December 22, 2006.
Paulina Peak is located within Newberry National Volcanic Monument, about 30 minutes south of Bend, Oregon.
In summer, Paulina Peak (7984′) is supposedly a walk-up. A drive-up, even, as the road goes straight to the summit. Winter is a different game, however, and it would be a round trip of 12 miles [...]
December 21, 2006.
Oregon has only one National Park and it surrounds Crater Lake. Located in Klamath County in southern Oregon, Crater Lake is the deepest in the country. It is famous for beautiful blue water and immense snowfall totals in the winter (average of over 530 inches per year).
At 9am on this mild, [...]
December 20, 2006.
Oregon Caves
Located just north of the California-Oregon border, Oregon Caves National Monument is located within the Siskiyou mountains.
I packed up camp in the freezing cold morning and drove up to Oregon Caves, which I found to be closed for the season. I parked in the lot and walked up to the buildings [...]
December 19, 2006.
The California redwoods are contained within a web of National and State parks, each with their own regulations, styles and accomodations. The only one that appeared to have any buildings open was the Prairie Creek State Park.
I awoke early for another cold breakfast of Muesli and milk, accompanied with some minor stretching to [...]
December 18, 2006.
Oregon Dunes
A quick drive this morning led me to the
December 17, 2006.
One of the benefits of being a teacher is the schedule. I have two weeks of vacation for the Winter Holidays, and I took full advantage of this by planning a week-long road trip in my new home state. I’d only seen the West coast on one occasion, so this was [...]
December 9, 2006.
Going hiking with (non-hiking) friends is always a fun experience. The few hours we spent on the trails was not about going for long distances or top speeds, or to some remote off-trail location. Instead, it was about goofing off, silly conversation, and, well, snowball fights.
The snow levels on Mt. Hood [...]
December 2, 2006.
After much ado about buying a Sno-Park pass, we finally got to start hiking around 11am on this glorious Saturday morning. From the Marble Mountain parking lot, the air crisp with the smell of diesel fuel and roar of snowmobile engines, we took trail 244 up to the treeline. Bob took [...]