefferson Park

3 09 2015

Jefferson Park,Mt Jefferson,backpacking oregon,hiking oregon

Russell Lake – Mt Jefferson fills the sky!

One of Oregon’s wonders is Jefferson Park, and Laura and I recently hiked the Whitewater Ridge Trail to spend a couple of Eden-like days in its splendor!

A dormant 10,495ft high volcano, Mt. Jefferson is Oregon’s 2nd highest peak. It sports five glaciers. And sitting just below its northeast side is Jefferson Park – a square mile plateau sprinkled with wildflower meadows and brilliant lakes.

Laura and I backpacked about six miles up 1,800 vertical feet up the Whitewater Ridge Trail to reach it. The day we hiked, it was 85 degrees at the trailhead. Much of the route is exposed to the sun – with beautiful views, but on our day the heat and effort were what dominated our trip up.

Rod Richards,backpacking oregon,hiking oregon,jefferson park,mt jefferson

Now we just need to find a campsite!

But once at Jefferson Park any suffering we endured melted away amongst the sheer majesty of the place. Because once you have arrived, every view is dominated by Mother Nature’s spectacle. Look one way and the mountain covers the sky 180 degrees. Look everywhere and you see carpets of green, plus wildflowers and twinkling lakes. The biggest lakes are Russell, Scout and Bays, then there are smaller ones like Park Lake or Rockpile Lake

Bays Lake – Dive Right In!

Jefferson Park is a protected area within the Mt Jefferson Wilderness, and there are maybe two dozen designated campsites throughout. It’s very popular so some of it has been marked off limits for the land to recover. It’s all alpine flora, which is super delicate.

We’re trying to find my old favorite spot on Bays Lake. But it’s occupied, so we opt for a spot on Scout Lake. We’ve got nothing to complain about with our view.

Laura enjoying the warm sun

And Laura has no problems settling into the routine. Before long she’s relaxing reading a book on Tibetan Buddhism in the fading afternoon sun.

We take a bit of time to explore the plateau. We head north up to the Russell Lake area. It’s a ways but worth the effort. We decide to return there the following day. There are not many wildflowers as times I have been here before, because in 2015 we have a severe drought. The wildflower season came very early. But on the other hand, huckleberries are everywhere! We collect huckleberries for breakfast.

These will be good at breakfast!

Then it was back to camp for dinner. I brought a quick fix rice side and blended it with cooked chicken. It looked huge but I ate all of it. Laura had simple cheese, crackers and some meat like sausage.

It was a beautiful evening. Starry and windless. I slept very well.

I awoke to a rosy dawn, and made hot water for coffee or tea. Those huckleberries went well with my oats and yogurt.

scout lake,jefferson park,mt jefferson,backpacking oregon

Our campsite view on Scout Lake

Hunger satisfied, we headed out for an exploratory hike checking out the area, and the first destination was Russell Lake. It’s about a mile north from our camp at Scout Lake, a completely flat trail meandering along the meadows, passing through islands of trees. We could see that a few weeks earlier it was a carpet of wildflowers everywhere.

Once we reached Russell Lake, we took a trail around the lake. We encountered campers, everyone gushing about how beautiful this place is. It was on the northern fringe of the lake where we found a micro-zone ecosystem with a view to knock our socks off.

The stream into Russell Lake

There, a three-foot-wide stream meanders across the meadow before entering Russell Lake. It wets the soil enough to allow wildflowers to continue blooming along its path. And in the stream, we glimpsed frogs and minnows.

There was Indian Paintbrush, Lupine and several other species of wildflowers I couldn’t identify.

We spent a half hour taking pictures and examining this micro eco system.

It was so profound that just a bit of extra moisture kept this area lush with life, with an extended season, long after other parts of the meadows had gone to seed.

Later, we headed over to Bays Lake for a swim. Bays lake has lots of boulders and it’s deep. We dove in and swam across, back and forth, revelling in the warm water and the beauty! We both decided to bring more friends up here in the future. It’s too beatiful and it’s got to be shared!

