Chasing Waterfalls with Michael Taylor
If you’re looking for travel tips then OG member of the Outdoor Licence hiking collective and real deal journalist Michael Taylor (AKA Marpleaf on insta) has just returned from an epic trip to the good old U S of A. SO if you’re thinking of heading stateside and are a fan of Danner boots and/or Twin Peaks then check out his ace write-up below:
“So how would you guys like to see a really cool waterfall?”
It wasn’t so much a question as a consolation prize. The US Forest Service ranger had taken one look at us in our knee length shorts (Haglofs and Patagonia, in case you were interested) and a distinct lack of ice clamps, poles and ropes.
It was our first planned hike on day five of a two week Pacific North West tour: Seattle, done; Portland, explored; we were now in Oregon in the Mount Hood National Forest, and more specifically in the public area of the Timberline Lodge hotel, the exterior location for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining. We were being persuaded, guided, OK told, that any attempt to pursue our planned 15km circular route the Paradise Park Trail, through a large mountain meadow, on the slopes of the towering Mt Hood, was a non-starter. It was July, but people were still skiing down its snowy slopes, and the going would be tricky.
For Oregonians Mt Hood has a particular hold. Just two hours from the largest city Portland, we’d spent the pleasant previous afternoon talking to Todd in the Danner store in Portland’s Union Way, where the snow covered peak adorned the wall of the store.
For Brad, the third generation owner of the original Portland Outdoor Store, for all your checked shirts and riding boots, as well as Clarks and Barbour, Oregon spirit is in the outdoors, even if Portland is a down at heel and gritty liberal city which has bravely taken on the homeless problem from other cities who stick them on a bus Portland and Seattle.
A fair number of the locals in Portland dress like they’re about to go on a hike, even if the day’s activities extend little more than going to work. That said, there’s a fair chance that they could be earning a living at the HQs of Nike, Adidas, LaCrosse Footwear (which owns Danner), Keen, Wesco or Sorel, a subsidiary of Columbia.
The two Park Rangers accepted our ambition, admired our Danner red laces, and sent us down Highway 83 to Rodedendron, and set us on a path, still with the towering Mt Hood an ever present. This route still had jeopardy, they made clear, the glacier Sandy River didn’t have a bridge, and to get to that cool waterfall, Ramona Falls, you’d need fallen logs to traverse it.
It was an amble through the woods until we reached the wild raging river, with no obvious crossing point. All signage suggested caution, and some even gave advice on how best to wade across at waist height.
But an All American family coming down the other way showed no sign of wet legs. The easiest river crossing was over a fallen tree, sat, rather than tightroping it, then onto rocks and over. On the continuing route for a time we walked part of the epic Pacific Crest Trail, popularised by Cheryl Strayed’s book, and film, Wild, which depicted Reese Witherspoon hiking from California to Canada. We did about 5km of it, with an added bonus through a steeper forest path when we got lost.
The falls were epic. Cascading from a point deep in the forest, but strewn with light. Ranger was right, it was a very cool waterfall. That wasn’t even the most spectacular hike we took in the PNW, that honour goes to an attempt to get within touching distance of Mt Angeles along the Klahhane Ridge in the Olympic National Park, so far north we picked up a Canadian mobile phone signal and spotted wild deer and a very friendly groundhog.
Other adventures were braving the sound and fury of the 4th of July where the ground literally rocked from the fireworks around us from our cosy rural retreat in the edges of Mt Rainier National Park.
That very same day we’d been for damn fine coffee and a heavenly slice of cherry pie at the Twede’s diner in North Bend, the location for the RR diner in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Rachel and Max who bought it were both proper Peaky’s. They got it.
The other cool waterfall was another one familiar to Twin Peaks devotees; Snoqualmie Falls which cascade down from the Great Northern Hotel (now Salish Lodge). They flogged Twin Peaks gear as well, but I’m not sure they gripped the vibe in the same way.
We picked out rocks on all our trips, after seeing author Alison Jean Cole talk us through rockhounding at a book event in the fantastic Powell’s Books in Portland, it added a new dimension to bounding through the outdoors.
We saw the sun set on both Cannon Beach in Oregon, and its impressive sea stacks, and have the photos to show it off. Arguably the even more impressive stacks were on La Push beach in the Quileute nation reservation, where they prefer you don’t take photos.
The Pacific North West is magical. The edgy cities, the big sky, the snow capped peaks, the endless forests, and yes, the cherry pie.
