Vista Ridge and Eden Park

North Side of Mt. Hood from Vista Ridge

As I said in my last post, those of us in the hot August valleys head for the coast or the mountains for summer outdoor activities. There are so many choices - sometimes it's like putting two bowls of food in front of a cat and watching it try to decide. For me, this problem is mostly solved because, a) I don't like cat food, and b) most of the remaining wildflowers are growing up at the timberline level now.

There are several noteworthy late summer flower hikes listed in the guidebooks and Vista Ridge is one of them. This is one of those hikes that really tests your level of commitment to the cause - it's about a three hour drive from my home just to get there and the last 25 miles are on really narrow roads, kind of like the bike lanes on the Banks-Vernonia rail-trail. But if you are not bothered by steep drop-offs and no guard rails, then it's a scenic drive!

Three of my retired hiking buddies and I headed up to Vista Ridge, on the north side on Mt. Hood last Friday for a look. The weather was cloudy with marine air as we left Hillsboro at 7:30 am. As we headed east the cloud layer broke up as forcasted, and soon we were in bright sunlight. As a bonus, we got to see some of the 2014 Hood-to-Coast runners coming down the mountain on Highway 26 as we made our way up. They were still pretty fresh looking at this point, probably on their first of three segments. Once we turned off the highway onto Lolo Pass road, there were no runners; in fact we saw only two other vehicles. At about 10:30 am we arrived at the trailhead - two other cars were parked there and one arrived as we put on our boots!

In a word, our hike was great. We actually combined two hikes, the Vista Ridge trail 626 (4.8 miles) and the Eden Park trail 600H (3.2 miles), so it was an out and back with a loop at the far end. The two youngsters in the group, Ken and Mike, took a third hike out to Elk Cove, adding another 2.5 miles to their trek.

We started out at 4,600 ft. elevation and reached 5,800 ft. on the Eden Park loop. To get back to the Vista Ridge trail, we traveled a short distance on the Timberline Trail, which circles the entire mountain for 40 miles. Our trek initially took us through a huge 6,000 acre burn area from 2011 (known as the Dollar Lake fire). The lightning-caused fire is part of the natural cycle of northwest forests, but it was truly an amazing sight to see as we walked through it.

We spotted Fireweed, Beargrass, and Pearly Everlasting coming up as the first native plants. We also saw a few 2 - 3 inch high conifers poking up here and there, through the charred ground. The cycle really does work!

In some areas, the fire turned away and small patches of the green, former forest remained as sort of a deja-vu monument to the fickle nature of fires. Here we found mature conifers, ripe huckleberries, and bright red Sitka Mountain Ash berries. We eagerly lunched at the Eden Park trail junction, where the plant life was subalpine.

Flower-wise, we spotted many familiar faces, such as Lupine, Aster, Groundsel, and Paintbrush. There were several new ones for me as well as fresh editions just blooming. A few of the highlights are shown below. Hover your mouse to see the names and follow this link for the entire set.

    

     

Links:

Wildflower Photo Album

Hike Photo Album

Portland Hikers Link

Timberline Trail

Oregonlive Fire Article

Sea Fever

"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and sky...."  and so begins that famous poem, Sea Fever, by John Masefield. Like so many of us in the non-stop fun AARP club, I memorized this poem for an English class in junior high. And while I must admit the words are memorable, they are not really what draws me to the ocean these days.

You only have to live in western Oregon for a few years to realize that summer in the valleys can be a challenge. The heat can be down right blistering and there is either not enough wind or too much. With all the field harvesting, dust is everywhere and right about now is when the dreaded yellow jackets show up as uninvited guests at all your outdoor food events!

Beach Grass and Sea Lyme Grass at Nehalem Bay State Park

Locals solve this summer problem by heading to the beach or the mountains. It can be tricky at either location because the beach can be foggy and cold at times and in the mountains you may get thunderstorms and wildfires. Lucky for us, last week, my lovely wife Sharon, was one of several artists in a show/sale at the tiny beach town of Manzanita. She is a handweaver and creates a unique array of highly artistic woven items from scarves to wall hangings. My role in this endeavor is "roadie," the guy who helps set up her displays and equipment for the show; a role I am happy to fill I might add. Last week was a real scorcher for us here so it was a good week to beach it -- and the cool but sunny weather at Manzanita was just the ticket!

Once my work was done, I did have a bit of time to wander around town on foot and by bike, finding a few interesting plants here and there:

     

These firey Crocosmia were blooming all over the area. They are non-natives from South Africa but seem to be naturalized. Members of the Iris family, their bright flowers attract hummingbirds.

     

No summer trip to the coast is complete without spotting a few Common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis), another non-native with pool ball size brilliant yellow flowers. Some of these plants were taller than I am.

     

Native to China, the wonderfully fragrant Honeysuckle (Lonicera peridymenum) adorned several gardens right in town. There are reams of articles to read about this mystical plant if you are so inclined.

     

These Dune Tansy (Tanacetum camphoratum) were growing in the sand at Nehalem Bay State Park. They are native, and each flower head is a composite of hundreds of minute blossoms.

     

Another native sand dweller, the Beach Knotweed (Polygonum paronychia) was growing on the beachside dunes at the park. It helps check dune erosion along these delicate, but heavily used areas.

      

These Sticky Goldenrod (Solidago simplex var. spathulata) were abundant along the bike trail at the state park. This area is off the beach and lightly wooded with shore pine. Also note the Salt Rush (Juncus lesueurii), a common grass-like sand dweller (left photo).

     

And last but not least the non-native, noxious Tansy Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), seen here with the striking Red Shouldered Ctenucha moths. These moths were on nearly every tansy plant I saw at the park.

Links:

Sea Fever poem

Manzanita Photo Album

Manzanita Wiki Page

Elk Meadows

Elk Meadows and Mt. Hood

Elk Meadows is a very popular Mt. Hood area hike for both day trippers and backpackers. It's just far enough away from the bustle of Government Camp to be quiet, in the Mt. Hood Wilderness area, on the southeast side. The four hour hike took us through a mature sub-alpine conifer forest, crossed two big streams and about a dozen small creeks. After 2.5 miles we reached the meadows, where we had lunch and walked the perimeter trail and then returned the way we came. This trek gains about 1,200 ft over the 6 miles, so it's a good workout at 5,000 to 5,450 ft elevation. Ken, Sharon, and I made the trek on 7/26/2014. July  is the peak wildflower bloom here, and we were rewarded with a good show. A nice bonus for us were two notable waterfalls located nearby: Sahalie and Umbrella Falls. The word Sahalie is Chinook for high or sky, so there are several waterfalls in both Oregon and Washington with the name.

     

Umbrella Falls was a great way to polish off the hike (on right, above). It created a cool breeze as it cascaded down the hill and I really enjoyed sticking my hot, tired feet into the cold water for a bit. From here we made the 10 mile drive to Government Camp, where we dined at the Mt. Hood Brewpub, a favorite watering hole of ours.

We captured about 20 interesting wildflowers in bloom. The link below will take you to those. As always, there were many other familiar ones that I did not capture this time, such as paintbrush, queen's cup, and lupine.

Pink Monkeyflower - Mimulus lewisii

We spotted both pink and yellow monkeyflowers growing abundantly at the Newton Creek crossing, on the way to the meadows. This colorful pink Monkeyflower was first noted by Meriwether Lewis on August 12, 1805 in Montana. It was later named after him and is also called Lewis' Monkeyflower.

See the rest of the wildflowers

See more hike photos

Ken's Oregon Conifers web site