Following the evening meal another rock solid sleep.

The following morning, it was time to head out. The trail now would be all down, much faster and easier. We passed by several groups, pretty diverse! Some retirees, and I swear a lady over 80. And three kids, followed 5-minutes later by mom toting an Everest expedition sized 70 pound pack for all of them! Cheers for her!

Well, here is a victory photo. A trip well done! We’ll be back.

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Tags: backpacking, backpacking oregon, hiking, hiking oregon, jefferson park, Mt Jefferson
Categories : Camping, Hiking

Rowena Crest – Columbia Gorge: Carpets of Wildflowers and What a View!

14 04 2015

rowena crest,mosier,columbia gorge,hiking,wildflowers,lupine,balsamrot,columbia river highway

Balsamroot and lupine everywhere

In the spring, head just east of the Cascades in the Columbia Gorge, and take historic highway 30 up to Rowena Crest – and you will be dazzled with unlimited views and wildflowers stretching to the horizon! I was impressed with the wildflowers over at Lyle, Washington, just across the river, and I was anxious to check out the Oregon side. I went out there with my friend Jessie and we were treated with a huge display – especially of the yellow balsamroot.

Oregon’s Historic Columbia River Highway leads up to Rowena Crest trailhead. Once there, it’s not a hard hike to the views and wildflowers. It’s utterly fantastic. Unlike Lyle, where you have to hike 1,100 feet up to get to the top, you arrive already up there. The hike round trip to the view point is only about 1.5 miles, and it’s full of fields blanketed with wildflowers and littered here and there with ponds. At this time of year the parking is busy but once on the trail, we found solitude.

The area is atop a gently rolling landscape. The geology here is a full of exposed geologic history. It’s a history steeped in cataclysms of a planetary scale. A hike to the edge reveals a pancaked landscape – steppes of lava – carved out by the Columbia river 1,000 feet below. And now for some jaw-dropping history!

rowena crest,tom mccall preserve,hiking,oregon,wildflowers,columbia gorge

Looking east from Rowena Crest Oregon.

Millions of years ago, in Eastern Oregon, basaltic lava flowed in a series of 300 eruptions over thousands of years. They are known as the Columbia River Flood Basalts, and they covered an area stretching from Idaho to Washington and Oregon – in some areas the total thickness reaches 9,000ft! The flows reached the Pacific. They were so big that they filled entire valleys and some of the Eastern Oregon mountains like the Elkhorns or Blues are just the tops. In between flows, Cascade volcanoes erupted depositing 20 foot layers of ash. This can all be viewed along the Columbia Gorge. More recently ice ages shaped this land. During a recent ice age, an ice dam formed near Missoula, Montana, forming a lake the size of Lake Erie and Ontario combined. Periodically that dam broke, sending water and chunks of ice down the Columbia River Gorge all the way to the Ocean. This scoured the Gorge. It all makes for a fascinating view.

But we were here for wildflowers! Along the trail lots of lupine, which had not come into full bloom, but also blooming balsamroot.

Jessie takes some macro shots

There were other wildflowers, like buttercup, and several others I cannot name. Some were tiny, delicate and pink.

I saw two bachelor buttons – only two along the trail. I guessed that more will come into season as spring rolls on.

Bachelor button

There was also a patch of May Bounty – each like a microscopic daisy.

May bounty

The plateau is also home to some ponds complete with their own tiny ecosystems. Each pond comes complete with frogs, tadpoles, salamanders, crickets, trees, lily pads, red-winged blackbirds and reeds.

rowena crest,mosier,oregon,hiking,red winged blackbirds,pond

Sit quietly and listen to the frogs, crickets and red-wing blackbirds!

In sum, a visit to Oregon’s Columbia Gorge in the Mosier area is a must-see experience in the spring. Wildflowers area out earlier out there, and chances are a cloudy day west of the Cascades will be drier. A refreshing break!

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Tags: bachelor button, balsam root, balsamroot, columbia gorge, columbia river flood basalt, hiking, lupine, may bounty, mosier, oregon, rowena, rowena crest, wildflowers
Categories : Hiking

Columbia Gorge Wildflower Hike – Lyle Orchards!

11 04 2015

It’s April in Portland, OR, and this year’s warmer, drier winter has made for early wildflowers in the eastern end of the Columbia Gorge! With a window of nice weather Laura and I headed out east of the Cascades, where wildflowers carpet the sides of the valley. Laura found a less-frequented hike on the Washington State side, named Lyle Orchard. It’s about 5 miles round trip and climbs to 1,100ft – which offers a spectacular view of the Gorge and the flowers.

The trail is maintained by the Friends of the Columbia River Gorge. At trailhead, there is a welcome sign that has a slew of unpleasant warnings.

Take your pick. Rattlesnakes? Ticks? Cliff falls? Or poison oak? While beautiful, this trail has its perils, and the poison oak is the most obvious, as it is virtually everywhere.

Poison Oak

The trail climbs steeply through a scrubby forest. Even at lower elevation, Wildflowers are popping out all over.

I heeded the tick and poison oak warnings. And I only had shorts on. So I ensured I didn’t brush against any of the waxy-rusty looking leaves. It didn’t take long for the trail to open up into more and more open meadows. And the further we rose, the more flowers we glimpsed.

laura bieber,columbia gorge,hiking,washington,lyle,cherry orchard hike,washington

Laura revels in flowers!

Lower down blue colored lupine appeared.

There were buttercups. We saw bear grass.

Lupine

And higher up, carpets of yellow balsamroot flowers splashed the hillside.

balsamrood,columbia river gorge,cherry orchard trail,lyle,hiking

Balsamroot

Suksdorf’s Desert Parsley

I found the 1,000ft elevation gain a good workout. And it’s not terribly long. I got a good sweat going.

There are wineries in the area. So before you go, you might want to Google wineries near Lyle, Washington. On our return, we visited the Domaine Pouillon Winery.

Laura purchased two cases of wine at 50% off! Awesome deal.

How to get to the trailhead: Take I-84 East out of Portland. At Cascade Locks, Cross The Bridge of the Gods and head east on WA-14 past Stevenson, then Bingen, then Lyle – and east of Lyle there will be two tunnels one right after the other. The unmarked trailhead and parking lot is the next left after the 2nd tunnel.

Well worth a visit!

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Tags: balsamroot, cherry orchard trail, columbia river gorge, hiking, lupine, lyle, poison oak, wildflowers
Categories : Hiking

MSR’s Hubba Hubba NX Tent – Review

15 03 2015

msr hubba hubba nx,gear shed,camping,camping oregon

The Hubba Hubba NX with the Gear Shed

I’m the proud owner of a brand new Mountain Safety Research – MSR Hubba Hubba NX ultralightweight backpacking tent! With 27-year-low snowpack in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, I couldn’t wait to try out my new tent. I also bought the “Gear Shed” attachment for the tent. So, I headed up to Clear Lake near Mount Hood, Oregon to set up and sleep in my new tent.

The MSR Hubba Hubba NX is a super light two-person tent – only 3.7 pounds! But any tent I’m going to be pleased using has to be easy to set up and durable. And on warm summer nights I like to set up the tent without the fly. This allows for star gazing and cooler sleeping. But some tents have a very shallow “bathtub” around the bottom, allowing breezes to get through, and onlookers to see you when you’re dressing. I like tents where the “bathtub” is a bit higher.

As a backpacker and kayak camper, I also want a tent that’s easy to set up in the dark. No complicated setups. I also like tents with reflectors so at night I can shine a light on them and see it from far away. Gear vestibules are also super important. I want my shoes and gear to stay dry even if it’s outside my mosquito-lined sleeping area. For windy days tents need to be guyed out. There must be ways to secure the tent to the ground, so it doesn’t blow away.

