Day 3 9/7/15: I woke up very few times last night as it was a much more comfortable temperature. I was even able to sleep without my head tucked into my bag all night. The morning was cool, with a light fog over the lake, very picturesque. Casey woke up early around 6:30 and went for a swim, which was a bit surprising to me. While the water was warmer than the air, she got quite cold when she got out. But at least she got to feel a bit fresher than we have been. I got out of the tent at around 7:30 and had my first bowel movement of the trip. It’s strange what your body does when stressed. I fee like we’ve been eating plenty of food, but I guess my body is using all that fuel up during the day. Or it could have something to do with the SPAM we ate last night. I also finally freshened up with some deodorant and baby powder, which felt nice.. We had a leisurely breakfast watching the ducks do duck things and an otter swim by. We also watched a few of the early morning fisherman catch a fish, adding a bit of excitement to the slow morning. We decided to get a bit of a later start, since we enjoyed our camp by the lake so much.
The morning (well, kind of morning considering we started at 10am) started with a bit of flat, then quickly transitioned to an steady uphill. Casey and I broke ahead of Monica, and caught up to and passed another group. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we warmed up quickly. Even though my feet were a bit sore, it felt good to be outside.
A little bit into the hike, all three of us were a little separated, and we were walking along the side of a ridge in the woods. I was hitting a good stride, and was in a bit of a zone, when I came upon a partial view to the north. At first glance it looked just like some rolling hills with a valley below me, but as my gaze moved up toward the clouds, I realized that I was looking at a mountain… our first view of Mount Hood! I decided to hang out here for a bit and wait for Casey and Monica, who weren’t too far behind. We sat and had our first snack of the day.
We decided to hike on to the Frog Lake Trailhead just off of US-26. By the time we got there we were all famished, and Monica was determined to get a ride to the gas station so she could get some beer. While Casey and I set up and cooked lunch on a picnic table, Monica headed back to US-26 to try and flag someone down. She was gone for a bit, which led us to believe that she was successful, but eventually returned about 20 minutes later… sans beer. It was a little disappointing, but we knew that the next day, there would likely be beer at Timberline Lodge.
After a LONG lunch (seriously, we hung around for a good 1-1.5 hours), we decided it was time to move on… especially because we still had about 8 miles to cover for the day, so move on we did. The next 5 miles were the fastest 5 miles we’ve ever done… it only took about an hour to cover the 5 miles to Barlow Pass. We took a short break at Barlow Pass, and Monica tried yet again (and again unsuccessfully) to get a ride for a beer run. She even talked to a couple of people in a car in the parking lot, asked them how far to Government Camp, and they first said they didn’t know, then drove out to the main road, and came back to tell us that the sign says 4 miles, then took off. A nice gesture, but juuuust missed the point of giving Monica a ride. As a last ditch effort, she tried to hitch a ride on route 35, but that’s a far too fast road for anyone to stop.
The last 3 miles were all uphill, and was the beginning of our climb up Mount Hood. We passed a group of horseback riders coming in the opposite direction on a very narrow part of trail that’s dug into the grade of the mountain, so one side of the trail kind of drops off. Unfortunately us smaller hikers had to step off to the side, and our only option was into the low bushes on the downhill side of the trail. We finally reached our target campsite for the evening, right next to a small glacier fed stream. We made it an earlier night, knowing that we wanted to get up early and get the short (but all uphill) hike to Timberline Lodge done so we could get the breakfast buffet we’d heard so much about.
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