A "Short" Hike...

The first lesson of fall: don't believe everything you read in the hiking books :o) While I am enjoying being in the pacific northwest during fall, I have found myself a little lacking in the usual hiking trails and places with colorful leaves. So, today, I set out in search of pretty leaves and decided that Mt Pisgah in the hills near Eugene would be the place of adventure today.


As you can see, I found some very pretty leaves... Berries or poison ivy? I think they were actually mixed together but you be the judge.


I started up the trail in the arboretum area which the book said was three miles to the summit. Now, yes, I am old enough to know one should not believe everything one reads but I was hoping for a nice little day hike. Once I cleared the bottom of the arboretum area I ran into a fork in the gravel trail - 8 miles on the nice gravel path or 3 miles straight up the sheer mud cliff to the summit.

Today, I opted for part of the 8 mile stretch (about four miles I think). The views were spectacular and there was a little top of a hill half way between the super summit and the small summit that seemed about my height. So, up I went.

How cool are these views? It really was a glorious day to go hiking. A little dreary but beautiful.

You can see here that even the wide gravel path which was longer was fairly steep. It was a lot of fun going up but not as much fun coming down. I didn't get too many leaf pictures - maybe tomorrow I will go find trees in a park, but today I got to go enjoy the side of a small hill hike and felt like I really had climbed a mountain.