September 7 through 10, 2012 – MT HOOD HIKE My two daughters wanted to give me something for my 70th birthday that they thought I would really like. I had been giving them a lot of flack about walking around Mt. Hood so they said that would do it. Zida, Marci, and Robert (nephew) went with me. Zida is a fitness instructor – no prep work needed (40 lb pack). Marci, a housewife – lots of prep work needed and given (38 lb pack). Robert does Yoga and bikes – no problem (40 lb pack). Now me – foot weights and a lot of walking in the boots I was going to use helped a lot over last time, but ONE blister still happened (32 lb pack). The more money you have the less your pack weighs. If you want to see pictures of this hike, you will have to take them. For Seven Million I will show you mine. That is what they are worth to me. As we started, the last time I walked it came back to me. As Marci would say throughout the hike, “This is stupid;” but moved forward celebrating her dad turning 70. It did make me happy to see them on the hike. It has views a camera cannot capture. Zida and Robert would laugh at Marci and we would hike on because it was 10 miles to camp and 10 miles out and it was only a 41 mile hike. First Day: First 2 miles of Pacific Crest Trail and then turn left onto the Timberline Trail. When you’re walking around a mountain counterclockwise, you always turn left. First thing is down and across the White River, then up and across Mt. Hood Meadows with lots of huckleberries. We played leap frog with a 10 person group; their youngest member was 58. Finally the big climb of the day up to Lamberson Butte and Gnarl Ridge. You walked on the side of a washout. Your walking sticks worked great – grind, rattle, vibrate in the rocks, wind blowing dust in your face. Not much else to listen to when you are hot and panting like a dog. (Refer back to Marci’s comment.) Ha Ha from Zida and Robert. Zida’s water bottle jumped out of her pack. Her other 2 were empty. We kept going up. We finally got silty water from a melting snow field. Marci had the pump to filter it. There were about two miles of flat if you added it all together. It was fun to tell people it is all flat and they think you are telling the truth. I was thinking it was time to sell my swamp land in Nevada. Time to camp: A mostly flat spot 100 yards off the trail at about 7000 feet elevation, a creek with water another 100 yards down. I laid there with my head out of the tent to see the stars and this big red glow came up. I thought it was a fire. It was just the moon. There were very few trees where we were. Day Two: I need glasses to see small things so I gave Zida my Alarm Clock. Bad thing to do. It is small and goes off at 6:30 am. She can sleep through anything and that little alarm was no problem. Now Marci, “What is that noise?” Going to bed at 8 pm (dark) and getting up at 6:30 am is a lot of sleep. I must go see the Cloud Cap Inn some time. I never got close to it because we walked down the other side of Elliot Creek and looked across at it. Most of the time, when you talked to the other walkers, it was, “Are you going to go down the rope or going over the glacier?” There are three ways to go and they can be hazardous to your health. That might be why the trail was closed – YOU THINK? There are a lot of people who walk by the sign and do just fine. This is not a walk in the park and you can get hurt very easily if you are not on your game. We went over the glacier. It was easy until you went up the other side with rocks that were as large as or larger than three feet around and moved when you walked on them. Marci was not happy on that part, and Zida had a few things to say too. Her finger came out (Zida taught it to her sister). Marci definitely thought “This is stupid.” The two girls were not happy. Robert and I thought it was a walk in the park. Robert was standing on a rock as big as a dining room table rocking it back and forth. “Now this is fun.” Oh, it was not over. You walked down a ridge line that had a narrow path on top. It was a few football fields down and if you kicked a rock, it didn’t stop until it hit the bottom. The other side was not so steep. It was only that way for a mile or two. Marci walked up to the path and had to compose herself so she could go on…after all there were the big moving rocks if she went back. Zida and her family do things like this so it was no big deal for her. The hardest part was over and it would be easier from here. HE HE. We were tired from the glacier crossing and now walked through where the fire was last year. Miles and miles of burned