Where’s Nico?

What a fun song! How can I do a series of posts that include 80’s songs and leave off this classic by the Proclaimers? Plus, while we have not walked 500 miles so far on this trip, Nico has put in around 500 miles pretty much every year, which is amazing when you consider his little chihuahua legs.

While the Proclaimers released this song initially in 1988, it didn’t truly become a hit until five years later, when it was included in the movie “Benny & Joon”.

Most of us who even remember the Proclaimers think of them as a one hit wonder from the late 80’s. But the band, which was two twins from Scotland, actually never went away – they’ve been recording albums the whole time. I remember hearing a story from a huge Proclaimers fan/NPR reporter about all the band had been up to in the many decades since their big hit.

Anyway, enough on the Proclaimers. You know the question…

Mount Hood, Oregon!

I promise Nico was happier about returning to Mount Hood than he may appear in the above photo.

We had a wonderful time at Willamette, as I mentioned in the last post. After Willamette, we spent a few days at Silver Falls State Park. It was our first time there, and it was a bit of a mixed bag. It’s quite crowded, and the trails they allow dogs on aren’t all that interesting, but we did let Nico rest up in the trailer the morning of our second day as Kristen and I explored the Trail of Ten Falls hike. That was a really great hike. It wasn’t too crowded with a fairly early start, and it passed by (and behind) some pretty amazing waterfalls.

(Nico forgave us for leaving him behind the next morning…)

After we finished up at Silver Falls, we headed out here to Mount Hood. If you’re a longtime reader of this blog, Mount Hood likely sounds familiar, as it’s our third time here, but it’s a special place, and like Willamette, it’s an area I don’t see us skipping any time we are in this general area.

While at Mount Hood, we’ve hit some old favorite trails, like:

The Trillium Lake loop

Umbrella Falls (a hike we had done before a few times, but we took a side route off the Umbrella Falls Hike to hit Picnic Rock, which had outstanding views)

The Lower and Upper Twin Lakes stretch of the Pacific Coast Trail

(I don’t post a lot of nature shots, but I really liked this one…)

(Our first time encountering llamas on the trail!)

And the Tmanawas Falls Trail

But we also worked in some good new stuff – in addition to the Picnic Rock side hike,we hiked the Ramona Falls trail – we had done a small piece of this trail before, but abandoned it at that time because there was a water crossing that we didn’t feel safe taking Nico across. This year, some enterprising young studs built a nice bridge across the water with a few dead trees lashed together.

We also spent part of an afternoon on paddleboards in Trillium Lake.

Also, after celebrating Kristen’s birthday on the Oregon coast in early July, we celebrated by birthday by hitting this great Thai restaurant in Portland called Eem and by hiking the Wahkeena and Multnomah Falls (we had done the Multnomah hike back in 2019, but that was very pre-Nico and it was a much more fun experience doing this whole loop trail, as it got us away from the crowds near Multnomah).

When we stay at Mount Hood, we boondock on an old dirt airstrip that was built specifically for FDR to be able to fly into Mount Hood to see Timberline Lodge when it was completed by the CCC. We’re set up right by a meadow with a great view of the summit and it’s just a mile or so hike to get down to Trillium Lake to do a nice happy hour at the end of the day.

One other thing we love about this area is the berries. Oregon is full of them! Huckleberries, salmonberries, marionberries, thimbleberries and one of our favorites – blackberries! We went picking along a trail in Sandy and scored some absolutely delicious bounties!

Congrats if you made it this far in the post – I went really picture heavy this time, so I tried to trim out most of the memes. We still have a few days left to enjoy Mount Hood before pushing on to our next destination. I hope you’re having as much fun this summer as we are!

ANA (Ask Nico Anything)

Nico, do you actually enjoy hiking? It seems like half the time you have a goofy smile and the other half, you look ready to kill somebody

Wel, Nico dos uzaly like to hike but sum daze he jus isent feelin eet. But Nico wud not keel noones… he jus has wot papa and mama call ‘resting Nico face’, whateber dat mene.

Nico who is your best friend other than Mama and Papa?

Nico haz so many gud frens. He luvs hees Bryce Canyen Ranjer Bro, Bob, hees happy hower buddy John, his favuride bartend, Tara, his mail lady Lindsey, gud neybor Debbie (but neybor Tom jokes Nico not get), of course Buddy de dog, oh and so many mour. Nico lukey to have so many bes frens.

Nico, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Have I not grow up? Nico feel grow up. I ges Nico wan to keep hike wid Mama and Papa. Dat fun.

– Ken 8/1/2026