Wildflower Rainbows along the trails during Pride month; some knitting, and neighborhood views –

June 27, 2020 / margaretquilts / 1 Comment

Friday, June 19, 2020, Grassy Knoll, Washington

Wildflower meadows filled the open slopes near the trailhead.

lupine and paintbrush

blue gillia and buckwheat

paintbrush

mariposa lilies and blue gillia

White dogwood, lilies and anemones led us through the shady forest up the steep trail to the ridge crest.

bunchberry

bead lily, starflower

anemones

More flowers all the way to the top of Grassy Knoll, and beyond.

Pink cliff penstemons along the rocky ridge, Mt Adams beyond.

Grassy Knoll looks green from here,

but the green slopes are full of flowers!

Summit view toward Mt Hood.

Summit view toward Mt Adams.

Continuing up the ridge, Mt Hood, the Columbia River, and more wildflower meadows.

And more blooming meadows near our turnaround point.

Every color of wildflower was in bloom today!

columbine

honeysuckle

wallflower and parsley

blue gillia

phacelia and penstemon

pea

coral root

meadow rue

cliff penstemon

olympic onion

phlox, sorel and parsley

parsley and onion

paintbrush

It was a great day in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. (Hike #46, 6.2 miles, 1350 feet.)

Tuesday, June 23, 2020, Chinidere Mountain, Oregon

We saw many of the same flowers that we saw at Grassy Knoll, though we were a thousand feet higher in altitude, so earlier in the bloom season. (Hike #47, 7.5 miles, 1450 feet.)

Wahtum Lake, near the trailhead.

A few early season flowers still in bloom here:

avalanche lily

clasping twisted stalk

bugbane

Ascending into the rainbow meadows on Chinidere Mountain.

Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier, and Mt Adams from the summit.

Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson from the summit.

Wahtum Lake and Mt Hood.

A highlight was walking north of Chinidere Mountain on the Pacific Crest Trail, into the upper margin of the 2017 burn zone. Beargrass blooms sparkled in the recovering forest.

Tree guardian…

Wahtum ‘Express’ back to the parking area.

Knitting

Finished mitts.

A nearly finished Meris cardigan – still have to sew on the buttons.

Sock progress.

Around the neighborhood:

Black Lives Matter signs blooming everywhere, along with summer flowers.

lily

One of many posted throughout the neighborhood.

Pandemic masks ubiquitous, thank you!

Skyline sign on the Fairhaired Dumbbell Building

Hydrangea

George Floyd memorial

And more action nationally…

First Columbia River Gorge hike in a while, another hike on the Wildwood Trail, some knitting, and neighborhood views

June 12, 2020 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

June 2, 2020 – Phlox Point, Beacon Rock State Park, WA

A quiet Tuesday. We met only a few other hikers on trails that are mostly wide equestrian trails until they switchback up Hardy Ridge. Lower slopes are shady forest, with shady forest blooms. We passed a few sunny open areas before reaching the rocky ridge crest with the wide angle view of the Columbia River Gorge that we have been missing these last few months of pandemic-closed trails. A mile north along the ridge are the rocky ledges of Phlox Point. I was very tired by the return, but happy to be able to hike here again. Hike #44, 8.5 miles, 2200 feet.

The wide angle view – Mt Adams, Table Mountain, Columbia River Gorge, Bonneville Dam, Hamilton Mountain, Mt Hood.

Hardy Ridge Crest intersection

Lunch view of a raven and Mt Hood.

Heading north along the ridge to Phlox Point.

Phlox, paintbrush, and parsley on the way up Phlox Point.

Hamilton Mountain, Mt Hood

Mt Adams

Northern Phlox Point ridges and view.

Some of the wildflowers:

phlox

beargrass

penstemon, paintbrush, Oregon sunshine

Cascade mountain ash

mariposa lily

serviceberry

anemones

columbine

nodding onion

June 10, Wildwood Trail again…

Today we hiked from the Springville/Trillium Trailhead on the Wildwood Trail, east to the detour at the Cleator Trail, and then back. We will have to skip the next mile of Wildwood Trail that is closed for repair. We have now completed approximately half of the 30 mile trail on our five pandemic Wildwood hikes. – Hike #45, 7.6 miles, 615 feet.

