Easy like Monday Morning

Cooper partied as hard as we did this weekend. He's napping in the sun with his mohawk feathers squirting out of his Flyer's jersey.

Cooper is all partied out.

Friday night was hockey party. Saturday was mountain biking, hockey, pre-Hood River Hops Fest party, Hood River Hops Fest and post-Hood River Hops Fest. Great times!!!

Pre-Hops Fest Hockey Party.

Sunday was snow hiking around the Cooper Spur area. We got a good foot up at 6,000'! THIS WAS YESTERDAY!!!

Gerry, Aaron, Cooper (small white thing with jacket by Tom's foot) & Tom.

Chinidere-Tomlike Mountain Loop

A few months back, I wrote a Trail Doggs article for Rediviva Magazine that outlined a loop that includes the summit of two mountains—Chinidere and Tomlike. This 9-mile loop is spectacular and will make you feel like a mountaineer. :)

The mountains were named for Chinidere—the last chief of the Wasco Indians and his son, Tomlike, who was the chief of the Hood River Indians.

This is a gelatin silver print of Tomlike. It was shot in The Dalles by Benjamin A. Gifford in 1900.

The hike begins at Wahtum Lake, within Mt. Hood National Forest. The area is true Pacific Northwest rain forest and is only accessible for a short window each year. The elevation and thick forest canopy can keep snowpack on the ground til mid-summer!

Beargrass on the lovely Pacific Crest Trail.

The hike begins at Wahtum Lake and follows the Pacific Crest Trail for a while before intersecting with the .5 mile climb to the top of Chinidere. The views from the top of Chinidere are absolutely stunning—extending from The Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson to the south and to Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier in the north. The biggest, baddest view is Mt. Hood, which dominates the landscape. From here, you can also admire Eagle Creek Canyon and many of the other peaks in the Gorge, including Mt. Defiance.

In true rainforest style, our view from Chinidere was socked in the day of the hike. Still very cool! Cooper likes it anyway, he said.

Late summer here means late wildflowers AND late mosquitos. It's pretty and itchy (they mossies here are HUNGRY).

Baby lupine.

After summitting Chindere, we trotted along the Herman Creek Trail to the junction with the ridgeline that climbs to the top of Tomlike. The ridgeline trail follows cairns and is super badass, if I do say so myself.

The Tomlike Ridge varies from exposed, flat sections to big boulder climbs to Tim Burtonesque, craggly forest. This is Cooper in the craggly spot.

Cooper near the top of Tomlike.

Me, Coop & Hood.

After enjoying lunch at the Tomlike Summit, we looped out on the Anthill Trail. By lunch, all the clouds had cleared out and the views were expansive.

Vicki Lee enjoys the view from the Anthill Trail portion of the hike.

Wahtum Lake from the Anthill Trail. MmmmMMMmm…foothills galore.

A little more Beargrass for your play-zure.

If you're interested, you have a solid four weeks left to do this hike before Old Man Winter returns. :)

Mt. Hood in the hizzy.

Cooper Turns One!

On April 11, our little buddy turned 1 year old. I'd say he had a damn good birthday weekend. We kicked off the day with a long early-morning walk and stick-finding mission.

One happy buddy.

That afternoon, Vicki, Cooper and I hiked to Triple Falls. This is an amazingly beautiful hike that passes outstanding waterfalls and peeks down into Oneonta Gorge. The bridge just past Triple Falls is out—washed away during stormy weather last fall.

Cooper sits on the edge of Oneonta Creek, right where the washed out bridge used to be.

Cooper and Mom—a birthday squeeze and Triple Falls.

Coop had some trouble with this bridge. His little paws were falling through, so he tap-danced his way across.

Success! Cooper poses with Horsetail Falls back at the trailhead.

My mom sent Cooper a nice birthday card with some money in it. We got him a nice gift—a supposedly "tough" eel toy. Cooper started defuzzing it within 5 minutes and gnawed through the whole thing, removing squeakers, fuzz and all by the next day.

Cooper Claus works the eel.

Cooper's favorite part of his birthday weekend was some play time with his best buddy, Sam. As you can see, Cooper has no idea that he is 15 lbs and only wants to play with the big dogs.

Cooper gets his fangs out and barks at Sam, egging him on.

