but a big hearty thank you to everyone here who has helped motivate myself and others to not only be a better outdoorsman, but a better person too. Moving onto the TR where I started the hike at an empty Herman Creek TH around 7:30 am. The previous days rain had put a pretty good rut in the trail on the section up to the Gorton/400 junction:
Anything from roughly the 1,000 ft. mark up to 3k was covered in a coating of ice thanks to some recent freezing rain. Throw in some wind and there were quite a few trees down across the various trails throughout the day. I probably tossed 12-15 good sized logs off the Herman Creek Trail and PCT combined to get a little head start on next years storm cleanup. Most of them in the "freeze layer"
Some of the older burnt out snags just couldn't hold on for another season:
Lots of smaller stuff too:
Hiking through a frozen Hatfield Wilderness was pretty spectacular as I worked my way into the old growth near the swamp. Just about everything was layered in ice:
As pointed out in drm's TR over at Wyeth, there were tons of vine maples being weighed down over the trail. At first it wasn't a big deal but they became more and more tiresome to deal with as the day wore on. Toss a log here, crawl under a frozen maple there, maybe Peabody's right and I've gone feral
Either way, its pretty impressive how much weight the various trees and shrubs can handle in terms of snow and ice accumulation. Even this lichen was frozen in time:
The creeks were too risky to rock hop so I splashed through Mullinix, Whiskey and the east fork doing a little frozen foot dance after every crossing. Whiskey Creek was its usual photogenic self:
The cedars at the swamp were dressed for winter too:
About a mile or two into the hike and I had reached the 2,000 mile mark for the year. It felt really good to look around the swamp, one of my favorite places on earth, and think back to a years worth of good times in the outdoors. Looking over some of my past log books and I've had the fortune of hiking every weekend for over 150 weekends in a row
Either I need to get a life, or I've already got a pretty good one 
Leaving the swamp and it looked like a meetup group had just lunched at the swamp. Or one idiot
The ice formations were a big highlight of the trip:
Even the area above the Mud Lake junction and high areas past the Tomlike spur must have been hit with the freezing rain too. There was a nice layer of ice over the few inches of snow above 4,000 feet and it actually made for much better traction than expected. Where anything was at all slushy it was much slipperier:
The spur up to Chinidere was a tale of two paths, one of bare ground with the other boasting drifts of snow up to 2 1/2 feet deep. It seemed the wind had thrown a field day when things were still light and fluffy:
I wasn't expecting to see much from the top of Chinidere but a visit to one of the last great Wascos seemed like a good idea whether the views materialized or not. I was blown away(literally and figuratively) when I hit the top by the incredible cloud show that was taking place around me. A good life lesson in the importance of positivity and a few minutes on the wind swept summit inspired the best part of my day. Indian Mountain stole the show as the clouds rolled along Waucoma Ridge:
The north ridge of Indian Mountain:
The base of Mt Hood briefly appeared several times while I was up there only to disappear soon after:
Tanner Butte across the valley and a zoom on Tanner Ridge:
Summit Pano of a frozen wilderness:
The pits were looking a little chilly:
Next on the list was the hike over to the Benson Plateau with a side trip down to Hicks Lake below Chinidere Mountain. Hicks Lake is like the Mud Lake of the west fork, a nice little lake nestled high in the drainage but differs in that there is no trail to its shore despite its close proximity to the Pacific Crest Trail. A little of the OT down to the lake:
Here is what the lake looked like at the end of summer 2013:
On Friday it was partially frozen but just as beautiful:
There is an old fire ring near the northwest shore of the lake:
Back on the PCT heading north toward the plateau and I noticed this shelter just a hundred yards or so off the trail:
There were some nice views on the exposed section where the trail traversed over to the eastern side of the ridge:
Chinidere and Hood:
Pano of Tomlike and the west fork with some of the conditions on the PCT:
Made my first snowman of the season on the Benson Plateau
Its always a surreal feeling to walk the plateau when its covered in a light layer of snow:
Bombing off toward Teakettle Spring and I reached the viewpoint with some light to spare:
A few more logs down on the PCT as I entered the freezer again. What a trip to go in and out of the freeze:
Slipping, sliding and bursting through ice covered maples and I reached the Herman Bridge Trail before having to get out the lamp. By the time I crossed Herman Creek things were totally dark but I still had to make a search for that old PCT marker near the powerlines payslee had posted about a while back:
It was truly a wonder to experience the wilderness in such a state last Friday. It really doesn't get better than mile after mile of scenic trail just a short drives from ones house. How lucky can we be to live here?
Speaking of being lucky to live in the PNW, here is a little bonus TR of a hike Jojo and I took along the abandoned Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad the next morning on Saturday the 6th. We started at Cochran and hiked about 4 or 5 miles down the tracks with a great lunch spot on Wolf Creek just past the trestle bridge:
Selfies at the tunnel:
And a couple more of us hiking the respective trestles, Big Baldwin and Wolf Creek to close out the TR:
Congrats on the 2,000 mile mark, what an accomplishment.
