I started this back in July… and as I got into it, I found the subject was too big for one post and decided to split it up. So just pretend it's late July when you read this. (Also there may have been some reluctance on my part to spend any unneeded time inside on a computer..)
It's nearing the end of July, which I always feel should be a never-ending month. It's like a Saturday in a three day weekend. The weather is perfect and the change of the seasons is a distant thought - nothing but blue skies and long, warm, full days of sun. July forever.
For me, the beginning of summer meant that I could finally get back out on Mt Hood and explore all the trails I’d been researching and longing for since the forest roads closed for the season back in November. This involved obsessively checking the Forest Service website, waiting for certain roads to re-open and give me the green light.
There have been three stand-out hikes in the last two months that I will be marinating in my mind for quite some time. The common thread between them (aside from their proximity to my main muse Mt Hood) is the complete, 360° view in every direction. If you’ve seen my map illustrations of the Oregon Eco-Regions, you’re familiar with one of my more recent obsessions with the shifting character between each of Oregon's ecological regions. All of these hikes gave me a real-time immersion into the landscapes I’ve been depicting - giving me a tangible visual of the transitions from the distant coastal mountain range, to the Willamette valley, the Cascade mountains, to the Columbia plateau and beyond. To call these expansive views “truly awe inspiring” doesn’t quite cut it.
But these views must be earned, and I love the journey to get there just as much. An increasingly scenic drive away from Portland, up around Mt Hood, forking off onto a narrow, winding, forest road riddled with potholes. Then comes the ascent up through the trees. Another key element of these hikes is their passage across the boundary into wilderness territory. The wilderness zones are marked by plain, unpainted, wooden signs nailed to trees somewhere along the trail and even though you already feel quite removed from civilization after the hair-raising drive on the forest road, encountering these wilderness signs and crossing their threshold has a special kind of magic.
The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines wilderness as:
“an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
I love this definition because this is in fact the magic that wilderness zones have to offer - a reality devoid of human presence (aside from the trail, the occasional wooden sign, or unfortunate sighting of another human). I love the feeling of my senses being overwhelmed by non-human sounds and smells. When you are so outnumbered by trees that you feel their presence quite strongly. Or when you look out from an overlook and there isn’t a human-made structure in sight. I love feeling how much bigger the earth is than me. Seeing and knowing the millions of years that shaped the landscape before me brings me closer to a slower pace of time. Very slow, very present - so slow you can’t see it, but know it is ongoing and so much more far reaching than the human conception of time. This is real time.
Then, to emerge out on the summit of a hike like this, where you can see so far in every direction feels like a revelation. You are just an awe-inspired speck, surrounded by ancient giants.
The first hike on my docket for June was Lookout Mountain.
Pt I: Lookout Mountain - Badger Creek Wilderness
This was one I’d had my eye on for months. It had a long bumpy dirt road leading into it that required me to move at a snail’s pace. As I got closer to the trailhead, there were an increasing number of snow banks covering patches of the road, making me realize I may have been a little over-eager in doing this hike as soon as the road opened… I had a brief moment of spinning out in mud but luckily I had the sense to just park the car and walk to the trailhead rather than risk getting stuck. The trail itself was also mostly covered in snow, but thankfully the trail was visible in google maps so I could keep an eye on my blue dot to make sure I was staying en route.
It was a steep trek up the snowy slope, which was mostly open and has probably melted away to reveal beautiful meadows by now. As I neared the top, the views started to expand and the trail finally became more visible. I wound up the final rocky ascent to the summit where there appeared to be an old, stone foundation for what I presume was once a fire lookout station.
But wow. The panoramic views! There was Mt Hood… still covered in snow right next to me. Green forested ridges stretching from her base in every direction, fading into blue in the distance. Looking SW, the beautifully sloping ridges cradled a small, blue-green lake in its basin that seemed to glow in contrast to the steep, forested slopes surrounding it. Blue hills flowed west towards the ocean and south down the Cascade mountain range where I could see Mt Jefferson, Mt Washington, and possibly the Three Sisters...
As the cascades stretched eastward, the green of the trees shifted to a warmer hue with golden undertones rather than blues. This, I presume, indicated the shift from the West Cascades to the East Cascades. These greens sloped down towards the east, giving way to golden expanses of arid high desert and the Columbia plateau region. Further NE, I could see the Columbia River, flanked by sloping hills that had turned gold since the spring. This shifted into deep greens and blues as I looked further north, tracing the Cascade Mountains up into Washington: Mt St Helens, Mt Adams, Mt Rainier…
There's something magical about seeing the landscape and its ecology change before your eyes, from one type of environment to another… The different stories and character or each place woven together as a whole - all in one never-ending view. I spent over an hour up there, trying to capture some scrap of this view in my sketchbook. But as usual, it was too big.. Too great to fit. Still I tried, and tried hardest of all to imprint it in my mind so that it can give way to further explorations in other mediums back in my studio.
Try this Hike!
Lookout Mountain
(I love using Oregon Hikers as a detailed reference)
Distance: 2.9 miles - Its the drive in on the forest service road that takes the most time
Elevation Gain: 565 feet
Trail Type: Loop
Trailhead & Parking: Free parking at the High Prairie Trailhead Directions HERE
Season: Summer to early fall (wait until mid June at least!
If you like my Oregon EcoRegions II map, 11x14” prints are available for purchase through August as a part of the Blanchet House’s Annual fundraiser! 50% of all the proceed will go towards Blanchet House’s important work, providing free food, transitional shelter, and addiction recovery services for those in need.
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