Hi Everyone - glad to be joining you

Introduce yourself to the group! We welcome novice and expert alike! We especially love hearing from those new to Portland and those new to hiking
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dskenney
Posts: 2
Joined: June 7th, 2017, 9:26 pm

Hi Everyone - glad to be joining you

Post by dskenney » June 15th, 2017, 8:00 pm

Hi All,
I'm glad to be joining the Oregon Hikers community. Here's a little about myself.

I was born in Eugene, moved to Salem in 3rd grade, and then moved to Portland after graduate school, in the mid-90s. Other than college (Seattle) and graduate school (Bay Area), I've lived in Oregon my whole life.

I was exposed to hiking in Cub Scouts (Silver Falls) and Boy Scouts (Mt. Jefferson Wilderness), and then didn't do a lot of hiking until I spent a summer during my grad school working in the superintendent's office at Yosemite National Park. I covered a lot of miles in the park that summer (1993) and loved it! I bought all new backpacking gear that year, and have only recently started replacing it all, bit by bit. I finally got a new backpack a few weeks ago and I'm anxious to try it out.

During the past 19 years, since having kids, I've only done a little hiking and backpacking, off and on. We did Indian Heaven with our kids when they were young, which was memorable for the all night rain that caused us to wake up in the middle of a small lake, with our tent more or less floating on 3-4 inches of water. In 2003, I spent a week doing trail work with the Washington Trails Association on the PCT in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. That was hard work, but super satisfying as a break from years of work in front of a computer.

More recently, I was one of the adult leaders taking my son's Boy Scout troop on the Timberline Trail and on the Siouxon Creek Trail.

The kids are mostly out of the house now, so I'm looking to spend more time on the trail. I'm definitely open to joining groups or others looking for hiking partners.

I'm planning a July 4th weekend trip to the Enchanted Valley in Olympic National Park. I imagine I'll be joined by a few hundred other people, but I've never been there and the pictures look great.

I'm hoping to get a few other backpacking trips in this summer and fall, with some possible destinations being Three Sisters Wilderness, Eagle Cap, and ??? I'm up for suggestions and, like I said, I'd be interested in joining others.

Cheers,
David
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Here's me.

Aimless
Posts: 1922
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: Lake Oswego

Re: Hi Everyone - glad to be joining you

Post by Aimless » June 16th, 2017, 7:40 pm

Howdy, David. I can't recommend any hiking groups to join because I am one of those solo hikers who likes to get out on the emptiest trail I can find, but OregonHikers.org does have a forum where groups can announce hiking opportunities, so you should keep an eye on it in case something comes up you might be interested in.

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