Over the weekend, Brendon and I hiked the Timberline Trail, which circumnavigates Mt. Hood. We started about 6pm Thursday night, met Brendon’s wife, Annie, and her friend, Carole, at Timberline Lodge Saturday for lunch (3/4 of the way around for us) and then the four of us continued back to Ramona Falls, where we started. We finished by mid afternoon Sunday. The first night, after hiking eight miles uphill (by headlight, toward the end) I was not feeling so well, and had to tell Brendon, “I’m done hiking tonight, we are stopping here.” Fortunately we were near a couple of great sites.
Friday we hiked around half of the mountain, covering about 16 miles. A few hundred yards from where we were planning on having lunch it was Brendon’s turn, “we are stopping here for lunch.” We climbed to our highest elevation on the mountian, 7300 ft., and we had burnt through breakfast’s calories - and then some. It always amazes me how much the elevation affects me, I don’t feel like drinking water or eating, and always feel slightly sick to my stomach. It was great to enjoy eating again after we dropped down below 5000 ft for dinner. After lunch we dropped from 7300 ft. to 4800 ft., where we would camp for the night. We were told by another hiker that there was a great campsite right next to Nicholl creek, below Gnarl Ridge, and as I climbed out of the creek I saw the campsite he described. It was perfect. I took two more steps and saw a tent already there. The two middle age ladies (doing the same hike we were) pointed out a nearly hidden site nearby, for which we were extremely thankful. At that point it was dusk, and we were done walking for the day. Our site was very workable.
Saturday morning we broke camp about 7am, and had 8 miles to hike before noon, at which point we would meet the ladies. we were also pulled by the promise of a burger and a beer at the lodge for lunch. Hiking food tends to consist of food that one cooks by boiling in water: oatmeal, pasta, rice. High calorie, low weight; but it gets old quickly. The burger beckoned. Unfortunately, because we had to rush, we could not stop and really take in the terrain between Nicholl Creek and Mt. Hood Meadows, which was spectacular.
After lunch the four of us set out for Paradise Park, which is aptly named. A cool six miles, but by then both Brendon and my knees and hips were pretty sore from huffing 60 pound packs around the mountain, so the descent into Zigzag canyon ad the immediate ascent out again was harsh. We were aided again by some friendly hikers in finding what might have been the last available site in Paradise Park. I did not expect that the Park would be as crowded as it was. I was wrong. Despite the cooler weather that night, all agreed that Paradise Park was awesome.
Sunday we had about miles to hike back to the car, all of which was downhill. So, other than the knees, the hike was pretty laid back.
This was my second try for Timberline trail (I got food poisoning on my first attempt), and it was all I had hoped for.
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