Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

I was super excited to get out and do some hiking, since I don’t get to do much in Tampa and the little hiking I get to do does not include hills – seriously, not even like large piles of dirt.  It must be the fact that I grew up on the side of a mountain, surrounded by mountains, but I love mountains.  So, I couldn’t wait.  We dropped Debi off at her work around 8:30 am then headed out to the Oregon coast to do a hike I was very excited for – Hobbit Trail.

I was searching for hikes in the Eugene area a few weeks ago so I’d be prepared for when we got out here.  I looked, in particular, for hikes that you could do with kids.  Most such hikes are for young children (i.e., 5 to 10), not for toddlers, but I figured that’s about all I could manage anyway with an extra 25 to 35 pounds on my back.  One website recommended an Oregon coast hike called the Hobbit Trail.  The description said that it was a short hike down to a secluded beach on the coast and that the trail was like a Hobbit hole – the trees and shrubs were so dense above the trail that it was supposed to be like a tunnel.  That just sounded cool to me (and I love me some fantasy references, so I had a hard time resisting).  Additionally, the website noted that there is a famous lighthouse near the trail, which seemed like a good dual purpose trip from Eugene to the coast – cool hike and a visit to a lighthouse.

According to the hike description, you could park in a little turnout on the side of US 101 and just hike the Hobbit Trail, but in case that failed, the site also mentioned you could park in the Heceta Head lighthouse parking area and hike to the Hobbit Trail, then hike the trail from there to the beach.  The site did note that parking at the Heceta Head lighthouse cost money, but it was only supposed to be $3.00, which seemed like a small price to pay (actually $5.00 now).  Toren was very accommodating; he fell asleep almost immediately after we dropped Debi off and stayed asleep the entire drive.

I originally tried to find the pullout so we could hike the Hobbit Trail directly and not pay the parking, but I’m actually glad I couldn’t find it because of the hike we ended up doing.  After failing to find the pullout (the trail marker is on the west side of US 101, the pullout is on the east side, so you can’t see the trail marker easily from the pullout unless you know exactly where to look), I turned around and headed back to the Heceta Head lighthouse parking and parked.  Apparently the Heceta Head lighthouse is quite the visitor’s attraction as the parking lot already had a dozen cars in it when we arrived (around 10:00) and by the time we left (around 2:00) it was completely full.

And what’s not to like about the lighthouse?  Here’s the view from the parking area:

my poorly combined panorama from the parking area of the Heceta Head Lighthouse (click for a larger view)

Even the beach at the parking area was beautiful.  I was excited.  And Toren was ready to go for a hike.  It was a beautiful day, about 70 degrees, little wind, with perfectly clear skies.  Everything looked great.

We quickly hiked up to the lighthouse (about a 1/4 mile hike).  The view from there was really stunning.  Here’s a shot looking back toward the same beach in the panorama:

view of the beach/parking area from the lighthouse

Best of all, the whole area was fenced in and well manicured (as you can see in the photo below), so I could set Toren down and let him walk around.  He didn’t do much walking, but he did get down and play a little.  Some of the friendly people I met also volunteered to take a picture for us:

Toren and me by the lighthouse

Here’s a photo of the lighthouse:

Heceta Head Lighthouse

I also snapped a photo of Toren standing by the base of the lighthouse:

Toren at the base of the lighthouse

I thought it might be the case that there were tours of the lighthouse, but I actually didn’t look to see as I was there to hike.  But it turned out there was a tour right around 10:50, so we waited around for the 15 minute tour which takes you all the way up to the top (well, almost).  It is a working lighthouse, so you can’t actually go into the lamp room, but you can see it from just below it.  It was cool and informative.

While waiting for the tour, I found what I was looking for – a trail map.  It showed where I was and it noted where the Hobbit Trail was located:

this is actually a different version of the same map; the one by the lighthouse was stained and not easy to read, but they are virtually identical (click for a larger version)

Based on the map, I could follow what looked to be a relatively short trail to the Hobbit Trail, then follow that to the beach.  When I asked the tour guide if that was the correct path, just to make sure, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, “You sure you want to hike it?  It’s straight up all the way.”  I laughed and told him I did a lot of hiking.  He gave me a weird look, but confirmed it was the right path.

