I took my blurry buddy for a walk this afternoon at the lake. It was sprinkling when we left, but it turned into a pretty good downpour before we were through. Not that he minded. It’s hard to notice you’re getting rained on when you insist on jumping into the lake every chance you get!
Dave and Barclay and I went for a little walk at Lacamas Creek Park in Camas today. It was our day off, and we could combine it with a trip out to the East end of town for some other errands, so it didn’t seem too far. It was a nice drive through the country to get there.
We turned around at a bridge over a cool waterfall. Dave had already gone for a run this morning, and I took Barclay for a vigorous hike yesterday around the upper rim trail at BG Lake, so we were only up for a short walk. Plus it looked like the skies were going to open up and rain on us at any second. I had to bundle up with about three layers to stay warm.
We could hear the waterfall long before we got anywhere near it, and it was really roaring. It’s amazing how much water was spilling over. It was beautiful, but it looked like it would take you away in an instant!
On Sunday Barclay and I took a drive out to Sunset Falls. Sunset Falls is the closest NFS campground, and I was wondering if it would be a nice place to take the trailer to for a weekend, since it’s only about 20 miles away. Because of the economy we haven’t had the trailer out all year! Barclay enjoyed wading in the cool water, and even stepped into an unexpectedly deep pool and had to paddle a bit. Unfortunately we didn’t have the place to ourselves.
I shouldn’t have been surprised to find tons of people, car alarms going off, radios blaring, basically all the things you head to the forest to get away from! Still, people can be interesting sometimes…
In the fall we have been here and watched salmon jumping up this waterfall. Now in the heat of summer the waterfall was much smaller, and people were wading around and jumping into the pool below.
Wheeeeee! File this under ‘things I will NEVER do’!
Straight across the pool was a steep dirt path people were also using to run down and jump into the pool. This guy got a pretty impressive canonball going.
The rocks were very pretty with the water rushing by.
I liked this leaf and it’s shadow in a still pool.For our Wednesday hike we headed out this morning to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, a huge sanctuary that runs along the Washington bank of the Columbia River. The refuge is a great place to hike, there are only a few trails, as most of the property is off limits to prevent disturbing the wildlife, but the views from the trails are excellent and there are lots of interesting things to see.
We started up on the Carty Unit at the Oaks to Wetlands trail. It begins with an impressive arched footbridge taking you over the busy amtrak rail line.
And after a couple hundred yards you get your first view of the refuge over Duck Lake – beautiful!
Along the way you pass the Cathlapotle cedar plank house. This recreation was built in 2005 as part of the celebration of Lewis & Clark’s 1805 expedition when they met locals living in these kinds of houses.
The Oaks to Wetlands trail is a two mile loop which reached Boot Lake at it’s far end. This ‘green field’ is Boot Lake. That’s aquatic plants all the way to the far tree line.
Unfortunately our plan to hike a wetlands trail in the middle of summer was not well thought out. We were immediately beset by a cloud of hungry Boot Lake mosquitos who persued us all the way back to the car!
Along the way we stopped at a neat rocky overlook and saw this beautiful bird, I think it’s a Great Egret, perched high up in a tree.
After we double-timed it back to the car, we headed down to the River S Unit of the refuge to do the four mile driving loop. You can also walk this loop in the summer, but after our little escape from the mosquitos neither of us felt like taking the chance. So we drove.
River Otter, Muskrat, Nutria? I can’t tell…
An osprey!Along the way you can park and go to a blind that looks out over Rest Lake. There were a lot of herons out there, some of them fighting and gliding around. Lots of smaller birds as well. It would be a great place to have a spotting scope.
Dave at the blind
This was a really neat trip, and we’ll go again, but maybe after mosquito season is over!
Not a great picture of me and Barclay (guess I should have taken off the hat) 🙂 Today Dave and D and I hiked to the top of Green Mountain in Amboy. It’s just an easy walk up a logging road, but it’s pretty steep. We saw tons of butterflies, a skink (which I almost stepped on, sunning in the middle of the trail), snails, and even a snake. Along the way you can look back across the valley and see all the way back to the hills around Battle Ground. There’s great views at the top.
Dave and D with Lake Merwin and Mt St Helens in the background.
Mt St Helens. It’s a pretty spectacular view. I never get tired of looking at Mt St Helens. We’re on the South side so you can’t see the crater. Everyone made it just fine, and Barclay did a great job on his first big hike. We even stopped in Amboy for ice cream on the way back into town. Fun day!
