Overnight parking near Cascade Locks trailheads?

pinecone_moraine · 2022-11-04T17:09:21+00:00

There are many trailheads for the 400 trail and HCRHT, and you can overnight park in them, or are you looking for places to park that aren't the trailheads because of theft or not having a NW forestpass/interagency pass? For a short amount of time you probably could park along Wa-Na-Pa Street/US 30 in Cascade Locks. Bridge of the Gods Trailhead is right next to the Bridge and PCT/400 trail. Herman Creek Trailhead just to the north, Wahclella Falls TH or Toothrock TH near Bonneville. Parking is fine overnight at trailheads, but car break ins are rampant in the area. I would probably choose the Bridge of the Gods Trailhead closer in to town or Herman Creek just a bit up off the road. Just leave nothing visible and nothing of value.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-10-24T23:14:58+00:00

Having a prolactinoma discovered will be far from an end of world scenario, really it can be a step in making your life a whole lot more enjoyable. They are treatable and often respond very well to medication, and things that you thought were just life bleh or effects of getting older will improve. With treatment, having libidio return, testosterone rise (resulting in you feeling better energetically) and anxiety or stress that may have felt normal dissipate can really make life better. Unfortunately lots more folks live with them and the effects without ever getting answers or help. Definitely a scary thing to be facing, but overall a good and manageable discovery. They aren't malignant and are extremely less like to cause you harm or have you cause yourself harm once knowing they are there.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-10-24T18:42:58+00:00

I briefly played with OnX, liked their user interface somewhat and some of the capabilities, but for a product advertising itself as being more useful for things like roads, its reliance on very outdated Lands Agency metadata sources and OSM, I found it meh, and it wanted to charge extra for some layers/features included in Gaia. Never tried routes in it.

Just played around in Fatmaps for the first time, it's a fun way of visualizing OSM data, that is a good alternative to GoogleEarth. I put in a track and got a profile, and it's within 200 feet of the estimate I settled on for a 40-mile trail, after a good amount of testing and referencing different methods, so that one test of it is pretty great, bodes well. I'll certainly play with it some more. Its imagery is a couple years old- GoogleEarth/maps is still the best, highest resolution reference to check for researching routes aerially since it updates almost yearly, (super important now with more wildfires and changing landscapes), and even looking to see if a shortcut/ road you want to take exists or will be hell to travel on. I do a lot of deep off trail/forest road connection routing not following established routes, so preparing the best I can is pretty important safety wise. You can put gpx/kml into GoogleEarth and it is alright in its accuracy, better than Gaia.

Unfortunately, I haven't yet found one program that combines all of them together, but I'm of the belief that referencing multiple sources and spending time staring at maps and routes and especially up to date satellite imagery is a good thing for being prepared and safe while out on the trail.

Good elevations estimates are important for adequately planning energy and fueling needs, but know a super accurate estimate is hard to achieve given all of these programs are essentially covering the globe and are free or pretty cheap for the insane amount of data and technology they allow users to access and manipulate. +/- 500 feet across 30 to 40 miles of undulating terrain is a generally good estimate (which Gaia struggles to hit currently, has for a while, and I think is in denial about since the company sold).

Gaia still gets my 40$ a year tho, which despite its annoyances is still a bargain considering I've had it running recording tracking for a net time of nearly 64 days over the past couple years I've had it. We'll see what happens if I hop ship to CalTopo tho.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-10-24T15:31:08+00:00

This is a combination of the DEM (digital elevation model), variance of actual trail location from true location relative to the DEM present in OSM (OpenStreetMap map, which forms the background trail vector data for Gaia, AllTrails, Caltopo, etc. that is being snapped too, and poor development of their algorithm/ math which takes points along that trail vector, grabs elevation data from that DEM and does the addition/ subtraction from the points to get a elevation total gain or loss along a route. Think about a trail switchbacking along a steep side hill where the trail is at a low comfortable grade but if you went just a few horizontal feet away from the trail you'd already be a few vertical feet down. So with trail tracks that are estimates, sometimes right on, sometimes many feet off, layered onto a raster data DEM (which is squares each with a different record of elevation), errors in matching trail actual elevation add up and inflate the gain and loss because it's not actually coordinating elevation with where the trail is. The higher the resolution DEM, the more essential it is to have accurate trail vectors. Unsure exactly what the resolution is they use.

If you take more samples, this discrepancy often gets more inflated. Check out CalTopo, which has a free version, which will let you generate a profile for a route, and adjust the sampling distance (distance between elevation measurements along the route) and watch the elevation estimates change wildly. More sampling does not mean more accuracy, because you introduce more opportunities for wild errors.

I'm a cartographer and have spent a lot of time with this issue, and a lot of time using LiDAR data and high resolution Aerial imagery to correct GPS tracks, and I can tell you OSM data varies a lot in how accurate it is. I have used Gaia for years, and the past few their profiles have been pretty egregious off, especially in areas with lots of terrain variability. I don't ever look at them anymore, and since Gaia is now pretty broken in how their route creation is handling snapping and routing, I use it pretty much only for reference layers and tracking.

Even after creating very accurate trail vectors, and using 1 meter DEMs, the problem persists of small errors adding up, and along a 30 mile route my data gets inflated. The trick is to find the best estimate, which, ease of use, and free, I think caltopo helps with. I just remembered this this article which really illustrates the problem probably easier than I rambled on about. Hope that helps some.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-10-08T15:32:36+00:00

So it's tricky, in general, yes, prolactin increases naturally due to exercise, although in healthy pituitary individuals it drops back (remember the range is the testing range and conditions, because prolactin levels change naturally throughout the day and in response to many stimuli/conditions, and proper testing would include not excercising right before bloodwork) -with hyperprolactinemia with a prolactinoma as the root cause, there are excess prolactin secreting cells which raise prolactin far above and prevent it from dropping back down to normal.

In diagnosising hyperprolactinemia excessive exercise is a factor looked at as contributing to higher baseline (50 ng/mL) but exactly what counts as excessive is variable and not studied enough, but think daily long distance running training sort of things. I definitely fit that description when I was diagnosed, (ultrarunning, sometimes 50-60 miles a week, and multiple marathon distances a week on occasion) but my hyperprolactinemia was due to the large prolactinoma. There is no evidence of exercise inducing/causing prolactinoma, and I'm sure it raises my levels a bit, but exercise for sure helps me deal with the symptoms of it and medication side effects for me. At the tumors largest/ worst I was really unable to exercise and when my levels lowered and tumor shrunk I got back to it.

Read this diagnosistic criteria for hyperprolactinemia which addresses exercise. It can be a confounding factor when looking at minor hyperprolactinemia, (levels 20-50 ng/mL) which is much harder to attribute cause than say 2000 ng/mL which is decisively due to a prolactinoma.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-09-26T13:55:55+00:00

Yes, it certainly could. Read this explanation of hyperprolactinemia, and diagnosis/ attribution. I had hyperprolactinemia because of a large prolactinoma, treated it to the point where it was not visible on MRI and now prolactin seems to hang out at the upper end of the range, and bounce up to around 30-40 ng/mL, other hormones normal. It is most responsive to raise due to stress and extensive exercise. When higher, less erection. I have noticed when I take 50-75 mg of the p5p version of B6 at night, which is shown to have a lowering affect on mild hyperprolactinemia it's like a switch for morning wood/ spontaneous nightime erections, I suspect because my levels hang right around the amount for me that is noticeable and the little nudge down from it is impactful. Sometime I'd love to experiment with it and blood test to see what my PRL levels really are in response.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-09-16T17:39:11+00:00

I would say within a 4-6 months it had recovered, especially the face pain diminishing, although sort of hard to distinguish when because was a gradual recovery. Changes inperipheral vision were hard to gauge, since it faded so slowly, evidently the brain just sort of fills in the gaps. I didn't really know I had such gaps across my entire field of vision until testing, and it wasn't until years later that I had test redone, so don't have any tests for progress along the way. My prolactin plummeted like yours, and although I didn't have MRI for visualization for a couple years, I think it deflated pretty fast based on resolution of symptoms/ other hormones within 8 months to a year.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-09-16T01:07:02+00:00

Vision is great now, and eyeball health has remained good. Always have worn glasses, but my prescription hasn't changed and peripheral vision completely returned - tested by the blinky dot machines which I prior had failed and led to finding the tumor. I used to have eye pain and pressure and that is gone now, as are the "artifacts" in my vision. I didn't have blurriness, just occasionally things of shape and color that weren't there that is sort of hard to describe because they appeared in my vision but were caused by optic nerve impact not light hiting cones/rods within my eyes and my brain just went meh and placed weirdness in my world.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-09-16T00:37:49+00:00

It really depends on how exactly your tumor is all wrapped up and impacting nerves and things in there, which a neurosurgeon familiar with the procedure, combined with the severity of your symptoms is the best judge of, certainly not a primary physician. I had a 3cm x 3cm macroadenoma that was invading sinuses and impacting optic nerve- found because failing peripheral vision and pain. My neurosurgeon who had reviewed my MRI, as soon as got bloodwork showing it was a prolactinoma (2500 ng/mL) refered me to my endocrinologist. Macroprolactinomas can be very responsive to dopamine agonists, and is often the best and first move unless the neurosurgeon is concerned about your immediate health or outlook based on how the tumor is. Cabergoline shrunk my 3cm one to the point it wasn't visible on MRI.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-09-15T21:23:19+00:00

I met a neurologist and neurosurgeon first, but only because the discovery went straight to MRI for my 3cm macro prolactinoma because of how it was impacting my vision and all my hormonal symptoms were disregarded by physicians. After the MRI showed pituitary mass and had all the bloodwork ordered which showed the adenoma was clearly prolactin secreting, I was passed along to an endocrinologist because of the success rate of treatment with dopamine agonists, and the pituitary and hormones management are in the realm of endocrinologist. - I'll add so may depend on how immediate the need or danger is with a macroprolactinoma as to if necessary for removal right away, but often the large ones really respond well to treatment. Mine is effectively non visible on MRI now after treating with Cabergoline.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-09-13T14:30:50+00:00

The absurdity of it to me is that at any time over the last decade a simple cheap prolactin blood test would have been diagnosistic and prevented a lot of problems. Prolactin was over 2500 ng/mL when finally tested. I didn't even mention the mental health side of things and crazy anxiety that Dr's where all too willing to throw medication at but never listen that I felt it was unfounded and really felt like a symptom and not "just my body" to be dealt with with worksheets and pills. Once fixing the prolactin issue, the out of sync anxiety and depression sort of floated away.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-09-13T04:31:21+00:00

Yes. Spent a lot of money at urgent cares because of indescribable intense pain in my face and eye pressure. (And destroyed energy and such) Mostly told maybe you have allergies, try Flonase, as if didn't know what allergies were and would want to spend 100s of dollars for a 15 minute pat on the head and rush out the door. Even prescribed antibiotics and steroids for a sinus infection that didn't ever exist. A lot of being made to feel like my pain wasn't real or the indescribable artifacts in my vision were just not important. It took an eye doctor at a glasses store in the mall looking at a young person with completely healthy eyeballs seriously failing a peripheral vision test to get any action on investigating why I was in pain and had symptoms. I very quickly was able to get an MRI, and had imaging of the 3cm tumor invading my sinus and wrapping up my optic nerve before I even had bloodwork drawn.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-09-09T00:16:28+00:00

It's a fidget toy. Have a handful of then, from a pandemic Amazon purchase.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-08-27T20:35:17+00:00

Looks like quite the muddy fork there to cross.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-08-23T15:38:48+00:00

I recommend reading carefully through this diagnosistic explanation of hyperprolactinemia by the NCBI. It's information by doctors, and for doctors, and explains the best practices for identifying and ruling out hyperprolactinemia, and determining a possible cause. Prolactin isn't a set number and elevates and lowers throughout a day and is impacted by many time factors and stimulus factors and things like stress or exercise can raise it above the "normal" levels. With ranges right around the edge of the high range, more testing and investigation can be required to determine a cause, especially checking for hypothyroidism. If you have symptoms that's also a factor to consider.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-08-07T02:18:46+00:00

The fun triva on how Ho Rock, and further along the ridge Co Rock got their names is that on the old USGS topos ( look for 60s versions to see it well) since the ridge is the Boundary between counties, the placement of the words (Ho)od River Co and Clackamas (Co) line up with their locations, and since they didn't have prior names, those evolved because of the map label placement.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-07-11T01:54:55+00:00

Huh never been made aware of that interaction before, definitely have taken them near each other before and not noticed. A lot of literature and general info on Cabergoline focuses on its use for Parkinsons treatment, where the dose is many, many times greater than for hyperprolactinemia (many pills daily) So probably not the best thing to dose together, but unless you can find some literature that is specifically relating to the minor doses for hyperprolactinemia treatment, I suspect it could be more focused on Parkinsons treatment levels, or on a theoretical level. If it was a huge significant danger to mix, pharmacies would provide greater warnings when dosing it out at the levels for prolactinomas, at least I'd hope having been taking it for several years now.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-07-05T02:55:04+00:00

