While thru-hiking this summer would be great, it’s also nice to enjoy my first real summer in Portland.  And what kind of Portland area hiker would I be if I didn’t hike the Timberline Trail, the classic 40 mile loop around Mt Hood.  The Independence Day holiday weekend provided enough time for a leisurely trip, but the 4th of July is definitely considered “early season” for this hike in any normal snow year, promising some route finding over snow and possibly high creek crossings.  Obviously, the 2011 PCT gang were the perfect companions!

So on Friday, July 4th, DATAmuffin, Goodness, Seahorse, Daybreaker and I met at Timberline Lodge and began our circuit counterclockwise.   The trail started easily, winding through Meadows ski area, with easy crossings of some creeks.

We hit some steep snow patches on the north facing slopes dropping down to Newton creek, but nothing that made us consider turning around, and we lost trail in the snow fields leading up to Gnarl Ridge, but it was all good fun.

When planning the trip, we had discussed Cooper Spur as a first night camping destination, and we arrived around 6pm.  Perfect, right?  Well, the thru-hikers in us couldn’t stop there.  We decided to press on and cross the Elliot Glacier while the snow was still soft.    The official section of trail around the Elliot Glacier is officially closed, washed out by floods in 2006.  We opted to cross higher up on the glacier, initially attempting to follow the approximate route Goodness took in September 2012. An important fact to keep in mind on any hike is that conditions always change.  What was once a good, safe route may not be the next year, month, day, or even hour. Upon reaching the glacier, we walked out and continually reassessed.   Seeing cracks in the snow and witnessing a mini mudslides, we ultimately decided crossing high on the glacier was dangerous and turned back.

We ended up going back to Cooper Spur to camp for the night anyway!  While there, a guy with a tiny cuben fiber pack walked by, obviously one of our people.  We chatted him up and confirmed he was not only a thru hiker (PCT 2009), but also a badass high snow year thru-hiker (CDT 2011), and invited him to tag along with us.  We all cowboyed, enjoying a beautiful sunset.

The next morning we crossed lower on the Elliot Glacier, and scrambled up the loose rocks of the moraine on the other side – still a little dangerous, but at least we could see what we were getting into.   Back on the Timberline Trail, we traversed the snowy northern slopes of the mountain, taking in great views of Hood.   In the afternoon, we ran into crowds of day-hikers from Cairn Basin on.

At Bald Mountain, the group opted to split, Seahorse and Freebie taking the PCT, the rest of us taking the Timberline past Muddy Creek, which was rumored to be impassable.

We reconvened at Ramona Falls and discussed abandoning our original plans to camp at the Sandy River and pressing on to camp up around Paradise Park so we could finish Sunday morning in time for the breakfast buffet at Timberline Lodge.   Of course, these plans quickly got scrapped when we ended up missing a turn and walking more than mile in the wrong direction.

We ended up with a lovely campsite along the Sandy River, still 10 miles and about 4000′ of climbing from Timberline Lodge.  But Sunday morning, we busted ass like thru-hikers and made it in time for that breakfast buffet after all!

At the end of the trip, I revealed that I had stress fractured my left tibia (from running) a few days before the trip.  I was supposed to be wearing a boot and resting, but we’d had this trip planned a long time, and really I didn’t want to miss it!  It was a great trail with great friends, and I am certainly glad I pushed it and went.  Now though, it’s time to take a rest for a while and heal.  The ultra run I signed up for will have to get scrapped, I expect to be hiking again sometime in August.