Books, Music, Podcasts, Outside Adventures!

Back to the Butte

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Central Oregon is a geological wonderland and one of its marvels is Pilot Butte. It is like having a “mini mountain” to hike in the middle of Bend, Oregon. At its summit is a splendid 360-degree view of nearly the entire Central Oregon region.

I have a series of posts on my Pilot Butte adventures:

Monday on the “Butte”

The Monday, Post “Yard Bark Mulching”

Monday, Again

You Got to Start Somewhere

Monday 8/15/16, I returned to my Monday hikes on Pilot Butte. I took a hiatus and started going on long bike rides instead as my knees were growing unhappy with the steep vertical ascent and decent on Pilot Butte. I missed Pilot Butte terribly and finally returned.

My current audiobook inspired to return to hiking Pilot Butte – Trespassing Across America: One Man’s Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland (2016) by Ken Ilgunas. Please see the Postscript section of this post for more on this book.

It was not my best hike up the Butte as I needed to take a break during the climb. Luckily Pilot Butte has awesome benches with breathtaking views along the path.

Here is today’s hike in photos:

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I am back!
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Two options: the paved road up or the dirt/nature trail
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I chose the “Nature Trail” which was quite dusty with the hot dry weather
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As you make your ascent you enjoy sweeping views of the region
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And views of Cascade Mountain peaks
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My first bench rest area
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I skipped this bench near the summit, I had my momentum going

At the summit, I discovered these new educational/informational panels:IMG_4463

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I took the road down

My knees are a tiny bit sore, but I am feeling quite pleased that I was able to return to hiking Pilot Butte!

POSTSCRIPT

My current read/listen

I had committed to trying to read/listen to some fiction. I borrowed a “beach read” from the library. That was not a good idea – I became very impatient with the predictable storyline. I gave up on the book.

While trying to figure out what to listen to/read next the audiobook Trespassing Across America: One Man’s Epic, Never-Done-Before (and Sort of Illegal) Hike Across the Heartland (2016) by Ken Ilgunas, became available.

So far this synopsis on amazon.com summarizes the book well:

Told with sincerity, humor, and wit, Trespassing Across America is both a fascinating account of one man’s remarkable journey along the Keystone XL pipeline and a meditation on climate change, the beauty of the natural world, and the extremes to which we can push ourselves—both physically and mentally.
 

This book seems like to perfect book for a long walk or a hike. I loved listening to his hiking adventures and challenges while climbing and descending Pilot Butte.

The book reminds me of a Bill Bryson novel (A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Small Island): in that addition to sharing his adventures trekking across the Canadian and US plains, he shares the geologic and cultural issues of the regions he travels through as well as its history.

Goodreads

A couple of years ago my friend Michele introduced me to Goodreads, the social network for avid book readers. At the time I was still “social networking” skittish (it took awhile for friends to convince me to join Facebook) so I signed up but never really did anything with it.

Recently my blogging buddy Laura has gotten me interested in rediscovering Goodreads. My public profile name is tierneycreates on Goodreads and I am going to start posting all the book reviews I have posted in my blog over the past 3+ years onto my Goodreads profile.

So feel free to connect with tierneycreates on Goodreads if you like to see my reviews. I will also post reviews of my favorite fiction books before I started on my non-fiction obsession.

A Few Random Thoughts on Social Networking

Even though I am a blogger, I still have not fully embraced social networking.

I am signed up on Twitter as tierneycreates, but I am not really into tweeting (I have it set up that my tierneycreates blog posts are automatically tweeted onto Twitter in case anyone wants to follow me there).

I am signed up with Instagram but I have yet to figure out its purpose. I do enjoy Pinterest and someday I will put more effort into organizing my Pinterest boards!

I like to connect, but I do not want to be over-connected…

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

20 thoughts on “Back to the Butte”

    1. I appear to still be working on mastering my native tongue, English – ha! Thanks for your comment as it made me realize a typo i did not catch. I do like to appear semi-fluent in English on these posts – ha! 🙂

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      1. And I didn’t see it until just now, either. Guess we both need to work on some editing!! 😉 Have a great day. I’m heading out to get a haircut, some new sneakers, and new reading glasses. Wish me luck…

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    2. Hope you new look today makes you smile – have fun! Thanks so much for your offer that I can edit your comment to make it look as if I had grasp of the English language 🙂 But I won’t edit as I am not striving for perfection just a moderate sense of clarity…

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  3. Beautiful pictures from your latest hike up the butte. Thanks for letting me vicariously experience this area from my chair. Don’t worry about the stray typo–our brain supplies the needed word.

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    1. Thanks Martha! Yes that is the challenge with proof reading yourself – you think it is right and it is not – ha! Glad you enjoyed the vicarious chair-hike 🙂

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  4. Have you read anything by John McPhee? He is often called a renaissance writer–he writes about the most interesting, unimportant things. I’m sure some of his books are out of print. Decades (literally) ago he wrote a series of 4 books on geology, starting in the Midwest and ending in California, all of which made #1 on the NY Times bestseller list–the first geology books to do so, and probably the last. I can only remember the names of 3–Basin and Range, In Suspect Terrain, and Assembling California.
    My friends and I used to love going to interesting geological places–the Southwest, Oregon, Washington, Nevada. At one time we could have given the lectures at the big three–Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon–verbatim

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    1. Thanks for your comment 🙂 I did take a look online at a couple John McPhee book titles and their reviews and his work does look interesting. I would definitely like to see Zion and places like that someday.

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      1. I love the triangle area. For a basically desert area, they have some beautiful hikes–and Zion has a great 3 hour horseback ride. From the outside Zion looks boring, then you go on the trails thru overhangs dripping water, with columbine and ferns, and it’s beautiful. If you want to see the Milky Way, Grand Canyon is the place to be–as long as the prevailing winds aren’t from the coal plants

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  5. Nice trail! Would love to hike there with you.

    Considering how techie I am, it’s odd that I am not into social networking at all. I have a Twitter account just like you, but now I don’t even blog anymore (what a mental relief). I steer clear of Facebook because I don’t trust the company. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t have a lot to do there anyway. I prefer my online consumption to be more focused on specific topics, and Reddit is great for that, as is the whole Stack Exchange network of topics. The downside is that I don’t get to connect with people I know in real life.

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    1. Maybe you know too much to be into social networking! I do really like Pinterest where people share ideas and photos, I will have to check out Reddit. Also since I am really into reading (well audiobook listening) and always looking for new ideas, I like the book reader social network Goodreads. I only like facebook to keep up on photos and activities of friends, I have learned to ignore the upsetting stuff people post. You know our friendship history and thank goodness for the internet! 🙂

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  7. I can totally relate to the problem your knees are giving you. Life has taken a toll on my own knees. I think all the time I spend kneeling in my gardens as well as the hours spent running have left a lasting impact. Even standing for lengths of time remind me of their displeasure.

    I love reading about your adventures in the outdoors. The photos you share make me feel like I am on the trail with you. Kudos to you for making it a priority.

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