So far I have picked up a backpack (lowe alpine contour light M), a big agnes buffalo park sleeping bag (40°), a hennessy hammock (deluxe a-sym) and a marmot precip rain jacket.  I feel like a real hiker.

This is pretty close in style, the contour light M is a few years old so I could not find an exact picture.

I am a very big girl and I wanted to be very cozy in my bag.  Thank you Big Agnes for the park series bags.  I have climbed in to test the bag and it is roomy and feels just right for me. Once I slide a pad into the built in sleeve I think this bag will be just perfect!

I do not like to sleep on the ground. I do not want to carry a tent and a tarp and poles… from all of my reading this hammock seems like the answers to my dreams. I can not wait to test it out in Matthew’s front yard.

I was thrilled to find that I now fit into the Marmot xxxl range. Sigh – I’m not sure to be happy or sad at that statement, but at least I will be dry in my Marmot precip jacket.

In a few weeks we are going to do a shakedown overnight at Chris & Matthew’s house to make sure we won’t kill ourselves with crazy mishaps miles from help and the convenience of a nearby sofa and television

Anyway – her bucket was like totally full!

So we split them up into both buckets and headed out – Christine found the motherload of mushrooms and soon we had two buckets full.

Everywhere we looked were glorious beautiful Chanterelle mushrooms.

So we found a quite place by the pond to take a break.

We just could not stop ourselves from picking just one more mushroom.

So we ended up with two complete buckets and a full sweatshirt. 21 pounds of fresh mushrooms.  Woooo hoo!

It was a very good day – we ended it by heading home for some dead cow smothered in gogonzola mushroom sauce.

   

We started out for a light 2.2 mile hike…

We are going to hike up to Fairy Falls.

It is about 10:45 in the morning.

Everything is so quiet, grey and soft.

It is a pretty quick climb up the paved path to the first fall.

Even though it is late Fall it is very very green and very very wet.

The fog is so thick.

Waiting for me at the switchback.

But I am busy.

Taking pictures of Mr. Slug

… and the posse centipede.

I love my new camera!

We are about to run out of pavemant.

I will never escape the mushrooms…….

Chris in a Crack.

This was the prettiest tree.

At the first summit.  We saw god. Not sure if it was the hour of up or a true religous experience.  I am sure it was a beautiful gift worth every sore muscle.

No, we did not eat any mushrooms.

Look, the timer works!

It was like watching the rest of the world disappear.

Matthew taught me how to photograph a spiderweb.

Ok ok…Fairy Falls….with….

It was sooooo pretty.

So we kept going, at this point we thought we had as far to go as we had already climbed.

Here is where we would have lost Corey.

Matthew chasing the light.

Look, I found some light too!

We have not seen other people for a while at this point.

Christine communes with the tree.  It is a quiet conversation.

Look… we found the sun.

The biggest mushroom I have ever seen.

We have been going up for a very long time. Everything hurts.

A baby tree in a nursery tree.

The sap is so pretty.

Now we discover we have doubled our distance and the end is no closer.

*whimper*

Look…more waterfalls.

These are the higher falls above Multnohmah Falls.

LAND!!!!!  We have been way beyond where the sidewalk ends.

The basin above the Falls.

The view from the very tippy top.

Where is all begins.

We made it.  Well Matthew ran and got the car for us