Portland adventure

[JeffH]

Only a little bit of hiking here - I went up to Portland to help my little sis out with some things and this time I decided to drive. It's about 1000 miles from home and I thought I could take a couple of days doing it. However, my habit of sightseeing got in the way and I missed a lot of stuff just to make it by nighttime after three days of driving...
I started on a Friday, drove up 395 to the familiar eastern Sierra area. After stopping for gas and food in Bishop, I got to the Mammoth turnoff as the sun was dipping behind the mountains. I parked on the dirt road just off Hwy 203, where I have previously slept a couple times. Even though I knew it was late October, I was not prepared for the cold and bailed out to the cab of my Ranger about 1am. When I was packing up in the frigid morning, my thermometer read 15 degrees - so cold that my hands wouldn't work properly, leaving me to drive to Mono Lake just to get some sunshine. After a walk through some tufa fields, I managed to boil water for hot chocolate and oatmeal which made me feel a lot better. I kept going north on 395, passing lots of idyllic towns along the way - Walker, Coleville, Markleeville, Picketts Junction. This included some roads less traveled, hanging off the side of mountains with great views and barely two lanes of pavement along Hwy 89, and I also stopped to refill my water bottles in the Walker River. Driving through and past Lake Tahoe was disappointing, because there were approximately three million people scattered around, meaning traffic was high and parking spaces were basically nonexistent. Since I recently had my engine replaced, I had to get an oil change en route and unfortunately every service location in Truckee was closed in the afternoon. This caused a detour to Reno and a visit to Walmart for that little piece of business. Unfortunately it also cost me a few hours, meaning I had to scramble for a place to sleep. Heading generally north once again, in the growing darkness I spotted a brown sign off the highway and backtracked to find the Fredonyer Peak marker, which was close to a terrific camp spot. After setting up my tent in the sunset light I managed to stay much warmer that evening. In the morning I drove up the dirt road toward the peak, thinking it might be my only chance to visit this out of the way fire lookout. Once I got closer, I found a locked gate with a sign saying the peak was another 1.5 miles up the road. Some internal debate followed, since I had told my sister I would be there this very morning - do I take at least another hour to hike up and back plus a 40 minute drive back to the highway or not....? I had pretty much decided against it when another car pulled up at the gate and four people in camo clothing got out and began rummaging around in the back of their vehicle for some firearms, and that clinched things for me. So I drove back toward the road, which was a nice change from the bumpy and slow dirt, stopping somewhere in the Modoc National Forest to fix up some morning food treats. After that it was small town after small town, crossing through the snowy Willamette National Forest to Eugene and then Interstate 5 to Portland. I could have spent another couple days taking side roads and just looking at cool stuff.
While in the city I managed to get in a couple of hikes, as my niece was also visiting. We went up our usual trail through Forest Park to the Pittock Mansion, which on this day was surprisingly clear. We could see Mt Hood, Mt St Helens and peeking out behind that was Mt Rainier. A couple days later we walked up the Marquam trail to Council Crest - highest point in the city - but as usual it was overcast and we couldn't see anything. On the rare clear day that would probably be a great spot for sightseeing, however we could barely spot the downtown area just a couple miles away.

While this is hardly a hike report, the time on the road lets me see things I would miss by flying, and also I get to work on things that help with backpacking. On these trips I can try new food combinations, work on my setup and takedown routines and generally figure out which items are really necessary to carry along. Knorr spanish rice is great, the thai noodles are not....


A few photos below