We had grand plans for the last weekend in June. One of the
large NW volcanoes we had yet to climb is Mt. Hood. It’s pointy peak has
always appealed to me, so this spring we decided to block out a weekend for it.
It’s supposed to be best mid-April through mid-June and we decided to push the
envelope a bit by choosing the last weekend in June. I’m all for improving your
chances of sunshine. Somewhere along the line L&V signed up to attempt the
climb with us, and somewhere else down the line I found a good deal at a nice
‘Resort’ right near the trailhead and decided it would be nice to have a place
to lay our heads at for a few hours before waking at mid-night to begin the
climb, and nice to not have to drive 4.5 hours back to Seattle after the climb.
It’s a good thing we booked somewhere nice.
The climb is about 6,000 feet of elevation gain, and while
not actually technical has some challenging parts. The plan was to be climbing
by about 1am Saturday morning, and hopefully down around lunchtime. Elevation
tops out at about 11,240.
Hood on our drive home from Bend last year - a better day
Hood from Portland in May
The weather wasn’t looking promising all last week, but it
wasn’t bad enough that we wanted to bag the whole thing, so Friday afternoon we
packed up the car with loads of mountaineering gear and made our way to Mt.
Hood. About halfway down we got a call back from the ranger station Matt had
left a message at earlier in the day. The helpful ranger explained that there
was 50ft visibility at the 7,500ft level and they were expecting
storms the next morning. Logic says visibility would get worse not better going
up, so we made the decision then and there that Friday night/Saturday morning was
not going to happen. While bummed, we were thrilled we hadn’t planned on
camping or staying at motel six. I was burned out from working too much the
past few weeks, so we resigned ourselves to enjoying a relaxing weekend.
(Val pic)
The Resort at the Mountain was not luxurious, but perfectly
nice and had all sorts of fun activities to keep us busy. We hung out in the
hot tub, played 18 holes of mini golf, learned to play croquet, Matt & Val
took advantage of the fitness center, and we all availed ourselves of the Swedish
steam room.
(V)
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Croquet course
Val egging Matt on, surprise
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Nice form
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lining it up
guess who?
Saturday we made a pilgrimage up to the Timberline Lodge up at Hood. It’s a pretty cool property, built by the WPA during the depression
and had a lot of love put into it. We wandered, looked at some of the
historical displays, and then had lunch. The entire time, we had not one
glimpse of anything but the very lowest reaches of the mountain. It was
depressing, but reassuring the we had made the right choice.
theoretically, there is a mountain there
Timeberline lodge
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staring down the mountain
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also staring down the mountain
Climbers Trail. looks delightful, no?
All around, it was nothing like we planned but a fun and
relaxing get away. We’re off to South Africa in a mere 5 days. I have loads of
work, laundry, and packing to do before then but if I get a chance, I’ll put an
itinerary up for you!
( V)
Dinner at El Burro Loco
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