On the Wildwood Trail…

Salmon berries getting ripe…

A bridge

Green!

Knitting

Mitts and a new sock:

Neighborhood

Another tethered horse.

Interesting concrete

Low light

A colorful garden

A Black Lives Matter march appeared in our neighborhood. We were able to catch the tail end and join for a short distance, masked and separated, of course.

Two hikes as our trails reopen…

May 31, 2020May 31, 2020 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

Boundary Trail, Mt St Helens, Washington –

May 27, 2020 – Trails and parks in Oregon and Washington are slowly reopening for careful, “social distance” hiking. We chose a sunny Wednesday to hike at Mt St Helens. The road to the Visitor Center is still closed, so we began our hike on the Hummocks Trail, and continued on to the Boundary Trail. (Hike #42, 8 miles, 1625 feet)

Red marks our route.

The trail crosses through the hummocks, which are debris avalanche and landslide deposits from the violent May 18, 1980 eruption. Though once a barren moonscape, the hummocks are now lush and green, covered with plants and shady alder groves, and surrounded by ponds and wetlands.

Alder groves and ponds near the trailhead.

The trail comes out into open landscape at the junction with the Boundary Trail, then heads off into lowlands along the Toutle River, before climbing steeply up the flanks of Johnston Ridge. From here on we almost always had a full on view of the mountain.

Boundary Trail Junction

Zooming in…

Crossing the Toutle River lowlands.

Heading up, Indian paintbrush and Mt St Helens.

Once high enough, we can see north to the west end of Coldwater Lake, and back to the ponds in the hummocks, our starting point.

Closer view of Coldwater Lake.

Lovely view from our lunch stop.

Red current in bloom as we continue eastward.

We reached our farthest view point, not quite to the Loowit Turnout on the road.

Coldwater Peak

Mt Adams and a glimpse of Spirit Lake

Mt St Helens

I felt a bit out of shape on this hike, so we only went as far as a viewpoint where Mt Adams comes into view, before we reached the Loowit Viewpoint. It was fairly hot, and once out of the hummock zone, there is no shade. What is amazing is how much shade there is in the hummocks area, because everything in sight has regrown since the eruption 40 years ago.

A last look back at the mountain on our return hike:

40 year old stumps, with younger trees in the foreground.

Sheep sorrel, Toutle River

Wildflowers are beginning to bloom – in a couple of weeks it will be very colorful here.

paintbrush

penstemon

lupine

woodland strawberry

miniature lupine

little leaf miner’s lettuce

We stopped at the Castle Lake Viewpoint on our drive home for a last look today, with plans to return in the not too distant future.

Castle Lake Viewpoint

Wildwood Trail Hike 4

Friday, May 29, 2020 – In continuation of a pandemic goal to hike all of the 30 mile Wildwood Trail in Forest Park, we walked another section, from Springville Road to the Wildwood Trail, to the Trillium Trail and back to our trailhead on Fire Road 7. This section of the Wildwood Trail is cut into the sides of steep forested slopes. It was dry and warm today, but well shaded. We saw a few flowers, a few birds, a lot of trail runners, and a few hiking groups. Most of the hikers pulled masks up when passing. Trail runners mostly did not. We did our best to give them a wide space. We all need the fresh air! (Hike #43, 5.2 miles, 460 feet)

Trailhead

Springville Road

The first wild roses I have seen this year.

Fern shadows

Ferns

Our return trail is all uphill!

Knitting

I am getting ready to start new projects, so I have been hand winding yarn, knitting a gauge swatch, and spending lots of time searching the glorious Ravelry pattern library, which in my opinion is the very best place in all of the internet. I also cast on a gift knit – fingerless mitts.

A note on the times we are living in – I support the Black Lives Matter protests going on this weekend. It may be a long time before the “all are created equal” spirit of our nation is realized, but I try to live my life in support of it. On a more positive note, I was happy to see the successful SpaceX launch this weekend, furthering work my father participated in as rocket scientist.

