Hiking- South Mollala River Loop

With our Mount Hood climb tonight after church and another overseas trip next week, it occurred to me that I haven't shared any of this year's crazy adventures here.  And we've done some INSANE things recently... some probably too irresponsible to share with impressionable readers.

But let's start with this uncharacteristically mellow hike I led for NW Wilderness last weekend:

The 10 mile loop I had planned for the South Mollala River area was already the second easiest hike I've ever led, and already more relaxed than the typical hike for NW Wilderness or any of the other expedition groups I'm involved with.  But trail closures and also being forced off-trail by obstacles shaved off 1.4 miles from my intended loop, unfortunately making it even quicker.

As I mentioned in my trip report, our group was game to venture off-trail and switch up the route at various points... whenever we ran out of options to "legally" complete the loop that I had originally intended.  As long as everyone is flexible and trusting, I'm eager to modify the route instead of backtracking when conditions surprise us.

A stretch of log hopping

Pushing through a series of trails to form a loop

Maynard waits for the group to catch up at the first creek crossing.

Lou takes a stab at the next creek crossing.

Rachael and Maynard carefully make their way down a steep embankment during an off-trail segment.

Lunch break at Annie's Cabin.

One of the closed trails we encountered while trying to continue our loop after lunch

A tranquil forest mini-lagoon was tucked away alongside our modified return route.

Distance: 8.6 miles (As mentioned, trail closures and being forced off-trail by obstacles shaved off 1.4 miles from my intended loop)

Total time: 3:03 (incl. all breaks except lunch)

Moving time: 2:19

Avg speed: 3.12 mph
Max speed: 7.76 mph
Elevation gain: 1,683 feet

Coming next week...

More hiking in Asia!

Southern Oregon road trip, Pt. 2: Wildlife Safari

Mommy and Lena get a shotgun seat view of a giraffe as I drive through the Winston Wildlife Safari

In the company of friends again

...Continued from Southern Oregon Road Trip, Part 1: Visits and hikes (link).  And consider this story the unofficial prequel to our upcoming safari in Kruger National Park, South Africa.  Let's hope we make those flights!

Guest blogger Kathy picks up our Southern Oregon road trip story where my Part 1 left off:  After the driving, visiting, and hiking.  Thanks to Kathy for writing this post.  I was happy to merely be on tap to plug and caption the safari photos.  Enjoy!

We had a great time so far with our hiking, visiting, and swimming.  On our final morning down south, we took advantage of the continental breakfast the hotel offered and then set off for the Wildlife Safari in Winston.

Neither Garth nor I had been to the Winston Wildlife Safari since childhood. We were so excited for Lena experience it, too!  Levi was too little to care.

Once Garth drove through the gate, we were allowed to take Lena out of her car seat to sit on our laps up front.  She was thrilled!

As we began making our way through the safari, I forgot how up close and personal the animals could be.  Lena loved seeing all the animals: lions, giraffes, rhinos walking right next to our car, bears, and the list goes on.

Lions resting in the shade

A zebra mixed in with the herd

A hungry giraffe stops traffic ahead of us

Black bear UFC pond/cage match: Tag team edition

Lena brakes for llamas

Buffalo roam

Lucky for this deer, another safariing family had randomly given us a bag of animal feed

This emu poked his beak inside our cab a bit too aggressively for Lena's taste

"I'll take the wheel from here, Daddy."

Baby Levi watches with envy as Mommy lets Lena ride the bear

Lena runs through the Australian Outback

We've got no food, got no jobs... our parrots' HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!!

Levi, Mommy, me, and Lena leaving the Australian Walkabout

Before Garth and I started driving the kids back up north, we made a final stop to visit friends who live 10 minutes from Wildlife Safari.  It was nice to catch up and see how big their girls are getting.

Beating the heat with longtime friends

Thus, we began the long journey home.  A stop for burgers and ice cream at Rice Hill was a must do.

Lena and Levi got plenty of sleep on the drive home, even as we stopped to redeem yet another Groupon for the grownups.