Sam gets his mean face out and tells Cooper how it is. Cooper zooms around at high speed, while Sam chases with big bounds and loud RUFFs.

It's a good thing Sam doesn't have a mean bone in his big furry body.

Happy Birthday, Puppy Fagioli!!!
(That's Puppy Fa zooool)

Cooper's Critter Crazy!!!

There are a lot of critters in our backyard—scrub jays, chickadees, juncos—but none of them stick in Cooper's craw like our resident squirrel.

That's a big bird, right?

This particular squirrel loves to taunt my fuzzy little buddy. It drives Cooper nuts. He'll sit and watch for hours.

"I'm right here eating and you can't get me!", says the squirrel.

Cooper's a rock star with his long legs and mohawk.

Coop looks so sad! He's wondering, "Why mom?" "How come I'm on the inside and all the friends are on the outside???!!!"

Tar-ta-ta-tar

Cooper said he's ready for the next holiday and some green beers.

If it's Cooper Ding yer lookin' fer, you'll find him down by the docks doin' tricks fer nickels.

Home Alone

Just me and the fuzz:

The Best View in Oregon

Since mid-September, I've been saying the same thing every weekend—"Welp! This is probably our last hurrah before the snow covers all the trails and closes the forest service roads!" This made perfect sense, since Tom and I got snowed on down on South Sister (near Bend) on September 28, 2007.

We were still waiting for the snow to arrive this year until mid-December. So, we decided to take advantage of a sunny warm weekend in October by exploring a place that we haven't spent much time so far—the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness.

This hike to Jefferson Park follows the Pacific Crest Trail and gains about 1500' of elevation. You can see Jeff peeking out of the trees. Coop sniffs around.

Most trail descriptions said the view from Jefferson Park Ridge was the best in Oregon and called the hike "possibly the most worthwhile hike in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area". Now there's motivation!

Cooper had a fun time running around. We weren't on the trail long when we started hitting patches of old snow.

As we reached timberline, we passed a few little frozen ponds. The terrain here was amazing and felt like the moon.

Cooper tries his luck on the little pond. Cool cairn!

The hike was challenging, but very worthwhile. We earned our lunch—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches—and then wore our tin foil as a sun visor.

My invention in use.

Bah-BAM!!!

The view from Jefferson Park Ridge is truly epic. From here, you can see Bays, Scout and Russell Lake at the foot of Mt. Jefferson. We decided that we need to backpack in here for a long weekend next summer. :)

After the hike in, Cooper was pooped and needed a little rest in the sun.

Cooper and Dad enjoying the quiet of our outstanding perch.

Red, red wine for dessert.

There's always time to play with a stick. It's a ding bat!!!

Dad and Cooper lookin' cute.

"You comin', mom?"

On our way out, we took a few minutes to climb a snowy hill so we could run down it. Cooper ran around like a bat out of hell. He gets extra crazy on snow, sand or gravel.

Rocket dog!

Up!

Cooper gets a lot of air.

Very awesome hike. We'll be back in 2009!

Welcoming Snow & Winter Birds

This weekend, we welcomed the first big snowfall of the season—on the mountains and in town. On Sunday morning, we woke up to 6 inches of white stuff outside our house, the gorge socked in with a white-gray glaze and a family of happy, hungry birds hopping around on our back porch.

This Junco settled into a spot on the snow-covered grill.

Our winter guests include mostly Dark-eyed Juncos and Scrub Jays. We have a nice bird feeder that we fill with Black Oil Sunflower Seeds. Ours is a popular snack spot in snow. It looks like a lot of fun.

Snow bird

Cooper stands guard. He wants to kiss the Juncos.

We took Coop down to the spit to run around in his first snowfall. He had a great time until he realized how numb he was. We had a beer at the pub to warm up. :) Hurray for winter!!! HURRRRAYYYYY!!!!!

Mountain Goat

Cooper just turned 8 months this week. He just started mountain goating up our stairs. CUTE!

Me & My Buddy

Last week was a toughy. Work is pretty stressful right now for a hundred reasons. I worked from home for a few hours last week during some stove repair and my little buddy was the perfect fuzzy funny little pick-me-up.


Cooper has some funny hairs squirting out on the sides of and all the way down his neck that make him look like a raptor.

He is also sprouting mountain goat hairs out of his back.


Awwww!!! Baby Cooper!