A Fishing Conversation

Today was a good day.  Debora and Rachel were off at Girl Scout Camp for an overnight.  That left Elliot and I to ourselves.  Saturday was about Baseball and Iron Man 3.  Though Baseball got canceled due to rain, we adjusted and had breakfast at Fat City.   I told Elliot that we were going for a hike on Sunday, because we were.

There was a Troop hike out in the Tillamook Forest, but that was 10 miles going UP.  It’s the normal monthly hike for those who are working on the Hiking Merit Badge.  I knew that Elliot would not be up for 10 miles.  So, I looked for a better hike.

I found the Mosier Twin Tunnels in the Columbia Gorge just past Hood River, OR.    This hike is about 70 miles from Portland.   Check the link for more information.  Next time I think we will bring the bikes since the trail keeps going on and on and on and a lot of bikers on it.
During this whole hike, Elliot and I talked about Hiking.  He stated that he will only hike if he can fish at the end of it.  Which really surprised me.  He is not a hiker and somewhat does not like camping for multiple days at a time.   I told him that we can fish anytime he wants.  We can go on the weekends.  I reminded him that we are going to East Rosebud Lake and that the best fishing is up the trail.   I would tell you more about the fishing at East Rosebud Lake, but that’s a secret! I explained that up around Broadwater, is what I consider very good.  We would have to camp overnight at Elk Lake or above Broadwater due to all the rocks. But that would allow us to fish all day, into the evening and the next day.  He was happy about that.

Elliot also told me that if he only had to do one sport that it would be fishing.  Ok, got the message.  Fishing!  To which, I pointed out that there are two merit badges that are based on fishing.   They are: Fishing and Fly Fishing.  They are both very similar, so doing both would be a good idea.  He read the requirements and thought he would.  Though, he wants to get some practice in before starting them.

On our way back to the trailhead, we spotted what turned out to be three hawks.  I could not tell what type though.  They kept running the ridge of the upward wind while we watched.  At one time they circled by us so fast we thought there were eight of them.  It was a great sight.  Something that I reminded Elliot about, if we didn’t hike today, we would not have seen it.

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Cubmaster Hike #5 Pacific Crest Trail

 

  Sunday, was our last Cubmaster Hike of the whole program.  I know that I will do more of them.  But for now, since Summer is basically over, so are they.  I first wrote about this in March 2012.

My goal was to get out to places that I had never been.  I wanted to take the family and the Scouts along with me.  It started in close to home and went out further from home.   First, it was Memorial Woods Park.  Then it was Jamboree on the Trail and we were at Elk Rock Park.   Third was Whistle Punk Hike.  We ventured off to Washington State! Our fourth trek was to the Portland Audubon Society.

All of these adventures are memorable.  I can say that the first two hikes we had Scouts on them.  The other three were just the family or just Elliot and I.

My goal for this trip, was to go UP HIGH!  I wanted to hike up above Timberline Lodge and look down.  However, once Elliot and I got there, I quickly realized that UP was walking UP to where I really did not want to go.  Plus, we had just gotten to 2000 feet.  Being at sea level and then being at 2000 was not really a good idea.  Both of us were out of breath.  I knew that the Pacific Crest Trail went right through here.  So, I opted for that trip instead.  It was basically flat.   Elliot and I checked in through the Lodge and looked at what was entailed for hiking.   My first thought of people who get in a bad way up on Mt Hood when trekking, should really know what they are in for.

Suffice to say, we made it back just fine.
As we got up to the trail head, I had to push Elliot into keep going.  He was pulling all his normal excuses.  I kept telling him, that we had never been here before.  That, last time we went for a hike, he found really cool stuff and had a good time.

When we got up to the sign I asked him if he wanted to go to Mexico or Canada.  He opted for Canada, since it was CLOSER!  I agreed.  We took the easy way out…;)

We ended up hiking/walking about two to two and a half miles round trip.  We went past the Timberline boundary and into the Mt Hood National Forrest.  I got us a permit, since I did not want to pay the $100 if caught without one. Cool part of the ticket was all the Leave No Trace info.  Those USDA people think of everything.

It was interesting that a lot of people did not fill one out.  Yes, it was a day hike for us. Many others were doing the same.  We did see a lot of backpackers both coming and going.  They had the tickets.

During the course of the hike,  Elliot got fascinated with Rocks, Snow and the Ravines.  I pointed out the glaciers up at the top of Mt Hood and he saw the blue and dirty areas.  He asked why some ravines had water and others did not.  He played on the snow and even ate the snow.  Hopefully it wasn’t yellow….

