Introducing Greg Smith To Dickerman Mountain

Facebook turns out to be a pretty cool social web site sometimes. I chatted about it with a few folks and many of us seem to have the same experience. We sign up, we fill out the fields and then are amazed that we start making contact with fellow high schoolers we lost contact with ages ago. In some cases, we “friend” each other and it doesn’t go much further. In some cases, we get together and start chatting it up via email or IM.


In some very rare cases, one of us is traveling “in the hood” of the other and we meet up. When Greg emailed me that he would be in the Seattle area for a couple days and wanted to know if we could indulge in a hike together, I jumped at the chance. Hadn’t seen or chatted with Greg in 25 years or so. The friendship Greg and I had basically came about on the wrestling mat at Bismarck Henning High School. This was back when being on the wrestling team (late 70s / early 80s) was just a notch or two higher than the Chess Club and barely squeaked out more respect than the Rifle Club. With just a handful or wrestlers on the team, we became more of an extended family for a season and had no illusions of earning great accolades from anyone other than our fellow wrestlers or parents.

From about 9 AM to 5 PM, we chatted about everything from what has happened in our lives, family, careers, politics and even debated religion around a bit. As it turns out, Greg is in damn better shape than I am but he was quite tolerate of my slowing down the pace. Didn’t really matter much because this was never a race but about the hike, the view and the conversation. Although if we have a repeat hike or run in the future someday (in Illinois or Washington), I cannot say that I won’t train a little bit harder before hand. Some habits die hard and I guess some of them should.

Turned out there was a decent number of hikers on the trail for a Monday. Many of the more experienced hikers gave us warm greetings, while (obviously) thinking we were heathens without our hiking poles. For more info about hiking poles, you can check out this article on slackerpacker.com. We even had one guy mention to us that only an American would consider taking a hike without a pair of poles. Not sure if I’m the type of guy that could bend under such peer pressure but who knows? Anyhoo ...


The Dickerman Mountain hike is a 4.3 mile trek each way, so it clocks in just under 9 miles round trip. At the summit (5723 feet), the views are spectacular from all directions. The hike itself has an elevation gain of 3,700 feet, which is a bit of a trudge for only 4 miles of switchbacks. At the summit, we got to see two aspects of the view as the clouds started rolling in 15-20 minutes after we reached the summit. Most of the pictures you see here start off about 400 feet from the summit and that is when the views become particularly interesting.



If you want to know more about Mt. Dickerman, here is a link to the Washington Trails Association web site.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mount-dickerman/?searchterm=dickerman

Cheers!
Dwayne

Evergreen Aviation / Space Museum

On the way to the hotel, we noticed a really big plane in the middle of nowhere. This is kinda of odd in the middle of Willamette wine country. Turned out to the the museum that houses “The Spruce Goose”! I had always wanted to check it out. I had no idea how huge this plane was but it was only part of this fine museum.

A shot at the interior of the plane, the outside of the place was simply to huge to photograph.





Here are some other shots of the plans inside and outside the museum.

There is also a space museum next door. It looks like an incomplete exhibit but interesting nonetheless!

Suavie Island

The only trail on the way back in the trusty “60 Hikes With 60 Miles Of Portland” book was Sauvie Island. Had a devil of time actually finding the trail and it was pretty uneventful. It was a nice little three mile hike before a 3+ hour drive home and that is about all there is to say about it.

Fri / Sat Portland Trip (Heart/McMenamins)

Took Friday and Saturday off this week for a little holiday in Portland. Friday night was an outdoor Heart concert at the McMenamins Edgefield venue. Good concert for the money ($45.00), beer was great, night was excellent and the Wilson sisters did not disappoint. Was a little amazed about how many cover songs they did and the hits of their own that they passed over.

We couldn’t score rooms at McMenamins Edgefield, so that opened up the opportunity to try their McMinnville location, Hotel Oregon. This turned out to be my least favorite of their locations I’ve tried thus far but still a very nice place to stay.





Here is some of the artwork from within McMenamins.


After breakfast, did a little shopping and here are some metal sculptures from one vendor.

I caught Benjamin Franklin on a park bench, he was enjoying the bright sunny morning. I had to get in a few words about a particular piece written by him in “The Poor Man’s Almanac”.

I love it when someone does something original. In this case, why say “Open” or “Closed” when you can be more inventive?

Sunday At Fremont’s OktoberFest - Microbrew Tasting!

Although I like to stay in my cave on weekends and slave away at the computer screen, I was dragged kicking and screaming to an all day beer tasting in Fremont. After all, Sunday was bring your dog day and .... hmmmm ... beer. Not just ordinary beer but some of the best micro brews in the Pacific Northwest nonetheless! It was a blast and I swear that at the end of it all ... Bogie gave me a look at the end as if to say ... “That was great, but honestly, I’m wore out. I don’t think I could smell one more butt!”





A look from the street.

Here you can see me eating one of the longer curly fries.


Here you can see Bogie quite interested in said curly fries.

Here is are some last pics on the way out that I just couldn’t resist.

Friday Morning Hike - Elliot Creek / Goat Lake (baaaa)

Continuing to explore trails off of Mountain Loop Highway, on this glorious Friday morning we decided to try the Elliot Creek / Goat Lake hike. This time we left early (about 8 am) and got back early enough that I was able to answer some business emails (4 pm). Round trip, this clocks in at (a fairly strenuously moderate) 9 miles. This was the first outing for my new $250 Osprey back pack, which did take some getting used to.





Almost immediately after leaving the trailhead, you have a choice of an upper or lower version. I decided I would take the lower going to Goat Lake and this trail hugs Elliot Creek. Coming back, I’d take the upper trail and complete a loop of the area. It was a nice hike, beautiful day and I had the camera snapping away incessantly.





We got to the lake at high noon and it was another pretty Cascade Mountain lake. We tried to walk all the way around the lake but the trail we took was evidently more of a temporary path that petered out a little less than half way around. I wasn’t that keen at trying again, so we ate lunch, soaked in some sun and headed back.


The upper Elliot Creek trail is a much easier trek than the lower one and gives a totally different view.

I’ve seen trees have some pretty amazing growth patterns but this little guy gets an A+ for effort. Talk about abstract tree formation art!

Lots of water spot on the upper Elliot Creek trail and Bogie is enjoying one of the last ones before getting back to the truck.