What better plan to spend a 90 degree forcasted day
in the city - than to get OUT of the city! Bill, Jen and I met up and headed towards our destination,
Mt. Mitchell,WA . We weren't sure what to expect in way of snow, so we brought along snowshoes.
Here is the Field Guide's directions and descriptions,
http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Mount_Mitchell .You can also find those in Paul Gerald's "60 Hikes within 60 miles of
Portland" guidebook (2nd edition, not the 3rd), and William Sullivan's "100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington". However, keep in mind real-life changes can occur, such as signage not being there, snow or trees over roads, besides bath-tub sized potholes - don't count on the printed "time to get to trailhead" either ;) it took us about two hours to (find and) get to the trail today.
Well, there was plenty of snow at the trail's beginning, and this is at about 1900'
Small branches or trees were scattered in the trail,( but we could see several previous blocking trees that workers had sawed and cleared)...so far we weren't intimidated...
Well, after some steeper climbing beyond this section,
with no visible trail, and deeper snow (it was unpredictable snow, soupy in spots and uneven and crusty in other), and seemed too much debris for donning our snowshoes, we very begrudgingly decided to not try any further.
We figured we got up about 1. 5 miles, and Jen's GPS read 2600+ feet where we turned around to follow our footsteps back down.
Once back by the car, we had our lunches , and had some free entertainment. These industrious red ants went to town where I left a few pretzel pieces intended for a shy Grey Jay flitting about near us - sorry Mr. Jay, you snooze you lose! The ants were hauling these pieces ten time their size down the stump to who knows where...
On the way back down the road, we stopped for the magnificent views of Mt.St.Helens
and a couple deer foraging casually near the road:
On the way back to Portland we took a detour to check out a bit of the Siouxon Trail (in the above mentioned hike books):
trailhead:
We just walked the short distance down to the creek and bridge, it was lovely!
creek and rock-hound fairie Jen(far right ;)
One more stop on the way, a tiny espresso shop in Amboy (I think called "Espresso Yourself") with a jovial owner, and hit-the-spot coffee drinks (chocolate coconut Jen?) and ice-cream (huckleberry-yum! )
So, alot of driving (thanks so much Bill!) for an abrupted hike (sorry Jen!) - but as always better safe than sorry, and we had a leisurely day traveling through some beautiful areas - we'll try Mitchell again - maybe JULY??
Jane Garbisch - Site Sherpa
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"We are here on the planet only once.... might as well get a feel for the place."
- Annie Dillard