Tag Archives: Hiking Mt. Hood

Oct13

Backpacking Elk Meadows in September

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Saturday and Sunday, 24-Sept-2022 & 25-Sept-2022


Wow… I can’t believe it’s been this long since I’ve gone backpacking up at Elk Meadows. It’s been… what? Since at least 2021… So over a year, from my records. 13 months.

For this being my go-to hike, that’s kind of a long time.

I mean, okay. Granted, I’ve hiked Elk Meadows a ton of times since then. Let’s see… three other times? More than any other hike, by a good margin, so it still counts as a go-to. Just… less backpacking this year, I think. Yeah – four times this year, vs. six last year. But there’s still time, I have faith I’ll get another few in this year.

Anyways I went backpacking at Elk Meadows


It was a lovely weekend – I started off by having brunch at Timberline Lodge, getting a chance to sit down at the Cascade Dining room for their buffet and snacking on some excellent fancy restaurant fare. It was… good… but not great, frankly. COVID’s hit everyone hard, especially the tourism industry, and it felt like the Lodge was still severely understaffed. I was patient though, snacked as I could, and soon enough was parked and heading up the trail to Elk.


The hike was lovely – I went pretty much non-stop, working on my endurance a bit, and pushing to hike a little bit more quickly than I normally would. Not being in a rush, mind you, just… pushing my body a little bit. Exulting in my strength and endurance, and seeing how far I could push those limits.

I made camp in a new campsite for me, since there were folks in my normal ones, and set about exploring the meadow. It was interesting – the meadow was more crowded than I think I’ve ever seen it before, with a grand total of maybe half a dozen people camped around various spots. It was almost loud… not significantly so, of course, and not enough to overwhelm the sounds of nature, but… still. Loud enough that it was noticeable and memorable.

I relaxed.

I ate dinner, read my book, and stargazed.

I slept gloriously, and woke up excellently refreshed.

I explored the meadows again in the morning. Stretching out, warming up the muscles, and appreciating the cool and sunny day.

I finished my book, packed up, and walked back to the car.

It was a good day.



Ohh! One interesting thing of note – My campstove had given me trouble on Middle Sister, if you recall, so I pulled it apart before heading out to Elk Meadows… dissassembled the whole thing, cleaned and rinsed it, and made sure everything was back in its proper place. Works like a charm, now!

Just a reminder to people – You’re always capable of troubleshooting stuff!

Dec29

The first major snow-hike of the Winter!

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Saturday, 18-Dec-2021


Snow!

Snow, Snow, Snow!

I love snow!


I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s an interesting thing worth repeating – In Oregon, the snow level is very much dependent on elevation. When I picked up my coworkers in town, it was a nice (albeit drizzly) morning. Cold, but not that nice crisp-cold… sort of a damp-ish cold. But by the time we all piled out of the car at the trailhead it was crisp, snowy, and gloriously overcast. Little flurries of snow, with the loud “whump” of snow falling off the trees as the day got warmer.

Portland itself is just about sea level, as is Wilsonville, both being just about 100ft above sea level. Our destination for the day, however, was just below 3,500ft elevation… and the snow level met us at just about 2,500ft during our drive up.

Ohh, right. What was our destination? Mirror Lake!!


I know, I know, it’s not the most exciting or intense hike out there… but you know what? This was the first time that we’d all gotten to hike together, it was the first real snow-hike of the year, and we were stuffing four people into the Mustang. So… you know, Hopefully a little understandable that we didn’t want to go too far or too long.

First off – why the Mustang? Well, my friends had all just moved to Portland earlier this year – so none of them had snow tires, or chains, for their cars. We debated it, but since two of the party were rather small we decided that it’d be simplest to let me drive… I’ve got solid Oregon-snow driving experience, already have chains for the car, and I’ve become quite comfortable driving the Mustang through the sometimes challenging terrain around Mt. Hood.

I mean, that… and I just really like driving the Mustang!



The trailhead was surprisingly empty when we parked and started into the woods… I’ve come to expect this trail to be packed nearly year-round, so this was an absolutely lovely happenstance. On a Saturday, no less! I expect that it’s from the skiing… I have a feeling that all the drifting snow would make for an excellent powder day, so it’s definitely understandable that everyone would be out enjoying the early-season pow-pow days.


