The Washington State Hiking Podcast

The Best Hikes in Oregon with Matt Wastradowski and Adam Sawyer

• Jennie Thwing Flaming and Craig Romano • Episode 53

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Jennie Flaming:

Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host. Jennie Thwing Flaming, and I'm your co host. Craig Romano, Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely, seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun and inclusive. welcome back everybody to the Washington State hiking podcast today. I've got a couple awesome guests with me from Oregon. So like Craig, Matt Wastrodowski and Adam Sawyer are both guidebook writers. They've both written several books, each about Oregon and hiking in Oregon, and I'll put those in the show notes. They'll probably talk about that a little more. But more importantly, these are two people who are friends of Craig's and mine and fellow hikers and know a lot about Oregon, and I know nothing about Oregon. So it's really great to have you guys here. So Matt and Adam, welcome to the Washington State hiking podcast. Hey, thanks. Yeah. Thanks for having us happy to be here. Yeah. So you know, if you're listening and you're like, hey, Jennie, this podcast is about Washington State hiking. Why are we talking about Oregon? Well, first of all, hello Portland. We know we have some of you listening from Portland. And also, you know, Oregon is a great neighbor and it's a great place to visit. There are, depending on where you live, plenty of day trips you can do, and totally worth a longer trip as well. So we have an episode coming up about British Columbia, sort of the same idea. So, um, spread your wings. Yes, get out there. So let's talk a little bit about, like, hiking in Oregon. Like, why is Oregon a great hiking destination?

Matt:

Great question. And I would, for me personally, it's such it's the diversity of landscapes. There is something for hikers of all stripes, of all experience levels, whatever, whatever landscapes you're interested in. We have a 363, mile or coastline that is, for the most part, largely hike able. You can see sea stacks and bluffs and all kinds of really amazing rock formations. You have two mountain valleys surrounding the Willamette Valley. You have the Cascade Range, where you can hike in old growth forests and lava flows. And then once you get out in Eastern Oregon, you have everything from wheat fields to granite peaks to desert, you name it, there's so much to see. No two. No two regions of Oregon are ever quite alike. And there's, there's really something to love in in all seasons, yeah, definitely. I mean, similar to Washington, lots of diversity, lots of year round hiking.

Jennie Flaming:

Okay, so, Adam, tell us a little bit about kind of different seasons of hiking in Oregon, and what some of the highlights are for that

Adam:

absolutely, and kind of piggybacking on what, what you just mentioned, you know, it's, it's similar to Washington, you know, it's obviously a little further south, but you got a Cascade Range that that kind of bifurcates it. And so you've got a drier area on one side, kind of more temperate rain forest on the other, but I would say, similar to Washington, Oregon has what I would I refer to as seasons light like No Season smacks you obnoxiously in the face as a general rule. You know, if you're living in the desert, summer is going to be hot, yeah, if you're if you're living in the Alpine, you know it's going to be snowy in winter, but you get a smattering of fall colors as a general rule. You know, spring wildflowers, pretty nice, summer hiking weather, and then winter, you know, I live on the coast, but, you know, when I lived in the valley, we used to get like, you know, a smattering of snow, a dusting here and there, but it was hike able. And winter was really our time to shine. It's my favorite time to go hiking anyway, because, you know, most folks have, have, have evacuated. The Tourist Season is gone. And, yeah, a lot of people don't want to put on a rain shell or boots. And so it's, I don't know, it's really nice. The the electric green of, you know, the lichen and the moss during during winter season is really attractive to me. So, yeah, I like all seasons and and if you don't like one for one reason or another, go across the Cascade Range and find what you're looking for, have a different season. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's really true far enough you make your own season. Yeah, right.

Jennie Flaming:

Oh, love it. Okay, so, um, I asked Adam and Matt to do kind of an impossible task, which is to pick their top five hikes in Oregon. So because there's two of them, if you can do that quick math, you'll realize that's actually the 10 best hikes in Oregon. So that's what we're gonna talk about for the rest of our time together. We're gonna dive in to each of their top five hikes in Oregon. So who wants to go first? Okay, I'll get it Adam. Go for it. Okay. Are they in? Are they in any particular order, or are these just top five?

Adam:

Not really, yeah, yeah. I save kind of, kind of, maybe my personal favorite, favorite for last, but I mean, it's all one, one, A, 1b, 1c Yeah, nothing here. But I'll start with the ice lake hike in the wallowas. And so that's I'm giving you one particular hike, but it really I'm bringing that up to showcase or highlight the wallowas as a mountain range, because it's just such a special place. I mean, in Washington, I'll give you guys credit. You've got a lot more like Alpine hiking territory than you, and Willawas was one of those kind of showcase areas for us. Yeah, there's actual granite peaks. Like, can you tell everybody where it is? Like me, I don't know anything about mountains in Oregon, northeast Oregon, northeast Oregon, so it's surrounded by desert, but it's its own, like, bio region, you know, it's its own little piece of heaven. And it's, you know, the town of Joseph is right there. Which heaven on earth as well. I think we'd mentioned terminal gravity brewing. Is this an amazing place? It's, it's like beautiful as all get out. But this place is just mountains and mountains and lakes and lakes and alpine

Jennie Flaming:

