7th Annual Boys Fall Camping - Yocum Ridge - Mt Hood (2020)

I had read about a great overnight backpack on an area on the west side of Mt. Hood (highest Mt in Oregon) called Yocum Ridge. It was an 18 mile up and back hike that takes you up high almost to the tree line. 

We invited our friends the Swansons to come with us and we decided to make a go at it! 

It was a long hike up that ended up being longer than planned due to getting off on the wrong trail briefly which added a couple miles perhaps to the first day. We reached the lower meadow camp spots as the sun was getting close to going down. Everyone was tired so we found a good spot to camp for the night. 

After a filling dinner we were greeted with a mostly full moon as we got ready to sleep. As can sometimes be the case in the mountains it went from clear to cloudy with rain overnight and we awoke to thick fog and wetness everywhere - classic pacific north west conditions for the walk down. However by the time we were back down near the trailhead the weather had almost totally cleared up - big difference in a few hours and several thousand feet of altitude change.


Previous years:


Middle Sister (10,056)

Hunter, Noah and I hiked Middle Sister today. We did the renfrew glacier route. Middle sister is 10,056 ft in elevation. The route we did gains a little under 5500 ft of elevation and we hiked about 18 miles. It took us a little under 6 hours to summit and a little over 4 to come down Car to car it was about 11 hours. Very long and tiring day but great experience for the boys. Route finding, snow climbing and rock near the top. 

To get an early start we camped at the trailhead the night prior.

The hike up went through some amazing countryside before getting on the snow  

Summit!

A few additional photos from the trip down.

Week 7/8 CV19 Lockdown + Hunter Birthday

Hard to believe how fast the time is going by.  Hopefully this is the last post from formal lockdown as things are starting to open back up. 

The kids did another round of meals for the family!

Date night - take out from El Sancho taco shop

The annual kids walkathon at school this year was virtual so we did a family hike up Black Butte!  There was some snow near the top that freaked Kelly out a little. 

The school dropped off a graduate sign for hunter and we made sure to follow social distancing for a picture with his friend Nathan

Kelly had a meetup in the Park with some girlfriends. She drove the ‘73 Ford for the first time!  


Noah and his friend (also named Noah) have been working on adding levels to the tree house tree and had a sleep over in it after we got the door fixed! 

Holly chillin’


Hunter turned 15!
He got a new backpack from mom and dad along with some cowboy style work boots and some sweet new tools from Papa!  Abbie made Hunters cake!


Stein’s Pillar

The weather was expected to hit 70 so we decided to try and find another somewhat obscure Oregon landmark in the Ochoco mountains about an hour east of Bend past Prineville called Stein’s Pillar.  

However since we are all in lockdown there were about 10 other cars also at the trailhead today. Oh well it was still an amazing hike through ponderosa pines with a great view at the end.

Here’s a shot of the pillar from the road below. Very impressive rock feature that rivals Smith Rock’s monkey face pillar.  

Week 4 CV19 lockdown + Easter!

Spring is starting to show itself in many ways- birds, animals coming out of hibernation, grass sprouting and Abbie wearing sun dresses. Some memories from our 4th week of COVID19 lockdown. 

Sunsets

Kelly doing a morning coffee get together with girlfriends ... on zoom

Kevin needed a haircut and not able to go to his barber.

Holly can’t believe her luck - that her peeps are home all the time!

Easter

Hunter is finding animals and bringing them into show everyone.  He also brought in a snake too! 


The Alvord Desert

This week the temps were expected to pop up close to 70 mid week. In addition it’s the end of the school quarter so the kids were off Wednesday and Thursday with Good Friday a holiday.  Since last year I have wanted to go see the Alvord Desert but spring and fall are best for temperatures.  

This week seemed like the ideal time to go!  The Alvord is in the far south eastern section or Oregon. Very remote. Here is a picture of the start of the route off of East Steens Road and Highway 78.  

We got to the Alvord Playa and it didn’t disappoint. What a wild experience. You can drive over the cracked ground that when dry is extremely hard. You will see pictures of water but it’s only about an inch deep. As it’s clay though - not something you want to drive through and get stuck. 

 

Murphy’s Law came into play on the trip. One of my tires went flat at probably the most remote place possible in Oregon. We got the spare out and limped along for the rest of the trip until I could get the tires replaced.  The boys have never seen a tire get changed so they thought it was cool. 

With the spare on, we went and found a spot to camp out on the playa. No shortage of space and with no people it was easy for social distancing!  It was quite windy so no fire in the evening but great for flying the kite!  

This week was a full moon (super moon too I believe) so we got some cool shots in the early morning of sunrise, moon set.  Also there was no wind so we were able to do a fire to warm up and take the chill out of the air.  

We likely would have stayed at the desert another night, but with the tire issue we needed to work our way back towards a repair. We limped to a crossroads called Fields, Oregon where I was able to pump up the spare more. From there, we headed to another small hamlet (everything is dead right now because of the Covid closures) called Frenchglen. Hunter and I stayed here a couple years back. We found an open spot near Frenchglen to hang out and camp for the night. 

Friday morning we made it to a Les Schwab Tire in Burns, Oregon where I got a new set of wheels on. From there it was a relatively quick and painless 2 hours back home. 
Great adventures in the Oregon Backcountry!