As some of you know I used to live in the pine barrens, (hence my interest in this forum), but now live in the pacific northwest. I guess this is the place I'll be posting the occasional pics from hikes out here, unless there's a better place for them, or people would rather just not bother. Don't worry I don't want my own forum, and I keep all my pics on my school's server. On second thought, we have pine trees in the cascades, I want my own forum, hypocrites 
:ham: Last weekend I did a ~20 mile out and back on the McKenzie River trail starting at the Mckenzie river ranger station and hiking to the Trail Bridge Reservoir and then back the next day. The McKenzie river is one of two major rivers that flow into Eugene and it is the one that we get our water from. The water we drink originates in Clear Lake near the northern terminus of the trail. It's essentially all cascade snow melt. The trail is multi-use, open to mt. bikes and hikers, with very few problem, as the trail is relatively easy going and as a result doesn't attract the more hardcore X-games-style crowd. One of the public busses runs from downtown to the trailhead at the ranger's station:
While we don't have any dwarf pines out here, we have the majestic douglas firs (my favorite tree), spruces, hemlocks and alders.
Here is a trillium ovatum, aka Wake Robbin since it usually blooms when the robins return.
Most of the lower portion of the trail was like this, before it started climbing into the snow
A USGS marker
Elk tracks in the snow. No one had been on this portion of the trail for quite a while. I didn't see any other human tracks at all
Some mossy rocks on a hillside that was cleared either by an avalanch or volcanic activity a long, long time ago
Trail Bridge reservoir where I camped, down on the flat spot on the right
My new homemade tarp under a nice pine tree on top of a soft bed of needles
It was cloudy and rainy on the way up, but it cleared up the next day
The McKenzie river, near the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness
And again
On a rocky riverbank near Deer Creek
The same place. The water was very cold and blue from all the new snow melt
Logjammin'
:ham: Last weekend I did a ~20 mile out and back on the McKenzie River trail starting at the Mckenzie river ranger station and hiking to the Trail Bridge Reservoir and then back the next day. The McKenzie river is one of two major rivers that flow into Eugene and it is the one that we get our water from. The water we drink originates in Clear Lake near the northern terminus of the trail. It's essentially all cascade snow melt. The trail is multi-use, open to mt. bikes and hikers, with very few problem, as the trail is relatively easy going and as a result doesn't attract the more hardcore X-games-style crowd. One of the public busses runs from downtown to the trailhead at the ranger's station:
While we don't have any dwarf pines out here, we have the majestic douglas firs (my favorite tree), spruces, hemlocks and alders.
Here is a trillium ovatum, aka Wake Robbin since it usually blooms when the robins return.
Most of the lower portion of the trail was like this, before it started climbing into the snow
A USGS marker
Elk tracks in the snow. No one had been on this portion of the trail for quite a while. I didn't see any other human tracks at all
Some mossy rocks on a hillside that was cleared either by an avalanch or volcanic activity a long, long time ago
Trail Bridge reservoir where I camped, down on the flat spot on the right
My new homemade tarp under a nice pine tree on top of a soft bed of needles
It was cloudy and rainy on the way up, but it cleared up the next day
The McKenzie river, near the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness
And again
On a rocky riverbank near Deer Creek
The same place. The water was very cold and blue from all the new snow melt
Logjammin'