Matt, are you giving yours in any particular meadows. The hike that I'm showcasing or highlighting is ice lake. There's no real small day hikes out there. I mean, there's a couple you can do, but I recommend. I mean, this is a 15 and a half mile out and back with an ambitious 2400 feet of elevation gain. So it's a hike. There's a shorter version of it you can take that goes to BC falls, which is only like two and a half mile mountain back. But I highly recommend. This is the one I would say, if you're a backpacker, you know this, it kind of reminds me of, like North Cascades National Park, like you got to get in there and spend some time. Yeah, you know, you got to get into the back country, yeah, and that's kind of what the wallows are. But if you, if you go up to ice lake, there's, I think, one of the tallest waterfalls in in Oregon, you can see there's cascade after cascade. And then you get up to ice lake, and you have the opportunity to scramble up to one of the tallest mountain peaks, Sacagawea peak, is kind of around that area, but, yeah, I recommend getting in there, backpacking, and then, just like, set up a base camp and go cowboy camping up to different lakes over the next couple days. Yeah, hike back out. But that's, that's my first one ice lake in the Wallace. Okay, love it. I'm sold. No, no, ma'am, okay, all right. Well, lay your first one on us. order Well, first of all, I have to say just one extra note on the Wallace. One of the beautiful things about being out there is that when you drive into the Wallace. The main towns out there are enterprise and Joseph, you're in a valley, and these granite peaks rise from both sides. And one of the really cool things about that is that there's a lot of ranching and farmland. And it is. It's not much of an exaggeration to say, you know how usually, like, you'll see a really big peak, and you're like, it feels like it's just across the street, right? Well, in the wallowas, they they are just one or two ranches away from you, right? You can, you can start taking some of these back roads, and you are in the wallows, and you are in the middle of these towering peaks in a real hurry. So just how close it all is, it's such an immediate right? Yeah, yeah, it's really cool. But so yeah, the Wallace, awesome, beautiful place. I am going to take listeners across the state, from perhaps the eastern most point in Oregon to the western most point in the Oregon east. So in 1913 Oregon Governor Oswald West declared the entirety of the Oregon coast to be public highway in a move right on, yeah. And the move was designed to prevent development of homes, hotels, vacation houses, you name it. This is before highway 101, traverse the entire Oregon Coast today for his efforts. Oswald West State Park was was created south of Cannon Beach, north of Manzanita, if you're in Washington. And if those towns don't sound super familiar, they are two really popular vacation destinations, especially for families, yep, on the northern Oregon coast. They're about, I would say, two hours west of Portland. And within Oswald west there are several hiking trails, but the one that I am choosing to highlight, the one I love and which was a very formative experience for my life, my hiking journey is the cape Falcon Trail, which is about five and a half miles round trip. It's only about 200 feet of elevation gain. It. It showcases the Oregon coast in so many beautiful ways. So it's kind of a T shaped hike. You start from the trailhead. You head up, you're going through this beautiful Sitka spruce rain forest, you know, Adam you talked about the electric greens. It doesn't matter if it's the middle of July and hasn't rained for two weeks, those greens are still electric, because it is always downright swampy out, right? You got a marine layer coming in. We really do. Is it one of those places like we have on the Washington coast where it can be like 90 degrees in Olympia, and it's like 89 degrees a mile from the coast, and then you drive to a town on the coast, and it's like 51 and Adam Fauci, yeah. And so when you get so as you walk in, you can either go left, down toward the coast. It's smugglers Cove, short sand beach, where you can go right, and you can kind of crest the bluff. You can crest Cape Falcon. And when you get out there, you have wide open views, 270 degree views of the Oregon coast, great for whale watching, for migrating gray whales in winter and spring. To the south, immediately across the cove is mountain. You get to see the beach down below which, especially in spring and summer, is really popular with surfers. So that's a lot of fun to see cool. So, yeah, just the views you can see to the ends of the earth. That's an absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous hike. And the views are incredible. And it's one of those that, if you're not up for a really long day hike with tons of elevation gain. This is a really good kind of beginner friendly hike. The the ascents are never extremely steep. They're pretty gradual, and the payoff is 100% worth it. Got some stellar old growth in that park too, like right down there, or along the beach, those little trails right there, absolutely spend a whole day out there. Yeah, that's gorgeous, for sure. Okay, all right. Adam, back to you. Okay, number two, okay, where we at?

Adam:

Well, I got the ambitious one out of the way because, yeah, that's like, a Craig Romano hike. It's not steep enough for him. He's like, he has hikes enough books that are like, that are like, Oh, it's a great day hike. It's 16 miles and 18,000 feet. Yeah, not all of us are Craig Romano, I know everybody. big smiling face of his after 17 miles, I know 1000 feet of elevation. I know I'm like, Good job buddy, but I never we love you, Craig. And this is why, why I need you for the hard hike. Absolutely and Adam, okay. Oh, I need him bad, because, like, yeah, so I'm, I'm a much more tame hiker. I'll always have been me, always will be, especially post 50, yeah. But one of my favorites, favorites, I felt I fell madly in love, head over heels with this thing the first time I took it, which was in spring. And so it was more trilliums than I'd ever seen in my entire life still to this day, but then I came back to it in the fall several years later, and the big leaf Maples were just going off. And this place is called Sweet creek falls, and it's in the Oregon Coast Range, kind of southern. It's a little east of the town of Florence, so down where the Oregon Dunes are. But if you kind of make your way back into the Coast Range, it's easy, 2.4 mile out and back, 350 feet of elevation gain. But what's great about the creek itself is it kind of just these mini tumbles and falls and shelves the whole length of the creek. Then you get into like this gorge, and they have catwalks kind of lodged into or placed into the side of the gorge. So you're kind of walking on on a catwalk next to the creek for a while, and then you turn a corner and there's a waterfall from another Creek coming in. And then you make it to Sweet creek falls all all in an old growth forest. Mind you, it's pretty cool. Gosh, yeah. And when it's in low water, in fall, or, you know, late summer, whatever, you can explore the creek itself, like on foot, like it's so shelved that you can walk around, walk in the creek, walk up the shelves. Cool photographers dream, yeah? But because it is kind of remote kind of, kind of on your way you're either on your way to or from, like the Willamette Valley or the coast, it doesn't get nearly as much, uh, foot traffic as as you would think based on how accessible and beautiful it is. But, yeah, Sweet creek falls.

