Tag: hiking
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Smith Rock State Park – A Commanding Presence
Bursting from the high desert floor, Smith Rock State Park offers outdoor enthusiasts 650 acres of breathtaking recreational opportunities. With its towering rock formations, Smith Rock, 25 miles north of Bend, Oregon, has become a popular destination for rock climbers of all abilities, attracting enthusiasts from around the world. For those of you who, like…
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Tour du Mont Blanc: Spirits Lifted
We awoke Sunday morning (day 5) to more clear blue skies, and after a 6:30 am breakfast packed our things and started our trek. The hike down from Refugio Elisabetta eventually leveled out onto a wide pathway of relatively easy walking…a welcome relief to the relentless ups and downs of the…
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Tour du Mont Blanc: After struggle, the mountain rewards
From my bottom bunk looking out a small window in a wood-paneled room, I see a glacier and Alpine peaks high above. Our home for tonight, the Elizabetta hut in Italy, is at about 7,500 feet, two miles from the Italy-France border. The only way we could get to this place, as remote as…
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The way to Chamonix: Trains and costly surprises
Naïveté, bad luck and good fortune all had parts in our eventful journey from sunny Strasbourg to rainy Chamonix in the French Alps on Monday. Three trains were to take us on the nine-hour trip, but a bus and a very expensive taxi ride saved the day in the end. The second train ride,…
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A walk to Germany and back in half a day
If you are a traveler, there is a lot to like about the European Union. The euro makes managing currency so easy as you go from country to country. Then there is the seamless movement across borders. So, today, we walked to Germany. No passport necessary. Easier than going from Oregon to California (no stopping…
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Castle Crags: A granite monument from Jurassic times
We headed about 90 miles into California from Oregon for a training hike last weekend. As the challenge of an Alps trek next month nears, Castle Crags State Park gave us a chance to test our lungs and legs in the Shasta National Forest. The seven-mile walk took us up about 2,500…
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Lower Table Rock raises our spirit
Warm temperatures, clear skies and the hope of spring wild flowers coaxed us out of the house for a return hike to the top of Lower Table Rock. This geologic wonder, along with neighboring Upper Table Rock, is located just outside of Medford, Oregon, an easy drive from Ashland. Both are remnants of a 7…
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Wagner Butte Challenges and Rewards
Our guidebook promised the views were well worth the 5.2 mile hike up to the top of Wagner Butte. Located west of Ashland, the trailhead was just a short drive from our home, so we packed our lunch and jumped in the trusty Subaru. The fall day was sunny and warm, but not too…
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