August, 2010 – HIKE AROUND MT. HOOD IN OREGON
I had been training for something – I know not what. Vellen, Myran, and I took the jet skis out 9 miles into the Pacific Ocean. It was a great day; caught a Coho 32 inches long and a Chinook 34 inches long off of the Jet Ski. On the way back, we caught a few crab.
The second weekend, Vellen and I went fishing – no fish, no crab, but great weather. One thing about jet skiing in the ocean, they are 11 feet long and they spend a lot of time in the air. In short, they beat the Bejesus out of you. How this has anything to do with training for a hike, I have no idea, but it was fun so I thought I would tell you about it.
Now back to how this started. I have wanted to go around Mt. Hood for years. I have climbed it 12 times, been on Illumination Rock twice, but never all the way around Mt. Hood. I thought walking around Mt. Hood would be fun. Having no idea what this would involve, I just kept suggesting it to people. Robert, my nephew, took his vacation and called me on Monday and said, “Do you want to walk around Mt. Hood Tuesday or Wednesday?” I had plans for Tuesday so we made it for Wednesday. All my friends know I like to plan for years and months in advance. (NOT)
This is where it starts to get interesting. We didn’t want to leave our car up there. My sister had something else planned. My wife had a commitment at 8:00 a.m., but I said it would only take an hour to get up there. I lied. It took an hour and a half. We got to sleep in and leave at 6:00 a.m. This made Ilene an hour late for work. She knew she would be an hour late because she figured it would take an hour and a half, so she cleared it with the church ahead of time.
This was going to be a four day hike, 41 miles total. When you pack for bicycling, weight is not really a big issue. When you are carrying it, it is a big issue. Using stuff I had laying around the house, my pack weighed in at 38 lbs. and bulged all over. Walking to the gas station and back for coffee will soon be realized as not enough exercise. As we arrived at Timberline and put on our packs, I started to realize just how heavy 38 lbs. really is. It was a good thing I borrowed Myran’s fancy pack; it really made a difference. After the first mile I had the band aids out covering the blisters. The boots I brought were the ones I did the Grand Canyon with and my feet had not seen them since. This was not good. I soon realized this was a lot harder hike than I had imagined. Throughout the hike the views were just so massive. It was one of those things where you had to be there to realize just how big those canyons really are. You look across the canyon and you can see the trail over there – knowing you are going down to the bottom of the canyon and then you will be on that trail that you see.
Ten miles doesn’t sound like very far but when it is up and down, it is far. The Down is harder on you than the Up. We met some day walkers who were lost. They had made a wrong turn, but were now on the right track. I was lucky – I had Robert to read the map for me and also he had a GPS. He turned it on once in a while just to get the altitude.
We made it to Ramona Falls. I was hurting a lot. No training was starting to show. It was 84 degrees and we cooked dinner and went to bed at 8:00 p.m.
The next morning I felt a lot better. I put band aids on all the hot spots. This is where I suggested something very stupid. I said, “It is so hot, why don’t I leave my fleece and the top of my tent and come back and get it later.” This was one of the spots where you are close to the road. Robert says, “We are going to gain altitude and it is going to be colder.” So, I abandoned the idea.
As we walked this section, it was one of the most dangerous. There were several places where there had been a washout and the path was about 8 inches wide. If you slipped, there was no problem. You would stop about a thousand feet down the canyon. As we trucked along, having gone down all the day before, now doing up for the next two days, Robert was right. It did get colder.
During this part of the hike we met a father and his teenage son who had walked until 10:00 p.m. and camped along side the trail. We talked to them for a little bit to find out how the trail was going to be. They said Eliot Creek by Cloud Cap Inn was closed but there was a rope there and you could get through which was good news to us seeing that would be 25 miles into the hike. Twenty-five and twenty-five don’t make forty. We crossed the Muddy Fork and were able to get across on a very large tree that was over the creek and then back up the other side where the same big tree looked like a small pencil.
