Author: Daniel Van Rossen

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Firelane 1 Forest Park

Forecast had for one more day of nice weather before the rain returned so I wanted to get in one more hike. I tried doing Firelane One in Forest Park but the gate was close so I thought I would try it again. The parking lot and new start of the trail was put in a few years ago so it was nice to see what was done. The trail starts out steep but quickly changes into the service road for the power line. I added on some other trails to make a lollipop loop out of it. The first mile of the firelane has some great views and some great mud.

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Stairs to Pittock

Taking advantage of a string of days of nice weather I did another training walk up to Pittock Mansion. Today was a blue sky day with clear views of Portland and the mountains. I also got better number on this walk. I did 4.8 miles with about 900 ft of total elev. gain and did 513 steps in an hour and fifty-eight min.

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Chehalem Ridge

We decide to do another hike of Chehalem Ridge Nature Park but this time get some mileage number for a future Tom walk. It was a cool day but clear enough to get some views. Afterward we returned to Backwoods for lunch.

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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.