So with these needs / wants in mind I set about testing and setting up the MSR Hubba Hubba NX. Unpacking it from the bag, I immediately noticed thoughtful touches. The bag kind of cinches up like a cradle. The bag has outside straps enabling it to be scrunched down like a compression sack.

I set out the tent footprint and then laid the tent on top of it. I staked out the corners. Right away I noticed a clever detail where the attachment of the tent to the stakes takes place. A sturdy cinchable strap-to-stake attachment point. Nice!

The tent pole goes thu this grommet. But you can tighten the strap to the stake. Thoughtful!

I unpacked the tent frame. On the MSR Hubba Hubba NX there is only one frameset where all the pieces are connected via shock cord. It’s made of DAC Pressfit aluminum. Light and durable. But you need to be careful and deliberate about connecting. I fear splitting a pole end if I am in a hurry.

I laid the frame on top of the staked-out tent.

The next step is to connect all four corners and the top center piece to the frame. It’s a little challenging do do alone but with practice it will be easy.

Frame connected and ready for clips

OK. So now, the next step will be snapping the clips to the frame.

It’s here I notice another thoughtful and durable touch.

The clips are shaped to fit snugly around the poles, but there is more. The load of the clip is spread between two attachment points on the tent. This reduces stress points on the stitching on the tent.

So far, I’m delighted with the thoughtful, clever details of this tent. And all for 3.7 pounds! Next step is to connect the clips. Once done I’ll have the full volume of the inside.

This is how nights under the stars will be. This is how I like things – there is a good view of the sky above, and ample ventilation – but the bathtub walls are high enough to shield occupants from wind and from onlookers.

Next, the fly. A fly should be able to keep rain out but also allow for ventilation – and especially bonus points are awarded for flies that can be unzipped without rain dripping into the tent.

Voila. with the fly attached, and the vestibules stakes out, there is actually a lot of acreage to store packs and shoes out of rain’s way. Two tent mates each have a vestibule and exit for themselves. Inside the tent, on each end, there are tent-wide gear pockets. Enough for most any backpacker’s needs. Up above, there are attachment points so you can sling strings – from which you can dry your stanky socks. Unfortunately two things are lacking – Firstly, a distinct shortage of attachment points for guy lines and secondly, no reflective piping.

But let’s say you have need for even more room. You have a disagreement with your tent mate. Or perhaps there is a 3rd soul needing a place to rest for the night. Or you’re car camping with executive camping gear and you’re needing extra storage space. For that, the MSR Hubba Hubba NX offers a solution: The Gear Shed.

The Gear Shed doubles the available storage space. Or can be used to accommodate another camper – or a Man’s Best Friend? If you have the MSR Gear Shed, you have options.

What’s the verdict? Well, although I love this tent and gear shed setup, it’s not 100% perfect. Somehow designers left out reflective materials. At night I bumped the corners more than once. And I have to wonder about its ability to hold up in the wind without lots of guy line attachment points. Still, I love the MSR Hubba Hubba NX and it’s a keeper. I can recommend it!

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Tags: camping tents, clear lake oregon, gear shed, msr gear shed review, msr hubba hubba, msr hubba hubba nx, msr hubba hubba review, oregon camping
Categories : Camping, Life Outside, Outdoor Industry

The “Teton Convergence” in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park Region

11 03 2015

grand teton national park,xc,cross country

Bluebird day! Cross country skiing with April below the Tetons!

I just spent a week skiing and visiting friends in the stunning region around Grand Teton National Park. This was a confluence of friends from different parts of my life. Friends from Portland were there to ski. But Dave Adams lives there and is a friend who moved there from Portland. Ed Parigian, a Boston housemate living in Park City, Utah, drove up. And Mary Woolen, a college friend who I’ve not seen since 1984 also lives there. Whilst my Portland friends stayed in a condo in Teton Village at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Ed and I stayed with Dave Adams on the Idaho side in Tetonia, Idaho.

