First Accumulated Snow Of The Year - Measured By My Jack In The Box Antenna Ball

Sunday Afternoon At St Edwards State Park

The sun came out Sunday and decided to make a quick trip to St Ed, walks the trails and let the wonder dog take a quick dip into Lake Washington.

Bogie having some fun with new found friends.



All in all, a nice couple hours!

Some shots at The Sundial Bridge

Before consuming a great turkey dinner that Mike and Ruth put together, we went on a quick walk by the Sundial Bridge!

Whiskey Town Falls Wednesday and Brandy Falls On Friday

Went on a couple hikes in the Whiskey Town State Park in Redding and couldn't ask for better days for either of them.





The first was the Whiskey Town Falls trail and both dogs enjoyed the ride in Mike's truck bed to the trailhead.





My favorite of the two was the Brandy Creek Falls trail. In fact, I'd have to say it is my favorite of all the Whiskey Town hikes we have done in the last few years. It had a nice steady climb to the falls with a nice frosting of snow. The pictures I took of the falls themselves didn't turn out as good as I hoped though. Next visit perhaps!

Hecta Head Lighthouse

The only other sightseeing stop on Tuesday was the Hecta Head Lighthouse. The hiking guide called it "the most photographed lighthouse in Oregon" and it is easy to see why. The lighthouse was classic but I really enjoyed the short mile hike alongside the coast.

Da Snowy Oregon Coast

If I had my act together, I would have researched the best place to stay at our stopping point in Lincoln City. The next best thing is to blunder right into it and that is what we did.






I found a coupon for Looking Glass Inn and it looked just dandy on their web site. Turned out to be right on the beach, so we opted for a couple early morning walks there instead of the planned morning hike.

After our second walk, a seagull was relaxing on my snowflake dusted truck.

Cape Lookout State Park

We headed down 101 to the Cape Lookout. Due to the weather, we were behind schedule and it continued to be ugly weather. I'm sure it is a very pretty hike during the peak season but we had your normal ugly hike along the coast.

Cape Meares State Park - Tillamook Oregon

Our first leg of the Thanksgiving trip was down I5 to Portland, take 26 East, take 6 East and then follow that all the way through to Cape Meares State Park. Got on the road about 5:30 AM and it started getting ugly right way.


We normally don't get bad weather for Thanksgiving but this year was an exception.




It was kind of fun however, I haven't been on the coast during bad weather since the Navy days in the early 1980s.

This is the first lighthouse we visited on the trip and it was a short and squat. It would have been very cool if it had been working at the moment but no such luck.

Thanksgiving Week Mini Vacation

For about six years now, I've been trading visits with my cousin Michael and his family in Redding California. One year I come down there to visit and one year they make the trip up to Seattle to see me. Keeping an eye on the weather up to the last minute, the wonder dog and I started our little four day adventure.

We wanted to do some hiking (of course) but almost every trail we could find east of I5 was closed after October. Decided to give the Oregon coast a try on the way down to Redding. This late in the year isn't recommended for those hikes either but decided to roll the dice.

The evolving plan included leaving Seattle early Monday morning and make it to Lincoln City Oregon and crash at a hotel right on the coast. Had picked out a little walk to a lighthouse and a five mile trail on the coast itself. Then planned on another lighthouse visit, two more trail before stopping somewhere in the Eugene Oregon area. Then over to the Oberlanders Wednesday, Thursday and then see how weather looks before making any firms plans in regards to heading back.

First Snow Of The Season

Rainy Weekends Preventing Our Hikes

A little bummed out that every weekend we have had ugly rainy days and not really worth going out into yet. I hate to push it for ugly hikes when I know we have an entire winter for that. So we have been chilling out, doing Centennial Trail and I've been trying to reduce my stuff overhead with numerous Craig's List postings.


Snapped this picture last night as Bogie was enjoying a chew.

Cloudless Sky Saturday Hike Of Mount Dickerman

I haven't been able to hike much lately due to the combination of the day job (with a daily 2 hour commute), crappy weekend weather and a ongoing plantar fasciitis. When Friday turned out so gorgeous and practically cloudless, I had Mount Dickerman on the brain. Although the view from the summit is always worth the trip, cloud cover has been an issue for every excursion this year.



We left about 8 AM and it was very foggy on the drive through Snohomish to Mountain Loop highway. The nippy temperature of 37 degrees at the trail head had me don on a sweat shirt, however I doubted I would need it with the plethora of switchbacks for the few couple miles. I was correct and it ended up hanging from my belt for all but 20 minutes of the hike.

I was quite surprised to see snow cover towards the summit. but someone else was certainly into it. It seemed to cling to sides of the trail as a decoration and prelude of things to come ... soon.








Great shots with the cloudless blue sky.

Bogie rarely climbs into the back seat of the truck but he did after this hike. He stayed back there until we pulled into the driveway. Love those hikes that feed the body and and soul.