Lena reminisces about the safari animals with one of her favorite books, "I Love My Daddy Because..."
(At least that's MY vote for her favorite book!)

Thanks again, Kathy, for writing about our first ever road trip with our all-new Hamilton Four.  Lena and Levi would've loved to join us on the upcoming African safari that we have planned.

And it's a shame that the L's can't come along on our REAL Australian walkabout in 2015!

Bonus Vine video:

Click the mute button for audio of two bears throwing down at the Wildlife Safari

Fear of the Unknown: Hiking Wahkeena Falls to Larch Mountain

Last weekend's Mount Adams climb was the latest in a series of training climbs before we summit Mount Rainier.

Several new blog posts about those climbs, as well as hiking, surfing, traveling, and a student ministry update are all on the way!

Sometimes good hikes go bad. And sometimes bad titles happen to good blog posts.

Both scenarios came into play for Shaun's and my disastrous hike up Larch Mountain via the Wahkeena Falls trail, briefly mentioned in last month's "Best of 2014 all-new hiking photos" post (link).

Here's the whole story of that lingeringly painful (for me) and terrifying (for Shaun) day:

Our hike/trail run up Larch Mountain in late spring didn't need to spiral into an 18+ mile hike/scramble.  But multiple trail closures near Multnomah Falls left us with limited options, especially later when a crucial "Trail Closed" sign had gone missing for our return route.


The approach to Larch via the Wahkeena Falls trail adds miles.  But even with Sheamus the Energizer Bunny/Dog running along with us, we made up plenty of time with a breathless pace.


Wet weather during our hike/run up from the lower elevations...

...Eventually turned to snow, fog, and high winds as we neared the top.

Fingers freezing*, we were in a tremendous hurry to run back down from the top of Larch. Unfortunately, we hurried too tremendously to avoid a couple of missteps on our alternate route down:


Bad idea #1: Blowing through trail intersections at full speed without slowing down to process the signs

Bad idea #2: Taking turns navigating (as opposed to BOTH trail runners paying attention), based on whomever happens to be taking the lead at the time


Loyal Garth's Blog readers may remember that this is the second time in 15 years or so that Shaun and I have missed or overshot a trail junction, as we did last year near Munra Point.

I'll never tell which of us happened to be "navigating" this time when we ran off course.  But when I finally realized where we were, I was admittedly responsible for THIS doozy:


Bad idea #3: Turning onto a familiar trail which, we discovered later, was missing its well deserved "Trail Closed" warning sign

*If a certain hiking buddy is reading this, Shaun is gonna need those gloves back that I left in your car after our recent Dog Mountain hike.  Pretty please?

The Fear of the Unknown

This once-popular trail (name withheld, to prevent copycat hikers from getting fined by the US Forest Service) didn't start out so bad.   But soon, we were pushing, climbing, ducking, and hopping our way through the increasingly overgrown segments.  We began to question whether or not the path was still legit.



And then the trail completely dropped out.   We rounded a corner to encounter a cliff where the trail used to be.  Shaun, normally as brave and occasionally reckless on the trails as I am, froze up.

"All I can see is death," Shaun replied to my optimistic suggestion that there MUST be a way to cross the chasm in front of us.

Shaun continued to object, "There's just a giant broken staircase, crashed over on its side. Who knows what is beyond that?   Another drop-off?  A bigger cliff?"

For once in our long history of crazy adventuring together, my favorite hiking buddy was paralyzed by the fear of the unknown.   And we were both especially concerned about the safety of his dog, Sheamus.



The drop-off didn't seem as severe in my eyes, though.  I volunteered to scramble down solo for a recon mission, to convince everyone that the route was doable.

I captured and Tweeted this pic of Shaun and Sheamus, standing on top of the cliff, as I climbed down.

The terrain below wasn't anywhere near as treacherous as imagined.  As I hollered my findings back up to Shaun, his facial expression morphed from fear into skepticism, and finally into relief.

