Category Archives: Mountains

WHITE MOUNTAIN PEAK – A CLIMB TO CALIFORNIA’S THIRD HIGHEST SUMMIT

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A FOURTEENER FOR THE EVERYMAN

White Mountain Peak stands straight ahead on the jeep road to the top.

Look at a topographical map of the Great Basin region and you will see mountain ranges looking like waves running in a south-to-north.  On the fringe of that region mainly taken up by the state of Nevada are the two greatest ranges of the region – the Sierra Nevada and the White Mountains.  Both ranges have their origin in the Nevada Orogeny, the period when the many Nevadan ranges formed, as well.  The Sierra is simply one of America’s most magnificent ranges.  Separated by the Owens River Valley, the White Mountains, lying in the rain shadow, rise almost as high as their celebrated brothers to the west.  White Mountain Peak stands atop the range, California’s third highest peak at 14,252 feet-4344 meters – also one of only two peaks in California rising to over 14,000 feet outside of the Sierra.

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OLYMPIC RANGE FROM A HIGH PERSPECTIVE

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The Best Experiences are not always the Easiest

The best visit to the Olympics goes on high. Olympic National Park, much like North Cascades, is a climber’s park. Standing atop one of the many peaks gives you a true experience to the wild wonderland.

Looking south to Mt Ellinor from atop Mt Washington in the southeast corner of the Park
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BARRETT SPUR REVEALING THE ICY SIDE OF MT HOOD

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Barrett Spur rises to the left of the 7,300 foot saddle with the north face of Mt Hood beyond.

Barrett Spur is one of my favorite places on Mount Hood. While some prefer Cooper Spur and others Cathedral Ridge, for me, it is the Spur.

The Spurt is a little bit difficult to reach both due to the altitude you gain and the route condition near the top.  But your jaw drops with the incredible views of the glaciers pouring down off the north side of the old volcano.

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CATHEDRAL RIDGE – RELIGION FOUND HIGH ON MT HOOD 7/29/2019

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Up Cathedral Ridge to the summit of Mt Hood. Sandy Glacier on the right.

Original Timberline Trail was to cross to ridge on right – Yocum – from here.

In the beginning

I had been up to the base of Cathedral Ridge once before, but that was many years ago. With my new little toy – a 360-degree camera – it was time to go up for another view of Hood.

I lived on the west side of Portland for many years.  A definite advantage of living on the east side is the commute time to the mountain is so much shorter.  In no time we were at the big parking lot at the Tip Top trailhead with maybe about nine other vehicles.

This is the easiest access to some of the best parts of Mt Hood and it can get crowded.  It was only 8:30 in the morning when we got started, so we did not run across very many people before reaching McNeil Shelter. The rest of the day was different as we passed almost 200 people. Maybe at half of those folks backpacking the Timberline Trail.

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COOPER SPUR, A CLIMB INTO THE CLOUDS – 8/19/2019

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The main climb is lies ahead of the Hiroshima Rock.

The Idea forms

We met an aspiring couple on top of Cathedral Ridge training for longer distance events. They mentioned for their money the views from Cooper Spur were the best on Mt Hood they had seen.  I have been past the Cooper Spur shelter several times as well as playing in the crevasses of Eliot Glacier, but have never gone up on the top of the Spur so, with a friend in tow, off we went. Thankful it was his car taking the beating on the washboarded road up and not mine.

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WALKING ON THE DRAGON’S BACK – TREKKING ATOP THE DRAKENSBERG

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Sentinel Peak rising above the mists of the Amphitheatre.

The Zulu and Afrikanse name are both used for this exceptional mountain range and both names are superb in their own rights. “uKhahlamba” is the Zulu name meaning ‘Barrier of Spears’.  The escarpment resembles the name from the distance. “Drakensberg”, the Afrikanse name, means ‘Dragon’s Mountain’.  A mythical beast one would not be altogether surprised at seeing when climbing/hiking amongst the often-misty rock walls and towers of the range.

Coming from the western US, the dramatic rock wall escarpment is not unlike the mountain walls found in the Great Basin country – the Sierra Nevada or South Warner Mountains of California; Ruby Mountains of Nevada; Steens Mountain of Oregon. These ranges, as here in South Africa, gradually gain height in the west, terminating in a grand wall of cliffs and towers along the eastern side.  This trek would be a celebration.

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MOUNT MARGARET – ON THE BOUNDARY OF MT ST HELENS

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Written after a hike to Mount Margaret on the Boundary Trail in 2019 from a series of hikes up into the Cascades. It was a very good summer in there were no complications from forest fires which seem to mar things in August and early September in recent years.

Lakes mount margaret boundary trail
Lakes and the Backcountry near Mount Margaret from the Boundary Trail.

BOUNDARY TRAIL

Save the best for last? Mount Margaret lies along the Boundary Trail, the 53
mile trail running from Johnstone Observatory in the Mt St Helens Volcanic National
Monument to Mt Adams. The trail was built in 1910 to service fire
lookouts on the border between the forest reserves of the Cowlitz – to the
north – and the Lewis – to the south.

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HINDU SANCTUARY IN THE TUALATIN MOUNTAINS FOCUS ON DIFFERENT PATHS TO THE SAME GOAL

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Sunlight filters through the trees along the Shrine Path high among the Tualatin Mountains.

“BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME”

“Build it and he will come”.  So, intones the voice of Shoeless Jackson to the Iowa corn farmer played by Kevin Costner in the 1989 film Field of Dreams. The quote often remembered wrongly as “Build it and they will come”. The film was a version of W.P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Jackson. In this case, we will choose the more popular interpretation which better describes this Hindu sanctuary high in the Tualatin Mountains just north of Portland. A retreat pointing towards a universal message of different paths leading to the same goal.

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CELEBRATION OF LIFE ON TOP OF THE DRAGON’S MOUNTAIN

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Sunrise on top of the Amphitheatre at Royal Natal National Park – one part of the long rim of the Drakensberg.

Celebration of Life

Birthdays have a nasty habit of piling up.  As a child, they are special, looked forward to.  As an older adult, they are part of life.  I don’t celebrate my birthday in a big way, as a rule.  My wife might push for a dinner out or the like.  The start of a new decade is different, however. You have made it through another ten years, a milepost!. Something special should be done to usher in the new epoch – a true celebration of life, if you will.

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THE WORLD GETS SMALLER WITH 360 CAMERAS AND DRONES

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Recent advances with the advent of 360 cameras, smartphones and drones with superb photographic and video capabilities are making it much easier to tell your story or create your epic film in more unique ways.

Enter into 360° Photography

I have been using a 360 camera for a little more than a year now.  The results are pretty cool even considering the optical disparities involved with a fisheye lens – or double fisheye lens in the case of a 360 picture.

Note: for the 360 photos, to take full advantage, click and drag your mouse to see the whole picture. This one shows two old squash players atop the magnificent Rotenfels high above the Nahe River in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany near Bad Kreuznach.

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