When I reached the shelter around 3-3:30, Mt Hood was pretty socked in with clouds. I could see a few openings in the cloud cover, so I chilled at the stone shelter and was entertained by the ever amusing Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels. One of them, who I assume has been receiving handouts from people, practically climbed up in my lap as I sat on one of the boulders. Once she realized that I wasn't giving out treats she got bored and went off to do squirrel stuff.
After about 20 or 30 minutes I got my first break in the clouds and took a few pics. Then it seemed to clear up a lot more, so I went out exploring. I had the whole area to myself the entire time. There were folks higher up the ridge, but nobody was down where I was. I decided to head up to the ridge and see what I could see, but some majorly ominous clouds started flowing in about 2/3 of the way up and I was aware of some storms that were predicted to blow in that evening. I thought the storms came early and started heading back down. It got pretty dark and really windy for awhile and then just cleared right up about a mile and a half from the parking area. Oregon weather is a fickle beast.
Is the trip up to Tie-In-Rock worth the huffing and puffing to get there? I was just going to check it out to add some mileage to the hike, but didn't know what the views were like. Maybe I'll get a chance to check it out next time.
