Hood was fully visible at first, but as the day progressed it got taken out by clouds wandering in from the W.
From the TH, I went W on the Labyrinth Trail past the Indian Rock Pits and through the meadows above Rowland Lake.
The clouds and contrails were busy all day drawing and erasing unusual images in the sky above.
Where the Labyrinth Trail starts down, I contoured across some delightful open terrain,
past another sculptural tree,
to reach the Little Maui Trail at the 750' elevation. It was a day for birds, not flowers, and this Western Meadowlark was singing his heart out. Since this is the Oregon state bird (since 1927), my guess is he plans to nest on the Washington side for tax purposes.
Little Maui took me to the Rim Rd, a very brisk breeze, and a view of Coyote Wall.
At about the 1250' level, the Green Trails Map shows a trail/road (CO2) heading E toward Atwood Rd. I followed it up to where it headed uphill past several private property signs and then went downhill a bit and continued contouring over to Atwood Rd. Up to this point I'd seen no one but was soon passed by a lone mountain biker,
and then by a large group of hikers heading W. I continued E into Catherine Ck canyon on the old road, crossed the creek at the easy crossing point, always on the look out for ravenous hoards of blood-sucking fiends...
Although none were encountered, it was hard to escape a faint crawling sensation as I climbed out of the canyon through groves of old oaks. I forgot about the ticks when a flock of wild turkeys burst out of the trees, did a number on my heart rate, and then flew/glided down into the canyon.
I was angling a little to the S as I went up, in hopes of intersecting the old road on the ridge S of the logged area but ran into it anyway. Maybe they'll come back and clean things up some but, at the moment, this hardly looks like the result of responsible forest management practices.
Fortunately, I was soon past the logging and out into the meadows atop Tracy Hill, for a restorative big view of Hood.
Then it was down to the frog pond (only very small tadpoles so far) for lunch,
and then down a trail (not shown on the Green Trails Map - but passed 7 people using it) that runs along a bench below Tracy Hill and above the creek,
and connects with trail CA3 where it crosses under the power lines.
From there, it was past the arch and back to the TH. Mine was the first car at the TH but there were many, many more cars there when I got back. A great hike on a wonderful day!
10.3 mi, 1800' EG.