It started to drizzle. It wasn’t really raining. It was just that you were in the clouds with a strong wind. It was fast becoming a very chilly situation. With rain gear on we proceeded to Elk Grove. Now tired, sore, cold, and wet I had a hard time unclipping my tent from the pack, but soon had it up. Old memories came to mind that I was going to jettison my tent fly and extra clothing which I am now using and glad to have. We started the stove to keep warm and cook dinner. Robert tried his cell phone; it did not work. I tried mine; it did work. We made plans to spend the night and walk out in the morning. The next morning it was clear and no wind, so we cancelled plans to walk out.
At Eliot Creek canyon, we looked across at the Cloud Cap Inn and a sign that said “trail closed”. There were two ways to get to the other side. One was to use an old rope that someone left and the other was to go to the top and walk across the glacier. We chose to walk across the glacier. As I walked up the rim of the canyon to the glacier, 7200 ft., I thought “Why am I doing this?” The view of the mountain, the glacier, and the canyon was worth every step.
Getting to the glacier was very hard, big, loose rocks, but crossing the glacier was not a problem. We camped at Gnarl Ridge. It was a great camp site – 6800 feet. Two more interesting things happened here. My camp stove quit and my rations were old and rotten. This meant cold food and using reserved food.
The next day a few more canyons, Meadows Ski Resort where people were picking huckleberries and cans and bottles off the ski slope. The canyon between Meadows and Timberline is just plain BIG. At the top we met up with that father and son again. They said the cold rain and the 50 mph winds caught them on a ridge and their hands were numb and they hoped their tent stayed up through the night. We reached the rim and saw cars at Timberline. I thought, “Good, only about a mile to go.” Wrong. It was 2 miles and soft sand. We finally reached the parking lot where the phones worked. Robert called Ilene. She was at Government camp so we only had to wait about a half hour for her.
Summary: This is a hike I highly recommend. It was harder for me because I did no training and I am 68 years old; Robert is 39. Go with the young kids. They make you feel young.
“Why did I do this?” The view and the Adventure! For more adventures go to my blog: www.mrbontheside.blogspot.com
Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/euclidprime/sets/72157624736580971/
I had been training for something – I know not what. Vellen, Myran, and I took the jet skis out 9 miles into the Pacific Ocean. It was a great day; caught a Coho 32 inches long and a Chinook 34 inches long off of the Jet Ski. On the way back, we caught a few crab.
The second weekend, Vellen and I went fishing – no fish, no crab, but great weather. One thing about jet skiing in the ocean, they are 11 feet long and they spend a lot of time in the air. In short, they beat the Bejesus out of you. How this has anything to do with training for a hike, I have no idea, but it was fun so I thought I would tell you about it.
Now back to how this started. I have wanted to go around Mt. Hood for years. I have climbed it 12 times, been on Illumination Rock twice, but never all the way around Mt. Hood. I thought walking around Mt. Hood would be fun. Having no idea what this would involve, I just kept suggesting it to people. Robert, my nephew, took his vacation and called me on Monday and said, “Do you want to walk around Mt. Hood Tuesday or Wednesday?” I had plans for Tuesday so we made it for Wednesday. All my friends know I like to plan for years and months in advance. (NOT)
This is where it starts to get interesting. We didn’t want to leave our car up there. My sister had something else planned. My wife had a commitment at 8:00 a.m., but I said it would only take an hour to get up there. I lied. It took an hour and a half. We got to sleep in and leave at 6:00 a.m. This made Ilene an hour late for work. She knew she would be an hour late because she figured it would take an hour and a half, so she cleared it with the church ahead of time.
This was going to be a four day hike, 41 miles total. When you pack for bicycling, weight is not really a big issue. When you are carrying it, it is a big issue. Using stuff I had laying around the house, my pack weighed in at 38 lbs. and bulged all over. Walking to the gas station and back for coffee will soon be realized as not enough exercise. As we arrived at Timberline and put on our packs, I started to realize just how heavy 38 lbs. really is. It was a good thing I borrowed Myran’s fancy pack; it really made a difference. After the first mile I had the band aids out covering the blisters. The boots I brought were the ones I did the Grand Canyon with and my feet had not seen them since. This was not good. I soon realized this was a lot harder hike than I had imagined. Throughout the hike the views were just so massive. It was one of those things where you had to be there to realize just how big those canyons really are. You look across the canyon and you can see the trail over there – knowing you are going down to the bottom of the canyon and then you will be on that trail that you see.
