I had a 3 day weekend, and of course several ideas for trips, but the weather forecast just wasn’t working out.  Thankfully, 12oz was also looking for an adventure and at the very last minute, the forecast looked good enough for Mt McLoughlin – so we went for it….as a day trip from Portland. If you know your Oregon geography, you will know that this is crazy talk: Mt McLoughlin is a solid 5 hour drive (plus bathroom/gas stops) one way from Portland.

During our early morning drive, we were totally surprised and delighted to witness a lunar eclipse!! I’m really good at sleeping, so I never wake up to view astronomical events, so it was especially exciting for me.  Approaching the mountain, we ended up in a freshly dusted winter wonderland, albeit next to leafing trees.  This is the kind of scene I should be seeing all winter long around Mt Hood, but this year has been non-existent.  Our giddiness with our choice of destination grew.

 

We were able to drive all the way to the summer trailhead through nothing more than a dusting of snow.  The trail through the trees was easy to follow for a while, with about 1/4 mile coincident with the PCT! The snow gradually became deeper and we didn’t worry about staying on trail, more or less heading straight up towards the southeast ridge.  We were surprised by the amount of fresh powder on the mountain, and breaking trail all the way was exhausting.  With every step I sunk down at least 6″, up to a foot or more in places.  I seriously felt like I worked harder to go up this mountain than Hood last month.

 

Though we lucked out with great weather overall, the summit was totally socked in, windy, and freezing cold from the time we were a few hundred feet below it until we descended again.  Visibility was so bad we actually had to get out the GPS to check if we were actually standing on the true summit!

 

 

The way down was really fun, all that extra effort the fresh snow requires on the way up works as an advantage on the way down, gently sinking down in long gliding steps through the powder.   We got back to the car around 6pm, just under 7 hours after we started.  We felt pretty awesome.

 

 

McLoughlin is a simple trail all the way to the summit in the summer once all the snow has melted, but doing it early season like this made it a fun adventure.  It was also a great chance for both 12oz and I to check it off our lists.  12oz is working on climbing all the Cascade volcanoes.  I am (just started) working on climbing the 100 highest peaks of Oregon – more on this to come!

Clouds gone, we finally got a great view of McLoughlin on the drive out. What a good looking volcano!!

 

It was a long drive home, made even longer when I got a speeding ticket around Salem.  Oops!

 

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