Crawford Oaks 4/4/2019
We had to drive 75 miles east to the Columbia Hills to find a dry hike this weekend. We started up the road to Eight Mile Falls, then continued on the Vista Loop. It was a bit late for grass widows and yellow bells, and a bit early for full balsamroot display, so we had a bit of each, on a windless day. A lovely hike, and pretty easy, compared to when we hiked here about a year ago and I was less than two months post surgery. Next spring, we will attempt this hike a few weeks later to get the full balsamroot experience.
Bird welcoming us to the trail.
The graphic showing the depth of the Missoula Floods here always impresses me.
Eight Mile Falls
Looking back west toward the river and Horsethief Butte.
One of the scattered early blooming balsamroots.
View to the west, toward The Dalles
View to the east toward Biggs
Looking north to the Columbia Hills
One swale of shooting stars – first of the season
A blue jay near the trailhead
Last look at Horsethief Butte
Hike #15, 5 miles/1000 feet
The wildflower suite:
Sunday dash around Tryon Creek to see the Trillium
4/7/2019 A rainy weekend in Portland, a weather window, so we went:
Trillium in swathes in the woodlands, and individually along the trail.
After a weekend of rain, some flowers were becoming transparent
Other flowers included skunk cabbage in the bogs near the creek.
Lots of water dripping, but we mostly avoided actual rain.
cedar
violets
Oregon grape
(Hike#16, 2.2 miles, 200 feet)
Knitting
Progress on the Vintage Prim hat, with brioche:
I will just say that there has been frogging, and use of lifelines. I have even learned to fix one or two stitches, but a big fix is still beyond me with this technique. I do love how it looks!