If D posts her pictures of the butterflies (she took a bunch of them), I’ll link to her blog 🙂
Update: Before work I stopped by a new shopping center/neighborhood that’s under construction and still mostly empty, and rode around there for ten minutes or so. Then after work I went by a local park and rode around there and into the nearby neighborhood, which also connected to a development with nice new streets and no houses. So all together I got about 35 minutes of riding, and was feeling more confident and balanced already. Plus I had forgotten the joys of riding, the wind on your face, the smells of flowers and trees in bloom as you ride past. I could even smell the chinese food place several blocks away! What fun. And it’s so quiet, just the hum of the tires, you can hear the birds in the trees. What a beautiful day for it too.
Gosh, Dorinda inspired me by blogging her resolutions – and they were so darned organized – which is just like her, in my view!
My resolution is the same one it has been for the last couple years, and every year something stops me. This is it – this year I’m going to do it. I will climb a mountain. Literally. I want to get to the top of Silver Star Mountain. It’s just east of town, and I see it every day, and I wish I could get to the top of it. Of course I am not in as good a shape as I was when I started wanting to do this a few years ago – seems like something always gets in the way and I end up getting even further from my goal.
Almost 5 years ago we drove up there, and it takes a 4×4 just to get to the trailhead. We started hiking up the trail and it was so steep, and the altitude was so high, I started to panic a bit, had trouble catching my breath, so we turned around and came back. Ever since I have wanted to get in better shape and try again! Of course, the humiliating thing is that Silver Star is completely non-technical, is listed in several guidebook as ‘easy hikes for children’, and is considered a grade A (that’s the easiest rating they have) hike for most outdoor clubs. It’s really shouldn’t be that big an achievement. But it will be for me.
So my goal is to get out and hike at least a couple times a week on local trails, and get in better shape so that by the end of the summer I can hike to the top of Silver Star. Anyone want to join me?
I got the crazy idea yesterday afternoon that I would pack a sandwich, drink, and a book, and take the dogs to the park and have a dinner picnic. My only regret in this was 1) letting Alki see me prepare the kongs I brought along for them before we left – because she spent the entire walk obsessing about when she would get the kong, and then stole Barclay’s too! and 2) taking both dogs, because it was like having two little kids in the backseat on a long car ride! They cannot be happy sniffing the same bush, or one being ahead of the other. Actually, it’s all Alki who had her nose out of joint. Barclay is way too laid back to be much trouble. So I spend the whole time untangling leashes and being alternately pulled forward or dragged behind.
Once we got there and I laid out a blanket and tied the pooches to opposite ends of the picnic table, I turned to grab my sandwich only to find that while I was tying Barclay, Alki pulled the sandwich out of the pack, opened the container, and was munching on my bun!
Look, she’s not even sorry she got caught! Unrepentant eskimo!!
Barclay was busy watching squirels in the bushes. He didn’t even care about his kong.
Alki enjoyed it once she had polished off both Kongs and there was no sandwich left to worry about. Then she could relax! Doesn’t she look great for a dog who’s 13 years old and survived a serious bout with cancer last year? No matter how much of a ‘peskie eskie’ she is, I treasure our time together even more.
I managed to read a few pages before it started to get dark and we headed back on the wooded path home.
We went for a little hike today. This is a location we found while Geocaching a few years ago and it was so impressive, we thought about going back. Finally got around to it.
It was a sort of overcast day, which was nice because it wasn’t too hot. The hike was steady uphill to the top, though not really steep. We followed a logging road into DNR land north of Amboy, WA, up to the top of a ridge.
There were some pretty steep drop-offs! I wouldn’t want to be wandering around here at night!
Found some nice little purple wildflowers along the roadside.
This is our old Old OLD AND USELESS GPS unit. Although it eventually found enough satellites to triangulate and help us find the correct road to park the car on, it refused to be any help after that. Time for a new GPS unit. This one hasn’t been good for Geocaching for years anyway, since it’s precision is fairly low. It’ll get you within 10 yards or so of the cache, but after that you’re on your own! That was fine for the old ammobox caches, but not nearly precise enough for the micros people hide nowdays.
When we got to a clearing at the top we found ourselves looking over the edge of the ridge, and down onto Lake Merwin. Spectacular!
A huge vulture drifted by at eye level while we sat on the edge and ate our lunch.
Dave, playing around for the camera 🙂
Lake Merwin is HUGE! I always hear folks saying how it’s so crowded up there, but here we are on a Sunday afternoon and only a couple boats in sight. Looks like there’s room enough for everybody in the county on that lake. Then there’s Swift Reservoir right up the road.
Seems like ridge after ridge just went off into the distance forever.
Mt St Helens had a cloud cap on, preventing us from getting a good look at her. That will just give us a good reason to hike back up here.
Steff Does Stuff! 