Jennie Flaming:

Okay, love it. All right, Matt, we're back to you. Mm, hmm.

Matt:

Yeah, that's gonna be a tough act to follow. That sounds gorgeous, but I will say with you talking about the Trillium blooms, the big leaf maple, yeah, it reminded me of one of my favorite hikes in Portland, the lower McClay trail to Pitt mansion. Oh, yeah, and one so i How much time do we have? Well, you know, we'll see how I go. She can trim it down. I could, yes, I can always trim it down if necessary. Well, try to make your job easy. But I love this particular trail because it, it's, it's one of these urban hikes that it's in northwest Portland. You can take a bus to the trailhead. You are a short walk from Northwest 23rd Avenue with a bunch of really great restaurants, and you very quickly leave behind any sense of the urban surroundings. When you start the trail. You start on the lower McClay trail. You follow Balch Creek through this really beautiful forested River Canyon. It you know, when you want to talk about big leaf maple in fall, it is positive. You can probably see in the dark out there. That's how bright. Yeah, the Trillium and spring is just everywhere. It is just a feast for the senses. You know, you can keep an eye out there. There are owls floating around up there. You got just, you know, you have all kinds, all kinds of beautiful scenery. You pass the so called witches house, which, if you're not familiar, is a stone. It looks like a house. It's an old stone looking building along the trail that everyone you know nicknames the witch house. It's a pretty fantastical nickname. It's covered in graffiti. It was a rest stop. Yeah, bathroom, nice. But a sure, you know, just just a few feet away is the tallest Douglas fir tree in the city of limits of Portland, nice. So you have a lot of really beautiful big fir trees along this trail. And as you ascend, you know, it is about 500 miles around trip. It's 1000 feet of elevation gain is you ascend toward Pitt mansion. You continue kind of through this urban forest, and then you arrive at the the mansion, which overlooks downtown Portland, has some of the city's best skyline views. If you catch it on the rare sunny day you Mount Hood just towers over the horizon if you do the hike anytime between, let's say May and June, or I would say April and June, you walk past a bunch of these just gorgeous rose bushes, all different colors, well manicured, well taken care of up there. It's all free. You know, if you want to walk inside pitting mansion, there's an admission fee for that. But if you just want to walk around the grounds and just enjoy the views of downtown Portland, the skyline, Mount Hood, all of it. You really just get a feel for the city from this really just beautiful perch that you know. You won't, you definitely won't mind walking to nice lots of enjoy along the way. I like, I like walking along the grounds and embracing my Downton Abbey fantasy myself in a British accent before,

Jennie Flaming:

I just got a visual of you having a cameo in Downton Abbey thank you for that. Okay, cool. All right. So number three, Adam

Adam:

I'm going out to the Columbia River Gorge, and specifically the transition zone. So Washingtonians, many hikers, are probably familiar with that as well, because Mosier plateau is what we're talking about, and that that transition zone in the gorge is just magical. It's where we go from temperate rain forest to like high desert in like a matter of 20 miles or so, yeah, and I think at one point, if you're heading west to east, like every mile you travel gets like two inches less of rain a year. It's a dramatic landscape. And there's all kinds of crossover species happening with flora and fauna, and it just makes for some dramatic scenery and dramatic hiking. And in particular this Moser plateau, which is nice, easy one, again, 3.5 mile out and back, about 600 feet of elevation gain. There's a very popular hike, spring hike around the corner at the Tom McCall nature preserve. And it's wildflower festival in spring. All the usual suspects, right? And when you're saying spring in this location, what month we're going May? Yeah, that's right elevation, the Pacific Northwest spring is like half the year. That's right, yeah. So we're talking May. We're talking gorge, gorge, May. And, yeah, Technicolor wildflowers popping off everywhere. And so that's a very popular hike but, but just to the west of it is this in the small town of Moser, and you almost wouldn't know it unless you kind of knew where that Trailhead is. They've made it a little more obvious in recent years that it's actually a parking area for it. Now there used to be like, a two car pull out that you could go but. But the first thing you go by is you walk through a pioneer cemetery, which is cool as all get out, and then you go by like it's, was it Moser Mosher creek falls, 100 foot waterfall, right there. So you get a waterfall out of the whole deal, which you weren't expecting. And then you keep ascending, and you get up to the plateau, and it's that kind of classic Balsam root and Lupin fields for days. And because you're in measure, you're looking right across the river at coyote wall in Washington, maybe the best view of it to be found. And so you've got great gorge views in both directions. You've got coyote wall. You've got the flowers, you got a waterfall and dead pioneers. You really have everything. It gets no better. Tell me you've had a better hike right now. It checks the gorge hiking bingo card.