trees. Soon we came to Coe Creek, the most difficult stream crossing. There were 4 small trees across the roaring water. Zida went to cross the logs and her feet stopped. She was frozen there until she could get her feet to move again, but they procrastinated a lot. If you slipped and fell in, it would not be good. We all made it across with Robert carrying Marci’s pack. We went on past Elk Cove and finally got to Cairn Basin. There was another stream crossing that Robert forgot about. You just had to step on the rocks for about 20 feet. Day Three: Zida and I took a wrong turn out of Cairn Basin. Fortunately we both took the same wrong turn. The sign was burned and laying on the ground. Robert came to the rescue with his map. It was kind of a warm up and to get water. It added an extra mile but we made it up by taking a cutoff later in the day. We walked down hill most of the day. It was cold and windy on the ridge. Crossing the Muddy Fork was easy this time. There was a place where mud slides washed out a portion of the trail and left a long, long, very, very steep slope. They had cut a trail about a foot wide. Zida was following Marci and she was really tired from pushing the envelope throughout the hike. As she came around the corner, Zida heard her give a great big sign and say, “I am so tired of being one step away from death.” So, half way up you duck under this rock and go the rest of the 30 feet. When she got to the wide trail again, we asked if she wanted to go back. (I now think it is time for Marci’s comment again.) “This is stupid. Why am I doing this? Oh yea, my 70 year old dad.” She was fun to hike with and Zida, Robert, and I liked giving her a hard time. Ramona Falls was beautiful and meant we had made our 10 miles for the day. We decided to keep going. The Sandy River had a real nice bridge crossing with a handrail. The hand rail, well kind of, was a quarter inch rope that sagged a lot. There was another bridge that was real nice. Most on the hike had three or more logs over rushing water and other ones where you could just step on the rocks out of the water. The last day Marci was spent and the rock thing was hard for her but she stuck with it and her famous words came out more and more as the days went on. This is how to make your fellow hikers mad: You are walking along and stop on a steep hill and take a picture of a grasshopper. Robert, the vegetarian, almost stepped on it. Or as you are walking and get to a flat spot, stop and leave your fellow hikers on the steep part to start out on a steep uphill. You will get a lot of flack and be put in the back of the line. We knew we had a long hill the last day and decided to get a head start on it. This day turned out to be about 13 miles. We finally found an almost flat place to camp. Robert put his tent right on the edge of the drop-off. You could hear the rocks rolling down the hill all night long. Camped next to the edge, it didn’t give you a nice warm fuzzy feeling. It was not as steep on our side. Day Four: It was raining in the morning and I dug out my great big $5 yellow plastic poncho. They were giving me a bad time and said I looked a lot like Big Bird. There was not as much to see on the last day as a small rain storm came in and all you could see were clouds. You got to see them move and come and go before your very eyes. I went for my camera and was too slow. The canyon I wanted to take a picture of was gone in the clouds. Now you know it was meant to be. When we got to Timberline, Zida and Robert saw Ilene (wife) drive into the parking lot from Milwaukie, OR. As the two slow walkers came, Tim (Marci’s husband from Redmond, OR.) came driving up. Were we good with the timing or what? As they say, “We go together or we stop together, but we are always together.” To sum it up: A real fun hike and a birthday present I will never forget. I hope if you have kids, they will do the same for you. If not, take a friend and do it, or as Warren Miller would say, “If you don’t do it this year, you'll just be one year older when you do.” I say you might be dead and not get to do it. The training is what makes you feel great and when you are all done, you can say, “I did Around Mt. Hood” and be talking about something on the trail that the person you are talking to has no idea what it was really like – But you will know. If, by some strange coincidence, you find someone who has done it, bar the door, Katy!

Byran moving a rock out of the trail just to make it easier for the next hikers and Marci showing Zida and me her middle finger manicure for the camera.. www.mrbontheside.blogspot.com