I cannot remember a time in my life when I was not interested in hiking, especially in the hills, buttes and mountains of the Pacific Northwest.  When I was 6 years old, I conned my 10 year old brother, Leo into taking me up on Horse Butte.  A year later I hiked up Peterson Butte with some other kids.  So, beings that I am still hiking the mountain trails, I have enjoyed 70 years of the best pastime a person could ever have.  It is healthy, It is cheap, It is scenic, It is a challenge sometimes, and it brings pure delight to the soul.

As soon as my Oldest child Mark was 7 and his brother Scott turned 6, I started taking them up to Big Lake to hike on the Skyline Trail toward Mt. Washington.  We were soon using the Skyline Trail north of Highway 20 to hike into Square, Booth and Santiam Lake on the approaches to Three Fingered Jack.  As years rolled on I acquired 2 more sons, David and Daniel.  As soon as they were old enough we added them to the hiking party.

We added Snow Peak to our itinerary.  I've seen some of my best hiking as a Boy Scout in the thirties.  At that time the trail started at Island Inn east of Lacomb.  The trip was entirely through old growth forests.  If you have not seen it you cannot imagine the lush growth of the virgin forests, all covered with moss and gentle streams meandering through the little ravines to the larger streams between the ridges and on down to Roaring River.  Although I will never ever see it that way again, I will always have golden memories of the way it was.

After we had Snow Peak under our belt we branched out to Rooster Rock, Iron Mountain, Browder Ridge, Maxwell Butte, Crescent Mountain and Cone Peak, all in the Santiam District of the Western Cascade Mountains.