Welcome to Forest Hiker! This site is a paean to the beauty of Oregon’s coastal mountains and the unintended consequence of my frequent rambles along the miles of undocumented forest roads, overgrown “skidder tracks” and single file elk tracks that thread their ways through this inspiring landscape.
This site is a vehicle for my observations, my research on flora, fauna and natural history, my maps and my trail recommendations – along with an ample dose of considering the workings of the greater natural community in whose company we find ourselves as we wander down the leafy corridors though Oregon’s coastal forests.
Aldo Leopold, the famed conservationist once counseled his students against conformity in how they spent their leisure, ” It is because the vast majority of people do not have the courage to venture off the beaten path that they fail to find adventure, and live lop-sided lives…A good healthy curiosity is better equipment to venture forth than any amount of learning or education…the beaten paths of conformity are literally a prison.”
Like Aldo, I confess that I too take great pleasure going “in search of adventure without regard to prudence, self-improvement, learning or any other serious thing.”