I whispered a prayer as Sheamus bounded over the edge and down the various levels of slope, with Shaun sliding down after him.  No problems, as predicted.

Maneuvering a surreal section of the washed out trail

But not all of us walked away unscathed.  Sheamus accidentally set off a rock fall from the broken trail above me.  I dodged as many of those rocks as possible.  Some of the stones bounced off of me harmlessly, though the biggest rock landed directly on top of my left foot.

I didn't realize how badly my foot was injured (making a huge dent in this summer's hikes, climbs, and surfing) until my first step onto hard pavement at the end of the day. Incidentally, this was also the moment where we finally encountered the only remaining "Trail Closed" sign... as we exited onto the return trail towards my Jeep Wrangler.

My overly dramatic pole vault back onto the main trail (with that useless "Trail Closed" exit sign posted on the right)

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On our drive home from the Gorge, Shaun thanked me for talking him down from that ledge, literally.  It was a rare moment of paralyzing fear, and he was relieved that someone was there to snap him out of it.  Had we turned back at that late hour, we all would've been stuck on that trail until well after dark. Not to mention, his plan to use the closed (also due to damage) Benson Bridge as an escape route could have incurred a steep fine.


Sometimes the scariest things in life are the things we can't see.  Our imaginations can either create reasons for us to be afraid, or illuminate new ways to move us forward.   And on this eventful day in April, there was no reason to fear.

More Eason time in Bend (feat. Kathy)

Around the time that I was in Amsterdam hooking up with my French and Swedish friends for the day (link), Kathy and the kids had a weekend trip of their own.  My work schedule during the weekend made flying standby to Bend too risky for this round.  But I'm hoping to take Lena with me on another quick trip to Europe in a few weeks!

Kathy wrote the post below, originally scheduled to be uploaded last week as the companion piece to my "A visit from Afghanistan" entry.  Lena and Levi, Brent and Cheryl, Tom and Lora, and the most amazing wife and mother in the world had quite a time down in the Central Oregon countryside.

Guest blogger Kathy tells all below:

Going to Bend has become a favorite weekend getaway for the Easons.  Besides the beautiful high desert and many outdoor activities to do, my sister Cheryl and her husband Brent live in Tumalo, which is situated between Redmond and Bend.  We always go with my parents, so it makes for a great time with family.

Brent and Cheryl have a couple of acres on a butte with Redmond to the north and Bend to the south.  There is plenty of room for Lena to run and play with her dog cousins, Porter and Yote.   They also have chickens now, so Lena enjoys gathering eggs and feeding them each morning and evening with Aunt Cheri.   This was Levi’s first time to Bend and he loved it too (although it’s a little difficult for him to express that).

On Saturday we had a picnic lunch along the river at Tumalo State Park and then stopped at Schillings Nursery, where they had a little western town and Lena-sized horse buggies.  Upon returning to the house, we spotted four deer in front yard.  Lena wanted to pet one and Brent thought about meat for the winter.  Of course, neither got what they wanted.

On the Sunday morning before we left, Lena helped Uncle Brent prepare their garden spots.  She even “planted” a dead Christmas tree branch to which she said, “Mommy, I plant pretty tree for you.”  It was a fun and relaxing weekend and I can’t wait to go back in a few months. 

Surfin', pumpkin patchin', and dairy farmin'

Lena feels right at home on Daddy's surfboard

Note: Baby Levi is now 5 days old!  The three-part entry below was scheduled to auto-post last Monday, the day before a very pregnant Kathy's water broke (!) on Tuesday morning. For some reason, it never posted. And shortly after checking into St. Vincent's maternity ward with Kathy, I stopped blogging and checking Facebook/ emails completely to make time for family and baby bonding. The only cheating during my digital blackout:

1. Giving Kathy permission to hack my Facebook on Wednesday for a few minutes to post a status update (as me) about baby Levi's birth
2. Tweeting
3. Posting a short birth announcement on Garth's Blog for our son Levi James Hamilton (link here)

Now that Kathy, Lena, and I are settling into life at home with our 5 day old newborn, I'll be blogging more about Baby Levi this week!