Forest Park again…

May 22, 2020May 22, 2020 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

May 15, 2020 – Wildwood Trail: Newberry Road/BPA Road Loop

We returned to the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park on the west side of Portland for another pandemic hike. It had been raining off and on all week, and the forest was a little drippy. Clouds blocked the view of mountains we saw from the BPA Road last week, but there were lots of new wildflowers this week. (Hike #40, 6.5 miles, 1250 feet)

Newberry Road trailhead

Fern-lined trail

Forest

Powerline cut – no mountains this week.

Inside out flower

anemones

cedar and fir

fungus

honeysuckle

rosy plectritis and blue-eyed Mary

dew

lupine, rosy plectritis, and salad

native iris

In other good news, nearby forests and state parks are gradually reopening, so we will soon have a wider geography available.

Knitting

A finish! Patons Kroy Celestial Purple traveling socks.

Neighborhood walks-

nasturtium

dogwood

Porch parade

Porch pig

Tethered horse

More words of encouragement!

Addendum – Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge, May 5, 2020

When Washington State reopened some public lands, we went to the driving loop at Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge. The wintering birds – swans, geese, and sandhill cranes – had flown on. Today we saw turtles, redwing blackbirds, egrets and herons. This was our first foray out of our neighborhood in two months, and it was great just to see some wide open spaces from the safe space of our car!

Egret in the distance.

Turtles

Red wing blackbirds in the meadows.

Forest Park

May 15, 2020May 15, 2020 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

Friday May 8, 2020 Wildwood Trail

We hiked out and back, from the Germantown Road trailhead to a little ways up the BPA Road. It was wonderful to be able to hike a good distance on an actual trail. The forest was beautiful, wildflowers were blooming, and we got an unexpected view of two mountains at our turnaround point.

fading trillium

solomon seal

deer fern

salmon berry

vine maple

youth on age

candy flower

rosy plectritis

Mt Rainier and Mt St Helens on view from the power line road

We decided to hike with masks and careful distance mode, in Forest Park, a huge city park in the hills west of Portland. We don’t often hike here because it is across town, and we usually drive a little farther to go to the Columbia River Gorge. It is one of the few trails close to us that is open, and friends reported that they felt safe on their hike there. The Wildwood Trail is 30 miles long. I hope to complete all the segments over time. Hike #39, 6.4 miles, 1060 feet.

Flowers in the neighborhood

native iris

red clover

rhododendron

Knitting

One of the sleeves cooperated and the other did not. Maybe next week…

A sad week. We lost a family member to a long standing illness (not Covid). He lives far enough away, that given the pandemic circumstances, we can’t go and be with his family. The key people that need to be together are together, but it is difficult to participate from afar. I will be thinking of him when we go for our next forest walk, because he was a man of the forest.

NZ 2020: Day 5, Point Elizabeth, Hokitika, Lake Mahinapua

April 17, 2020April 15, 2020 / margaretquilts / 2 Comments

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

After our relatively dry day yesterday in Punakaiki, we encountered more of the rain of the rainy West Coast on our way south to Franz Josef.

Point Elizabeth Track in the rain – palms and seals

We started the day with a hike through rainforest to a coastal viewpoint at Point Elizabeth. Highlights were lots of blooming nikau palm trees, and then our first sighting of fur seals for the trip.

View north toward Rapahoe

Landward mountains

View south toward Point Elizabeth

Into the rainforest

Tree fuchsias

Nikau palm trees

fronds

flowering structure

another “bloom”

Petals have fallen off

pod that encased the flower before it bloomed

fallen petals

Views from Point Elizabeth:

Looking down at the fur seals near the cliffs.

Still misty as we hike out.

Hokitika

We stopped to eat lunch and browse the shops offering Maori greenstone carvings.

Views from the Hokitika River Quay.

I discovered a yarn shop with a sock knitting machine museum, here near southernmost part of the settled world!

Sock knitting machines

And a Carnegie Library, here on the far side of the world.

Lake Mahinapua

Another hiking stop – we took the Jum Michel Walk, in the rain, and saw some interesting plants. Once again our guide dropped us at the trailhead, and met us on the other side.

Into the rain forest

Hen and chicken fern

Tree fern

Supplejack

Then we wandered over to Lake Mahinapua to look at what could have been a view to the peaks of the Southern Alps.

