Since I went to the mountain the day before, clearly I would be going to the coast today, right?
Right. Clearly, the only option!
The day started out deliciously – meeting a friend for brunch at Pine State Biscuits. I’d be starting a series of early-morning hikes soon enough, so I was absolutely relishing the chance to sit down and have a nice slow social morning… the excellent biscuits and fried chicken were just icing on the cake!
After brunch we headed West, toward the land of infinite sand.
Just like a hike, there isn’t really much to talk about for a beach walk. I mean… we walked. On the beach. At one point we stopped to make sandwiches, and at a point a little bit later we turned around and started walking back. We watched the sunset, got ice cream, and then headed back to the car.
The story, as they say, is in the pictures.
(Ed Note: Do they really say that? I don’t know… I think Ben’s making things up again. But that’s fine, because pictures.)
The day wasn’t over though, and didn’t finish with the setting Sun.
While driving home, a question was asked. “Have you stargazed recently?”
We thought, and I realized something. It’s been ages since I’ve stargazed, and… as loath as I am to admit it… I’ve never laid out on the hood of a car and stared into the cosmos.
Clearly, an unacceptable state of affair. And thankfully, one easily remedied by a quick exit from the main road followed by a quick search of the car’s maps for a spot by a river, and finished up with a blanket on the cooling hood of the car.
As the title subtly alludes to… the Timberline Trail going West from the Timberline Lodge, on Mt. Hood, doesn’t really exist in the winter.
I wasn’t aware of that fact, before suggesting this hike.
Now, however, since crossing two terrain parks and who knows how many ski runs… well, now I know. It sticks in your memory. Feels strange, looking both ways and then sprinting across a ski run… and I felt bad, even after multiple ski patrol folks told us that it was totally okay, since I felt like I was just messing up the snow for everyone.
I’m getting ahead of myself. On Friday, I went hiking with some friends!
We’d been debating where to go, but ended up sticking with the tried-and-true tactic for winter: Head toward Mt. Hood, get some elevation, and hike on the snow. Elk Meadows hadn’t been particularly passable the last time I’d been up, and Mirror Lake had already been done, so… where to? I haven’t been to Paradise Park before, and it’s got a few good intermediary destinations, so up we headed!
The drive was easy; stopping at a friend’s house to borrow some snowshoes (he’d planned on joining us, but was feeling under the weather), and grabbing a baguette sandwich for our lunching pleasure, didn’t delay us anything – we parked pretty easily, without stress or mess or even waking up too early.
We geared up, headed in, and… couldn’t find the trail.
I’d originally targeted the route I normally take – Go up a little bit, then connect to the climbers trail and connect over to the timberline trail. But with the snow… I mean, it’s a popular trail, right?? I expected at least some signs to be visible, if not a fully packed down trail!
But man… it just wasn’t there.
We tried circling the lodge, looking for a different trailhead. We tried asking a ski patrol member about details. We tried following GPS, looking for the evident paths through the trees. We tried following my memory of landmarks, angling toward buildings and cell phone towers.
In the end, we finally got out of the bounds of the resort. If we were on trail though, I couldn’t really say… the GPS said we were close, but… man, who knows? All I knew was that it was beautiful, and the weather was stunning. The photos came out well, but even they don’t quite do it justice… the stark bleakness of the landscape, contrasted with the bright green of the trees and the blue skies, was excellent.
We went West as long as we could, until we hit an insurmountable barrier – Little ZigZag canyon. It’s usually a quick and easy traverse – down and back up. But with the snow, a cornice had formed on the far rim, a cornice that we weren’t remotely prepared to navigate.
(Ed Note: For those not versed in mountaineering speak, a “Cornice” is a lip of ice that forms over the any sharp(ish) ledge where wind regularly blows. They can be beautiful, but are also a very real hazard for snow travel, since they can break off unexpectedly… either dropping someone standing on top, or triggering a slide that can hit or bury people below. Check out the link here for more info:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_cornice)
Zag
With that barrier ahead of us, we changed course and headed upward, toward the Silcox hut at the bottom of the Palmer Glacier. We didn’t really have a goal in mind, just the enjoyment of being up on the mountain… so up seemed as good a direction as any.
I don’t really have much else to add here. You know the story about hiking – we walked, we chatted, we stopped to take photos, and we had a grand old time. Hung out with some ravens, chatted with the ski patrol folks as they shut down the lift and headed down.
We stopped in at the Timberline Lodge after our adventure wrapped up – The Ram’s Head is one of my favorite places to get an after-hiking meal, and we didn’t find it wanting. Huge glasses of cocoa, and a skillet full of meatballs, fortified us for the beautiful sunset drive home…
I went to a concert! An actual, real-life, down-and-dirty punk show!
The last show I went to was… what, October? Delta Rae, if I’m remembering right… And while I definitely love seeing Delta Rae in concert, it’s definitely a mellow type of show. Great energy, great music, and tons of positive energy…
But a punk show has a completely different energy. It has volume. It has rhythm, and it has a raw power that I can’t quite describe.
I’ve been to some shows before, of course – Rancid is definitely a type of punk, but more punk-rock than pure punk. I think. Honestly, I’m just parroting what my friend told me when he invited me along – his Brother-in-Law is in one of the bands, and he seemed psyched to see them. The tickets were cheap, it was a venue I hadn’t been to before…
Heck, absolutely no reason not to go, right?
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Full disclosure, I can’t tell you if it was good or bad.
I can tell you that I had a blast, and I can tell you that’d I’d definitely go again… but I also have to tell you that I’d probably bring some earplugs to dampen the impact a little bit. It was fun, and I went home happily exhausted after rocking out to their set… but I also went home with ringing ears – a ringing that definitely took a day or two to quiet.
