BILLY GOAT GRUFF ON TOP OF THE SILVER STAR – 6/10/2019

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Looking from the south peak of Silver Star Mountain
Looking from the south peak of Silver Star Mountain: Silver Star, Mt St Helens, Rainier Adams and Hood with the ridge running from Silver Star to Old Baldy.

Silver Star, Mt St Helens, Rainier Adams and Hood with the ridge running from Silver Star to Old Baldy.

The Silver Star

Silver Star is very visible from east Portland in the southern Washington Cascades. People rave about the views over the flower gardens along Ed’s Trail coming in on the north side. The approach road there is the crux of the hike. Your car makes it, or it does not. There are decent displays coming up on the Grouse Vista Trail – an old jeep road, like Ed’s. You don’t have that awful washed out road to deal with either.

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DOUBLE TROUBLE ON CHINIDERE PEAK

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Panorama from atop Chinidere Mountain looking southeast to west.
Panorama from atop Chinidere Mountain looking southeast to west – Wahtum Lake on the left, then Mt Hood; Indian Mountain is in the center; on the right is some of the fire burned areas of the upper Eagle Creek Canyon with Tanner Peak.

Wahtum Lake on the left, then Mt Hood; Indian Mountain is in the center; on the right is some of the fire burned areas of the upper Eagle Creek Canyon with Tanner Peak.

Native Beginnings – reaching out to Tomlike and Chinidere

Tomlike and Chinidere are two peaks on the agenda for today’s hike -. Tomlike was the son of Wasco Chief Chinidere in times long before now. Chinidere lies at the end of a small, steep spur trail going off the Pacific Crest Trail – PCT – while Tomlike is at the end of a long bootpath through some brush, atop some cliffs and up over scree boulders. This is probably the fifth time I have been up here wandering on these mountains and the day was superb.

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GEMS ON THE HEART OF THE BOUNDARY TRAIL

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View north from to Mt Rainier from the top of Badger Peak – site of a former fire lookout.

Mosquito Flats to the Boundary Trail

Because I have wanted to hike in this area of the Boundary Trail for years now. The whole 53 miles of the Boundary Trail cover a lot of interesting country. Now, I like to cherry pick trails with a light daypack, so I picked what looked to be the most interesting section between Badger Peak and Craggy Peak, the gems of the Boundary. A long drive up the Lewis River highway from I-5 at Woodland and around the east side of Mt St Helens started things off (doesn’t Forest Highway 25 seem to be getting worse every year?). I was on the trail a little after 9am.

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FROM ITALIA IRRENDENTA TO ANTIFASCISM IN ONE BOOK – EMILIO LUSSU

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Emilio Lussu as an officer with the 151st Italian Infantry Regiment of the Brigatta Sassari

ITALIAN OFFICER, POLITICIAN AND WRITER OF THE GREAT WAR AND BEYOND

A UNIQUE WORK

Perhaps the best novel written about the Italian Great War front – not in English is The Sardinian Brigade by Emilio Lussu. The book’s title in Italian Un anno sull’altipiano which translates to A Year on the High Plateau with other English editions are titled A Soldier on the Southern Front.

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ASTORIA’S DOUGHBOY – UNIONTOWN’S MONUMENT TO LOCAL SOLDIERS OF THE GREAT WAR

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The Astoria Soldiers Monument

DOUGHBOYS REMEMBERED

Drive on US 30 as the highway meets US 101 underneath the Oregon side of the Astoria-Megler bridge over the Columbia River and you pass a small statue of a World War I soldier. The monument is “the Doughboy” or Astoria’s Doughboy. Doughboy refers to the nickname given to American infantrymen during the Great War. The nickname continued to refer to American soldiers until the Second World War nickname “G.I.”.

World War 1 was a major event in the country’s history. The war pushed a somewhat unwilling nation onto the international stage. Not since the American Civil War had something like World War 1 transfixed the US. During that war, some 10% of the population of the Union served in the Federal Army. By 1918, with 4.8 million serving in the armed forces, 4.7% of the population had served.

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WHAT IS ABOVE PARADISE? Truth or …? 9-7-2019

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Clouds gather around the upper reaches of Mt Hood. From top of Paradise Park looking to the southwest side of Mt Hood. Prominent rock on the left is the Queen’s Throne.

Clouds on this day, I am afraid. But does Paradise wait on the other side?

BEGINNINGS

My hope was to hike from Timberline Lodge through to Paradise Park and go above, off trail to explore the old airplane crash on top of Mississippi Head. From the Head, I would ascend higher to get above the head of Zigzag Canyon. Next, over to the ski lifts above Timberline to descend back to the car. This hike would be the last of several I did this summer around different sections of the mountain – McNeil Point, Cooper Spur and Cathedral Ridge.

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PERSISTING IN THE FOOTSTEPS – EPHESUS AND ST. PAUL

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Paul preaching in the streets of Ephesus
Paul preaching in the streets of Ephesus – by Eustache le Sueur.

Continuing on, for our last week following in the footsteps of St Paul, our group based in Kusadası, certainly one of the busiest tourist centers in all of Turkey. Package tourism is the order of the day. Leviathans of the cruise ship industry lumber into port daily. Thousands are dumped onto the local scene for a wander about the town or a quick shore excursion. Development has swamped Kusadası for better and/or worse. Our visits in search of St Paul here centered on trips to Ephesus and the ancient Greek cities of Priene, Miletus and the Temple of Apollo at Didyma. 

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FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST. PAUL – CHAPTER ONE

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The theater at Saglassos with the city beyond high in the Taurus Mountains of Turkey

DISCOVERING PAUL

Following in the footsteps of St Paul brought us to Turkey. Christianity did not begin with Paul of Tarsus. But the movement got a huge jump start from his evangelizing journeys and the letters he wrote to various communities he had helped start. Paul figures in more of the New Testament than almost Jesus, himself. It was through Paul’s efforts the Way was expanded beyond the Jewish world, the original target for both John the Baptist and Jesus. Paul allowed non-Jews – Gentiles – to join the party without fully following Jewish law – the crucible being circumcision. By opening this door, the Way evolved into an entirely new religion. Actually, a new family of religions developed, far different from the original stream Jesus or even Paul had drifted along.

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ERNEST PSICHARI – AN ENDING TO THE BEGINNING

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Ernest Psichari before Rossignol.

A MONK SOLDIER

If the war had come just a little later, Ernest Psichari might have avoided his fate at Rossignol entirely by already not being a part of this world but cloistered as a monk in the next. Psichari was one of the up-and-coming French writers who fell early in the war.

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HELEN KELLER SMILES – Lions from Mexico and the US come together to meet her visual challenge

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There’s an eye clinic in Rio Verde!

Note – this is an article I wrote for the Oregon LIONS monthly magazine back a couple years ago. It seems like a nice place to launch this blog from. Helen Keller truly smiles.

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