Lookout Creek

We had a plan for a family Sunday and I wanted to take a drive up the Lookout Road FS 1506. When we had hiked up in HJ Andrews in November we had driven up that road for a while, but had not continued further. So, this time the goal was to make it up and see what was up high. The Xterra held its own, but it still was struggling a little bit to make it up that high. Soon enough though, we were running into enough snow that I did not want to push it, so we stopped after a bit and parked. When we got out there was a bunch of snow. The funny thing about that was that it was getting into the 70's and 80's every day down by the river. The kids were pretty excited to see snow because the winter had not brought any to our house. So we let them play in the snow a bit and took a leisurely walk up the road. They were pretty happy with it even though we were not really dressed to trudge through the snow. The weather was still not cold, so even though our feet got soggy at times, we were still enjoying it. There is only so far that you can walk with a two and a four year old. We plied them along with snacks as they enjoyed a bag of chips, but after a while we realized that this was a fruitless expedition.

So instead we drove back down the road until we hit the bridge where the road crossed Lookout Creek. It looked like a good spot to get out and throw some rocks. The kids did not have any issue with this as they were always up for a day playing around by the creek. In fact, we had not given them much time for that and they were loving getting to throw rocks and tramp around in the creek. We knew we would have to take another chance to spend the day just hanging out by the river as everyone enjoyed the chance to just play around in the water. Not that exciting of a day, but definitely worth a Sunday afternoon. 

One Photo of the Louise Creek Trail

After Spring Break, we renewed our effort to start looking for a house to buy. We figured that we would be in the McKenzie area for a while and it was time for us to purchase a place to live. So far, we seemed to strike out on places that we liked, but we had found a place to put in an offer. After negotiations, though, we could not agree on a fair price, so the deal fell through. School was busy as usual, but I was finally able to make time to get out a little bit. There was a trail I saw doing the Separation Lake Trail, so I thought that maybe since it was lower elevation, I would have a chance of getting up the trail a ways. The trail was the Louise Creek trail and although it was a nice trail, the only interesting and different thing about this trail was when I got high enough in elevation, that I was able to see some snow. So, even though the hike was great getting in some miles of hiking, I turned around pretty early in the day because I didn't feel like fighting the snow for too many miles. Oregon was very appealing, the only drawbacks were the similarity in all the trails, so much so, that I wasn't taking nearly the amount of pictures that I normally would given that all I would be taking pictures of were the same trees in a different place.

So here is a picture of the kids and I a week earlier on Easter. Living in Oregon is just so interesting because unlike other places, the view from our backyard was nearly as good as any view that I could hike to. It is good, but also tempting to me to be unmotivated to explore. My next hike, I was going to have to find a way to hit the trail and see more. As the snow would melt, the spring would finally allow me to do a little more of that.