In the ravines at the bottom, he dug in the dirt looking if there was water.  Nope.  One it was all recently moist.  Very moist.  The last ravine, we took a break at and had a banana and a couple of chocolate bars and water.  We were up very high and could see all the way down to the other Ski Hill.  He kept throwing rocks down, which got a few more tumbling down.  Explained that part of Leave No Trace was also not starting avalanches…  He loves to explore, so I let him.  We talked about how glaciers melt and such as he explored.

With all the exploration of bone dry, moist and WET ravines, we headed back towards the Lodge.  I promised him lunch.  Which, was very good.  The Cheese Pizza apparently is VERY GOOD here.  I had a large bowl of Chili.  Coupled with a Chocolate Shake for him and a Huckleberry one for me, we had a great day.

It was a great hike, learned a lot about how water travels.  Looking back at this today, it’s amazing to see how much he likes rocks, water and how these things works.  He drove all of this.  I just had to PUSH him to go hiking.  Richard Louv, is correct.  Read his books.  His books helped me make The Cubmaster Hike a reality.  Without reading them, we would not have had this day.

And, yes, I wrote a blog about his books.

 

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Whistle Punk Hike

June 30th was the Cubmaster Hike #3 just outside of Carson, WA in the Wind River area.   This was a great 1.5 mile hike in a place that my family has ever been.  It was very flat and easy with no up or down.  I wanted to find the Wind River Crane section, but due to an unmarked section, we did not turn Right, but left and ended back at the car.  Looking at the Map provided at the head of the Trail it showed that we saw everything.

However, looking back at the website now, I realize that a right turn would have been alright. We did not take the right turn since it was not marked.

However, what we did discover is the great choice of trees and plants.  My wife and I pointed out the many different kinds.  We also saw a Nursery Tree.  One that we asked if the kids had ever seen before.  We had during our trip to the Redwoods.

Along the first part of the trail was a good history of how a trees were harvested in this area.  The whole Timber Camp was pointed out that was in this area 100 years ago.

Overall, the hike was wonderful.  It was a good hour of hiking in a forest with a bit out from under it in a couple of clearings.  It is a well maintained area.    There are several sections that had chairs carved out of trees.  Those were fun to sit in.  Benches were also made out of fallen logs.

My two bits of advice.  Bring a lot of water since there are no streams. Which, we did.  Also bring an insect repellant.  We didn’t and there were a lot of bugs.

Dogs need to be leashed, but we did not realize that until we left. The only sign that stated that was as we drove in and it was a tiny one.

This was set-up as a Cubmaster Hike for the Pack, however no one showed up.  Which is fine.  It’s not part of the Summertime Pack Event Schedule.  My goal for these hikes were to get my family OUTSIDE to a new place that we had never gone to.  That goal was achieved 100%!

The one great other bonus was that we went to Skamania Lodge for lunch.  I helped open it in Feb 1993 while I was still in the culinary world.  I was in charge of all the cold food for the entire hotel.  I had only been back a few times and never with my wife.  Which, she duly pointed out as we drove by it.  Suffice to say, the food was good as was the service.  It was however WAY OVER PRICED!  There was a group there demonstrating various birds.  That was totally amazing.  They showed Falcon, Snowy Barn Owl, Kestrel, Black Tail Hawk and the Bald Eagle.  The Hawk flew over the heads of the audience many many times.  Most over Elliot & Rachel.  Only inches.  They loved it.

So, get out.  You never know what you might meet and learn.

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The Hike Recon

In the Cubmaster Hike post awhile ago, I talked about getting this started.  Well, it’s on the calendar and I have told the Pack about it.  So, I need to prepare myself for these upcoming hikes.  I went to the Woods Memorial Park and was pleasantly surprised.  It is right next to a larger park and community center.  I drove by it all the time.  I did a quick walk from one trail head to another.  It was down a paved road that is blocked off.  I calculated the trails and it is just under a mile.  Ok, that’s good for the first time out.  It’s close to where we meet and we can get a test hike in.

Yesterday I went to Smith and Bybee Natural Area in North Portland, right along the Columbia & Williamette River.  It was not where I had thought it was.  Again, it’s pretty easy to get to.  It’s very early spring here in Portland and a lot of rain has fallen.  All the rivers are very high.  So high that this area is totally flooded.  I could not even get down 30 feet down the trail from the road.

