Sunday, September 4, 2011

Plan B!

I usually force my readers (you) to wade through some poorly written story before I provide you with any images, but today we are going to change that.


In case you haven't heard, Oregon is on-fire and we most definitely are not talking about college football (Ducks and Beavs). After a stretch of heat and dry weather there are multiple wildfires in Central Oregon and now Western Oregon (little did I know). Ky and I had planned to do a backpacking trip over the holiday weekend, but were both feeling a little worn thin, so I suggested a challenging hike up Cooper Spur (to Tie-in Rock not the Summit). As we made the turn South out of Hood River, it became clear to me that we needed a new Plan B. So we headed to Elk Meadow.


Elk Meadow was a tougher easy hike than I anticipated (about 6.5 miles RT and 3500' of climbing). Either way it felt good to stretch the legs and let Kona run loose on a safe trail (no precipices), he is still sleeping a day later.


The views of Mt Hood and the accompanying high alpine meadows were stupendous and since we were Southwest of the Mt Hood Fire, we even had blue skies.


After we finished hiking we headed back to Hood River (one of three places I would love to move to) and had a delicious lunch at Double Mountain Brewhouse and a Cupcake at a very unique street cart vendor. Checked out some shops and hit the wineries.


We were too busy enjoying ourselves in Hood River to take any photos, if you were wondering why you are still looking at photos from our hike. We visited the Phelps Creek and Marchesi wineries Ky enjoyed some good wine and I enjoyed some good snacks. I didn't feel like falling asleep on the drive back to Portland since I would be doing the driving.


Back in Portland we suffered through a lousy football game (see links above), but all in all had an excellent Saturday. Sunday has been a day of rest.

By The Way...Do you remember what I was up to a year ago?