We alpine skied, cross-country skied, looked at moose and reveled in the views. So beautiful!

Mt Moran

The craggy Teton Range dominates every view, with 13,777ft Grand Teton soaring above it all. In an unusual geologic action, the Teton Range soared whilst the valley below dropped. Park literature says the vertical drop from the top of Grand Teton to the original valley floor exceeds 25,000 feet! Today, you won’t see that. This is because glaciers from several ice ages scoured material from the peaks and deposited it on the valley below. In the valley, it’s completely flat except for a few glacial morianes. A moraine is a pile of rock left over from the snout of a glacier. They can be hundreds of feet high. If you think of a glacier as a 5,000-ft high conveyor belt with the end depositing rocks and boulders, you have a moraine building machine. As the glacier retreats, it builds that moraine. Today, the flat valley floor is about 6,000-ft below Grand Teton.

View from Dornan’s Bar. An apres ski beverage at Dornan’s is a must!

It is 12 hours of almost non-stop driving from Portland, OR to get there. I arrived at Dave’s house late Saturday and after a meal at a local pub fell dead asleep. Sunday I headed up to Grand Targhee Ski Resort to meet the Portland folks.

The base at Grand Targhee!

It had not snowed for weeks, but at least the weather was good. I had a great time skiing with Valerie and Scott as well as meeting everyone for beers at happy hour. And, the views were great. But with no new snow, and $120 lift tickets at Jackson Hole, I made up my mind the conditions did not merit spending a fortune on alpine skiing that week. Instead, I decided to cross country ski – mostly with April!

Valerie, Scott, Lisa and myself.

Monday and Tuesday I cross-country skied in Grand Teton National Park. Monday Valerie, April and I went up above Moran Junction near Jackson Lake and skied southward past Mt. Moran toward Grand Teton.

Although I have cross country skied for years, I still consider myself a novice. It always seems I need to get used to it all over again. Of course you can “walk fast” in cross country gear. But there definitely is a rhythm you pick up – and when you get it, you can ski along fast and efficient for a long time. This day I finally got the rhythm after 90 minutes. The breathtaking views made me forget I was tiring.

Valerie and April at lunch

Cross country skiing elevates your body temperature quickly, and we all found ourselves dropping layers. But it was still cold. When we stopped for lunch we had to add layers all over again, only to peel them off.

Famous Ansel Adams view

On the return we stopped by to see view of the bend in the Snake River made immortal when photographed by Ansel Adams. Gorgeous!

jenny lake trail,cross country skiing,grand teton national park

April along the Jenny Lake Trail

Tuesday April and I tackled the Jenny Lake trail. It’s mostly easy and flat with the Tetons right on top of you the whole time. The trail is well groomed – it’s actually a road in the summer. One side is for traditional cross country gear. The other is for skate skiing, snow shoeing and pets.

The rest of the crew tackled Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. This mountain is HARD. I have skied it several times. It has taken lives. It has areas with long cliffs, and on foggy days it’s possible to accidentally find one.

Lisa is Jackson Hole’s newest victim!

And on this day, it claimed one of us! Lisa had been dealing with a problem knee cross country skiing Sunday at Grand Targhee, and took Monday off to rest. On the 3rd run Tuesday at Jackson Hole, the mountain struck just as a predator picks upon the frail. Somehow coming off a bump her leg broke just at the knee! She was done for the trip. The ski resort was very accommodating, refunding her three-day lift ticket. She even received a hand written note at home from the ski patrol! I admired her good attitude about everything.

Earlier in the day, April and I met up with Mary Woolen – a college friend I hadn’t seen since 1984! It was so nice to meet up again! I want to visit again next time I’m there.

Rod and Mary

The Teton region is famous for its wildlife. Bison, wolf, bighorn sheep, elk, bald eagle, moose, coyote and more are all here. We saw thousands of elk wintering out in the valley. And traveling to the cross country trails, we saw a bunch of moose!

