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Greetings from Oregon,
Following decent weather for the last Mt. Margaret Backcountry backpack and a lucky mostly non-rain morning for our Land Navigation field session, we have had been hammered by a series of major storms. At June Lake, where we begin our Mt. St. Helens round-the-mountain backpack, 15.2 inches of rain was recorded on November 7th, with a total of 38.2 inches from November 2-8! Click here for an amazing summary of the rainfall in our area in early November.
As I write this, rain is drumming on the roof and feets of snow are falling at Mt. Hood. For us, the rain is OK if it means we will have snow to play in on the mountains. We did have extraordinarily excellent weather this past summer. Most memorable are the balmy hours spent on the summit rim of Mt. St. Helens.
For December, scheduled trips include a moonlight snowshoe and hikes to the Pittock Mansion and the Oregon Coast. Plus we can go snowshoeing or skiing whenever you want to go.
HEALTH FAIRS
We participated in Health Fairs for the cities of McMinnville and Milwaukie and for the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District. We enjoyed meeting all of you and talking about outdoor adventures. We hope you enjoy the Newsletter.
Drawing winners for a $100 gift certificate or a St. Helens Climb were:
City of McMinnville - George Brown
City of Milwaukie - Gil Tamlyn
Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District - Robin Hart
Please get
in touch and we will send you your gift certificate. Congratulations.
We hope you can join us for your next adventure as we close out 2006 and begin to play in the snow.
As always, our intent is to send this newsletter only to people who wish to receive it. If you don't want it, please click the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. There you will also find a link which allows you to send this eNews to a friend or colleague. We invite you to take a trip with Oregon Peak Adventures. You may sign-up by e-mailing us at info@oregonpeakadventures.com, calling us at (877) 965-5100, or using our secure form.
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TIPS
SOLO TRIPS
No one signed-up for our last Mt. Margaret Backcountry trip in October; but, since I must have my Mt. Margaret fix at least once a year, I went alone.  I encountered one person near the trailhead on day one and two day hikers on day two, and saw no one else for the remainder of the four-day trip. This is typical for Mt. Margaret.
For gear, I took a Sierra Designs Flashlight tent. It's a light three season tent - roomy for one, claustrophobic for two. For cooking I took the Jetboil (with the French press option, of course) and freeze-dry entrees. One 3.88 oz. fuel canister lasted for the four days. My sleeping bag was a Marmot Helium rated at 15 Degrees F and weighting just two pounds.
 The weather was clear for the entire trip and the nights were cold. I needed to add a layer in addition to my base layer polypro to stay warm in the sleeping bag.
The second night at Ridge camp was very windy. Normally, this is just a noise issue with our trips since we use bomber, four season person tents. 
It clearly makes a difference versus the lighter Flashlight tent. I had to crawl out twice that night to resecure the tent by double staking, using rocks, and tying onto the tent platform frame. Even so, I put on more clothes in case the tent blew apart, and laid there flinching at the really big gusts and considering my options if I became homeless. It was one of those "locomotive" wind cycles in that you hear it coming over the ridge and have no choice but to tense-up and wait for it to smack the tent. Fortunately, some time during the night, the wind died down and I did sleep. Night three was calm.
 To the extent that any of this is relevant, I got to thinking about how backcountry trips, especially solo backcountry trips, are different from our normal bustle in town:
-You have no choice but to make it out. If I tire of riding a stationary bike, I can just quit. If I want to get to the next campsite or back to the car, I gotta put in the miles.
-Every step has to be intentional and well placed. A small stumble resulting in a major fall (number one cause of death in the backcountry) is not an option. Trekking poles provide additional stability, which I greatly appreciate especially when travelling alone in remote areas. I only fell once on the trip. I was climbing over some large logs across the trail which were coated with an invisible ice glaze. I wasn't injured, but it certainly got my attention.
- It is imperative that a responsible individual knows where you are going to be. They need to know when to be concerned (For when I'm working through some stuff, but am still OK), and when to initiate a search (Yeah, I'm in trouble now), and whom to call if it's time to do that.
- You need to understand your communication options. First is to decide if you are going to be concerned about it. But if not for you, there is the potential of coming upon a disaster that is not of your own making that you have to deal with. Your options may include specific locations where you will have cell phone capability, a satellite phone, or a personal locater beacon. The latter two are usually more dependable for coverage.
- Cocktail hour starts whenever you decide it's time.
- Everything needs to be reliably secured. I lost my Crazy Creek chair battling my way through an alder thicket section somewhere on the third day and didn't feel like going back to try to find it. Fortunately, it fit in the nice to have rather than necessary category.
- Reading materials and music are nice to have when you tire of meditation and self-examination. Especially when it gets dark very early and it's cold outside of the tent.
 I truly enjoy an occasional solo trip. While I love going out with all of you, it's also nice when it is only me. I believe that having the experience and skills to feel comfortable on my own is an essential part of enjoying the experience.
The photos are all from this trip.
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