Tag Archives: Larch Mountain

Larch Mountain Gate Opens 05.27.14!

24 Saturday May 2014

Posted by in Beauty Be Us, Day Trips, Events

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We have word from a reliable source that the Larch Mountain snow gate will open next Tuesday afternoon!

The gate at milepost 10 is closed from November until the snow clears in late May / early June (in 2008, it didn’t open until July!).  While we are all antsy to get up there starting about April, that area is at or above the same level as Government Camp on Mt. Hood, which is well above snow level.  Plowing it every day would only get you to mile 14  on the road, where you could stand and stare at buried parking and trails.

Put Sherrard Viewpoint on your list for this summer, and we’ll do our best to clear the skies for you so you can see all five mountains : ).

Sherrard Viewpoint_June 2012

Meanwhile, don’t let the closed gate keep you off Larch for the Memorial Day weekend… look for the small trailhead on your right beyond milepost 5, or grab any of the logging access gates with Recreational Use signs posted, and start walking.  It’s beautiful and green up there, and the small wildflowers are already in their second round, with salmon berries coming on, and thimble berries and huckleberries following shortly!

Larch Mountain with dogs and flowers

Remember to make your stick Scout arrows when you get to the forks in the road! (bread crumbs tend to get eaten, and that loaf of bread is bulky in the backpack) – it’s easy to get turned around out there.  I can testify, having had to enlist a friend with a large truck to blow the horn on the road so I could straighten my unreliable directional sense back out a couple weeks ago : ).

Larch with dogs

Enjoy the weekend!
Loree

 

 

All images and words © Loree Harrell; 2012 – 2014

 

A Quiet Place To Run

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in Day Trips, Ramblings

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What I love most about this place we live is that there is always a new place, always a place with no people, always green and water and sweet air.

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Sometimes you just have to look a little further, venture someplace you don’t know.

The dogs and I have five places we usually run, and in all five, for most of the year, we have the trails to ourselves.  This time of year, the two river trails are busy with summer people, and the other three trails, beyond the gates on tree company land, were closed to entry two weeks ago because of elevated fire danger.

So we’ve been going to the river trails in the early morning before the summer people have had their breakfast, but a late shift Friday had us out in the afternoon with no place to go, so we went further up Larch Mountain, into the National Forest land, to find a place.

At milepost 9, we found a gate with paved road and walked in.

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Well, I walked.  The dogs exuberated.  (No, it’s not a word.)  (But it should be.)

I expected, it being Larch Mountain and all, and Larch Mountain having a large network of trails, that we would come across a trail that would take us off into the woods, but two miles of paved, and another mile of pack gravel before we ran into a Bull Run Watershed No Trespassing sign, and nary a trail.

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Still.  Beautiful little creeks that those of us in the party with four nimble legs could get down to for a cool down, wildflowers by the road, gorgeous forest, and quiet.

Venture out someplace you don’t know.  There’s something there, I promise.

Here, have a smile.

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Snapshot No. 7

27 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by in And Around, Ramblings, Snapshots

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The end of July always feels like it came too soon.  There is such a brief moment of summer, and where has it gone.  Beauty day after beauty day slips away in the thousand things, defined by the small pieces of each, and the next time you look around, the greens have faded under the sun, and the river runs low and green, and the dark comes earlier every day.

It is the time to slow down and notice the tiny gifts, to make the most of the strong days and soft evenings.

And to go out in the yard and sleep with an old dog under a starred night sky.

Image:  Loree Harrell, July 2013, King by the spring on Larch Mountain.

Snapshot 6

05 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by in And Around, Day Trips, Ramblings, Snapshots

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huckleberry red

I have to tell you a funny story about red huckleberries.

You didn’t even know there was a funny story about red huckleberries, did you?

Well, anyway.

Back in the days when I was married, my husband and I went on a trip.  We must have been somewhere out in The Woods, because we were on a dirt road in a much-loved F150, and I spotted red berries on a bush and said Stop! I Want Some Of Those Berries!

My husband, being a good and sensible man, said, Are You Sure Those Berries Are Edible?

I said, Yes, of course they are.  I remember those berries from my childhood.  Dad said they were edible and we ate them and we didn’t die and so, Yes.  Of Course They Are.

My husband, being a both good and reasonable man, stopped the much-loved F150, and I debarked and ate several handfuls of the berries.

…

A mile or so down the dirt road, my logic superceded my enthusiasm, and I wasn’t Quite as sure those were the berries of my childhood, and I said, I Think those were the same berries we ate and didn’t die.

I could see him, being a good man, and also an ex- Eagle Scout, making a Plan for how to get me to a hospital without breaking the much-loved F150, and, really, I was being silly (probably) so I said, I’m sure those were the berries of my childhood, and we both pretended to relax while waiting for me not to die.

Anyway.

The point is.

Last week there were no huckleberries.
This week there are huckleberries.
The moral of the story is there are cycles in life.
Or the moral of the story is there are huckleberries in life.
[Both red and blue.]

huckleberry

One of those.

Larch Mountain is as much information as you get because, really, there ain’t enough for both of us.

So there’s a football game on?

03 Sunday Feb 2013

Posted by in And Around, Day Trips

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Some sort of big deal I gather, by the Sunday crowd at the Pub when I drove down the hill.

In other news, it was perfect on Larch Mountain tonight.  A car was at the river trail, so the dogs and I went to our Milepost 4 trail gate.  Six miles further up, the road is closed for snow, but at that (relatively) lower elevation, it was perfect hiking temperature and, bless the slightly lengthening days, light enough at 4:30 that I almost forgot the flashlight.

Great hike in.  We hadn’t been there in several months, so the dogs were both excited, and yet not so much in their element that they would go on a run without me.  We got down to the creek, and the bridge that was already altered into a deep V by a large tree falling on it, had been pushed in by another log pummeling it from upcreek in high water and now had water running over the low middle of it, and the surface was moss-slicked.  After watching Ebb slipslide across, and King and Max decline to follow down the steep near side and up the steep far side, we came to a collective decision to skip the far side trail (Ebb didn’t concur, already being over and not being enthusiastic about crossing immediately back, but he was overruled).

Hiking back out, the forest went aggressively quiet.  It took me a few minutes to notice, and I don’t know what was there before that was different.  But, some days, the stillness finds you.

Congratulations, Ravens.