McNeil Point
Posted: July 15th, 2016, 6:53 am
Headed up there on Wednesday from Top Spur for an overnighter. Despite being midweek, there were three other groups, probably like us looking for a clear day this July. There were still clouds hanging around the mountain early in the hike so not much of a view from Bald Butte. It didn't really clear around the summit till late afternoon. There were zillions of little flies low on the hike, just a few bites from them, but bugless at McNeil Point, even in the rare moments when the wind died down. We chose our campsite slightly to the west of the ridge the shelter is on to get a little more shelter from the wind. Everybody else camped on that ridge.
There was two brief pieces of snow to walk over and on the way home in the morning, one was exposed and icy and we decided to hike up and over it. It was less than ten feet wide but at 8am it was hard and icy and you would have gone a very long way if you had slipped.
Flowers were quite nice - glacier lilies and paintbrush especially, and there were only a few logs on the trail.
There was two brief pieces of snow to walk over and on the way home in the morning, one was exposed and icy and we decided to hike up and over it. It was less than ten feet wide but at 8am it was hard and icy and you would have gone a very long way if you had slipped.
Flowers were quite nice - glacier lilies and paintbrush especially, and there were only a few logs on the trail.
- Mt Hood on the trail up
- the ridge above
- There is my tent with a view to the north
. The flowers up there were beautiful!