- Joined
- Jan 23, 2011
- Messages
- 1,860
Howdy y'all! I just wanted to post up a few pics of Cameron and I's latest adventure in the woods. I just graduated after two solid years of working on finishing my Bachelor's degree. I loved school, but we've had minimal dirt time the whole time I've been in school due to the fact that I did summer school and had a part-time job the whole time. So we took the very first opportunity we could to run away! It was awesome.
We hiked Shale Ridge Trail. The first part of the trail is pretty flat, only a few hundred feet in elevation change. Very pretty forest. It's a wilderness area, so there isn't any logging allowed and there isn't any roads. This also means that there were hardly any other humans, which we like. We saw no one for almost the whole trip, but on the last day when we were almost back to the car we saw a family camping, so we weren't officially alone out there. Darn!
Fire making gear
The second day. Each of us had 45lb packs on, which meant that crossing streams and climbing over stuff was a lot harder, but we did well!
Looks like aliens growing in the forest! (I think these are ferns?)
Fun things we brought along
One of the more epic obstacles in our path. Apparently there is a river running through the trail. This is a pic of Cameron crossing the most challenging part of the multiple channels we walked across!
And here is a video of both of us!
[video=youtube_share;DtPUGlaoL9s]http://youtu.be/DtPUGlaoL9s[/video]
The Pacific Northwest is so awesome.
Part of the Willamette River:
I want to post this pic for two reasons - one pretty flowers! Two, you can see the "trail" Cameron is standing on. That is a better portion of the trail. After we crossed the river it was evident that no human had been on this trail for a long time, possibly years. The trail was over grown, and often we had to double back and check to see if we were still on it. It was a rugged trail, most of it was right along a ridge, and due to the fact that is wasn't very wide at all, we had to be very careful. There were dozens of trees that had fallen across the trail too, so that was fun.
Finally after 7 hours of grueling hiking, we came to this tree, and completely lost the trail. We searched for an hour or so, and since the sun was setting, we headed back down the trail to get water and set up camp in a clearing we had seen earlier. Since we were on the side of a mountain, we were so lucky to find what seemed to be the only clear spot to set up a tent for a few miles.
This stream was small, but running and clear. We love our water filter!
Time to make fire again! Sorry for the weird perspective, but here's a crappy featherstick thing:
Making pitchwood fuzzies using squared off spine of the BK11
I do not make beautiful fires, but I do make functional ones. Three strikes with the ferro rod and this went up quick!
A tired, but happy selfie:
Pile o' stuff:
After we passed back across one of the river channels:
And that's it! The last part of our hike I didn't take too many photos, we were tired, and found that if we didn't stop moving, the packs didn't feel so bad. We both have some sore spots from carrying heavy packs, but no regrets! We lived very comfortably on the trail. I'm happy to say that I kept up with my very fit husband just fine with my pack. Mine is a lot newer than his, and much more ergonomic, so that helped a lot.
Anywho, hopefully I'll be spending a little bit more time on the forums again, however now it's "time to grow up and find a job time" so... bleh.
We hiked Shale Ridge Trail. The first part of the trail is pretty flat, only a few hundred feet in elevation change. Very pretty forest. It's a wilderness area, so there isn't any logging allowed and there isn't any roads. This also means that there were hardly any other humans, which we like. We saw no one for almost the whole trip, but on the last day when we were almost back to the car we saw a family camping, so we weren't officially alone out there. Darn!
Fire making gear
The second day. Each of us had 45lb packs on, which meant that crossing streams and climbing over stuff was a lot harder, but we did well!
Looks like aliens growing in the forest! (I think these are ferns?)
Fun things we brought along
One of the more epic obstacles in our path. Apparently there is a river running through the trail. This is a pic of Cameron crossing the most challenging part of the multiple channels we walked across!
And here is a video of both of us!
[video=youtube_share;DtPUGlaoL9s]http://youtu.be/DtPUGlaoL9s[/video]
The Pacific Northwest is so awesome.
Part of the Willamette River:
I want to post this pic for two reasons - one pretty flowers! Two, you can see the "trail" Cameron is standing on. That is a better portion of the trail. After we crossed the river it was evident that no human had been on this trail for a long time, possibly years. The trail was over grown, and often we had to double back and check to see if we were still on it. It was a rugged trail, most of it was right along a ridge, and due to the fact that is wasn't very wide at all, we had to be very careful. There were dozens of trees that had fallen across the trail too, so that was fun.
Finally after 7 hours of grueling hiking, we came to this tree, and completely lost the trail. We searched for an hour or so, and since the sun was setting, we headed back down the trail to get water and set up camp in a clearing we had seen earlier. Since we were on the side of a mountain, we were so lucky to find what seemed to be the only clear spot to set up a tent for a few miles.
This stream was small, but running and clear. We love our water filter!
Time to make fire again! Sorry for the weird perspective, but here's a crappy featherstick thing:
Making pitchwood fuzzies using squared off spine of the BK11
I do not make beautiful fires, but I do make functional ones. Three strikes with the ferro rod and this went up quick!
A tired, but happy selfie:
Pile o' stuff:
After we passed back across one of the river channels:
And that's it! The last part of our hike I didn't take too many photos, we were tired, and found that if we didn't stop moving, the packs didn't feel so bad. We both have some sore spots from carrying heavy packs, but no regrets! We lived very comfortably on the trail. I'm happy to say that I kept up with my very fit husband just fine with my pack. Mine is a lot newer than his, and much more ergonomic, so that helped a lot.
Anywho, hopefully I'll be spending a little bit more time on the forums again, however now it's "time to grow up and find a job time" so... bleh.
Looks like an awesome time out, in a stunning area. Thanks for sharing.
