Author: Daniel Van Rossen

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Battle Ground Lake State Park

We had beautiful weather today so I thought I would take advantage of it to scout out a possible new place for the Tuesday hike. It was a lovely little lake with some interesting geology behind it. The park is really set up for summer with picnicking, swimming in the lake and camping. Winter time there were just a couple of folks fishing and some campers. As part of the scouting I want to check out the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad Trail that starts at the park. The railroad has an interesting history but the trail is still work in progress.

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Stair Ramble to Pittock Mansion

I had not done the stair route to Pittock in many years. Include a couple of short ones I did 10 flights of stairs total. The mansion was in a heavy fog so no views but the fog gave the place a feel of mystery. On the way down I found Balch Creek was running higher then I had ever seen it.

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Mazama Roller Coaster Hike

This was the 14th anniversary of the Mazama’s New Years Eve Roller Coaster Hike in Forest Park. Rex was the leader this time and we had a good turn out. It was a chance for me to see some old Mazama friends and to meet some new folks. We lucked out the the weather and did not get any rain. The hike was about 7.5 miles long with 1600 total elevation gain and we were on the trail for about 3:45 minutes.

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Gnome Trail

Our goal wad to explore the Gnome Trail but first we had to get there by walking done the Burnt Bridge Creek Greenway Trail. We started at the far West end of trail and walked about a half mile to the gnomes. The weather lived up to the forecast and we had a very wet day. We found the Gnome Trail we decorate with fanciful objects.

After our walk was ended early on account of a lot of rain we did an early lunch at Say Ciao.

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Tom’s Downtown Christmas Walk

Tom has led a downtown Christmas walk for many years though the Mazama Rambles. This year a number of us got to gather to do a private walk with Tom. Walk feature visiting hotels and other venues to see there Christmas decoration. We had 25 people show up for the walk.