Bells Mountain Trail Map Clark County Washington

This is a map of the Bells Mountain trail in clark county

Free Movies This Summer At Cascade 16

This post has been moved to

http://swwliving.com/2008/06/free-movies-this-summer-at-cascade-1/

sorry for the inconvience

Free Movies This Summer At Cinema 99

Sorry the post as been moved to the new blog at

 

http://swwliving.com/2008/06/free-movies-this-summer-at-cinema-99/

Sorry for the inconvienence

Keeping Kids Busy This Summer

What are you going to do to keep your kids busy this Summer? We are starting a series here on SW Washington Living, where we will post free and inexpensive activities, events, programs, etc. that are going on in our local area. If you have something to share, please post them in the comments and we’ll share them!

Falls Creek Falls in Skamania County…just awesome.

Sorry the blog has moved to http://www.swwliving.com you can find this post with the pictures and directions at this link now.

http://swwliving.com/2008/06/falls-creek-falls-in-skamania-countyjust-awesome/

 

Sorry for the inconvienence

Cape Horn Trail. A great reward awaits at the top.

If you havn’t heard about the Cape Horn trail it is a new trail on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge.  The trailhead is only about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver, and about 20 minutes from the SR 14/I205 interchange.    The trail itself is a loop or for a shorter hike hike up to Pioneer Point for some incredible views of the Columbia River Gorge. 

This was the view on a cloudy wet overcast day.

Here is trip report courtesy of abear1 at portlandhikers.com

http://portlandhikers.com/forums/thread/53707.aspx

Here is link to the trail map at gorgefriends.org

http://www.gorgefriends.org/trails/CapeHorn/index_html/Attachment00040671/CapeHornLoop.jpg

The trail right now would be a little tough for smaller children.  

Gifford Pinchot 100 Years

I have been spending alot of time in the outdoors in the last few months, trying my hand at kayaking and just really starting to take an interest in hiking.   Our are is incredible when it comes to opportunities for outdoor recreation.   Mike, a buddy of mine sent me this link the other day:

http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/research/heritage/CentPhotos.shtml

This link takes you the Bicentennial for the Gifford Pinchot National Forest our regions giant backyard.  The old photos are just so interesting to look at.

I hope you enjoy

A Salmon Creek Wal-Mart?

It appears that a Wal-Mart in Salmon Creek might become more a reality than I would ever hope.   Not that I am opposed of Wal-Mart per se, I will shop there when I have the need for a product that I know I can get there cheaper than another store.  That being said, Salmon Creek is already a traffic nightmare and putting a Wal-Mart in there just isn’t a good idea for those of us living in Clark County.  We have one in Hazel Dell only 3 or 4 miles from a Salmon Creek site and there is talk of them putting one a Wal-Mart in Woodland which is 15 miles north of Salmon Creek.   

 

Ridgefield Schools delayed today because of vandalism.

It appears that somebody thought it would be funny to let the air out of the tires of the Ridgefield School District busses parked at the high school.  Obviously, this happened sometime over the Memorial Day weekend.    From what KPTV.com is reporting it appears that the air was just let out of the tires so the only actual damages will be to the thousand or so families who are scrambling to figure out what to do this morning.    These types of pranks are not funny.  If I had been late to work today it would of cost me all of yesterdays paid holiday pay.  Thankfully, my wife is able to get the kids out the door. 

 

Castle Rock Middle School to hold some students back a year.

This is just something you don’t see in the news very often, but according to the article in today’s Longview Daily News, Castle Rock Middle School is holding back at least 19 7th and 8th graders for lack of academic performance.  There is a lively discussion on their site about the situation.  Personally, while it is a tragedy that these children are not able to pass their classes, I think I have to applaud the decision to hold them back.   It does not get any easier and while it might create some unfortunate social/peer situations the benefits to me are far far more important. 

It would be interesting to know how many other students within the region are being held back or what other schools are doing in similar situations.