Jennie Flaming:

Yeah. And, you know, I gotta say that, like about a year ago. Well, a little less than that. I think it was like April last year. Jay and I did a drive through the gorge for something, and we were, we were going from the east side, so we had been like by Yakima, and then we were coming down that way. And even though, like, I was born in Washington, he's lived in Washington a long time. And you know, when you go over the mountains, you have this really dramatic climate change, like you were talking about and and landscape change and everything, but somehow, in the gorge, it's, like, more dramatic. And it might be because, like, when you go steeply up over a mountain pass here, like in your head, you're like, Oh yeah, of course, it's gonna be different over here, but, like, and that day, of course, it was like, sunny, and like a 500 mile an hour wind on the east side, and then it was absolutely pouring, like, 15 minutes later, and it was, it was very dramatic. It was very cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right on. Okay, Matt, what's your number three?

Matt:

Well, before I get to that. So we're gonna stay in the gorge, but before I get to that, just one quick shout out to Mosier, because it offers one of what I think one of the most unique experiences anywhere in the gorge. And I'm not just talking about dead pioneers, but it is one of the rare heights where you are not you know, a lot of the trails that offer the

Unknown:

you can't stop. You can only hope to contain him. best views kind of into the heart of the gorge, where you can see the rock formations jutting out into the Columbia River. You can see the river snaking through it. All the forests. Most of the hikes with the best views are, they require gnarly a sense, you know, 1000 2000 feet for some of the best views. But Moser plateau, it's, I think you said, I think 300 feet of revolution. Oh, that's cool, pretty mild. And from that kind of plateau, it's funny, it's not the summit of this hillside, you know, this actual summit has satellites and all kind, you know, there's a chain link fence up there. But From this viewpoint, they have these kind of like stones where you can take a seat and you can just look into the heart of the gorge, and it is absolutely go gorgeous. Sorry, hey, oh, But yeah, so that. So being able to enjoy those views kind of like you're not. It's not the hardest grind. You're not just gonna be like sweating straight uphill all day, absolutely, yeah, which is fine if that's what you're looking for, but it's nice to have another Nope. It's not fine ever. I want. I want dead pioneers and no sweat, yes, yes, yes. Really need to have it all. Oh, man. Okay, first, so you're staying in the gorge for you number three, okay, yes, because Adam took us to the transition zone, which is a different kind of beautiful I am taking us into the heart of what some call waterfall corridor, and it is so named because I think it was the Sierra Club once declared that the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side has the highest concentration of waterfalls anywhere in North America. Cool. And there are so many hikes that I could recommend to help listeners enjoy that. But the one that I'm settling on, and it wasn't easy, is the wakina falls to Multnomah Falls loop, which passes, I think, probably eight or nine waterfalls over the course of the way it's and how far is it? It is five miles round trip with about 1600 feet of elevation gain, okay, and one of the kind of it'll kick your butt a little bit. But the good news is, most of the elevation gain comes right at the beginning, because you either you can do this one of two ways. You can climb up to the top of Multnomah. Falls, which is itself about 620 feet. Or you can take a connector trail down to Joaquina falls and ascend there. So you have one very quick ascent early in the hike. And then you kind of just as you get above the waterfalls, you're just walking through this forest, kind of these nice rolling hillsides, you'll have wildflower displays that begin in April and can last into June. And then you pass, I legitimately lost track of the number of waterfalls, like when I actually researched the hike for my guidebook, initially, back in 2018 and I was trying to keep track of all of the waterfalls, I legitimately lost track, because that's pretty cool. They're everywhere. Yeah, it would be enough to just see Joaquina falls or Multnomah Falls. But then the further back you get, the higher you get, you you, you know there's one above Joaquina falls. I think it's fairy falls that you just pass right in front of, like it's on the side of the trail. Cool. Then there's another, as you're, if you, if you, I would recommend going up the wakina Falls side, because you're you, you're missing most of the crowds. I was gonna ask you about crowds for for that, but go ahead. And then, yeah, well, I'll ask you about that, yeah. And then as you kind of come down, there's like a trio of waterfalls above Multnomah Falls, and then you end, you know, at Multnomah Falls, which is a really special place. So that's the shocker, though, too, right? People think there's like, you make it to the top of Multnomah Falls, and that's the top of the world. There's more waterfalls above Multnomah Falls. Yeah, that's really cool. So is, you know, I think probably most Washingtonians who know anything about Oregon probably have heard of or been to Multnomah Falls. Do you have any tips for navigating that location with how bananas it can be, as far as being able to do this hike? Absolutely, thank you for asking. Well, you're welcome. So frequent topic of conversation around here, yeah, no, completely understandable. So between, I think it's Memorial Day in Labor Day, they have a timed permit system for parking at Multnomah Falls. So if you are taking highway 84 West or East both, both apply. There is a left exit, an exit off to the left at Multnomah Falls, where there is a massive parking area, okay? And to park there between, I think it's usually the hours of 9am and 6pm between Memorial Day weekend, Labor Day weekend, there is a permit that is required through recreation.gov Okay, so that helps with the crowds, but it doesn't stop the crowds, okay? So what I would recommend is either starting early, like getting on the trail before 9am if possible, or taking public transit, there are some options for bus routes that traverse the gorge that can make parking a little bit easier, and it's good for the environment. So win, win, or I might even suggest, especially if it is summer, and if you're, if you know your abilities, and if you're not super worried about being out too late, starting your hike at, like, I don't know, four o'clock. Like, yeah, because I think a lot of people do do these hikes midday. They see the sites midday, and then as you as you kind of get later in the day people, they move off to their they move they come back to Portland, they head on to Hood River. They go wherever they're gonna go. And yeah, trails really clear out. So yeah, that's one recommendation. And the other recommendation is just shoulder season is, yeah, awesome, because especially in springtime, these waterfalls, which are all fed by rainfall and snow melt. Yeah, they are just at their thundering peak. And there have been a couple of those waterfalls up there when I've been out there and in spring where I'll go hiking with a friend, and if we're standing next to a waterfall, I can't hear him talk to me. That's how these waterfalls are. Yeah, they don't see nearly the number of crowds, and especially during like, Wildflower season, most hikers are in search of wildflowers. You know, March, April, May, and that's awesome. Those are beautiful. But you can kind of zig where everyone else sags by going to the waterfall. Yeah, yeah. Solitude, yep. You know what I love, too, is going up, up the wakina side. When you get to the top of waukena Creek there. It's springborne. That whole thing comes out of the side of the of the mountain, and so you can just refill your water bottle right there at the source. Oh, that's off we go. It's just there's so many winds in that loop, yeah, yeah. But it are there dead pioneers there that you know about? Sadly, no. Okay, so it's not quite nothing getting four stars nothing is perfect.

Jennie Flaming:

All right, cool, Adam number four.

Adam:

Okay, back over onto the dry side for me Bend area. Smith rock canyon rim loop. So Smith rock. It's, I mean, if you've seen pictures, if it's, if it's painting an instant image in your head, it is one of the most photogenic places, I think, in the state. It's one of the natural wonders, I think of seven natural wonders of Oregon, and it's the birthplace of sport rock climbing in the United States, where rock climbing started, and they're still out there. There's lots of routes there. Out there, it's still a mecca for for rock climbers. I love it. The There's trails going everywhere, and there's lots of options you can do out in backs and loops. And I think the most popular for hikers is the misery ridge and and it looks it's, it's it, it looks like what you should do, you know, from like the main parking lot, you're looking at this, like postcard view of of Smith rock. And you're like, I want to walk to that. And so you take the trail that walks down to it. You go over, over the river, the crooked River, and now you're right up against it. You walk around it part way, come up over it and back. And I don't like misery. I was waiting for the right moment to be like misery ridge. Oh, yes, Sign me up. That sounds amazing. Aptly named misery Ridge, which I chose to hike one time in the middle of summer. And, yeah, there it was. And was it miserable? Yeah, yeah, quite, quite, quite, quite. It's kind of like camping at a mosquito Lake, yeah, or mosquito Creek. It's like, it's not a good idea. No mistakes were made. Yeah, I don't know why I'm here, but so what I survived, yeah, what I like to do is, there's this hike, and I actually put it in one of my latest books, urban hikes Oregon. Ooh, cool. Plug, yeah, is to do this because it's close to bend. That's right, yep, yep. It's kind of in that Bend area. It's a three mile loop with about 400 feet of elevation gain, so no misery. But what you do is you kind of come down towards the, you know, the picturesque Smith rock, and instead of crossing the river, you stay on that side of the river and then trace it. So the thing about Smith rock is it's so big, it's so imposing. Once you're on it, you're on it, can't really see it anymore. But if you take this route, it allows you to have the river in the foreground and the rock in the background, and then you kind of trace the river. Come back, get up onto this rim Canyon. What is it? Yeah, the canyon rim. And then there's just this rim, Canyon, RIM, Canyon, Canyon. Let me consult my notes, words. How do words work? Wait a minute. Oh, man, are these chocolate covered almonds? They're chocolate covered cherries. Oh, and strawberries. All right, okay, are these gratis? Yeah, I'll dig in some dumb so a lot of the people, they like the misery Ridge because of the views of the Cascades and everything, but you get those same views, and I would argue, even better, because you've got some other kind of foreground elements, so you get, I think, better scenery, less misery, better photos, shorter shorter distance, amazing. I win. Yeah, that sounds perfect. People can keep being miserable. I'm I'm gonna stay on room. They can do that. Canyon, Canyon rims. Yes,

Unknown:

sweet, okay. Matt number four, yeah

Matt:

So just to, just to piggyback on Adam and Smith rock, one of the, one of the things that I love telling people about is that if you don't want to do the misery Ridge Trail, there's another trail that goes up the backside of that rock formation that is so much gentler and it gains the same amount of elevation, but it does so in like, two or three times the length, and so you don't feel nearly as miserable. Yeah, Misery ridge. I remember the first time I went to Smith rock seeing misery Ridge from across the parking lot, and I saw people hiking at what looked like a 45 degree angle, right? And I remember thinking, I was like, There's no way. There's absolutely, that's, that's no, and then I consulted a map and said a few words that I won't repeat here. Yeah, made the journey myself, and it was, you know, the views at the top are great, but yeah, Misery Ridge appropriately named. And yeah, you still get a lot of those views from elsewhere in the park. You're not missing out on. Yeah, just Craig, Craig Romano territory over there, right? We'll leave misery Ridge for you, but you have to be running it. Craig, that's right. None of this blocking nonsense, running it back one leg, yeah, blindfolded, yes, with both hands tied behind your back. That's right, smiling the whole time. He'd still make it happen. He would be honest. He'd be like, okay, Jennie, when he listens to this, he's gonna be like, I'm doing it.

Jennie Flaming:

Well, we'll see pictures on social media. Yeah, I know. I wonder if he's done his Oregon marathon yet. If he hasn't, we'll recommend a self organized one on misery ridge. That'll be great. Okay, so where were we? Matt, yes, my fourth hike.

Matt:

I am going to follow Adam to Central Oregon. In this particular case, I'm going to take us out of the high desert and into the Cascade Range when we are going to hike a bit of the Pacific Crest Trail to little Belknap crater cool in the heart of the Cascade Range. So

Unknown:

the little Bellknap crater is exactly what it sounds like. It is a small crater next to a larger crater, creatively named Belknap crater along Mackenzie pass in the Cascade Range, just south of the city of sisters. And you can only access little Belknap crater between usually late June and October ish because it's along the Mackenzie pass Highway, which is only open each summer, and the little Belknap crater hike itself, which measures about five and a half miles with 1200 feet of pretty easy elevation gain. Believe it or not, it's only really snow free and accessible July, August, September, and then maybe October. But what I love about this particular hike is it, I think when a lot of people think about Central Oregon, they think about the mountains, they think about the high desert, they think about the Ponderosa pine forests, or even the Badlands with, you know, stands of juniper that are hundreds of years old. But a lot of people don't necessarily or really obviously or quickly, think about just the city's relationship with or the region's relationship with volcanic activity, and you cannot escape it on this particular hike, because you spend most of your hike traversing a miles long lava flow surrounded by cascade peaks In every direction you it's pretty cool. Yeah, it is really beautiful. So you're near the summit of Mackenzie pass, you will pass the D right Observatory, which was constructed in the 1930s from lava rock. It's a really beautiful it was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. It's a really beautiful building where you can stargaze after dark or in the middle of the day, admire the cascade peaks around you. But you go just past that, and you start in kind of this arid forest before hiking through to what are called tree islands on the middle of these lava flows, which are these small stands of, I think, pine trees that have found a way to hold on. In the middle of just miles and miles of lava rock cool. You get past these two tree islands, and you are out in the middle of a lava flow. You are hiking on lava rock. There is no escape from the lava rock. There is no shade, but the views and just the other worldly landscapes are in credible in the 1960s NASA astronauts actually trained at the D Wright observatory nearby for trips to the moon. Oh, wow, yeah, tells you something. You can look those photos up too. Yeah, right, yep. And you can see little Bell Lab creator almost the entire way it looks. It looks like just a mound of lava rock, but it's still really beautiful. And then as you get closer, you see Mount Washington peer as you kind of crest this hill that you've been climbing up. I will say it's steady incline, but it's never that steep. I think the biggest, the biggest thing, I would say, is to bring water, because it can get quite warm on a summer day, but as you kind of crest this hillside, you'll see Mount Washington appearing to be just across the street from you. It is so close. And then, yeah, you arrive a little Belknap crater. You enjoy that. And then, you know, a lot of people I hear, I hear from a lot of people who they'll talk about out and back hikes. They don't necessarily love out and back hikes, because it's more of the same. And this is one of those rare hikes where it is not more of the same, because as you are descending, you get to see what was behind you on the way up, which in this case are the three sisters that's cool, towering over the horizon, and it's really beautiful, like you have the lava rock in front of you, you have the forests, kind of at the base of the three sisters, and then you have the snow capped three sisters above that. And the views are just incredible the whole way back. So yeah, getting to hike through the lava flow, seeing the cascade peaks, really getting out there. It's just one of those hikes that when I, when I first did the hike for researching my my travel guide in 2018 I was shocked. It just, I was like, this, this is, this is part of Central Oregon. We don't think of that, but like, this is part of it, and be able to really experience it in that in that way, it was just breathtaking. So that's awesome. And I will say two things. One, to do the hike in summer, you're going to need a central cascades wilderness permit, which is available to recreation.gov really important to know. And while it is technically dog friendly, I wouldn't recommend bringing Stuart or any other dog because you are hiking on lava rock the entire time. And. This can get real beat up real fast, yeah, I would say. And, you know, nice. I know we good pro tem, yeah, we all love hiking with our dogs. I love, I love seeing dogs on the trail. But in this particular case, you might want to leave Fido at home. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Cool.

Jennie Flaming:

Okay, well, this brings us to our last ones. Adam, oh, bring in the closer. Yes, bring in the clothes. So this is kind of kind of in line with with Matt Noma, Joaquina loop. Sometimes things are popular for a reason. Yeah, right. I mean, they just are and and it kind of transcends debate, right, like Prince or or Shawshank Redemption, yeah, or fried foods and yeah, putting Silver Falls State Park and the trail of 10 falls in that rarefied air with fried foods and Shawshank.

Adam:

So, yes, it's popular, and I love, I love solitude as much as the next guy, probably more so. But, and you know, you guys have talked about it, I'm sure you've talked about a million times going on off season, go in the morning, go go on a weekday evening. Yeah, exactly. That was good to come in and run sweep on everyone who's leaving right? It is just a headliner of a hike, and it's the crown jewel of Oregon State Parks, arguably, is Silver Falls State Park, and it visits no fewer than 10 major waterfalls, and I would say seven of them are monsters. Are true headliners that would be their own headlining waterfall anywhere. And I mean, anywhere there are national parks in this country that don't have headliners that just are around every corner yeah in this particular yes and not so not only do you get the consummate, you know, rain forest, you get some parcels of old growth, but you a lot of these waterfalls you get to actually walk behind, because it's the end of a lava flow, yeah, where this is, and you can go behind. And, you know, like South Falls is the headliner. But there's North falls, a bunch of them that you walk behind. And you can even see, like lava casts from the forest that it encapsulated as the flow is ending. And you see these holes, you know, from where the trees burnt out, and it's just kind of encased there now, forever, in perpetuity. And you can even make a shorter version of it. There's like a kind of a pull out loop you can do that's like five and a half miles, as opposed to the almost eight miles and 1300 feet of elevation gain that the trail of 10 Falls is. But yeah, I mean, it is the, to me, it is the consummate Oregon waterfall hike. Yeah, as a waterfall hiking guidebook author, yes, hiking waterfalls in Oregon, yes, yeah. That's that's just, I remember the first time I did it, and I just it made such an impact on me. I think that that was one of the things that led to me being like, I gotta find a way to do this for a living. Because, yeah, this is just too good, and then not for nothing. You're done at Silver Falls State Park, the charming town of Silverton. And I mean, it's a charming town. It play. It plays above its weight class in terms of like, like food and drink options for how big it is. But they've got the Benedictine brewery out there, which is top shelf beer, but also really good, hearty, kind of seasonal, homemade foods that they got there. Nice. Take a trip into Silverton while you're there. Mount Angel. Love it brewed by actual monks. There you go. I know, you know. I'm gonna say the trail of 10 Falls is one of like three hikes that I have actually done. It

Unknown:

is really amazing. There you go. Yeah. Cool. Okay.

Jennie Flaming:

Well, bring us home, Matt, what's your last one?

Matt:

I gotta tell you. So Adam,, Silver Falls, that's a tough, that's a tough act to follow, yeah, but it's worth, it's worth all of the adulation I kind of love, especially with South falls, where, you know, that's where a lot of hikers start, and you're like, oh, yeah, it's 177 feet tall. Wow, that's impressive. Guess what? It's not even the tallest one, right? Now, you'll see, right? It's so crazy to think about. It's amazing, yeah, but we're, we're going on this fifth and final hike. There are no waterfalls, but there are some beautiful views. We're going to Pike Creek Canyon, which is on this eastern slopes of Steens Mountain in far southeastern Oregon, so cool um. Steens Mountain, on its east side, is joined or at uh. It runs up against the alver desert, which is the driest place in Oregon. It is a Dry lake bed, it receives six inches of rain every year. Then take a second to think that not last a place in the Pacific Northwest receives six inches of rain a year. That's kind of wild to think about. But pike Creek Canyon, it's about six miles round trip with about 1500 feet of elevation gain, and it is really cool hike for numerous reasons. One, it follows an old mining track up into, kind of the it kind of it follows a canyon where a mine used to be, and there still is mining equipment that you can view along the trail, which is kind of, kind of a cool look back at history. And then you just have this really beautiful, kind of khaki colored rock, some red rock, beautiful, just rock formations up in there. It's not a very popular hike, so chances are good, you will have it to yourself. I hiked it when I hiked it for the for the guidebook, which to pull to take a page from Adams book, yeah? Moon Pacific Northwest hiking, or moon Oregon hiking. Yeah, there we go. I hiked it on a Saturday in mid September, and didn't see another hiker the entire time. Wow, that's cool. Yeah.

Unknown:

So it is, it is really, it is really beautiful, really remote. And one of the, one of the other fun things about it is that you can kind of just end wherever you want, because it is a hike that is technically, I think, still under construction and but I think the the point at which I decided to turn around for the book was under this beautiful, giant juniper tree where you can just enjoy some shade, cool, really, you know, have lunch, drink water, take a break. Because once you once you start getting past that, you start Bush wagon a little bit. And as soon as that might be for some hikers, you know, there's a lot of us who'd rather not, who misery for the fun? No, no. And this one in particular is another out and back that's similar to the little Belknap creator hike. The views on the way down are drastically different, because as you are descending, you're seeing the alver desert, which is this really light brown. It's almost golden on the horizon. And as you descend, and as as it gets closer and closer, it just gets brighter and brighter. And so you have this, you know, at certain points, these viewpoints, where you are surrounded by this red rock with this bright, golden desert before you, there's some juniper trees here and there, so you have pops of green, and there's cinnamon hued trunks, and it is just, you know, we tend to think of kind of the southeastern Oregon area as kind of like a dry, arid region, but it just pops with color at times. So, and that actually kind of reminds me, he brought up the Benedictine brewery, and it kind of reminded me one of my favorite places in Oregon to end a hike. Do tell Yeah. So if you head south of pike Creek Canyon along the Albert desert, you will arrive at the community of fields, which, as far as I know, is little more than a gas station, a cafe in a motel. I think that's about it nice, and the gas station and cafe are joined, and in there you will find they have a small selection of grilled fare, including some of the some of the tasty grilled or fried that's checking, yeah, I guess grill, you know, burgers and fries, grilled, sweet and they serve just these really hearty, juicy, well cooked burgers, not well done. They know what they're doing. The cafe itself is really, really small. It's tiny. You are sitting on stools around the griddle. And it's the kind of place that I don't know. It's kind of place that doesn't feel it exists in very many places these days. They have on the wall, they have a countdown or a count up, I guess, of how many burgers and milkshakes they've sold that year and overall, which is really charming, they do have milkshakes, and it's the kind of place where you can order your milkshake. They have, you know, a couple dozen flavors, and they will bring you your milkshake in a tin cup with a spoon to make sure you enjoy every bite they have, you know, picnic tables outside. And it is, it is a really charming little cafe. There is nothing within 30 or 40 miles. And they do have weird hours. I think they usually very Yeah, yeah, in the best of times, like even in the middle of summer, I think they stopped taking orders around like 330 and usually that's because they have enough of a lineup of people who have ordered to keep them going through dinner. So Right? So they're like, that's it. That's all the burgers we have for today. Yeah, so they do keep weird hours. I would try it again. And if someone is listening and wants to visit Field Station, I would highly recommend it. I would also highly recommend trying to get in there earlier than later. Yeah, and when you're there, fill up with gas, because there aren't many gas stations. So yeah, keep that in mind. But yeah, Field Station, that milkshake is, you know, I remember, I remember doing the research for this guidebook, coming down from pike Creek Canyon, and maybe driving just one or two miles over the speed limit so that I could get back to field station for a burger and milkshake and nice. It was worth every step. Amen. Love it. Love it. Okay. Well, this has definitely given me amazing inspiration for even more hikes to add to my list. Are there any other kind of great post hike spots for food or drink that you want to call out before we go. I know we talked about it a little bit as we were going, but um, oh yeah, yeah, terminal gravity, yeah. I think we that's just Matt and I both adore that place, yeah. And that's that's kind of on your way into the wallowas, right? Is it an enterprise? Is where terminal gravity so northeast Oregon, Yep, yeah, and it is, I think we've had similar experiences there after hiking in the Wallas you come back out into civilization, and terminal gravity is kind of there, with a creek is running through it, and there's children and dogs playing in the meadow, and the mountains are before you, and there's ice cold beer all around. And it's, it's, it's walking through the fields of joy. on my way to Elysian. Yeah. It's, yeah. It's one of the greatest places on earth. Do they have food also, or is it just Yeah, okay, pretty good food too. Okay. Is it like a food truck, or more like a restaurant. It's a full on restaurant, outside seating, live music. Oh, fun, yeah, yeah. It's a scene. And it's one of those places where, like, even if you don't drink, the food menu is all, yeah, it's pub fair done really, really well. Like, they're one of the rare places in Oregon that serves a bison burger, yeah? Oh, wow. Just to give a hint of kind of where they're where their heads at with their food menu? So, yeah, cool, yeah. Okay. Is there anything else Matt that other than terminal gravity that you want to call out? Yeah, I'd say the first place that comes to mind is in Hood River. It is double mountain brewery, and I am not. So don't get me wrong, I enjoy the beer. It's delightful. It's in it's in downtown Hood River. But the thing about double mountain that I adore is their pizza. Yeah, it is a wood fire. Okay, all right, go for the pizza, stay for the beer. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So like, even if you don't drink, the pizza is outstanding. And they have, they usually have really good seasonal specials with those like my personal favorite, I look forward to this every summer. As we get toward August and September, they have their hair heirloom tomato pie. Oh yeah, and it is every square inch. Every square inch of the top of that pizza is covered with an heirloom tomato that was grown in the nearby Hood River Valley cool and picked very recently. And so you really get to try the flavors of the Hood River Valley and the fresh, you know, the fresh flavors of what's grown there. The pizzas themselves are really great. And it doesn't matter if you're doing Moser plateau, Joaquina falls, anything in the gorge. You know, Hood River is pretty central location, so I watched you have an intimate moment with that pie this last summer. Actually, there was a connection going on. There really was That's beautiful. Yeah, absolutely. And believe me, I've been counting that, counting down the days, ever since, yeah, we do, man, yeah, it's coming. Yeah, I want to go next time. And that sounds amazing.

Jennie Flaming:

All right. Well, Adam and Matt, thank you so much for being here today and everybody listening. I'll put their books down in the show notes so you can pick those up for your next trip to Oregon. Thanks so much, guys.

Adam:

Hey, thanks. Please don't ever have me on with this guy. Ever. Clearly, I was a slog.

Matt:

Thanks for having us.

Jennie Flaming:

Yeah, we'll have to have Craig here too to defend himself from our barbs. All right. Well, we'll see y'all next time. Hi everyone. This is Jennie. I hope you enjoyed this episode, Craig, and I love bringing these episodes to you, and I want to remind you about how you can support the podcast. You can leave us a tip or purchase Craig's books or sign up for my email list, and in addition to that, we have our affiliate link for Expedia and Rei in the show notes, so if you are making a purchase from one of those places and you follow the link that we always have in the show notes, then we will receive a small commission, and that helps us keep things going. So thank you so much for your support, and thank you for listening. You.

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Jennie Thwing Flaming

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Craig Romano

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