With that in mind, I need to find a replacement just to be safe.  I want to make it along the same lines.  So, I found Elk Rock Island.  With all the information about the seven different habitats on such a small area, is really amazing.  Here is the Google Maps/Earth location.  Again, this island is very close to where I live and I drive by it for work a lot.  I never knew it was there.

So, I will need to check back towards the end of the month and see how the swampy hike will be.

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Going Ape with Webelos I

 

In our neck of the woods, there is such a thing as The Ape Caves.  Today the Webelos I or the Tree Scouts as they are now known, went to the Ape Caves.  We used it as part of the Geologist Activity Pin.  All the Tree Scouts did get the Council Segment Patch for going on this outing.

This covered: Take a field trip to a geological site, geological laboratory, or rock show.   Discuss what you learned at your next Webelos den meeting. And Explain one way in which mountains are formed. We did attempt to name what geological items that might be found in your home, but we got busy with spelunking. (No we didn’t really.. It was all walking with some crawling for a bit.)   The intention was to complete the entire Activity Pin, but as we realized during the process, it was not possible.  So, the Webelos Den Leader has left it up to the Tree Scouts to complete on their own.  He pointed out that they should focus on Volcanos, since we were at the base of Mt St. Helen’s.

The whole trip is about 90 minutes from Downtown Portland through Woodland and onto the Caves.  We drove straight to the Ape Caves with a stop for lunch and a quick hike. Just before you get to it, there is the Two-Forest Trail.  According to my son, this was the best part.  What he really means to say, is that the Lava Tube that is a tunnel that you can climb down into and then across to the exit while crawling was awesome.  The boys did it twice.  Apparently finding a separate exit that comes out right next to a sign that says STAY OFF!  The hike was really a half mile loop on raised walkways.  The Adults figured that being raised up helped keep people off the vegetation and also from falling into these large manhole sized holes.  They were everywhere.   I had hoped that when the boys were going through them as a tunnel none of them would freak out to find out that they had claustrophobia.  While I was on the Tour permit, it would have been the Webelos Den Leader’s job to go in after them…;)  Thankfully none of the boys were.

While we were also deep inside the Ape Cave, we turned off all flashlights (which was really hard to do!) and say the Cubscout Promise, Law of the Pack and the Pledge of Allegiance.  This was part of our Citizenship Activity Pin that was started a couple of weeks ago.  In an earlier blog, I pointed out that a lot of the boys did not  the Promise and Law.  I also committed to learning it myself.  While I am not there totally yet.  I am getting there.  So, we turned off the lights and did it.

After the Ape Cave that was 1.5 miles roundtrip, we headed further East to the Lava Fields and took a .8 mile hike to a bridge crossing a very cool river.  The whole area had been scraped off by Lava Flow from Mt St Helen’s.  It was a great sight to see.  However, the weather did not work for us and was very cloudy so we did not see Mt St Helen’s as the clouds were very low.  However, what we did see looking up was awesome since it shows how all the water, ash and forest just crushed everything in it’s way.
The 30 minute hike that we took the boys on was great.  I think that they got something out of it, but the Adults by this time were feeling it as much as they were.  Several of them were hungary and  hiking the 3 miles in the day in the cold wet Lava Tubes did take it out on them.

One other bit that we did was to talk and do a Leave No Trace project outside the Caves.  We picked up a bunch of little bitty trash on the trail and in the parking lot.  We all had to get at least 5 bits.   It’s amazing what people leave behind.  I picked up a bunch.  Figure 13 people with 5 bits each.  That’s not too bad.

We ended up in the City of Woodland, Wa eating Hamburgers at Burgerville and reviewing the day.  However, using a trick from the Boyscouts, I told the boys that Adults eat over HERE and the Scouts eat OVER THERE!  Which were just fine for them and us.

While Elliot will tell you that his two favorite parts of the day were “Crawling in the Lava Tunnel and playing DS all the way home” I highly suspect that there were many other parts of the trip that he liked.  I know that when he gets with his buddies at school and talks about it, it will be way cooler.  The one great thing out of this trip is that Scouting provides the Opportunity to do something different that you have ever experienced before in your life.  Today was just that.  Scouting provided me and all the Dads the Opportunity to go some place that none of them had ever gone to with their son to complete a couple of requirements for a Webelos Rank Badge.  There is no knot, badge or award that will ever be able to be awarded that will replace today’s experience.  Take the Opportunity!

 

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