From last Monday: 
To quote one of my blog posts from September 2011 (link), our baby's due date is... yesterday? Our yet-to-be-named baby boy was actually due three days ago, on Friday. Kathy, Lena, and I can barely contain our excitement as we wait for our baby boy's arrival. We'll let the readers know when the Big Moment gets here.

In the meantime, here's a triple snack pack of bite-sized blog posts (including one written by Kathy!) based on some 2013 Hamilton outings with Lena: Two more surfing trips, a romp in a pumpkin patch, and a hands on tour of Alpenrose Dairy's Storybook Lane. First up...

 Part 1: Surfin'

After years of wasting money on surfboard rentals in Australia, Hawaii, and here in Oregon (link), I won Kathy over with the idea of buying my own board.

A lady near our neighborhood who was going through some heartbreakingly rough times offered me a screamin' deal on her husband's handmade Al Merrick. The board's length was longer than ideal, but for the price I just couldn't walk away.

Picking up my new toy with my other favorite toy, the Jeep Wrangler

Earlier last summer, our previous 2013 surfing trips were capped off with a final blue epoxy/ fiberglass rental at Aussie's Surf Shop in Newport.


Kathy's Facebook friends may recognize 2-3 of the pics below from our Newport surfing trip over the summer:

A quick stop at L.A. Fitness on the way to the Oregon Coast

Lena sharpens her new walking skills at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

More surfing at the disappointingly calm Agate Beach

White water rafting, wakeboarding, camping, and overseas trips in Fall 2013 prevented me from hopping onto my new (new to me, anyways) surfboard until October.  The wait seemed unbearable.

My Al Merrick surfboard finally had it's "maiden" ride in Seaside. The bar of Sex Wax was accidentally left at home, so the new board got a little slippery out on the waves. But there was no buyer's remorse in sight.

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Part 2: Pumpkin Patchin'

It's a given in our circle of friends that parents will probably take their kids to at least one pumpkin patch each fall. Lena's first pumpkin patchin' experience was at Bauman Farms in Gervais, Oregon back in 2012.

In October 2013, we hit up the less impressive (by Kathy's standards) Walk on the Wild Side farm in Canby. The family-run farm did have a few pumpkins laying around, but "pumpkin patch" is a bit of a misnomer. More noteworthy attractions were the hay bale maze, petting zoo, train/tractor ride, and bouncy houses for the kiddos.

Somehow, the Walk on the Wild Side farm ALSO had a cage with exotic animals.

Lions? Random, but very cool.

For a more traditional pumpkin patch experience in 2013, Kathy preferred this farm near Smith Rock, Oregon:

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Part 3: Dairy Farmin'

Note: Kathy wrote this final section and also pitched in the pics.  Like the first two parts, "Surfin'" and "Pumpkin Patchin,'" Part 3 was originally intended to be a standalone blog post.

Thanks, Kathy!

Ever since Lena’s first Christmas, we have been looking for inexpensive activities that will become tradition.  We all have our Christmas traditions that we fondly remember and we want the same for Lena and her soon-to-be-born brother.  One such tradition we found is Christmas in Dairyville and Storybook Lane at Alpenrose Dairy in SW Portland.  The best part is that it’s FREE!!

On the walk into Dairyville there are lights wrapped around the trees and Christmas music playing.  The old-time store fronts with their wooden walk-ways are decked out in Christmas.  There is an old-fashioned school and bank you can walk into and on cold days there’s a place to buy warm drinks.  We stumbled upon a duck pond and saw a few horses.

A highlight for Lena was watching the oversized model train (aka: choo-choo) track and village.

Storybook Lane is a walk-through story time.  The display for Mary Had a Little Lamb had lambs, 3 piglets for The Three Pigs…you get the point.  We have been very impressed with Alpenrose and the family-friendliness of it all.

Lena tries to make eye contact with a lighted deer.