Monday, 06-Feb-2023
My Mom and Steve came to visit!!
It’s been a hot minute since they’ve both been here to visit, explore, and catch up… 2019, if I’m remembering right, from when we went out to Seattle? Yeah… that sounds right, and sounds like long enough that we’ve got some adventuring to catch up on!
With all the beauty that I experience here in Oregon, I’d have been remiss to not take my Mom and Steve out into the wilderness!
The goal was clean – we’d do a lovely loop around Mt. Hood, starting in Portland having breakfast with Bri, and then we’d loop around the mountain clockwise, doing a short hike in the gorge and then having dinner at the Timberline Lodge!
It was lovely, if I may say so myself, and I’m definitely happy that we got the chance to get out into the mountain air!
Out breakfast spot was a lovely location in Ladd’s Addition, called Upper Left roasters… logically named, since it’s at the upper left side of Ladd’s! We ate, we chatted, and my Mom and Steve finally got to meet the legendary Bri from all my climbing and adventure stories. Nicely fed, we packed into the car, and headed into the Gorge!
Our target was Wahclella Falls, a lovely hike in the gorge that end at, unsurprisingly, a nice little pocket waterfall. We arrived, headed in, and made our way into the gulley that lead to the falls. It was short, but surprisingly rough, hiking… and Steve ended up making the safe call and heading back to the car a bit earlier than the rest of us – but we pressed on for the waterfall, enjoying a quick view before heading back and making our way toward the rest of the adventure!
From Wahclella falls, we made a quick stop at the White River Glacier, since I’ve posted so many stories and photos from that one spot. I had to show it off, right?
This time we didn’t go in far – just deep enough onto the snow to explore an amazing (multi room!) igloo that someone had made previously… and get a bit of chill into our bones so that we’d be able to adequately appreciate the warmth and light of our next stop – the Timberline Lodge!
The snowbound Timberline Lodge was, as always, absolutely gorgeous.
We shook off the cold, had an amazing dinner… watched the sunset over Mt. Hood. We actually got a perfect table, too! One of only two or three times that I’ve actually gotten that table!
You know, there’s advantaged to bringing the whole crew, I guess!
It was a lovely adventure. Not long, but great views and an excellent last hurrah to send the trip off, back home to New England.
