May 2013 Archives

Reminiscing about Hiking the Wallowa Mountains

Anne's planned trip to San Diego had to be unexpectedly cancelled, so the family spent a few days in Joseph Oregon for the long Memorial Day weekend. Being there brought back many good memories of trips I'd taken during high school with Mr. Dole and some other classmates. So before I post anything from our trip I wanted to share the old photos I found.

Winter hiking in the Wallowas, 1985

The photo above was taken on a springtime hike with Mr. Dole. I believe we were camping at Horsehoe Lake and this photo was taken near there. If my map reading skills are any good, that is most likely Pete's Point in the background.

I was not a very experienced cross country skier, especially when it game to hills. My skis were borrowed from a friend of Mr. Dole's. My boots kept slipping and coming out of the bindings. I believe at some point Mr. Dole actually tried to re-affix the bindings to the skis using his swiss army knife as a drill and screwdriver. On the last day he offered to swap skis with me and he experienced the same problems. I never knew a teacher could use so many cursewords!

View of Ice Lake and Craig Mountain in the Wallowas

The above photo was most likely taken in 1984, nearly 30 years ago. I was trying to be good at photography and this was one of my favorites. After camping overnight near Ice Lake, we are on our way to the tops of Matterhorn and/or Sacajawea peaks. Too bad I got somebody's clothing in the lower left of the frame.

Wallowa Lake Vacation

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We spent Memorial Day this year at Wallowa Lake. Our friends happened to have a little house/cabin for rent in Joseph, so we stayed there for two nights. On our first day we took the Tramway to the top of Mount Howard. The next morning we went for a ~4 mile hike along the Hurricane Creek trail. Then, in the afternoon we had a very nice horseback ride on some steep trails closer to Wallowa Lake. On monday we took a short hike to Falls Creek Falls, which we couldn't get too close to, unfortunately.

A little artwork to brighten your day

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Clouds, sun, rain, flowers, birds, a campfire... what could possibly be better than that?