Our Mission: To help us (Rod & Marg) remember just what the heck we did on previous adventures, so we won't argue about it when we are trying to plan our next adventure - A journal of our adventures, if you will. And as a side effect, provide our family, our friends, our family of hikers and easy-going adventurers we meet along the way, with hikes, experiences, and resources to help prepare for their next adventure. And, perhaps, to provide a bit of entertainment as well.
I hope to take requests at some point, and perhaps even open the site up to others to contribute hikes - maybe a little community of contributing hikers. I make no money on this site and everything is free to you. Yeah, I know, there are plenty of hiking sites out there (and most are free). I get that. But I also know I meet a lot of folks on the trail that ask about hikes I have taken (I tend to talk a lot). Now, I can tell them to go to rodstrails.com and read all about them. And I do it because it's fun 😜 (and Marguerite - aka Marg - likes that I do it so we can keep track of the adventures we've had).
Just Married and Back in Fiji
We, Rod and Marg, have been together for over 44 years. We met in 1978 in Fiji where we were in the same Peace Corps Group (33). After our first year, we married and Marg moved to Nayavu Village to join me in teaching the wonderful children of Wainibuka Junior Secondary School. We were in Fiji for two years and returned in 1981. From there we dutifully followed our dreams of home and family. Today (March 2024), we have three wonderful children: Elizabeth (Peace Corps Honduras), Gary, and Ben. We also have five grandchildren: Charlie, Tony, Izzy, Gina, and Isla. We are very, very fortunate and we know it.
I retired in 2016 from a career in software development, and Marg retired from banking in 2018. We did a lot of hiking before we retired. I also took our kids on several backpacking trips in Oregon, Washington, and California. We have also stressed visiting the outdoors as much as possible for all kinds of good reasons, to especially include cleansing the soul from time to time. Nature is a good soul cleaner.
After retiring, and especially with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marg and I decided that a great way to stay fit and healthy was by continuing our outdoor pursuits. With that, we started going on week-long hiking adventures, sometimes camping and sometimes staying in hotels. At about that time Marg started keeping a brief record of our adventures in her Snoopy Calendars. In some of the trail writeups, you will find "Marg's Notes." Marg's Notes come directly from the Snoopy Calendars. I wish we would have done that from forever; I always find it a great read (and reminder) of our adventures. You might too.
You might ask, "Why Rod's (& Marg's) Trails? Why not give Marg full billing?" I was going to, really. But she said it was my idea first and that rodstrails was an easier name to remember. I pushed the issue and finally got permission to include her in parens.
Yeah, I know, the entire site should be intuitive. If I was doing this professionally, then it would be more intuitive than it currently is. However, I am not a professional and have other things to do than sit behind a 'puter and work on this website - although I must admit is is fun. But if you are a first-time user or discover something that is rather...odd...on the site, then you might want to look here to see if I've made an excuse for it. If not, let me know and I will make one up.
Site Changes: Over the years I have been off-again/on-again working on this site. I have changed (evolved, if you will) to a format where I can actually get stuff done. For example, I had a phase where I had “Keys” in a hike description. I would include things like Old Growth Forest, Waterfalls, Oregon Coast, Douglas Firs, Desert, etc., where appropriate. Believe it or not, that took more time than I am willing to spend to get it right. So, you might see a few hikes with these Keys. I am not going to go back and take them out. Similarly, in a trail writeup, I used to have Trailhead Coordinates and then a Google Maps link for Driving Directions. Well, that is silly. I can just have Trailhead Coordinates with a link on the actual coordinates for the driving directions. And I have taken a lot of stuff out that, frankly, just took way too much time to implement. I might put those things back in someday once I have the basic trails in place - probably not. Other changes like that have taken place. However, the information to learn the basics about a trail and the ability to learn more than you would ever want to know are always there.
Family Friendly: Some trails have ‘family friendly’ on them. Others that might be family friendly do not. As of early 2023 I finally decided to NOT make this designation. The primary reason is that, well, I don’t know your family so how can I really designate if it is family friendly for you or not? I will let you make that decision based on things like mileage, elevation gain, etc. You might need a potty at the trailhead, maybe not. You know that there are hundreds of potties along almost all trails; they are called trees and rocks. But don't take a dump on the trail, and either bury or carry it out.
Links to Trails: In major trail writeups, I link to another good site that talks about the trail. It may not match my description exactly but is there to give you more information to help you decide if you want to hike that trail or not.
Distance: Distance is usually a reasonable approximation and depends on factors such as GPS used, offshoot trails, climbing a hill for a better picture, backtracking to take that picture I didn’t take earlier, and sometimes, especially in my case, taking the wrong trail 😝. Miles are total miles.
Roundtrip vs. Loop: A roundtrip is an out and back trail and the mileage is for the entire out and back trip. On a roundtrip hike, you will be returning on the same trail you went out on (unless you get lost). Loop is either a big circle loop and sometimes a Lolli-pop loop. A Lolli-pop loop has a “stick” on it, like a P, where the loop part of the hike is the top of the P and the stick is the bottom part. Usually (not always) you start and end the hike at the bottom of the stick.
Trail Reports: When I first started this site, I simply linked the trail name (in map or list view) to another site that talked about that trail. Now, when I take a hike, Marg and I write it up so that when you click on the trail name you get our writeup. A bit more personal that way. However, I have not retrofitted trails that link to other sites, only those moving forward. So, you might get a mish-mash, but the info is still there.
Broken Links: Hmm...Yes, there are surely broken links on this site. Sites (like rodstrails.com) come and go. I try to check links from time to time and there might even be a tool for me to more easily do that. If you find a broken link, then let me know and I will fix it.
My email address is rod@rodstrails.com.
If you have content suggestions, corrections, comments, or even requests then send me an email. I am always open to new ideas, so don't be shy. But note that I do not sell stuff on this website. Everything is free. So don't suggest I can sell this or that; I won't do it.