They are unmistakeable and are incredibly big, standing 9 feet tall. When they want to, they can move swiftly!

Ed, Rod, Dave

Wednesday Ed was to arrive from Park City. So Thursday and Friday Dave, Ed and I visited and did some cross country skiing. We tried a different less-groomed trail near Jenny Lake, and also a really pretty railroad converted to trail over on the Idaho side.

Snowfield and sky, Tetonia, Idaho.

Another ex-Portlander is Ed’s very cute border collie Turbo! He joined us for our skiing.

It was a good week and I made the best of the old snow by mostly cross country skiing. And so great to visit with long-lost friends Ed, Dave and Mary Woolen!

I’m going back.

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Tags: alpine skiing, cross country skiing, dornan's jackson hole, driggs idato, grand targhee, grand teton national park, jackson hole, jackson hole mountain resort, jenny lake, moran junction, skiing, tetonia idaho
Categories : Alpine Skiing, Life Outside, Nordic Skiing, Travel

Sometimes, Patagonia = New Zealand

11 02 2015

In November 2011 I was in Patagonia with my Dutch friends Angelique and Elwin. Witnessing many eye popping scenes, we often pinched ourselves, saying, “This looks like a postcard from New Zealand!” So in 2012 we made plans to go to New Zealand to find out if we were right. By December 2012 and all of January 2013 we were in New Zealand! And in this blog, I’ve got photo comparisons. While there are major differences in terms of sheer size of the territory and size of geologic features, the view often seems nearly identical.

Torres del Paine Chile

Tasman Glacier Trail New Zealand

Patagonia and New Zealand are full of trails winding through glaciated valleys. Both have mountain ranges where the western slopes are wetter, with fjords, and the eastern side has landlocked glaciated lakes and the weather is much drier.

They’re both subjected to blasts from frequent Antarctic storms. New Zealand’s South Island is especially impacted in a similar fashion to Patagonia.

Lake Te Anau New Zealand

Here are two pictures of gigantic inland lakes. In both regions, ice age glaciers cut deep valleys on the east side and west side. Today both New Zealand and Patagonia have massive inland lakes fed by glaciers. In Patagonia, many of these lakes have ice bergs!

Los Alerces National Park Argentina

On the west side of Patagonia and New Zealand the ice age glaciers carved fjords leading to the sea. In Patagonia these fjords wend their way for more than 1,000 miles. In New Zealand they also form magical vistas.

Doubtful Sound New Zealand

Puerto Natales, Chile

Believe it or not, both regions even have some of the same trees! They both just happen to have the purple-flowered Jacaranda tree!

Hastings New Zealand

Blooming jacaranda tree Buenos Aires

The Jacaranda tree blooms its beautiful purple flowers in spring.

They can be glimpsed in drier areas of New Zealand, as well as Buenos Aires, Argentina.

So many times viewing a landscape we’d swear we were seeing the other country!

Many of New Zealand’s inland lakes are a light colored “glacier blue,” as are many in Patagonia. And driving through the dry inland valleys, whether you’re headed toward the Andes or the Southern Alps, often times you’d swear you were several thousand miles from where you actually were!

Left sided driving to Mt Cook…

Argentina, heading into the Patagonian Andes – right side driving!

Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: andes, argentina, buenos aires, Chile, doubtful sound, jacaranda, los alerces national park, mount cook, Mt. Cook, new zealand, puerto natales, southern alps, Tasman Glacier
Categories : Hiking, Travel

Cabin Fever Chronicles – Getting Outdoors with Rod

Backpacking to Mt. Jefferson and Jefferson Park

Rowena Crest – Columbia Gorge: Carpets of Wildflowers and What a View!

Columbia Gorge Wildflower Hike – Lyle Orchards!

MSR’s Hubba Hubba NX Tent – Review

The “Teton Convergence” in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park Region

Sometimes, Patagonia = New Zealand

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