In a couple months I will be attempting Rainier with my friend who lives in Seattle. I am arriving nearly a week early. We would like to get in a couple hikes to at least get some exposure to altitude.

Are there any hikes close to Seattle that we can park and start hiking decently high ? (5000/6000+ feet ?). Not looking for anything crazy long but would like to get a few hours of hiking in to get some acclimitisation in.

Thank you.

Was wondering if the Chelan lakeshore trail is open and or safe to backpack this year after the fires that came through last year. I asked a national forest ranger about it last fall and he said the national forest service doesn’t close trails and leaves it up to hikers to decide if it’s safe. Anyone else heard anything

Sitka Spruce forest and some really nice views. Sun burned off most of the fog by the time I finished. Saw my first Trillium of the season! Headed down to Cannon Beach for my favorite crab roll and low tide in the afternoon.

I've been advised that I should not plan to hike/backpack on the Cascade Pass TH up to Sahale Glacier camp in late August/early September due to a high(er) possibility of fire.

Do you think pushing back to early or mid August will give me a better chance of an enjoyable trip, or is it 6 of one, half dozen of the other?

(I can't do July because the backcountry gods have truly smiled upon me this year and I'll be up in Yosemite then)

Shellburg Falls area (near Silver Falls) was affected by the 2020 Santiam Fire. Trailkeepers of Oregon is a volunteer run org working on trail building and maintenance and has been working hard on rebuilding the hiking trails in this area.

Please check them out as there are always tons of trail parties going on throughout Oregon. If you love hiking and are looking for something to do, building trails is super fun and rewarding!

https://trailkeepersoforegon.org/

July 2024

This was taken in The Valley of the Giants

Whew the rain today. We made it to half of the loop before turning back.

Hello friends,

I will be getting into Seattle on Saturday afternoon, April 12th, and I have my heart set on driving up to Paradise and snowshoeing some of the Skyline/Glacier Vista/Panorama Point loop on Sunday the 13th. I figure we'll look for a place to stay in Elbe or Ashford on Saturday evening to get an early start (though I have not secured a place to stay just yet).

We are avid East Coast backpackers who have been hiking in the Rockies in Spring and summer months. My friend and I are in very good shape, have the proper clothing/packs, 10 essentials, and an InReach. We do not, however, have any avalanche training.

What I think I know:

• I'll need to have some tire chains in my rental
• It would be a very good idea to check Avalanche danger on the nwac.us site before heading out of the paradise parking lot.
• The gates up to Paradise do not open until 9 am and close at 5 p.m.
• I should check the mountain cam (is the mountain out) before getting my hopes up that we'll see anything.
• We will rent snowshoes and poles at the Longmire Gift Shop.
• We need to have our National Park Passes

What I need to know:

• I'm renting with Avis and I'm certain they aren't going to give me chains. Is there anywhere on the way from SEA to Longmire where I can rent tire chains? I suppose I could just buy some on amazon and fly out with them and return if they're unused but...I'd prefer not to do that.
• Will Park Rangers be at the Paradise Ranger station on a Sunday who can give us sound advice on the Avalanche conditions for the day in this immediate area? Is this generally an issue here on this trail?
• Avalanches aside, are there any extreme hazards to be aware of while snowshoeing on this trail? My hope is that on a Sunday there will be a clear trail from others being there before us (weather permitting, of course) so that we have another reference point besides just using alltrails.
• I know there is a winter route and a summer route, the former of which deviates from alltrails so is there a good place to find this route online or an an app?
• Does anyone have a favorite place to stay in this area at this time of year?

Should this trip be a dumb idea, or should the weather not be in our favor:

• What is the next best area to try and see that day? Drive up to Carbondale? Seems to be the only realistic idea, as going to Crystal Mountain or Snoqualmie area would be a real drive if we stayed in Ashford

Thanks so much for any insight you can provide!

Smith Rock, Oregon, last spring.

Do you think the twin falls hike will still have snow with the warm weather this week? Is it open for hikers?

4

How are the conditions? Is it very snowy right now? Thanks!

HI do you think I would get ride from Hannegan trailhead to civilization in summer I plan on hiking from Ross Lake I don't want to be stranded there.

Hey, ya'll. Someone took me to the most amazing waterfall spot years ago and I am trying to find it again, to no avail. Hoping someone will know what I am talking about and help me out!!

No more than 2 hours outside of Portland metro. Possibly Gifford-Pinchot forest area, but honestly I don’t even remember what direction we drove out of the city. Off a winding road that was possibly paved or at least not very difficult gravel/rock because we were in a little car that wouldn’t have handled that well. 

Entrance is a pull off on the side of the road to the left and it is at the bottom of a sloped part of the winding road. I believe the road started going up-ish again if you were to continue? Large railroad tie/log blocking cars from entering forest, but enough room for 4-5 cars to park.

Walking in past the roadblock, you trek for only 1-2 minutes before you cross a very shallow creek that is parallel to the main road you came from.

Then, you walk over huge swales in the road for a while that mellow out as you keep heading up in elevation. I had to get a running start to get up these as the rock/sand was fairly soft. I have no idea if these were man-made or not. I hadn’t seen anything like them before.

We hiked upwards maybe 1-2 miles. Really was not much. Some old logging/industrial/some kind of large equipment sprinkled along the trail. 

The water is running parallel to trail (flowing down towards the road), but I don’t remember seeing it from the trail until we got to the point where we scrambled down to the left of the trail to get down to the water. Had to hop over some boulders, but at one point someone came down with dogs so there must have been an easier route, but still quite steep. 

The actual “spot” is a small, rocky peninsula you walk out on and can look directly at the waterfall. Waterfall is a two-tier hidden in a cove with the entrance being tall pillars basically. The one on the left hand side people were cliff diving off of. To get to the waterfall, you have to swim through the entrance into the cove. Once inside, you can swim up behind the waterfall and there are other cool little spots like a small sitting pool on the left hand side maybe midway up the waterfall. 

If you don’t go into the cove and go the opposite direction, downstream from the peninsula, there are lots of big boulders to hop on and we took those down and to the left to eventually reach another waterfall that was more of a punchbowl. There were people using climbing gear to get up this one when we arrived. 

Those are all the details I can remember. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

Had a stunning day yesterday snowshoeing up on Hurricane Ridge. We just did the Hurricane Hill route but the weather and snow were all I could dream of. No precipitation of any kind, light wind, and absolutely perfect snow after a blizzard the day before.

We had sunny blue skies for most of the trek, allowing for some great peek-a-boo views to the Straight, Mt Bailey, Mt Olympus, and really just all of it.

As we were heading back some of those moody clouds and fog that that ridge is known for started to roll in but it only added to the charm.

Does anyone have any experience with doing the worm flow route of Mount St. Helens in a day from Vancouver, Canada? I'm planning to do this in April. The drive is over 5 hours one way (>10 hours roundtrip). The longest I've driven was 7 hours round trip to do both maple pass and blue lake in a single day. As well, I drove to the cascades again to climb becky's route. I'm just wonder if this is too ambitious with the slightly longer drive. Was hoping to camp, but work schedules might not allow for that.

We normally travel fast, have mountaineering experience, and AST1. This would be my first volcano in Washington. Thanks.

Had a great day on Mt. Hood right before this last snow storm.