Hiking in Gifford Pinchot

 We wanted to go hiking this last weekend, so Matt perused the Curious Gorge book and found 3 up in the Washington state area. We ended up doing two based on drive time and degree of wetness required. The area is the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. According to the Forest Service website, it was named after 

"Gifford Pinchot, an active conservationist, was appointed first Chief of the Forest Service. He played a key role in developing the early principles of environmental awareness. Pinchot's philosophy is made clear in his farsighted statement that the forests should be managed for "..the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run." In honor of his leadership, the Columbia National Forest was renamed for Gifford Pinchot in 1949."

On the way out you'll pass a Forest Service Station where you get a climbing permit for Mount Adams. If you had quizzed us on the elevations of the peaks in our general vicinity we would not have had a perfect score. Both of us believed Mt. Hood to be taller than Mt. Adams. Maybe it's because Hood is pointy and Adams is fairly flat top. [...]

Victoria and the Maiden Voyage

For Memorial Day weekend we went up to visit Matt's grandma. We left on Thursday evening after work. I had driven the Suby with the kayaks on top to the office and because it was nearly flooding outside, received a few Noah's Ark jokes. It proceeded to rain very hard the entire way up. It was a bit nerve wracking between the darkness, the heavy rain, and our first long trip with the kayaks (aside from moving from one town to another). We made it just fine and at about a quarter to midnight. Our plan originally was to get up and catch the first ferry over to Victoria, but we were not confident in our ability to get up after arriving so late. Turns out we both woke up the next morning without an alarm... at 6 am. [...]

Field Trip

Was in the field this week north of Seattle and wanted to share some photos. We had progressively nice weather, but the rain left large puddled areas along our access roads and determining draining solutions was challenging.

A beautiful and chilly morning with some patchy fog.
[...]

Solo Snowshoeing

Bennet Pass Trail

Suz took Tuesday off and we went back to the Mt Hood area. She went snowboarding, but I don't do that. So I went to the Bennet Pass Trail to snowshoe. This was my first solo hike in I-can't-remember-how-long. Went about 4.5 miles total in around 2 hours. and there was hardly a soul in sight. Passed two cross-country skiers on their way out and a couple walking their dog once I was nearly back to the parking lot. The weather was very nice- at least on the Mt. Hood side of the trail. On the Badger Wilderness area it was fast moving fog with a light rain. [...]

McMinnville

Matt planned a really fun winery weekend to celebrate my birthday. I was very grateful to get out of town! We went to McMinnville and stayed at the Hotel Oregon and toured 3 wineries: Youngburg Hill, Yamhill Vineyards, and Amity. It was incredibly foggy all day, but it made beautiful hoar frost. 

The itinerary: Text from Grape Escape Winery Tours with italics comments from us. We are not expert wine tasters and we didn't take notes, so I will put down my amateur comments for what I remember.  [...]