2023 was another unique year of hiking for us. I made it outside for hikes on 62 days while Heather managed to join me, at least in part on 58 of those days. We set off from 109 trailheads and 5 times from our tent which was the highest number of starting points for us in a given year. While the 62 days marked my second highest number of days spent hiking the 608.5 miles hiked was just the 8th most miles in a year. In other words, 2023 was the year of shorter, multiple stop days allowing us to visit a good number of different trails.
In fact, our shortest hike was just over a quarter mile at Nesika Park in Lincoln City (post) while my longest hike was a 17.7 mile out-and-back up and over Mt. Hebo (post).
This year we visited city, county, and national parks as well as state and national forests. We also made it to a national monument and a national volcanic monument. We spent time at six national wildlife refuges and a couple days hiking in privately held nature preserves. Seventeen hikes took us into ten different designated wilderness areas. We truly are blessed to live in a region with so many options and so much variety.
While we continue to focus on hikes that we have not done before we spent a higher percentage of our time hiking in Oregon than typical this year. We spent just three days in Washington, none in California, and for only the second time hiked a trail in Idaho along the Snake River. That being said only 17 of our days brought us to a trail we’d hiked in a previous year and none of the hikes were an exact repeat of one we’d done before.
Our most northern hike was in Washington on the Boundary Trail North of Mt. St. Helens (post).
I would have guessed our Eastern most hike was the one in Idaho, but it was actually another stop we made that same day on the Oregon side of the Snake River (post).
While we didn’t hike in California this year our Southernmost hike at Tanner Lakes saw us briefly drive through part of the State to reach the trailhead (post).
Peaks in California from Tanner Mountain.
Once again our Western most hike was near the Pacific Ocean, but it wasn’t one of our beach hikes, it was actually slightly inland at Cape Mountain near Florence (post).
The Pacific Ocean from Cape Mountain.
In general the weather was good this year, almost too good, as drought conditions have been an issue. Aside from getting caught in a heavy thunderstorm at Cathedral Hills (post) precipitation was almost non-existent. Clouds and fog were also not much of an issue this year, with a trip to Mt. Hood (post) being the only day where our views were impacted by either of these. It wasn’t all clear views though as persistent smoke, first from wildfires in Canada then fires in California and Southern Oregon left most views with at least a hint of haze seemingly the entire year.
Our biggest accomplishment this year was reaching our goal of hiking all 100 featured hikes in one of William L. Sullivan’s
“100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” edition 4.2 (post). During an October trip to Grants Pass we checked off the final hikes with the last being a visit to Babyfoot Lake in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness (post).
I hope to get our usual wildlife and flower galleries out at some point over the next couple of months, but I’ll leave this post with some of 2023 highlights.
Friends of Wildwoods Trail – Lincoln City, OR (January)
Talking Water Gardens – Albany, OR (April)
Whiskey Creek – Rogue River National Recreation Trail, OR (May)
Wagner Butte from the Sterling Mine Ditch Trail – Southern Oregon (May)
Illinois River from the Kerby Flat Trail – Southern Oregon (May)
Mt. Hood from the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge – Sherwood, OR (May)
Deschutes River from the Criterion Tract – Central Oregon (May)
Mt. Adams from Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge – Washington (June)
Hat Rock – Hat Rock State Park, OR (June)
View from the Imnaha River Trail – Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR (June)
Pond at Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Site – Joseph, OR (June)
Snake River at Eureka Bar, OR (June)
Buckhorn Lookout, OR (June)
Blossom Bar – Rogue River, OR (June)
North Bank Habitat – Roseburg, OR (June)
Natural Rock Arch – Niagra, OR (July)
Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack from Sand Mountain – Willamette National Forest, OR (July)
Stuart Falls – Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR (July)
Plaikni Falls – Crater Lake National Park, OR (August)
View from Crater Peak – Crater Lake National Park, OR (August)
Crater Lake from the Cleetwood Cove Trail – Crater Lake National Park, OR (August)
Oregon Trail replica wagon – Baker City, OR (August)
Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR (August)
View from the Bear Lake Trail – Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR (August)
Tombstone Lake – Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR (August)
Traverse Lake – Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR (August)
Rockaway Beach Cedar Preserve Boardwalk – Rockaway Beach, OR (August)
Dry River Canyon – Central Oregon (September)
Kurmbo Reservoir – Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, OR (September)
Seven Lakes Basin – Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR (September)
Sisi Butte Lookout – Mt. Hood National Forest, OR (September)
Olallie Butte from Lower Lake – Mt. Hood National Forest, OR (September)
Rock spire along the Castle Canyon Trail – Mt. Hood Wilderness, OR (September)
Sun rays at Strom Boulder Ridge – Burnt Woods, OR (September)
Bondary Trail above Sturgis Fork – Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest (October)
Lake Mountain Trail heading toward the taller Mount Elijah – Oregon Caves National Monument & Preserve (October)
Tanner Lake – Red Buttes Wilderness, OR (October)
Grayback Mountain snow shelter – Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest (October)
Babyfoot Lake – Kalmiopsis Wilderness, OR (October)
Vivian Lake – Diamond Peak Wilderness, OR (October)
Pool Creek Falls – Willamette National Forest, OR (October)
Tunnel Beach – Oceanside, OR (October)
D River – Lincoln City, OR (November)
Mt. Hood through the shelter on Scouters Mountain – Portland, OR (December)
Hidden Falls – Hidden Valley, OR (December)
Unfortunately, not everything was blue skies in 2023.
At the end of the year I retired my favorite hiking T-shirt after eight years. We’d found some Marvel T-shirts at Target in late 2014/early 2015 in their active wear section made of wicking material. I picked up a Punisher shirt for less than $20.00. Over the next 8+ years I wore that T-shirt on at least 85% of our hikes. That works out to over 450 outings and over 5000 miles. We’ve never been able to locate another like it that wasn’t at least part cotton. It was stretched out and had developed several holes of the last couple of years, but it performed admirably.
More disappointing was the closure of our local (and go to) outdoor store, Salem Summit in July. They closed their doors after 11+ years. It was a big loss for us and the Salem outdoor community, but we are grateful for all the help and support that Al and the staff provided through those years.
wanderingyuncks 