Lake Mahinapua

Total hike stats for the day: 6 miles, 300 feet.

Tree Ferns and mountain views, Franz Josef

Our final stop was our lodging in Franz Josef. Tomorrow, if the weather cooperated, we planned to see the Franz Josef glacier.

NZ 2020: Day 4, Punakaiki

April 7, 2020April 17, 2020 / margaretquilts / 2 Comments

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

The sun was still shining when we woke up to a beautiful morning in Punakaiki!

Morning view from our lodging.

Southern rata and cabbage tree

We spent the day hiking in Paparoa National Park.

Our destinations for the day.

Pororari Punakaiki River Track

We had our first chance to fully immerse ourselves in the rain forest. It was beautiful, and very different from our usual forests in Oregon.

The red line shows our trail. Our guide dropped us at the Pororari River, then hiked in to meet us from the Punakaiki car park.

Limestone cliff above the Pororari River.

Tree ferns

Nikau palms

Each turn in the trail revealed interesting views.

Palm trunk

Cut trunk of a tree fern?

Pororari River, looking west toward the ocean.

We were learning the unusual (to us) foliage – this is the Rimu, or red pine, a member of the native Podocarp family. We would see these throughout our travels on the South Island.

The red blooming tree is the Southern Rata, a native evergreen tree.

Our guide had us taste the inner core of the supplejack vine – a bit like asparagus.

We were excited to see a few weka birds running across the trail and in the parking area. They are flightless native birds about the size of chickens, sometimes regarded as nuisances, but are a protected species, as are all the native birds.

Weka

Punakaiki Pancake Rocks

After lunch we visited the famous Pancake Rocks. The tide wasn’t quite high enough for spouting during our visit, but we admired the weirdly eroded limestone rock formations and ocean views.

View to the south.

Closer look

Limestone layers

Red-billed gull

Imaginative viewing.

View north to the next destination – the Truman Track.

Truman Track

The Truman Track leads through rainforest to the beach.

It was a little misty in the forest.

By the time we reached the beach the sun was out.

View to the south back toward Punakaiki.

Truman Cove beach to the north.

The tide was going out as we walked along the sand.

Pebbly “sand”

Marine fossils in the sandstone cliffs and ledges

Overhanging sand stone cliffs, and view to the beach stairs.

Stairs up through New Zealand flax back to the trailhead.

We had a lovely day exploring interesting rocks, fossils, pebbly beaches, and rainforest palms and tree ferns of Paparoa. Tomorrow we would go south along the West Coast toward Fiordland. Our three hikes for the day added up to about 7 miles/600 feet (#3 for 2020).

NZ 2020: Day 3, Christchurch to Punakaiki

March 28, 2020April 7, 2020 / margaretquilts / 1 Comment

January 27, 2020

Our guide picked us up in the morning in Christchurch to begin a two week guided hiking tour of the South Island of New Zealand. The agenda for the first day was to cross the Southern Alps at Arthur’s Pass, and to arrive in Punakaiki on the West Coast by the end of the day.

The South Island is about 500 miles long, and 150ish miles wide, with steep mountains along the west coast. The mountains create a rain shadow for the eastern part of the island. We were on our way to experience the rain forests and wetter climate of the west coast.

Castle Hill

Our first hiking stop was Castle Hill. We walked up the hill and through the maze of giant, weirdly eroded limestone boulders and knobs that standout in the landscape.

We learned early on that most of the wildflowers we would see are non-native, and considered weeds. (“If it’s pretty it’s a pest!”) The national effort to remove alien wildlife, both plants and animals, was an ongoing theme during our trip.

Wandering among the limestone boulders.

View back to the car park.

Hike #2 of 2020, 2.2 miles, 150 feet.

Arthur’s Pass National Park

We could see we were headed for clouds and rain as we continued west toward the mountains.

We stopped to look at the Waimakariri River, one of the largest of many broad, braided glacial outwash rivers that cross the eastern plains of the South Island.

Waimakariri River

We made a quick stop to view Devil’s Punchbowl Falls, 131 meters high.