So, after the tour, Toren and I loaded back up and headed up the trail (it starts just below the lighthouse).  Turns out it’s not straight up – it’s switchbacks up a very steep hill.  It’s steep, but manageable.  And the elevation gain is quick.  I stopped once or twice to catch my breath as it was a bit more than I was expecting.  But, it was soooo  worth it!

As I worked my way up the hill, there were occasional spots where a short side trail (20 feet or so) would take you out of the thick forest and right out to a vista that was just amazing.  Here’s an example:

view from a side trail

That’s a tiny little beach (not Hobbit Beach) about 400 to 500 feet below the trail.  The trail is behind me about 15 feet and there was this little hole in the forest to look out over this.  It was absolutely beautiful.  Oh, and the forest was beautiful too.  Old trees with thick growth at the top kept out most of the sunlight and the moss and light undergrowth made it feel like an old forest.  Add to that the well-maintained trail (with wood chippings, making it very soft and a joy to hike) and I was in heaven: great views from the trail and on the trail itself.  It was stunning.

At the very top of the hill, you finally see this vista:

Hobbit Beach from the top of the hill

There’s actually a bench right here so you can sit and just soak up this view (there are many benches on the trail, but this one was particularly well-placed).  That’s Hobbit Beach, where we were headed.  It’s an enormous beach that runs quite a ways into the distance.

It was right about here I saw the only other hikers – two women – I saw on this part of the trail (I saw more on the Hobbit Trail).  They were panting pretty good coming up the other side.

From here, Toren and I made our way down the other side of the hill and eventually found the Hobbit Trail, which links up with this trail.  With my nifty GPS phone, I tracked the entire hike and added a waymarker so people can see exactly where the Hobbit Trail starts:

View Heceta Head Lighthouse and Hobbit Beach in a larger map

From where you pick up the Hobbit Trail to the beach, it’s actually quite short – a 1/2 mile is all. And, frankly, the Heceta Head Lighthouse trail is more beautiful, but the Hobbit Trail did live up to its name with some very cool hiking as well, including the famed Hobbit hole portion that opens onto the beach:

the Hobbit Hole portion of the trail; this portion opens right onto the beach

I took a quick shot of Toren and I right after I shot the above:

Toren and I in the Hobbit Hole

You can see my headphone in.  I listen to podcasts while I hike, but only in one hear, so I can talk with Toren at the same time (yeah, it’s multi-tasking, but it’s what I do).

Here’s Hobbit Beach:

looking south, at the hill we climbed

looking north; the beach was almost empty

While the hike was a bit more strenuous than I had planned (because of the elevation gain), I was feeling pretty good.  I wasn’t sweating too much because of the weather and had just seen some amazing vistas and was surrounded by beautiful scenery.  I periodically looked back at Toren while hiking to make sure he was okay, and he seemed fine (though, look a bit closer at that picture above).  But, as it turns out, he wasn’t.  Here’s where the story takes a dark turn…

I took the pack off and set it down in a little alcove in the cliffs to avoid the sun and wind.  As I undid the straps to pull Toren out, I saw his chin quiver.  I grabbed his arms and they were freezing!!!  While I was staying plenty warm because of the hiking, Toren was basically in the shade (the backpack has a sunscreen) and wasn’t doing much besides turning his head here and there to see what he wanted to see.  Given the slight breeze and the temperature, Toren had gotten really, really cold.  I started to freak out!  I was thinking this could be really bad.  He was very cold (he was still alert) and we were over 2 miles from our car on a nearly abandoned beach.  What’s more, outside of the trees, the wind was quite strong.  Once I pulled him out, I immediately hugged him close, and tried to figure out what to do.  It was about 12:15 to 12:30 at this point and Toren needed to eat as well.  I hadn’t brought much along as I didn’t think we’d be hiking that long (I underestimated the steepness of the hike) and figured we could stop at a restaurant on the way home.

