We woke up to a sky much more clear and normal— the smoke seemed to have pretty much blown away, so the fire situation must be better.   Our motto for the morning was “second breakfast at Timberline Lodge!” At Barlow Pass, there was a nice picnic table, so we stopped there for some granola before tackling the big climb up towards Mt. Hood.  The PCT seriously goes up, up, up, till between the trees you start getting glimpses of the deep sandy snowmelt canyons coming off Mt. Hood.  More climbing, and you start to see the ski lifts, and finally you are out of the forest, and out on the sandy shoulders of Mt. Hood itself.

It’s an amazing sight– Mt. Hood  is “right there,” plus wildflowers galore (goldenrod, lupines, paintbrush, many more) and a very strong, cold wind blowing sand and dust in clouds off the sides of the mountain. The wind was strong enough that I was staggering a bit, and it’s like hiking on a sand dune as you slip and slide along the trail. But it wasn’t far to Timberline Lodge, where we headed for the Day Lodge to see about breakfast.  But the cafeteria was CLOSED!  A jolly employee grinned wickedly at us and said, “Oh, but we have some REALLY nice freezedries you might like!” before directing us to the dining room in the main Lodge where they have an all-u-can-eat breakfast buffet.  Oh yes!

We headed for the restrooms at the Day Lodge to clean up and change into “town shirts” before we headed over to the buffet.  To our great relief and delight, at the buffet, there was  Phooey!  We’d been very worried about him–did he make it past the fire?  Well, turned out he was on the shuttle just before ours, so he was OK, and he had asked HIS shuttle driver to wait a bit for US, in case we came along!  So all of us were very glad to see each other.   Awwwwww!  

We then proceeded to eat everything in sight, especially the fresh-squeezed orange juice.  We all could barely walk, we were so full, when we went out into the big lobby to sit on nice, soft, comfortable couches for awhile and just relax.  Along came Dave, who was hiking the Oregon PCT, and we all compared “fire adventure stories.”  Dave and his hiking buddies were behind us, and they’d reached the shoulder of Mt. Jefferson, saw the fire situation, and immediately turned back.  They hiked down to a trailhead, found a ride, and had hitchhiked around the fire zone.

Once we’d sufficiently recovered from breakfast, we got our resupply box and a few more odds ‘n ends, then it was back to the trail again, on a very cold, very windy day.  A film crew with big impressive cameras were setting up their stuff in front of the Lodge, and were having an awful time with the wind.  Some very nastylooking clouds were blowing in along with the wind, and we decided to put everything in “rain prep” mode before seriously starting down the trail.

The PCT around Mt. Hood is a real rollercoaster–down into deep snowmelt canyons, then up the other side of them.  At the bottom of every canyon is a snowmelt creek.  The first one was a rockhop for me, and I was glad to make it safely across.  Another hiker who was trying to cross at about the same time I was, well, he was having a tough time, and a friend of him was sort of “coaching” as the timid hiker went from rock to rock.  I normally do NOT like rockhops–to me it’s a lot safer to just wade–but I was enjoying the sensation of DRY shoes and socks, and hoping it could last just a little while longer!

The wildflowers along the trail were gorgeous, and helped to keep my mind off of thinking about the Sandy River crossing up ahead.  In 2005, that was scaaaaary!  but a Boy Scout leader who was there at the time helped me get across on a log.  “How will I make it across this time?” I wondered.  And then it started to rain.  Oh joy!  Now there was rain to add to the snowmelt. 

When we got down to the bottom of the long downhill into the Sandy River canyon, I looked at the river and said, “Oh!  This isn’t any worse than those High Sierra rivers!  I can do this!”  Way upstream were what looked like 3 skinny, slippery logs across the river,  Bill said, “I’m crossing on the logs” and headed for them.  “I’ll ford this,” I said, and waded in, facing the current, trek poles braced, just like the High Sierras.  The river was never more than a bit over knee deep, with a nice bottom of small rocks and sand.  I ended up with  clean feet and socks!  Then Bill and I got back together again.  He said the skinny logs were lashed together to make a  little bridge.  Oh well!  The important thing is, we both made it across.

At that point, the “trail” was a series of rock ducks that led us off through the sand and boulders of the canyon floor, till we were back into a sort of Oregon Desert-type forest with one new addition: moss!  Every rock was covered with moss.  The rain continued to fall.

We were in and out of forest on the way to Ramona Falls, and then made the long steep climb up to Lolo Pass.  Phooey had already stopped to camp, and was trying to build a fire in the misty rain, so he could get warm.  He said he’d gotten rather wet in the rain and needed to dry out and warm up.  We started looking for a campsite, too, and it was not easy.  Finding a place that wasn’t totally covered with underbrush was almost impossible.  But after some beating around up and down the trail near the road, we finally decided on a spot in a grove of trees. 

As we were setting up our tarp, along came Dave, and he asked if it would be OK for him to camp next to us.  Seeing as there was no place else, we said, “Of course” and he began to set up his tent.  “Look at that sunset!” Dave said.  “It’s showing red.  That means the weather should be better tomorrow.”  I sure do hope he is right!   It’s setting up to be a very cold night (I can see my breath!)  but if all goes well, we should make it into Cascade Locks some time tomorrow.  Sure would be nice to hike without rain!

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: Reach the River Ciril

Tags: Barlow Pass, Lolo Pass, Mt. Hood, Sandy River, Timberline Lodge