Rain began as we drove through Arthur’s Pass.

One of many road preservation structures and roadworks we would see in this geologically active country.

Rata tree blooms – these are native!

Quintessential New Zealand green pastures with sheep and cows.

We reached the west coast near Kumara, then headed north to Punakaiki, admiring the beautiful beaches and lush green, misty slopes along the way. It had been a lovely first day of our tour.

Driving north along the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand.

West coast sun, clouds and beaches!

Trip note: Our tour was with the New Zealand company Active Adventures. I have only good things to say about our experience with them. Amazingly, because of some last minute changes, we were the only two people on the first five days of our tour. We had been expecting up to twelve people, and instead we had a private tour, with an entire small bus and guide to ourselves. This is the first time we have taken this type of tour, and we were not sure what to expect, but we soon became good friends with our guide. We appreciated being able to simply enjoy the adventure without worrying about the logistics of meals and lodging, or the left-sided driving. As the trip went on, there were challenges from the weather, and we were very glad that our local, experienced guides could nimbly create alternative itineraries – more about that later.

Tomorrow we would explore the landscape around Punakaiki.

Yellow bells at Tom McCall Point, knitting progress, and neighborhood sights

March 24, 2020March 23, 2020 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

Tom McCall Point, March 18, 2020

Tom McCall Point, seen from near the trailhead.

We got to see the mid-March wildflower suite. Yellow Bells were sprinkled through the meadows at every elevation. I have never seen so many anywhere!

Yellow bells on the lower plateau, Mt Adams beyond.

More yellow bells, midway to the top.

Yellow bells and an early balsam root near the summit.

Compact early blooms of the purple Columbia desert parsley line my favorite trail segment that I call Parsley Alley.

Columbia desert parsley

There is a new geology sign at the summit!

Gold stars were sprinkled in some of the sunny spots.

More flowers along the trail:

grass widows

glacier lilies

toothwort

yellow bells

gold stars

Looking eastward toward Rowena as we return to the trailhead.

Hike # 33, 4.3 miles, 1300 feet. We had no trouble keeping our distance from the few other hikers on the trail, and so far, we are still encouraged to get outside as long as we can keep our distance.

Knitting progress:

I finished the Geology Shawl.

Geology shawl, pattern by Very Busy Monkey, Malabrigo Mechita, Ninfas colorway.

I have been knitting the sleeves on my Meris sweater, put away since before our New Zealand trip.

I cast on 390 stitches for the Which Came First shawl, using the Malabrigo Mechita Piedras that my daughter picked out.

Noticed while walking in my neighborhood:

New blooms:

tulips

anemone

A camelia left in a hedge

New growth:

Tree trunk

A secret message, and interesting sidewalk cracks and patches:

First Trilliums of spring

March 15, 2020March 15, 2020 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

March 2020

On two hikes last week we saw the first trilliums of spring. I also went on the Rose City Yarn Crawl with knitting friends, and to the Portland Art Museum to see the exhibition in honor of the 40th anniversary of the eruption of Mt St Helens.

Tryon Creek State Park, March 4, 2020

Hike #30 of 2020, 3 miles, 400 feet.

Early trillium blooms scattered on the forest floor.

Trillium

Trillium buds unfurling

Other early flowers in the forest:

Indian plum

Skunk cabbage

Oregon grape

Salmon berry

Poetry in the park.

Angel’s Rest, March 9, 2020

Hike #31, 5 miles, 1500 feet.

Trillium and oak’s toothwort on the Angel’s Rest trail.

Trillium blooms on the forest floor.

We were treated to the usual stunning views from the top of Angel’s Rest on this sunny, calm day:

West toward Portland.

North to Silver Star Mountain.

East up the Columbia River.

Knitting

Buttons from Twisted and Close Knit in Portland, and Blizzard in Vancouver.

Portland Art Museum: Volcano! Mount St. Helens in Art

This exhibit marking the 40th anniversary of the Mt St Helen’s eruption is multifaceted – videos, photography, and paintings, depicting the mountain before and after the eruption. We did not live in the area at the time, but have hiked around the mountain often in the past ten years. My favorite paintings were these two vibrant depictions of the eruption: