Photopotamus: a Blog: June 2015

First of all, wow it has been a SUPER long time since I last wrote in the blog. Whoops! I have three more blog posts on my to-do list from various events/photo subjects over the past few months. I just need to find time to edit all the photos. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I find time within the next two weeks! In the mean time, I've managed to find a few hours to edit photos from our camping/hiking excursion last weekend!

My first experience camping was not a good one. It was in Indiana and involved driving right up to the campsite with a group of friends, setting up our tents and hanging out for the evening. That could've been fine had that been the extent of the experience. However, once we went to sleep, the sky unleashed its wrath on us, pouring buckets and buckets of rain, thundering and lightning right overhead. It was rough. Our carpool buddies decided to pack up and go home, which forced us to wake up our friends (if they managed to still be asleep at that point) to figure out a new ride home the next morning. Everyone was soaked, tired and grumpy. It. Sucked.

So when a couple of our friends invited us to go hiking and camping with them, I was hesitant but willing to give it another shot. Weather in Oregon is most likely to be dry and sunny this time of year, the scenery is beautiful, and I love hiking. All we needed to do was borrow some backpacking gear and buy a few camping supplies and some freeze-dried meals, and we were set (this was going to be serious camping, not drive-up camping!).

We hit the road Saturday morning. Destination: Jefferson Park via Park Ridge Trail Hike. Most of the drive was through the Mt. Hood National Forest, with sky-high evergreens and winding roads. The turn-off to the trail head started out as a gravel road and quickly devolved into a rocky/boulder-y rutted dirt path. Eventually we got to the point where we would be risking major damage to our vehicles if we continued on, so we backtracked to an open spot to pull off and park our cars for the night. Then it was just a matter of hiking the rest of the way to the trail head.

The hike was awesome! Of course the scenery was breathtaking and the company was fun. If you are in the Pacific Northwest and are looking for a great adventure outdoors, I HIGHLY recommend Jefferson park and the Park Ridge Trail hike. We were sore and tired by the time we got back to our cars on Sunday, but we were happy. Such a great experience! Feast your eyes: