Snow trail

Yesterday, hiking by the Sandy River on the shoulder of Mt Hood. One of those fun hikes- large sections of the trail had been washed out, so for part of it we had to follow just tracks and flags through the brush and rocks (as opposed to a developed, marked trail), while for other large sections we were walking on/in snow that had yet to melt. Fun hikes because I like the challenge of tracking and figuring out how to cross that river or that chasm or where the hell did the trail go? or whatever.

We had read about this trail and had been wanting to check it out since we moved here, but the bridge had been washed out. Yesterday, we saw that it had been replaced, so we followed the road for as long as it lasted and found the trailhead. For a mile or so, the trail was in fine shape. It wanders along through the forest beside the Sandy River. Very pretty. But the Sandy is a mountain river (gets pretty wild with the spring melt), and the soil here is volcanic (somewhat sandy-and-ashy, loose), so the river's course isn't exactly stable. And so we found the same sort of conditions I found when I went to look for Sheep Canyon: the trail was suddenly gone, replaced with a field of boulders.

When you're out hiking and you find that you've lost the trail, just stop. Don't move, just look around a minute. If you're on a well-developed trail, a few steps back should set you on your track again. If you're on a less well-developed trail (eg, packed earth or just a worn trail), look around for flags. Flags are those plastic strips you sometimes use to mark things- in this case, they're tied to branches, logs or trees to mark a new trail.

So we followed the flags, and when we couldn't see the flags we followed tracks, and when we couldn't see tracks we guessed (mostly right). We crossed the Sandy on a big log, jumped across another part, found where some critters had spent the night, saw some cool flowers, but eventually just turned around.

Anyway, it's not much of a story, but it was a fun hike. The trail leads to some waterfall or other, but I don't remember its name, and we didn't make it all the way because we got tired of trudging over melting snowbanks in our not-hiking-footwear (we didn't expect the snow).

On this day in 1603, English astronomer William Lilly was born. In his autobiography, he tells a strange anecdote of teleportation about fellow astrologer John Evans, a Welshman residing near Aldgate in London. In 1630 or 1631, Evans was asked by Lord Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby 'to shew them a Spirit... upon a sudden, after some time of Invocation, Evans was taken from out of the Room, and carried [five miles] into the Field near Battersea Causeway...' The next morning, a laborer found him asleep there.
In 1891, Cole Porter was born.
In 1915, Les Paul was born.
In 1963, Johnny Depp was born.