We hiked in. We ate lunch at the lake (I brought beef stew!) and we even fed the birds a bit! I adore seeing peoples faces the first time they have a Jay land on their hand… There’s someone just so wholesome about seeing someone take a full “disney princess” moment, you know?



Hiking was excellent – we walked, chatted, enjoyed the views, and had ourselves an excellent time. The snow was quiet, the air was crisp, and there was just enough of a drizzle or rain / snow mixture to keep us happy to be moving.

A very good day, indeed.





As a bonus – I really love the “looking up into the canopy” picture I took… especially because, for some reason, all I can see is Sasquatch walking. Do you see it now?

Dec23

A visit weekend full of adventures – Adventures on Mt. Hood

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Wednesday, 10-Nov-2021 through Monday, 15-Nov-2021

My friends came to visit!

Two weekends in a row… I’m the most social of all the social butterflies, it seems!

And honestly, I’m so thankful for it. 2021 was, for mas as for everyone, a challenging year. It’d been a year of huge personal growth, and excellent introspection, but at my core I’m still a social creature. Self-reflection is only a part of the growth cycle… sharing those insights, and getting other people’s input, is just as important to someone’s growth.

So when Daniel and Erin asked if they could come to visit the weekend after Dillon and Liz’s wedding… well, I couldn’t say yes fast enough!


Saturday, 13-Nov-2021


After the day of hiking in the rain, we were pretty excited for a slightly drier walk in the woods on Saturday. Not that there’s anything wrong with hiking in the rain… but… you know. Warmer. Drier. Less sticky during the drive home.

With the weather looking a bit gloomy again in the gorge, but with clear skies to the East of Mt. Hood, our destination was obvious… One of my favorite hikes of the last few years, Elk Meadows!


It was a bit weird, to be honest, thinking of sharing this hike with friends. I’d done it some many times solo that it felt strange to be chatting as we walked… I think the last time I hiked it with someone else was back in June or July of 2020 when I’d first met Laurel.

But, as with everything else this weekend, the change was glorious and hugely appreciated. I love getting to share my passions with other people, and this was definitely no exception – hearing their exclamations as we turned a bend and Mt. Hood came into view for the first time was amazing, and helped me relive the joy of my own first few times seeing the views.

Breakfast bagels were delicious, the drive was beautiful, the trail was amazing, the river crossings were entertaining, and the meadow itself was just as welcoming as I’ve always found it to be.



The wildlife was almost more welcoming than I’d come to expect. The Grey Jay’s of Mt. Hood and I have come to know each other pretty well, but I wasn’t sure what their opinion of Daniel and Erin would be…

Turns out, I didn’t have to worry one iota – the Jay’s absolutely adored them both, and we ended up spending… ohh, probably an hour? Doing photoshoots and handing out offerings of peanuts to the tiny little buggers. it was awesome, cute, and we even got to watch Daniel somehow survive a bird landing on his head!

It was still pretty early in the day after our wildlife photo session, and we were all feeling pretty energetic with the sun high and the breeze warm. A quick tour of the meadow didn’t burn out our remaining energy, so upward and onward we went onto the Bluegrass trail.

It’d been a while since I’d explored the Bluegrass ridge, and I was optimistic that we’d be able to get some good views of the various cascade volcanoes from the top… the day was clear, after all, and the morning had burned off most of the remaining clouds.

It was cold, and windy, and rather challenging terrain as we explored. With friends though, it’s always a bit easier and we made great progress as the day went on. The views didn’t quite ever materialize, and the day did start getting quite a bit colder as it went on… so we took the main trail back in short order, finding ourselves back on the road just a bit before sunset.

Sunset didn’t see us on the road home, though… instead, we made our way up to the Timberline lodge!

Bringing my Mom out to the lodge for brunch had reminded me just how amazing the Timberline Lodge was… and having gone probably an entire year without visiting their restaurant had left me with enough of a craving that a single meal couldn’t be expected to quench it.

There wasn’t too much on the menu at the Ram’s Head, though, and we ended up going fairly simple – I got an amazing tomato soup for myself! It ended up being quite a bit more filling than expected, and easily tided us over until we got back into town.