Growing My Appreciation for the Great Outdoors

2006 was a great year. It was certainly a year of ups and downs–and for me, a lot of firsts.

In July, I summited my first mountain–Long's Peak–in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. The original purpose of the trip was to see Ween and the Flaming Lips at the Red Rock Amphitheatre, which is right outside of Denver. The trip grew to include a few days spent backpacking in Rocky Mountain NP.


That's me at mile 2 on the Long's Peak trail with about 40 pounds of shit strapped to my back. Read the whole story.

I have a special place in my heart for America's National Parks. Lucky me, this September I enjoyed a second visit to the Moab area, including Arches NP, and added another park to my pin map–Crater Lake NP, which is located in Central/Southern Oregon. See an aerial shot of the lake/caldera.


Crater Lake at Sunrise–a great time to find some solitude, stillness and quiet.


Crater Lake was formed after the collapse of an ancient volcano, posthumously named Mount Mazama. This volcano violently erupted approximately 7700 years ago. That eruption was 42 times as powerful as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The basin or caldera was formed after the top 5000 feet of the volcano collapsed. Subsequent lava flows sealed the bottom, allowing the caldera to fill with approximately 4.6 trillion gallons of water from rainfall and snow melt, to create the seventh deepest lake in the world at 1,932 feet.


You can fish from the lake shore, but no boating, kayaking or swimming is allowed in order to preserve the lake's exceptional clarity. The clarity is mainly due to its isolation from streams and rivers. There is no incoming stream to bring any organic materials, sediments, or chemicals to pollute the lake. The record clarity of Crater Lake was measured at a depth of 41 m (134 ft) in August 1994.


We made some friends–small and large–on the trail down the lake shore.

2006 was also my first season of serious mountain biking. The east coast biking I've done has been alright, but the most amazing rides in North America are definitely out west. My favorites so far are Porcupine Rim in Moab and the McKenzie River Trail in Oregon's Willamette National Forest.

Since moving to Oregon, I have been exploring in every which direction. Thanksgiving weekend was spent soaking up the length of the Oregon coast from Oceanside all the way south to the California border. My first trip to Redwood National Park in CA took place on that trip. :) Since October, I have hiked most of the trails in the Columbia River Gorge–both the Washington and the Oregon side–some of the trails multiple times to see how the rain changes things!

It seems no matter where you turn, there's a really awesome state or national park around the bend. Speaking of Bend, there's a really cool state park in Oregon called Smith Rock.


Smith Rock is popular with rock climbers.


You can hike to the top and plop down for a front row seat to watch the climbers. Off in the distance you can see the Three Sisters and Mount Jefferson.

I am definitely looking forward to some warm and sunny spring and summer days. I love the winter here, but I miss short-sleeved shirts and the sun on my snoot. :)

When this winter settled in, I got a combination of new and used gear and started my first season skiing! It's SO fun! I have a season pass to Mount Hood Meadows, which is about a half hour drive from Hood River. Most of the people I work with have a pass, so it's always easy to find someone who wants to roll up there for at least a few runs. I have discovered the beauty of the mid-mountain bar. ;)

My favorite purchase of 2006 was definitely my snow shoes. Between skiing and snow shoeing, I haven't been more excited for it to snow since I was a kid! It really makes the winter fly by.

So, 2006 has been filled with new activities which have all been really fun–kayaking, backpacking, biking, exploring the gorge, skiing, snowshoeing, etc. I even visited three more national parks and a few national forests!

Coming up in the next few months, I'll be making my first tracks in some of Washington's parks, including Mount Rainier NP and Olympic NP and also making my first trip to visit my mother's sister, my Aunt Rose, in Port Orchard, WA. She and her family are just a ferry ride away from Seattle!

I'm also planning spring trips to the Wallowa's in eastern OR and north across the Canadian border for a late-season ski trip to Whistler, British Columbia.

I am a LUCKY DOG!

:)