Ten miles doesn’t sound like very far but when it is up and down, it is far. The Down is harder on you than the Up. We met some day walkers who were lost. They had made a wrong turn, but were now on the right track. I was lucky – I had Robert to read the map for me and also he had a GPS. He turned it on once in a while just to get the altitude.
We made it to Ramona Falls. I was hurting a lot. No training was starting to show. It was 84 degrees and we cooked dinner and went to bed at 8:00 p.m.
The next morning I felt a lot better. I put band aids on all the hot spots. This is where I suggested something very stupid. I said, “It is so hot, why don’t I leave my fleece and the top of my tent and come back and get it later.” This was one of the spots where you are close to the road. Robert says, “We are going to gain altitude and it is going to be colder.” So, I abandoned the idea.
As we walked this section, it was one of the most dangerous. There were several places where there had been a washout and the path was about 8 inches wide. If you slipped, there was no problem. You would stop about a thousand feet down the canyon. As we trucked along, having gone down all the day before, now doing up for the next two days, Robert was right. It did get colder.
During this part of the hike we met a father and his teenage son who had walked until 10:00 p.m. and camped along side the trail. We talked to them for a little bit to find out how the trail was going to be. They said Eliot Creek by Cloud Cap Inn was closed but there was a rope there and you could get through which was good news to us seeing that would be 25 miles into the hike. Twenty-five and twenty-five don’t make forty. We crossed the Muddy Fork and were able to get across on a very large tree that was over the creek and then back up the other side where the same big tree looked like a small pencil.
It started to drizzle. It wasn’t really raining. It was just that you were in the clouds with a strong wind. It was fast becoming a very chilly situation. With rain gear on we proceeded to Elk Grove. Now tired, sore, cold, and wet I had a hard time unclipping my tent from the pack, but soon had it up. Old memories came to mind that I was going to jettison my tent fly and extra clothing which I am now using and glad to have. We started the stove to keep warm and cook dinner. Robert tried his cell phone; it did not work. I tried mine; it did work. We made plans to spend the night and walk out in the morning. The next morning it was clear and no wind, so we cancelled plans to walk out.
At Eliot Creek canyon, we looked across at the Cloud Cap Inn and a sign that said “trail closed”. There were two ways to get to the other side. One was to use an old rope that someone left and the other was to go to the top and walk across the glacier. We chose to walk across the glacier. As I walked up the rim of the canyon to the glacier, 7200 ft., I thought “Why am I doing this?” The view of the mountain, the glacier, and the canyon was worth every step.
Getting to the glacier was very hard, big, loose rocks, but crossing the glacier was not a problem. We camped at Gnarl Ridge. It was a great camp site – 6800 feet. Two more interesting things happened here. My camp stove quit and my rations were old and rotten. This meant cold food and using reserved food.
The next day a few more canyons, Meadows Ski Resort where people were picking huckleberries and cans and bottles off the ski slope. The canyon between Meadows and Timberline is just plain BIG. At the top we met up with that father and son again. They said the cold rain and the 50 mph winds caught them on a ridge and their hands were numb and they hoped their tent stayed up through the night. We reached the rim and saw cars at Timberline. I thought, “Good, only about a mile to go.” Wrong. It was 2 miles and soft sand. We finally reached the parking lot where the phones worked. Robert called Ilene. She was at Government camp so we only had to wait about a half hour for her.
Summary: This is a hike I highly recommend. It was harder for me because I did no training and I am 68 years old; Robert is 39. Go with the young kids. They make you feel young.
“Why did I do this?” The view and the Adventure! For more adventures go to my blog: www.mrbontheside.blogspot.com
Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/euclidprime/sets/72157624736580971/
posted by Byran on the side at 8:05 AM
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