Waves at Fort Stevens
Paula and I made a day trip to Astoria, Oregon to celebrate the week off from work (me) and school (Paula). We visited Fort Stevens State Park, Fort Clatsop National Park, the Maritime Museum and got to learn about the history of the area, which was pretty interesting. The waves, wind and rain were out in force, but we took a few photos. Read the rest of this entry »
Mount Hood and Burnt Lake from East Zigzag
Let me introduce you to one of my new favorite hikes in Oregon, the Burnt Lake Trail to East ZigZag Mountain. It all started on a nice Sunday (8/2/2011), when I needed to give Paula some space to study, so I looked at my new Green Trails map and Sullivan’s 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon book and found a nice trail called Burnt Lake. It was rated moderate and had some options to extend into a longer hike, so I was game.
Mt. Hood from Tumala Mountain Trail
Since it was such a nice day today (Sunday), we decided to go for a hike up to Squaw Mountain, which was recently renamed to Tumala Mountain. (You’ll find I use them interchangably through this blog post, because I don’t know (care?) what is the official or not name for anything at this moment) Anyway, it was rumored to be a nice, moderate trail with a decent view of Mt. Hood at the top, with the ruins of an old fire lookout tower at the summit. So we loaded up and headed out to the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness looking for adventure.
Paula Taking a Shortcut along the Memaloose Lake Trail
Over the long weekend, Paula and I drove out beyond Estacada to hike up to Memaloose Lake and from there, hike up to the top of South Fork Mountain. The weather was a little cooler and cloudier Sunday morning, but the weather report had the clouds breaking up by late morning, so we were hopeful!
The forest at the Memaloose Lake Trailhead
We pulled off the main road and drove an old forest road for about 12 miles until the pavement ended, and took the gravel road for another 2 miles arriving at the trailhead. We ventured out into the forest and saw a mighty fine stand of big old trees welcoming us. Read the rest of this entry »
2011 Clackamas River Summer Steelhead
Daylight Savings Time is back, and sunrise is coming in at an ungodly 5:50am. Factoring in the time it takes to drive to the closest fishing hole, get dressed, feed the cats, brew coffee, and load all my gear, I’ve got to be up and awake at 5:00am to even think about making it to the river at sunrise! Well, I had every intention of getting there at sunrise this morning, but when my alarm clock went off, I quickly and deftly hit the snooze button–maybe even twice–and then stumbled groggily around, fed the cats and waited for the coffee to brew.
Despite my diligence, I arrived at my fishing hole a good 15 minutes after sunrise, but to my surprise, I had the whole place to myself! Close enough, right? I saw a few boats side drifting through my spot as I walked down there, but when I reached water’s edge, it was all mine. James should have been coming down any time now, so I set some of my gear down to save him a spot, and moved upstream about 30 yards to start fishing and work my way back down. As I drifted my “Clark Special” yarnie through some slow water, I felt a small fish just barely tap my hook, but I set the hook on it anyway, and to my surprise, there was a steelhead on the end! I fought the fish for a few minutes until he was tired enough to start pulling in, but because of a few bank mishaps this year (James, Clark and I have all had a few disasters) and also Clark getting into my head about the 8 pound leader possibly being a little too light, I let the fish get two extra bonus runs to wear it out. I saw that it was a hatchery fish and was going to get bonked, so I was ok to stretch this one out! Two bonus runs later, I had a nice summer steelhead on the bank!
So, I called James and told him to “get down here!”, and he reported he would be down in 20 minutes, so I turned and went back to fishing. Suddenly, not two minutes later, the guy fishing across the way hooked up and fought a nice fish, too! I called James back and he updated his ETA to be 10 minutes!
The Summer Steelhead appear to be on their way upriver in force! In addition to my summer steelhead buck, we saw 3 other fish jump, and I hooked up a second time, but this time, the fish got my lead hung up and the steelhead got leverage enough to pull off. A fisherman downstream from me where the fish was hooked up said “oh man, that was a nice one!!”
Clackamas River Summer Steelhead
Here’s a close up. I think this fish was probably in the 10 to 12 pound range. I tossed a few fillets on the barbecue tonight and they were excellent! A few more pieces are going in to the Little Chief smoker tonight, too! So, now I’ve got another “to-do” for tomorrow morning at 5am before I can go fishing!
After an epic day like today, I’ll be back down there tomorrow morning–not necessarily at sunrise, but close enough is fine!