I did, however, bring along a blanket, which I had planned to use to let Toren sleep on while we relaxed at the midway point of the hike – in this case, on the beach.  I pulled the blanket out, grabbed the bag of cheerios and the protein bar Toren was going to have for a snack, then found a leeward side of a rock that was still in the sun, and went to work.  I wrapped Toren up (which he hates, and fought, of course), sat down on the sand with my back to the wind so I could block it out, put him on my lap straddling me so his core would be next to mine, covered all but the top of his head with the blanket, then broke open the bag of cheerios inside the blanket and started feeding him.  The poor thing’s arms were still very cold and his chin would occasionally quiver.  He also had snot all over from his poor nose being so cold.  He was so miserable he didn’t even want to feed himself.  So, I would reach down inside my make shift cover and feed him cheerios while trying to block out the wind.  To add insult to injury, the wind wasn’t just cold, it blew sand around.  I blocked most of it out with my back and the blanket (I didn’t care that I was getting a little cold and was uncomfortable from the wind and sand), but some still got in and got stuck in Toren’s snot.  But I was determined to get some food into him and warm him up.  There we sat, for about 30 minutes, me feeding him with one hand and rubbing his back ferociously with the other to try to warm him up.  It was quite the pathetic scene – a 13 month old toddler, freezing on a nearly abandoned beach miles from help with only a dimwitted father, a blanket, and cheerios to rescue him.  And yet, I couldn’t help but think about how much I loved him at that moment and how sorry I was that he was so cold and it was my fault!

Luckily, my pathetic fumblings worked.  After about 30 minutes in the blanket pressed up against me with me rubbing him vigorously, his arms were warm, his legs were warm, and his head and face were warm.  Crisis averted… For the moment. Phew!

(Aside: In retrospect, I think I know why I didn’t worry about him getting cold.  The only place I’ve used the backpack is in Florida, and that’s just been since about April, when we bought it.  I only worry about him over heating in Florida when we hike because it is so hot and muggy.  I didn’t even think about him getting cold, let alone so cold that I would be worried about him.  Lesson learned.)

He was clearly warm enough after 30 minutes that he was feeling good.  He pushed the blanket off and wanted to go explore.  With him warm, I figured a little movement would do him some good, though I was still worried about him.  He couldn’t walk very well in the loose, dry sand, so I took him to some wet sand.  He loved it.  He started digging a hole:

He did this for a good 20 minutes before he decided to try eating the sand.  He clearly didn’t like the taste, but that didn’t keep him from trying it a second time, which is when I decided we should get back to the car and get him completely warmed up.  I did my best to get the sand off him (though it was still stuck to him thanks to his drying snot) and cleaned him up the best I could.

While the original crisis of Toren freezing was averted, I still had to get him back to the car, which was 2 miles away, over a small mountain (mountain to a Floridian, that is), upon which he froze the last time we climbed it.  I was worried he’d get just as cold, but I did have the blanket, so I wrapped him up the best I could after putting him in the backpack and decided I’d really push to get back to the car on the way back.  We made pretty good time, covering the whole distance in an hour.  I stopped a couple times to check on him and he was doing okay, though he was a bit cold.  He fell asleep the last 20 minutes, but was doing well enough when we got back to the car that he wanted to play.  I was going to let him, but a nasty wind whipped up, blowing sand everywhere.  So, I went with option number 2: Take him into the nearby town, find food, and look for a play area for kids.  Turns out, there was a McDonald’s with a play area.  So, we just ate there (Toren’s first time) and I let him play for a good hour before we had to head back to pick up Debi.  Here he is in one of the tubes:

Toren in the McDonald's play area

Toren crashed on the way back to Eugene, so I thought he’d be up to going out for dinner.  Yeah, not so much.  We went out for dinner around 6:30, which is about 9:30 Tampa time.  I think he had started to adjust at this point, but it was still too much for him – he was a nightmare at the restaurant.  Though, that may just be the phase  he’s in as he’s not doing very well in any restaurants at the moment.

Some additional videos added after I originally posted this. Here’s some footage from the trail of the beach below:

And here’s some footage of Hobbit Beach as you walk out of the hobbit hole portion of the trail:

Toren and I went for another hike last Sunday.  This time it was to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve in St. Petersburg.  I couldn’t really get a good sense of what to expect from the website.  Basically, there is a learning center and a nature preserve on Lake Maggiore.  Once you’re in the preserve, you’d never guess that you’re actually in the middle of the St. Petersburg peninsula, but you are:

a map of the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve and surrounding St. Petersburg

The preserve has several very wide trails that basically just form a loop, skirting the lake on one side, then wrap around another small pond.  What’s cool about the preserve, however, is that you pass through multiple ecosystems – from willow marshes and swamp woodlands to pine flatwoods and sand scrub trail.  You get to see all of these ecosystems within a couple of miles.

