2013.6.22. Salmon Butte

6/22. Saturday. Cloudy, warm. Salmon Butte hike in the Mt. Hood area is quite rewarding, especially at this time of the year, and not too many people. ~10 miles, 2250' gain + some up and downs. Quite a few camp along Salmon River next to the trail head. Spring flowers at the bottom (not a lot), and gradually migrated to rhododendron. They get denser as you go hiker. Some still has pink flowers (maybe 1-2 weeks too late?). Gentle grade. The old road is a pleasant ~1 mile walk with tall grasses, looks just like a trail. I didn't notice the service road near the top either: just the trail. Most of the trail is soft, well maintained, easy grade.

The specialty of this hike is the wild rhododendron. Often under them, beargrass about to bloom. Most of the trail is shaded with little undergrowth (hard to find a toilet choice). Tall evergreen trees. There's a small open slope halfway up (about 2 hours from the trailhead) filled with Sea Blush. So it's all pink. Lovely.

View on the top: not quite 360° yet. St Helens and Adams to the north, Hood due east, Jefferson to the south. On Jefferson's eastern shoulder, with the aid of a binocular, I could pick up another peak (one of the Sisters). On a clear day, possible to see Rainier.

Direction: 17.3 miles east of Sandy on US Hwy 26. Turn right (south) at Salmon River road. The pavement ends in 5 miles at the bridge. Continue on graveled road for 0.7 miles till the end. Zigzag ranger station is a bit east of the Salmon River rd turn.

2013.6.16. Elk Rock garden

Small, quiet. Elk Rock Garden of the Bishop's Close is delightful private garden of a Scottish family (Kerr's) on a steep hill by Willamette River. The children gave the estate and an endowment for its maintenance to the Episcopal Bishop of Oregon on condition that the garden be open to visitors. Hence, the name. There's a wide variety of plants, which I need to come here again with a botanist.

The house was closed, so was the visitor center, on this Sunday afternoon. Door was open. The neighborhood seems quite affluent.

2013.6.16. Gay Pride Parade

Sunday. Cloudy. The parade was scheduled to start at 11am. I arrived a bit after noon. Saw all political groups, city government, 3 different churches, a Mormon group, a couple of group from other states. A lot of cheer. Not a lot of creativity, except these on this photo. The Gay Chorus sang all the way. Quite good. I shall check out their concert some day. Most people just wear some boring T-shirt. I got bored after an hour, and left.

2013.6.15. Mount St Helens

Saturday 6/15. Sunny with clouds. Johnston Ridge Observatory (~4300') -> Boundary Trail (#1) 2 miles -> left at junction with Truman Trail (4020') -> continue on Boundary Trail for 2.8 miles -> right at junction with Coldwater Trail (5040') -> continue towards Coldwater Peak trail (0.5 miles, abandonned in the middle due to snow). Good view of St. Helens' Lake, and the top of Mt Rainier. Lunch. On the way back, half way between the two junctions -> Harry's Ridge (1 mile) -> back to the observatory. Total ~11 miles. Ups and downs. Mostly exposed, no water source (except for snow). No significant elevation gain. See map.

The view along Boundary Trail (except for the first 2 miles) is fantastic: logs floating on large Spirit Lake, Mt Adams prominently to the east, Mt St Helens' crater and smaller volcanic mounds to the south, smaller mountains (Mt Margaret is still snowy) close by. Mt Hood at some higher grounds. There's a 3 legged metal installation (weather?) on top of Harry's Ridge.

Saw one bird nest, one snake (small, orange back), one elk far away. Avalanche lilies are blooming. Still have a few trillium left. Paintbrush and penstimon are quite good. Dwarf lupine is still coming. At ~1pm, when we were standing above St. Helens Lake, a thick cloud shaded the sun, causing double concentric rainbows. Fabulous.

Direction: I-5 exit #49 for Hwy 504. All the way to the end.

A side note: I was late for an outing with Friends of the Gorge, due to Trimet dropping the train service I was waiting for. In a failed attempt to reach the coordinator, I still went to the meeting place. Thanks to Linda who offered to take me along for this hike. What a pleasant change! Except for, as usual, some members (Ania and Meghan on this hike) talking too loud and incessantly. Very nice and fun people though. Both Dave and Robert know this area very well, so the rest of us came away with better appreciation of the force of nature (Spirit Lake is 200' higher). Dave, being the leader and also a forest guy, watched us not to step out of the trail (the whole area is a fragile rejuvenation zone). This is commendable. We could have made to Coldwater Peak trail, but it would mean off trail.

June: roses in Rose City

Portland's largest festival Rose Festival is coming to an end. On Friday June 7th, I went to see the 2nd fireworks (the first was on the Friday before Memorial weekend), advertised on the official website as 9:30pm-10:30pm. In reality, it was 9:55-10:01. A big disappointment. Not only it's short, it is not choreographed, no accompanying music (you can hear loud music from the city fair, which is going one for 2 weeks by the waterfront). I watched from Morrison Bridge, almost ideal: good view of the cityscape and the bridges, fireworks and reflection.

June 8th, the day of the grand floral parade. At 7:30 in the morning, the max trains were already full of people. I went for a hike instead of fighting the crowds in downtown. After the hike, I went to Naito Parkway next to the closed-off city fair to check out the flower-bedecked floats. Not just rose, but all varieties of fresh flowers. They were sitting between Yamhill and Alder st. Not many: just 2 blocks (~a dozen), but still nice that you can get this close. The cutest ones are from PGE and Reser's Foods.

