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Hiking around Mt. Hood
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Photo by me
Ah, hiking around Mt. Hood in the Fall! Beautiful vistas; crisp, clean air in your lungs; multi-colored leaves dotting the trees and fluttering through the sky; the exhilaration of moving your legs, using your muscles, being outdoors. Everything is gorgeous! Everything is great! What could go wrong?
I’ll tell you what could go wrong.
None of the three maps you have could be very clear. You could drive around wondering where the supposed Forest Service office is, where you are supposed to get a day pass so you won’t get fined when you park the car. You could stop in a small town in the middle of nowhere and ask at a local grocery store, where the teenaged cashier could say, “Uh. Maybe next door at the gas station.” (This is doubtful). You could pile back in the car and continue on, hoping the office will be somewhere along the way. You could drive on and on, becoming increasingly skeptical that you’re even on the right road. You could decide to forget the day pass idea, as you probably won’t get ticketed anyway. You could finally come to a junction that seems somewhat fitting with your directions, although it is unclear if you are supposed to go up to the right or down to the left. You could drive down to the left for about fifteen minutes until finally running into the highway it turns out you were supposed to be on all along. You could turn around and go back to the junction where you were supposed to go up to the right, now confident that the trail you are looking for is close, yes, very close. You could pull into a parking lot where there is a trailhead, yet it could still be quite unclear exactly what trail it is or whether it’s the trail you are looking for. You could get out and begin hiking on what is a pretty standard forest trail, muddy and sort of slushy and not particularly beautiful or full of views. In fact, there could be no views to speak of. You could comment to each other, “I don’t think this is the right trail, guys. It just doesn’t, I mean- no, this can’t be right,” until finally running into a couple coming the other way who tells you there isn’t a view of Mt. Hood for another three miles. You could realize that by this time even if you did find the right trail, you wouldn’t have much time to hike at all, if you wanted to stop at some orchards on the way home and get back before dark and make dinner. You could turn around and hike back to the car, slipping and soaking your right foot in a cold, muddy puddle along the way. Once back in the car, you could continue driving up the road, where you actually do get to some nice views and it’s clear that this is, in fact, the road that will lead to the original hike you wanted to do, except that the road is getting kind of snowy and the driver might not feel terribly comfortable driving on a snowy road in this car, and besides it’s already late afternoon, and you could decide to just turn around and drive all the way home, having hiked a total of about twenty minutes, despite the initial plan for the day having been a multi-hour day hike.
Photo by me
But. Despite all these things that could happen (and please note that it is very likely they will), you might end up having a great day after all:
You might share a beautiful car ride with quality friends. You might be good-humored enough to laugh about how frustrating the directions are. You might get to see some awesome views of Mt. Hood through mountainside that has just been burned, where the trees are eerily yet beautifully sparse. You might stop at an orchard on the way home, where there is hot apple cider for sale and a swing hung from a tree looking out across the fields toward the mountain. There might be goats in a pen and samples of fresh apple slices and bales of hay that you can jump off of for mid-air photo-ops. The slanting sunlight might make everything golden and lovely, and you might admire the landscape of valleys and rolling hills. You might stop in Hood River for a pint at a local brewpub, and you might return home to make a delicious dinner with lots of friends and wine and conversation. And it might be a good thing that you didn’t waste your money on a day pass, because you didn’t need it anyway.
Photo by me
If you want to spend a day driving around the Fruit Loop and hiking near Mt. Hood, definitely go for it. But make sure you have some good directions, some good company, and a good attitude. I hear that the Tilly Jane trail is nice. I wouldn’t actually know, since we didn’t get there. But the views were beautiful as we were nearing it, and the post-burn forest is truly a sight to see.
Also, the darned Forest Service office is right there off Highway 35. Just don’t somehow get off Highway 35.
That is all.
Loving the fall in the Pacific Northwest,
Your Portland Twenty-something
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