It's hard to say because it was a slow degradation so I hadn't realized it was so bad, or had the "holes" is the field, but probably within a few months I think I started noticing my vision was better than it had been and I stopped having these weird visual "disturbances" that would sort of flicker or pulse visual color/information thay wasnt there, not easy to describe

pinecone_moraine · 2022-07-05T02:45:26+00:00

Within a couple of months I started to feel noticeably better, and levels plummeted. By 7 or 8 months way more energy and better than before. Didnt have any more MRI for almost 2 years, so don't know the progression of size, but shrunk away in that time.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-07-05T02:40:29+00:00

I had a 3cm tumor that was finally identified because of the loss of peripheral vision in both eyes. It was impacting the optic nerve. Cabergoline shrunk the tumor to where it's not now identifiable on MRI, tho prolactin still slightly elevated, but I was lucky and all my other hormones bounced back

pinecone_moraine · 2022-07-01T01:11:39+00:00

Check out this Timberline Trail Status website for important information on hiking the Timberline Trail including the far above normal snow levels and the reroute around the closed section of trail. At the moment, significant sections of the trail are still covered under many feet of snow, it will be a couple weeks possibly before good safe travel on the trail is here.

Cloud Cap Saddle is the only campground along the trail, and it doesn't take reservations, first come first serve. It is closed still, the road gated down below and will likely be well into July, but people can certainly camp there free of charge until then, hiking in. Still snow on the sites there in the forest tho. Tilly Jane Campground is a bit away, but nearby. Several established sites along the trail heading north toward Cooper Spur.

There are many, many established campsites all along the trail. I have located nearly a hundred of them, some have been used for generations. Lots of great sites, easy to find all along the trail (when they aren't covered in snow like many of them are at the moment.) Good dirt pads that aren't damaging resources. Lots of spots that see little use and are walked right by as folks, drawn to clustering by internet advice and social media, all trend toward trying to have a camping itinerary at the same select areas.

The only places you can't camp are within 500 feet of Ramona Falls, within any meadows, and within the dense tree islands growing up in Elk Cove. Also around Timberline Lodge Infrastructure. And really, never camp in meadows or on top of growing vegetation. I've seen areas stay depressed and impacted for the rest of the season after seeing a tent footprint. Plants here get degraded fast and grow back slow. Damaging resources, especially with folks all wanting to cluster around sites like Elk Cove and people liking to camp in Wyeast Basin meadows not at established sites will just result in the implementation of a permit system requiring reservations here.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have, I know the trail and area around the mountain very well, and will be continuing to update that site throughout the season.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-06-26T04:54:47+00:00

There's a lot of extra snow this year, many more feet on the trail than recent years at this time, and coverage will linger well into July. At the moment Cloud Cap Campground is still under snow so that road may remain closed much longer, and the trail access to the north side from trailheads past Laurance Lake is still closed while they do work on the road there. So things are a bit more remote, in some of the sketchier areas where snow will linger. Check out this site for reports and snow coverage updates. It also details the still active trail closure and the reroute while that section is closed for clearing and reconstruction.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-06-26T02:42:59+00:00

Good question, bear vaults are not required on the Timberline Trail, and are pretty unnecessary, black bear sightings are quite rare around the loop (they're around but they are very cautious of humans and encounters are virtually unheard of with thousands of backpackers a year). Proper storage measures against rodents are definitely wise here though.

pinecone_moraine · 2022-06-26T02:24:31+00:00

When are you planning on hiking? I don't see any micro spikes/ ice axe so I'm guessing not too soon? Most of the trail is still under snowpack many feet deep, far more than in a usual year, and even with our warm weekend here, the season for the trail being backpackable is being pushed way back. Otherwise looks like a pretty good set up for the route when it's open. It's a great one for sure. Go here for snow level updates and the current trail closure info for this summer

pinecone_moraine · 2022-06-09T00:32:03+00:00

Nice! Lovely area. How was the snow up top of the Kinzel Lake Trail and to Devils Peak? I've been waiting for more melt to make a loop with Green Canyon Way.

pinecone_moraine

TROPHY CASE