In a trial of my new phone, I downloaded an application that tracks your movements using the GPS device in the phone (called My Tracks – free).  Not only does the app show where we travel, but it tracks your overall distance as well, all within about 20 feet of your actual path.  It also allows you to upload your route to Google Maps.  Here’s the route Toren and I took (2.42 miles):

hike route

The app also provides very cool statistics:

Total Distance: 4.36 km (2.7 mi)
Total Time: 1:06:17
Moving Time: 50:58
Average Speed: 3.95 km/h (2.5 mi/h)
Average Moving Speed: 5.13 km/h (3.2 mi/h)
Max Speed: 12.24 km/h (7.6 mi/h)
Min Elevation: -42 m (-139 ft)
Max Elevation: -9 m (-31 ft)
Elevation Gain: 188 m (616 ft)
Max Grade: 0 %
Min Grade: 0 %
Recorded: Sun May 16 14:58:44 EDT 2010
Activity type: hiking

The only thing that seems to be a bit off is the elevation, as I’m pretty sure we were not below sea level where we were.  Otherwise, it looks pretty accurate.

Here are a few pictures from the hike:

Toren by one of the sculpted armadillos

Toren and I cruising along the trail at our 3mph pace!

the trail

We didn’t see much wildlife – mostly squirrels and a single alligator in the lake (not even on shore).  But towards the very end we did see this turtle march out of the woods and start munching on grasses right next to the trail:

big turtle

Near the learning center they also have an aviary for injured birds.  There were vultures and a variety of hawks and owls.  I think Toren liked seeing the birds.

Anyway, the hike was fun and the app test was successful.  I now have a very cool to document my hikes!

In preparation for a trip this summer, we picked up a baby backpack.  I spent quite a while looking at packs online and eventually went with the Deuter Kid Comfort III.

Deuter Kid Comfort III (even comes with a little bear)

It’s expensive, but thanks to one of our credit cards we get REI credit, so we didn’t pay very much for it.  And, well, I’m glad we got it.  It’s super comfortable and basically makes carrying Toren very easy as all the weight is on the hips, not the shoulders.

I put it on a few times to test it out, but decided it needed a real test.  So I looked up a local hike and took Toren out last weekend.  We went to Hillsborough River State Park (unfortunately it’s about a 30 minute drive to get there).  Here’s a map of the park with our hiking route in red:

Not sure how far we hiked, but we were out hiking for about 2 1/2 hours.

And here are a few pictures:

Toren in the carrier, ready to hike

hiking a trail with Toren

On the way back to the car, Toren fell asleep. He’s still a little small for the carrier, so he can’t use the chin rest to sleep. He made do:

Toren catching some zzz's on the way back to the car

this is his favorite sleeping position - with his head hanging out the side

Summit Date: August 1st, around 10:30

Party: Ryan Cragun, Mark Woolley, Tom Triplett

While in Utah I did my annual hike with my two hiking buddies, Tom and Mark.  Having hiked all the highpoints within about a day’s drive of Salt Lake City, we decided to do something local this year.  Of course, it’s not like a local hike is a disappointment – lots of people fly to SLC specifically for the hiking nearby (plenty of mountains around SLC).  Mark picked the hike: Pfeifferhorn or Little Matterhorn.  Most websites say the elevation is 11,326 with a round-trip hiking distance of about 9 miles.

The trail begins at the White Pine Trailhead up Little Cottonwood Canyon, which leads to two alpine lakes: White Pine Lake and Red Pine Lake.  Mark took a picture of the trail that was posted at the trailhead:

I added the upper trail to the image, which isn’t always clearly marked.  I also added some descriptions (in red) which you can see in better detail if you click on the above image and look at it at full size.

We started hiking around 6:30.  The starting elevation according to my watch, which includes an altimeter, was about 7,400 feet.  There were other people hiking the trail, but it wasn’t overly busy.