6/9. Sunday. I visited the International Rose Test Garden in Forest Park. Peak of the bloom. Absolutely delightful despite of a large crowd on this sunny Sunday morning. Today, a bunch of "judges" were walking around taking notes. Free, and a short (uphill) walk from downtown, it's an absolute must for anyone visiting Portland in June.

2013.6.8. Saddle Mountain

6/8. Saturday. Sunny yet not hot. Saddle Mt 1630', ~5 miles RT. The trail is not as easy as the statistics suggests. Loose rocks. The forest service put metal mesh on trail to help with tracking. Doesn't look natural. There's also a fence on the very top, and a cement block to sit on (the remnant of a former lookout). Very popular (~100 people today?). A good flower hike at this time of the year. Can be a couple of weeks earlier or later for different waves of flowers. Even as we drove in, Cow Parsnip line the road. Flowers ranging from spring ones (even bleeding heart) to summer varieties (penstimon, paintbrush). Varied terrain: wet forest (monkey flowers) to exposed rocks. Mary informed us that it's created by undersea volcanic eruption.

About 300 yards in, a 0.2 mile side trail to Humbug Mt is worth the short while. A good view of both peaks that form the saddle. The trail starts paved with salmonberry, thimbleberry, cow parsnip taller than me. Then soft trail, but that didn't last long. Gets gravel/rocky quickly even in the alder forest, then sitka spruce, douglas fir and hemlock. Pink sidalcea carpet some slopes. 360° view on the top. Ocean wave is a white line to the west. To the east: Mt Rainier, St Helen, Adams, Hood, and faintly a bit of Jefferson. A sore note: patches of clear cut here and there among the sea of green under us. Flowers from low to high elevation: waterleaf, iris, Solomon's seal, Solomon's plume, Pacific waterleaf, inside-out flower, rosy plectritis, Alice Eastwood's fleabane, field Chickweed, Smith's fairybell, Oregon checkermallow, geum triflorum, Oregon sunshine, both male and female western meadow rue.

Mary, today's hike lead from Sierra Club, is very knowledgeable. She also brought an interesting book Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies by the Xerces Society, and suggested reading of Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy. We got to stop and take photos and learn from her. I tasted miner's lettuce, young leaves of Oregon grapes, seed of sweet cicely. A rare group of hikers: 3 out the 4 of us took public transportation. Thank Susan for driving.

Direction: From Portland, take Highway 26 west for 60 miles, and turn north just before milepost 10 onto Saddle Mountain Road. Go 7 miles on this paved, but bumpy road where it ends at the trailhead. Bathroom, picnic table, camp site next to trailhead. Trail guide.

2013.6.1. Tillamook Head traverse

6/1. Saturday. Cloudy - partly sunny. Ecola State Park, from Seaside to Ecola Point, with RT to Crescent Beach. ~10 miles.

We started ~10:30 into forest, gaining elevation, without view to the ocean. Even at rear clearing, it's too misty to see the bottom. Some big sitka spruce, wet, but not very mossy. Forest floor is covered with Siberia Spring Beauty right now: pink dancing dots everywhere. MUDDY! Lot of runners today.

~12:30, arrived at Hiker's Camp for lunch. Well constructed bunks, with a sheltered picnic table, an outhouse. Dan lit up his pipe and sat far away from everyone reading. Not a bad idea. A short walk to an abandoned military post with underground quarters. One gun mount.

~2pm, arrived at Indian Point. Beautiful flat beach. A creek runs through. Sea Stacks. Passed all the people and packed parking lot, continued south. By now, the fog has lifted. Some grassy slopes with purple irises.

~3pm, drizzle. After some clean up at the bathroom next to Ecola Point parking lot, where we left one car, 6 of us continued south to Crescent Beach. It's an absolute joy. Almost no people. Only 1.25 miles. Many gulls and pelicans. Fine cream colored sand. A small waterfall cascade onto the beach.

Arrived at the parking lot The Ecola Point view deck is closed due to mud slides. I did walk over when no one was watching. Okay for adults, just be careful. Paved (cracked at parts), closer to the sea stacks of bird refuges, filled with faint fragrance of wild roses. The picnic table next to the "Closed" sign offers great view south to Cannon Beach. Shana happily waited for 2 hours here.

9 people
in 3 cars, so we can do a car shuttle for a one way hike. Excellent plan. Matt is a very good organizer, well prepared, and sent out update before hike. He's takes good photos. The problem with meeetup hikes is the chitchat. Too much of it, and too loud, especially Abby, who never stopped talking. She doesn't even have anything useful or interesting to say. Good that she talked all the way to Keith, the driver, in the car, and I could take a nap. After lunch, I decided to listen to my podcast, and after the podcast finished, I left the earbuds in my ears to deter friendly questions. Yes, again, they decided to stop for food before heading back and more chitchat (I don't mind talking when not hiking). Sadly a seafood cafeteria was chosen in Cannon Beach. Pricy, no view, loud, busy. Not much beer to choose from.

Direction: north end parking: west end of Sunset Blvd (1st left on Ave U off Hwy 101) south of Seaside (next to a gated condo complex; south end parking: west end of Ecola Park rd (many picnic tables and decent bathroom).