A Walk in the Woods

Hello Friends! Sorry its been a while since I've posted. We've been down south for Adam's work and nothing too exciting has happened since then. We decided to go exploring this weekend and try out one of the longer day hikes in the Mt. Hood Wilderness. We chose one called East Zig Zag Mountain and Burnt Lake. It was approximately 11 miles long and the really "cool" thing was it ended at a lake (Burnt Lake to be exact). This was really nice as it was 100+ all weekend here in Portland. I believe we surpassed the record by like 6 degrees. It still doesn't feel quite as bad as like 95 in Missouri, but then again no one here has air conditioners so, that makes it a little uncomfortable at times.

We thought we'd get away into the higher elevations where its cooler. Or so we thought. It was still really really hot. But - we did take a dip in the lake once we got there. Too bad Adam didn't get any pictures of me in my bikini and hiking boots. I'm sure all of you would've gotten a kick out of that. There were tons of crawdads the size of lobsters and fish jumping out of the water all over the place. All with Mt. Hood in the backdrop. Not a bad way to spend a saturday.

The trail up to the lake was lined with wildflower meadows and bushes of huckleberries. We were a little disappointed that the berries weren't quite ripe yet. And, it wouldn't be a true hike unless Adam took several pictures of the flowers. Here's one that was really cool. We don't know what its called...

And what would an adventure like this be without a grand finale at one of the dozens of brewpubs in Portland. Yes, its seems we try a new one almost every week. This one had excellent beer. "Hopworks Urban Brewery" has a delicious IPA and Deluxe Ale. The pizza's not so bad either.

Adam and I are going to try our hand at canning some fresh produce soon. I'm sure there will be at least a couple of posts about how that works out for us. After reading the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver we both have become a little obsessed with eating locally and supporting local farmers in hopes of being as ecologically responsible as we can. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but we're gonna give it a try. Those of you interested should check out the book.