Day 4 9/8/15: Woke up this morning about 6 am, and we were on the trail by 7:15. While it was a cool morning, we had to stop early on to pull off a few layers as it was an uphill hike all the way to timberline. We also ran into a bit of wildlife right off the bat, a male mule deer scampered off as we approached not more than 10 min after leaving camp.
The hike up to timberline took a little less than an hour and a half and it was a bit grueling. The very sandy trail nearly doubled the effort of each step. Luckily there were many great photo ops along the way. Mount hood is a very photogenic mountain.
We finally reached timberline lodge and immediately went to the breakfast buffet. They had scrambled eggs with Tillamook cheddar, orange pancakes, awesome breakfast sausage and ham, potatoes, waffles, yogurt, granola, pastries, and smoothies. We even indulged in some breakfast beers from mount hood brewing.
After gorging ourselves on the buffet, it was relaxation time. Sitting out on the patio with mount hood towering over us in the warm sun, while enjoying another beer… I don’t think it gets any better.
We finally left timberline at 2 after attempting to find additional food (and settling for candy from a vending machine) and resting up. The bulk of the remaining 9 miles were downhill, except for the decent into and immediate ascent from Zig Zag canyon. We certainly burned off the extra calories we took in at breakfast (and those beers) but everyone was in a generally good mood after our long break.
The rest of the decent from mount hood wilderness was a bit tough on the feet. I know Casey’s feet were bothering her, and the tops of my toes were starting to really hurt. It seems like we’re past the blisters and onto the real foot fatigue. There were some amazing views of mount hood, and the various canyons and rivers around it’s base to keep us distracted, however. I think I’ll be able to put together a whole album of pictures just from mount hood.
We decided to stop at about 5:30, unfortunately leaving ourselves a long 21 miles tomorrow. It is before 8pm and we’re all in our tents tonight. We’re camped out beside a glacier fed stream which should be very soothing to fall asleep to. Dinner was a citrus quinoa with some salmon which was very tasty.
Oh yea, and just before getting into our tent we had another hiker couple stop by and ask us for some advice on what appeared to be a bee sting. We recommended some benadryl and they were on their way. Apparently we look like we know what we’re doing.
[mappress mapid=”4″]
