The Book. The Mountain. Everything in between.

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The 2012 Lake Run. A glorious day for a run today: sunny, warm but breezy, crystal clear. I met a personal goal and resolution of mine to break 24 minutes  again in the 5k. The kids loved the inflatable slide, and Madeline even partook of the running aspect herself this year, joining in the Kid’s Dash.

Whether today’s run will ultimately lead any of us to climb Mount Hood later this season remains to be seen. No matter, though, it was a glorious day for a run.

(Funny, too, to look back on this post from my very first blog and our very first Lake Run four years ago…)

Posted by  |  May 12, 2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On Mount Hood Events

When the book first launched last year, I had a full schedule of events going on. Places like Powell’s, Wy’East Book Shoppe & Art Gallery, OPB’s Think Out Loud up at Timberline Lodge. It got busy again around the holidays, with the Mazamas, the Oregon Historical Society, the Audubon Society and others.

This was from a brief talk I gave back in October to a group of Mt. Hood Ski Patrol veterans who meet every few months for lunch. Paul Kunkel, a former member of the patrol, graciously invited me to attend after reading the book, which he’d received as a gift.

I try to keep my schedule at least regular when it comes to events now. I’ve done a few over the past couple weeks, and I’ve got another one coming up next month at the Eugene Public Library. It’s a great way for me to get out, spread the word about the book, and meet other people, like Paul and his wife, who have a real fondness for Mount Hood. More to come, I’m sure.

Posted by  |  May 11, 2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Mount Hood and Mink River

Earlier this year, I read a fantastically Oregon book. Called Mink River and written by Lake Oswego author Brian Doyle, it’s a creative and excellent book that captures the essence of Oregon and the unique communities and characters that reside here. It’s also got a direct link to Mount Hood and some of its storied ice caves. I’ve never explored any of those, but they’re up there.

One of my favorite books of all time is Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, in part because when you read that book, you are experiencing Oregon in the written word. If I ever leave this wonderful corner of the country, and I don’t plan to, I will read that book again and again to bring me back. I can now also turn back to Mink River, which imparts that exact same soggy, verdant, enlightened, dreary, glorious, natural, awe-inspiring, and absolutely singular spirit of this place. Loved the book.


Posted by  |  May 10, 2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Climbing Mount Hood — or not

Last year, when I signed up for the annual Lake Run 5K, I kind of positioned it as part of some training to get myself in shape for a possible climb of Mount Hood. It was just before the release of On Mount Hood, so a climb up the namesake mountain seemed in order.

But I never ended up getting around to it. No valid excuses, really. Sure, the weather last year was lame, I was busy with the family, the book, life. But if you want to climb Mount Hood, or any mountain, really, it’s usually more a matter of making it a priority, focusing on it, making it happen. I’ve climbed Mount Hood four times before, but I never made it happen last year.

This year’s not looking great, either. We have been doing some hiking, I’ve been running, and I again signed up to run the Lake Run. But climbing Hood, for me anyway, takes some more dedication, some stout training hikes like Dog Mountain and, the real test, Mount Defiance. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to focus like that this season, as much as I want to.

But it’s still early. The snow’s still deep up high on the mountain. There’s still a chance. There’s always still a chance.

View from the summit of Mount Hood, June 2010.

Posted by  |  May 9, 2012 | Categories: Climbing | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Escaping on the kayak — at home and on Mount Hood

Five little girls descended on our house today after school for an over-the-top tea party — flowered hats, petit fours, raised pinky fingers and all.

Spence and I raided the scones, made like trees and left for the river before anyone could so much as tsk tsk  us.

Our plan, other than giving the tea party a mighty wide berth, was to simply cruise the Willamette in the kayak and soak up the sunshine of a late and glorious spring afternoon in Oregon. That’s just what we did as we paddled downriver from George Rogers Park, past rowers and scullers slicing through the calm water, fishermen slowly trolling along, geese, ducks, osprey, and even a bald eagle filling the blue sky.

It was great.

It also got me to thinking about other places I love to take the kayak, especially now that the weather is shifting in our favor. I love having the Willamette so close by, but let’s face it, it’s not Lost Lake up on Mount Hood.

It’s not Trillium Lake up on the south side of Mount Hood either, though Trillium’s crowds these days can sometimes be more than enough to make you want to steer pretty clear of the lake despite its views and chill kayaking.

Some other nice spots for flatwater  kayaking, canoeing, or just slow, easy boating up around Mount Hood also include Timothy Lake, Clear Lake, Frog Lake, and Laurance Lake. The entire Mount Hood National Forest, in fact, is full of some great offerings for boaters of all kinds — even, I’m sure, those just looking to get out on the water and a little farther away from a tea party . . .

Posted by  |  May 8, 2012 | Categories: Mount Hood | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Climbing Hood — another time

As I’ve mentioned before, everyone around here seems to have their own connection to or story about Mount Hood.

I got to talking with Kim Cooper Findling, an Oregon writer and author of Chance of Sun: An Oregon Memoir and Day Trips from Portland, Oregon, the other day at a local book and author fair, and she shared one of hers with me. In a way, though, it wasn’t entirely hers, but that of Marion May, her grandmother, who climbed Mount Hood in 1938.

(All photos in this post courtesy of Kim Cooper Findling)

Kim said her grandmother, who was born and raised in Portland and lived most of her adult life in Forest Grove, was 28 when she made the haul to the summit of Mount Hood in a group led by her pastor. It was a time of old-school alpenstocks, wool clothing, fedoras, and fixed ropes running up Cooper Spur.

It was also back when a lookout cabin still crowned the summit of Hood. (That’s Marion at the far right, in profile.)

Kim said she’s not climbed the mountain herself. But she’s written about it a bit in her books, and she’s snowshoed high enough on it to be inspired to go the rest of the way someday:

I myself haven’t climbed. The closest was when my husband and I stayed at Timberline years ago. I, being not much of a skier, hauled a pair of snowshoes out to the flanks of the mountain and climbed straight up for a good long while before I got tired and it started to get dark. Even that small experience gave me a sense of the stillness, beauty, steepness, and peace of the mountain. I loved being alone in that stillness. I’ll have to work through my fear of exposure, but climbing Hood is definitely on my list. 

Many thanks, Kim, for sharing both your grandmother’s photos and your stories of Mount Hood.

Posted by  |  May 7, 2012 | Categories: Climbing | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment