Greetings

As Heather mentioned at Christmas we have been considering setting up a web page or blog to share our many wanderings along the trails of Oregon and SW Washington.  Well we decided to attempt it.  We are blessed to live in an area that is packed full of trails exploring some really diverse environments.  As we have enjoyed these hikes we have been struck by the beauty of God’s creation and we’d like to be able to share these wonderful places with our friends and family members who are not able to experience them with us.  For those who are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit these places we hope this blog will provide some useful information for your own future wanderings.  We also hope that this will be a way to establish an ongoing connection with friends and family no matter how far away they are, or how often we have the pleasure of seeing them face to face.

One of the benefits of living in the Pacific NW is that the hiking season never officially ends (if you can handle a little rain) – your options simply shrink.  Still it’s been a couple of months since we’ve hit a trail and I for one have been chomping at the bit.  I’ve used the time to plan out several hikes for this year.  Okay 37 of them totaling a little over 405 miles, but who’s counting?  I enjoy the planning phase, maybe a little too much.  I find it enjoyable to try and figure out when trails will be open, what the best time of year to view wildflowers or eat berries (yum) is, and most importantly when to avoid to miss the mosquitoes.  We get most of our information from William L. Sullivan’s series of Oregon Hiking guides which have proven indispensable.

This year we have hikes planned for the Oregon Coast, the Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters, Mt. Thielsen, and Diamond Peak wilderness areas, the Columbia Gorge, the Mt. St. Helens National Monument, Crater Lake, and the Ochoco & Fremont National Forests.  We hope to bring the beauty of this region to everyone who happens to check in on our wanderings in a way that is both enjoyable and informative.  First up is Gwynn Creek near Cape Perpetua on the Central Oregon Coast.  Happy Trails~