Treks and Adventures
It was going to be a hot day so Lori, Jeanette and I decide to make this outing short and easy. We started from Newberry Rd. trailhead and did about a 4 mile out and back on the Wildwood Trail. The north end of Forest Park has more of feel that you are out in the woods. Afterwards we went for lunch at Rock Creek Tavern and enjoyed sitting out on the patio having drinks and food.
It has been a long time since I have done this hike and was excited to do it again but maybe to excited. After only a few hours of sleep I was off for an early morning start of the hike. After finishing the stair climb of what Top Spur has become I found I was having a “legs of lead” day. But it was a beautiful and beautiful place so I press on at a slow pace and made it up to McNeil Point. There were many small change that had taken place over the years I was gone and one big one, see the blow down that had happen from the storm about three years ago. I knew Paradise Park trail had been hit by micro bursts but all other place was a surprise. Hopefully storms like that are rarity and not the new norm. Hike was 10 1/2 miles and over 3000 ft. Total elevation gain.
The plan was to go to Mt. Rainier National Park with Lori, Jeanette and Merlyn and hike around and see the wild flowers. What was not planned for was late snow melt, record setting hot day and altitude. We ended up with a short hike at Paradise with still some flowers and lovely views but still much covered in snow. We did a short visit to Paradise Lodge and headed off for lunch. Our second hike was to be at Longmire but did some stops on the way. By the time we got to Longmire the temperature was in the 90’s so we did a visit to and lodge and headed on. Even on food stop at Papa Bears was hot and did not go a planned. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was just so darn beautiful there it would have been a bad trip but seeing the majestic beauty of Mt. Rainier and the Tatoosh Range with good friends for a while makes it all good.
It had been a while since I have done the Fort Vancouver to Vancouver Waterfront Park walk. I was curious what changes had taken place since the last time I visited.
I had not hiked the Paradise Park Trail #778 in a number of years and was happy to hike it again and see what had changed. My first challenge was finding the new trailhead and finding very large pile of logs taking up most of the parking lot. Once maneuvering around couple of piles of logs I found where the new trail head began.
By the numbers 15.5 miles, 3000 ft. elevation gain and on the trail for about 8 hours.