Here we are at the beginning of the hike:

Tom and me

Mark and Tom

It’s actually a very pleasant hike up to the lower lake with scenic views.  It seemed that was as far as most of the people who were on the trail were hiking. Here’s a photo from the lower trail on the way up to the lake:

lower trail on the way to the lake

There was a guy up at the lake who had camped there the night before.  He snapped this shot for us:

Me, Tom, and Mark at the lower lake

Mark, the designated hike photographer, took some great shots of the lakes, like this one:

Red Pine Lake (the lower lake)

There were also some beautiful wild flowers just to the East of the lake along the trail.  We were so overcome by the beauty that Tom and Mark had to frolick in the flowers:

Tom and Mark frolicking in the widlflowers

From the lower lake you basically cross to the east of it then run into a rock scramble where the trail kind of ends.  If you follow the rocks up, staying to the west of the upper lakes, you’ll eventually run into a ridge that continues from the tree line all the way up to the ridge line that runs east/west.  This is definitely the easiest way to make it to the ridge, even though it is quite steep.  We didn’t see it, initially, but we saw a guy coming down that way and asked him the easiest way to make it to the ridge.  He pointed it out and it was very easy.  It’s obviously the way you are meant to go as there is a clear trail about half way up that ridge that is easy to follow.  Here’s a shot of the upper and lower Red Pine Lakes from the ridge:

the upper and lower lakes from the ridge

Once you make the ridge, you actually drop to the south of it and skirt a small peak.  This part is really easy hiking as it’s pretty level and has great views to the south of the peak.  You also get your first glimpse of Pfeifferhorn once you make the ridge.  Here’s a shot of me walking along this level part (this is actually as we were headed back down):

me walking along the fairly level part skirting the lower peaks between the ridge and the razorback

You follow the clear trail along the back or south of the ridge until you reach the razorback.  People make it out to be particularly challenging, but it isn’t that bad.  It is a rock scramble with fairly steep sides (if you fall off the north side, you’ll probably die; the south side would just be very, very painful).  But it’s pretty wide – a good 20 to 30 feet in most places – and you can go over the top or to the north (the steeper side, of course) so long as you can scramble over fairly large rocks.  There were only a couple of times that I felt like it was a bit precarious, but for the most part it is not scary.  Here’s how it looks as you approach it headed up the mountain:

the razorback just below the summit; Pfeifforhorn is at the top of the photo

That’s Tom in the photo.  On the way up, we skirted to the right or north of the razorback, avoiding the really steep pile of rocks right in the middle.  On the way back we went right over the top.  It wasn’t that challenging.  What is daunting at this point, however, is the last push up the summit.  You can see some green along the ridge up the summit.  That’s basically where the trail runs.  It looks really steep and, well, it is pretty steep, but it’s not terrible.  Also, we had read that the last push is about a 700 foot elevation gain.  After we crossed the razorback, I checked my altimeter and it said about 10,300 feet.  That seemed about right assuming the summit is just over 11,000 feet.  About 20 minutes later, we were at the top.  It actually isn’t as bad as it looks.  My altimeter read 10,600 feet at the top.  I’m guessing there is something wrong with my watch, but based on my readings, the last push is closer to a 300 foot elevation gain, not 700 feet.

We spent about an hour at the top enjoying the view, eating, and snapping photos:

Tom, Mark, and me at the summit

me and Tom on the summit

Another group of about 5 guys arrived on the summit just after we did and left just before we did.  There were a few flies and there was a chipmunk on the summit trying to raid our food, but it was actually quite pleasant and the view was great.

Here’s a shot of Mt. Timpanogos to the south:

peaks to the south

We got back to the parking lot without incident at around 1:30.  So, it took from 6:30 to 10:30 to summit; we spent 1 hour on the summit; it took 2 hours to descend.  Our total time was about 7 hours on the mountain.

We were tired, of course, by the time we got to the car, but we were not as exhausted as we’ve been in years past.  This was about the perfect level of hike for us – challenging but not insane.

I’m buried with the start of school, but I did finally find a few minutes to put the finishing touches on a new flash-based interactive map to detail my highpointing adventures. You can see and interact with the new map here.  If you find any problems, typos, etc., let me know.  If you think it’s lame, keep that to yourself (I worked too hard on it for it to be lame).