Treks and Adventures
A hike from Timberline Lodge to Paradise Park. It was a sunny day that got hot in the afternoon. Haze from wildfire smoke blocked the views. Lots of wildflowers. Other hikers were nice. The numbers – 13 1/4 miles, 3250 Total elevation gain, 8 3/4 hours on the trail with 2 hrs of that talking to people and taking photos.
Cool Creek Trail is one of the steepest trails around Mt. Hood. The first two miles are noted for climbing a 1000 ft. per mile. It is mostly a walk in the woods with a few view points but it is a good one to see how your conditioning is coming along. The reward is the Devil Peak Lookout at the top. One of the last historic fire lookouts still around and open to the public.
By the numbers: 7 3/4 miles with a little over 3000 ft. elevation gain and on the trail for 6 hours.
Hiked Burnt Lake Trail up to ZigZag Mt. Trail and on the East ZigZag Mt. Summit. The hike was 11.5 miles out and back with 2600 Elevation gain. On the trail for 6 hrs. and 15 min.
It has been a long time since I have done this hike and was excited to do it again but maybe to excited. After only a few hours of sleep I was off for an early morning start of the hike. After finishing the stair climb of what Top Spur has become I found I was having a “legs of lead” day. But it was a beautiful and beautiful place so I press on at a slow pace and made it up to McNeil Point. There were many small change that had taken place over the years I was gone and one big one, see the blow down that had happen from the storm about three years ago. I knew Paradise Park trail had been hit by micro bursts but all other place was a surprise. Hopefully storms like that are rarity and not the new norm. Hike was 10 1/2 miles and over 3000 ft. Total elevation gain.
I had not hiked the Paradise Park Trail #778 in a number of years and was happy to hike it again and see what had changed. My first challenge was finding the new trailhead and finding very large pile of logs taking up most of the parking lot. Once maneuvering around couple of piles of logs I found where the new trail head began.
By the numbers 15.5 miles, 3000 ft. elevation gain and on the trail for about 8 hours.
