3/60 marquam trail to council crest & kyle's birthday!

Completed: 2/2/11 (Kyle's birthday!)

Difficulty: Moderate

Rating: 3.5 stars

Time: we forgot to look! and we got a little lost!

Length: 3.7 miles

this picture is a view from the top of our hike! (the photo isn't the best and didn't do all of the views justice because i, unfortunately, do not have a great camera! also, if you are thinking of buying kyle and i a gift anytime soon, a fancy camera is very high on our 'want' list!)

so one of the things kyle wanted to do on his birthday was go hiking! so the plan was to wake up semi-early and go hiking, then go for lunch, hang out and watch a movie at home, go climbing, and then eat cake!

so we decided to do the marquam trail to council crest hike because it is in town (about 5 minutes from downtown!) and the author of our hiking book recommends doing this on a clear day because you have a view of mt. st. helens, mt. rainier, mt. hood, and mt. adams--which all happen to be volcanoes! and i know how much kyle loves mt. hood, so i suggested this one!

the trail starts out near ohsu (which happens to be one of the hospitals i want a job at!) so i knew exactly how to get there. marquam trail happens to be a little nature preserve-type area that has a nice loop and that connects to the council crest trail! the trail crossed 2 different roads and cut through the woods near some awesome houses, so you could tell it was right in town. it did also cross over the road that leads up to council crest park. it is good to know that there is a road because all though i really enjoyed this hike it would be

nice to take friends and family who are visiting up there and there isn't always enough time for everything!

this hike was DEFINITELY worth it because the views on top were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! this was also a pretty busy trail and i can only imagine hiking it everyday as a nice start to the day kinda thing! there were some pretty parts to the forest area that we were walking through including a fallen-log bridge (and a real bridge that i crossed...kyle took the dangerous route!) and a stream.

kyle and i also happened to get a little turned around. at one point there was an option of taking the higher path or the lower path. we chose the higher path. well eventually this took us way to far to the left (council crest was to the right of where we started) so i thought it felt wrong. we finally happened upon another hiker so i asked if we were going the right way. NOPE! so we turned around! we did walk about 3/4 miles out of our way though! just a little extra exercise!

we took our time up at the top and took lots of pictures! sadly, most didn't turn out that great! once we got back down to our car we drove downtown and went to deschutes for lunch. it is a little expensive but kyle and i really like it! so far we have taken my mom, ryne and sam, and kyle's family all there! the place has good food and great beer! plus we filled up kyle's growler! we stopped at belmont station so kyle could buy himself an expensive bottle of beer with some of his birthday money and one of his co-workers suggested we check out rocky butte if we were looking for views of mt. hood! thats another place in portland (this time you drive to it!) and it was really cool! more great views!

later we got home and watched groundhog day which was a very fitting choice and i had never seen it! then we went climbing and came home and ate chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream cake from cold stone! cold stone ice cream cakes are one of kyle's favorites!

so right now if we are to get all of these hikes done by the end of the year we should already be at 7! eek! we have 4 done (we are a little behind on the blogging!) and we are doing another tomorrow! we are still playing catch up!

and i finally got new hiking shoes! i LOVE them!

2/60 - Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge 1/25/11

Nom nom nom nom nom nom

3 miles
1 hour
Easy
Two Stars


Fish...Duck..Frog...Duck...Fish...Duck......Pacman!

The Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge is a nature and wildlife preserve located within the city. The concrete trail leading down to the lake is painted with duck's and fish's and frog's, all being eaten by Pacman! There is a big lake that attracts ducks, geese, beavers, heron's and other's. The bird watching is great (though not quite the season when we went out). They have a tadpole pond that is used as a study site and attracts many classes to the park. In fact, a class was leaving as we arrived.

Nature! In building form!

The lake and trail are in the middle of an urban setting, but the area is doing it's best to fit in with it's natural surroundings. The building imitates the scene from the surrounding area.

The hike was nice. The area is great. It would be the ideal place to walk your dog, especially if you were close by. The birds would give us a reason to come back, but not much else.  All in all it was a nice little way to spend an hour!

hike 1/60 -- tryon creek state park

completed: 1/24/10
time: 1.25 hours
3 stars
moderate (due to some steep inclines!)

so kyle and i were busy last week and started our hikes! we did number 1 last monday because it was supposed to be a pretty nice day out--and it was! it was about 45-50 degrees out and cloudy. the hike was mostly covered by all of the trees though because it was also lighly raining, but we couldn't really tell!

so the first hike we did was at tryon creek state park which was about 20 minutes away from our apartment on the northeast side of town. the state park is located in the southwest part of town and its a little more south than it is west! tryon creek is oregon's only state park in a major city but it doesn't even feel like it. while driving there we exited off the interstate and drove for about 2.5 miles and it felt like we were out in the country on winding roads in a forest. so the whole area had been logged back in the 1880's for an iron company and so the forest now is a second growth forest and is considered young. while hiking through it, the forest didn't seem young to me!

one of the reasons i chose to do this particular hike first was because it was close to town, it is open all year round, it is free, and there are things to see in every season. the author of the book recommends hiking the state park in the spring to see wildflowers (trillium blooms specifically), to go in the fall for the leaves changing colors, and in the winter to look for steelhead trout. unfortunately kyle and i didn't see any trout when we crossed the creek (we crossed a lot of different creeks too!).

the hike we did was about 3 miles long and was a loop (it was the one described in our book). kyle and i definitely want to go back sometime because the park has approximately 8 total miles of hiking trails, so we only scratched the surface! plus i want to go back to see the wildflowers!

the hike did take us longer than what the book said it would take (book said 1 hour but it took us an hour and fifteen minutes) and we also thought it was a little more difficult than the "easy" it was described as. the hike was not even close to being as hard as our hike to neahkahnie mountain was in september, but still not flat. so we described it as moderate. this also worries us both because there are a lot of hikes in the book described as strenuous!

overall we rated this hike 3 out of 5 stars because it wasn't the coolest or most challenging hike we have ever done but it is conveniently located, there are lots of hiking options, and it was a pleasant little workout but not overwhelming!

so now i am going to go plan the hike we are going to do on kyle's birthday (its wednesday...don't forget to wish him a happy birthday!!!!!) because the weather is supposed to be nice and that is one of the things he wants to do! so we are going to do a longer hike since neither of us has to work!

and here are the other pictures we took! oh and one notable thing: kyle and i again noticed a TON of moss growing on the trees (this was first pointed out to us by kyle's dad that the trees are just COVERED in moss) and we couldn't remember from previous hikes if this is always the case. so we don't know if the trees in the winter have more moss on them than normal due to all the rain or what. i could look it up...or it will just be something that we keep an eye on while out hiking!

so as kyle so optimistically put it "1 down, only 59 more to go!" good thing i am looking forward to those!

a little overdue...

so i just thought of this: one of my new year's resolutions should have been to blog more! well too bad i just thought of that now. but true story: i am going to start blogging more (and hopefully kyle will add some new stuff too!)

i have a few reasons behind this new desire to blog again:
1. i read quite a few blogs on a daily basis. most are related to fashion and more specifically anthropologie (which is becoming my favorite store more and more everyday...if only i could afford it!).
2. kyle's family visited in the beginning of the month and we all went to powell's bookstore and kyle's dad, bill, bought me a new wonderful book:

so far i have really enjoyed everything about the book. the descriptions are good enough, there are recommendations about flat hikes, urban hikes, steep hikes, hikes with a view, and others. the book also has a bunch of different areas: the coast, mt. hood, mt. st. helens, clackamas river, willamette river valley, and a bunch of other areas around portland! one of the only issues i have with the book is that there are some hikes that aren't within 60 miles...as in they are closer to 90 miles away! but thats ok...if it is worth the hike!

and a couple of the hikes that kyle and i have done are in here so we are going to do them again-the hoyt arboretum and the coast hike we did! but the arboretum is so close and easily accessible that of course we will do that one again. plus neahkahnie is still one of the best hikes i've ever done in my life! so i definitely want to do that one again!

but kyle proposed this idea: we hike all 60 hikes this year! and i loved it! he also suggested about the 2nd week into january and i did the math-it adds up to 1 hike every 6 days so we were already 2 behind! oops!

but the book also suggests the best time to go do these hikes. a bunch of the hikes around mt. hood aren't even open until may because of snow! so one of my projects that i want to do is organize when we will do most of them. i think we will be doing a LOT of hiking come july, august, and september! but thats ok! we also need to work our way up to the strenuous hikes! and our endurance because there are a few hikes that are 12+ miles!

so coming soon will be pictures and information on these! so that means there will be at least 60 more posts this year! which i believes quadruples the amount of bloggings from last year =)

as for a little update in our lives:

kyle and i are still looking for "real" jobs or even better, careers. i am meeting with the dietitian who does the hiring at OHSU (oregon health and science university) hospitals on tuesday so hopefully something good will come out of that informational interview. i am also in the process of applying to a corporate wellness company that i have a good feeling about and seems awesome to work for. kyle went to the trail blazer's career fair yesterday and then we got to go to the game afterwards! most of the positions open were not payed internships, but still we have our fingers crossed!

we have also been rock climbing (bouldering to be specific) at this awesome place call the circuit. we both have an annual membership so we can go as much as we like. last week we both went 5 times! and we have both improved a lot since we started. there are 2 locations in portland and the gym we go to the most frequently is about 2.5 miles from our apartment! today we ventured to the other location (its in the southwest...we live in the northeast...so its a little bit of a trek!) and had a hard time of it! but still fun! we are planning on going climbing again tomorrow! kyle's brother and sister got to join us for a climb while his family was here! so when anyone else visits, kyle and i get 2 free passes a month for guests!

tonight kyle is working and i took some time to clean the house a little (dishes are drying as we speak!) and made cookies! i also rented dinner for schmucks from the redbox for us to watch tonight!

this weekend kyle and i are headed up to seattle to visit our friend dan...we are going to go to the portland international auto show on friday morning and then head up after that so we can do some shopping! and then once dan gets off work we will probably hit up a seafood restaurant or something awesome!

so thats about it! stay tuned for the blogs about the hikes!

oh and i almost forgot--kyle and i are SUPER happy that the packers are going to the superbowl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ps: i already forgot how to add captions to photos because it has been so long since i've done this! but the picture of kyle and i is from when the johnson's were visiting and we went to multnomah falls and horsetail falls while there was ice on it and it was awesome! the picture is in front of horsetail falls which is one of the places we took a picture at when we first moved out here!

2 months in portland

so yesterday made it official that kyle and i have been in portland for 2 months and we are really enjoying ourselves! i made cupcakes to celebrate!

i have been working a ton--this week i am scheduled about 24 hours at express and about 20 hours at applebees. which in reality isn't a lot...but when they are part time jobs not paying that well...it seems like a lot. and i haven't had a day off since last monday (september 27) and my next day off should be wednesday, october 13. i have a job interview tomorrow for a relief dietitian position with a senior citizen center based from providence hospital. it is also conveniently located about 5 blocks from our apartment!

kyle has also been working quite a bit...and it has been showing because his tips have been awesome! we are now going shopping tomorrow night because he wants to buy some more pants. and i would never complain about shopping!

sammie (the kitty) has adjusted well to life in portland. every morning she watches the birds gather in our courtyard of the apartment complex and she runs back and forth between the living room and the bedroom depending on where the birds fly. she is hilarious! she also ate part of a cupcake i had made for kyle and i.

other fun things we have been doing recently: our friend, dan, from columbia, mo moved out to seattle a couple of weeks ago. we have now spent the last 2 weekends hanging out with him. we met him in olympia, wa to play a day tournament for ultimate frisbee. our team, rowboat, actually got first place in the tourny! so yay! kyle and i then drove up to seattle for the night to hang out. and then this past weekend dan came down to portland. we spent the entire weekend drinking beer and hanging out. kyle and i have also been playing a lot of trivia on monday nights with a group of frisbee friends at a local bar. it is really fun...we placed 2nd place last week!

kyle and i like to keep things low key though and have been checking books out from the library and also getting tv shows on dvd from there as well, so that has been keeping us occupied! and we do occasionally rent movies from the redbox down the street!

but i hope things are well with everyone! i'll post soon about our apartment accompanied with pictures!

-megan ♥

The Ocean!!!!!

She is standing 1,700 ft above that body of water there (Pacific Ocean)

We made it to the coast!  5 weeks after being in Portland, we finally made it to go see the ocean.  It took us an hour and a half to make it to the area we were looking for (but we drove around for about 20 min before we settled in).  We started in Manzanita, stopping at a beach and checking out the sights.

It was a little cloudy when we arrived...something we kind of knew as we left that morning, but we were ready to see ocean so we didn't really care.  The beach was still great to be at...very soft sand.

We walked down one way out towads the point.  Threw a frisbee around a little bit.  Watched doggies run and have a great time.  Stopped at a log to eat some lunch that we packed for ourselves (PB&J, mmmmm).


After lunch we set out on the Oregon Coast Trail, ready to conquer Neahkahnie Mountain.  We made our way out on a trail head that started just off of highway 101, and began our trek winding back and forth over the Pacific before we disappeared into the woods, rapidly ascending  as we went.  It was 2 1/2 miles to the top, and peaked at 1,700 feet.  It was the hikiest type of hike I've ever done.  Tight trails, some steep inclines, fallen trees we had to climb over...it was fun.  In the time it took us to hike, the sky started to clear up and all the low clouds had lifted

Proud Megan

Tired Kyle

And the view from the top was great!









Back down the mountain we went, and onwards towards the beach.  Our destination was downhill from where we were parked, and the hike took us past a large sized cove.  We decided to take a slight detour and go explore the points of the cove we passed by.  There was a lightly treaded path that we followed, which got a little rough at points, but we emerged for a great view over the Pacific!

Cool rock sticking out of the water

Oceans are cool!

We found our way back to the trail and followed it back down to the beach.  We pulled out the frisbee again and started playing more catch while watching the surfers decked out in full wet suit play on the wake.  A couple dogs were chasing each other throughout the beach, and we walked along the shore.  We turned around to find a great view of Neahkahnie!

The feeling at the top was great, but really wasn't complete until after getting this perspective of what we just finished.

Neahkahnie Mountain from the beach

Washington Park - Hoyt Arboretum

Trees!!!!  Big Trees!!!!!  And LOT'S of them!!!!!!!

Washington Park is a 400 acre park located just outside downtown Portland.  The transition from downtown buildings and living to the green filled hills is abrupt (and awesome).  The arboretum (tree place) is buried deep within the park.  It sprawls over 147 acres, has 21 trails stretching over 12 miles, and features more than 8,000 individual trees.  Plants from every continent are represented in Portland!

We visited the Arboretum and set out on the 4 mile trail that loops around the collection.  The arboretum is arranged by family, and the hike winds us through the entire collection.  Conifers, Redwoods, Oaks lead off our hike, and we plan on following our way to the Maples and the Bamboo.  We continue along on the trail we started out on, the Wildwood trail, and wind up and down hills, past the Pittock Mansion, descending down to a road and a 3 1/2 mile marker and a trail map.  We stop to gaze at the map, just to check our bearings, and come to find ourselves now in Forest Park.  Instead of walking 3 1/2 miles in a loop, we traveled 3 1/2 miles straight north, and Megan had to be back for work in a couple hours...oops.  We double back, and manage to make it back to the car in time for Megan to get ready, but we missed out on the second half of park.

We had thought Wildwood was the 4 mile loop around the arboretum.  Turns out Wildwood is a 40 mile loop  that goes around all of Portland!  It just happens to run through the arboretum for a short time...oh well.  We didn't get to see the whole arboretum, but the hike was great anyway.  It just gives us an excuse to return to the arboretum, plus it keeps up with Megan and I's tradition of getting lost on hikes!