A day in the hood: Cooper Spur and Laurance lake

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dibgerge
Posts: 6
Joined: March 15th, 2015, 8:45 pm

A day in the hood: Cooper Spur and Laurance lake

Post by dibgerge » June 18th, 2017, 1:00 pm

Pre-hike

Coming from the eastern lands, I had a lot of ground to cover before reaching Mt hood. I left work early on Friday, and headed west towards the mountain. Stopped by the lovely Solera Brewery in Parkdale for some food and brews. Drove 7 miles to Laurance lake campground, and got there just before 9. The campground has 26 sites, most of which are walk-ins, and probably less than 10 were occupied. I chose a site with no neighbors in sight, and got ready for the wet and windy night. A 64'er I got with me from Solera helped with the plight.
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Hike Day
The birds woke me up around 4.30. and got up about 5, prepared some coffee, with a nice view of the lake.
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After breakfast I drove up to the Tilly Jane trailhead. The road is still closed just after the trailhead, so there is no car access to Cloud Cap Inn. I arrived just after 8, and there were three cars already at the TH, and 2 more arrived before I hit the trail. The trail starts ascending right off the bat from the trailhead. It starts in a forested area, which soon turns into a burn area, all the way till Tilly Jane camground.
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The trail is snow-free till TJ camground at 5700 ft, where snow starts to appear in patches.

A ruined structure next to the A-frame at TJC
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There were no tents at the campground, but there were a large group staying in the A-frame. I was tired. It is time for a nap. I choose a snow-free spot away from the A-frame and dozed off for 45 minutes or so. I was waken up by the voices of passer-bys, and I realized that I am shivering. Got up and decided to go towards Cloud Cap inn before going up to Cooper Spur. There is a lot of patchy snow on the trail from TJH to CSI, and I decided to put on micro-spikes, but they aren't necessary.

View from the trail towards the roads just before reaching CSI
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From CSI and going up on the timberline trail to the CS shelter, the trail had a bunch of snow below the treeline, varying from 0-4 ft. I kept my micro-spikes until I was above the tree-line where the snow was less, and I was walking on rocky terrain.
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An avalanche shoot just before the rocky terrain.
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Rocky terrain
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View of Mt Adams from the rocky terrain
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After that, when turning north towards the cooper spur shelter, continuous snow started, and I put on the micro-spikes again, although again not necessary.
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Finally arrived at the shelter. There were no snow around it, only in it.
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View from the shelter.
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I had some lunch and ultra-light weight bourbon, while sitting with Adams, where he told me about his problems with Helen and how she blows up everytime he does something she doesn't like, and how Hood thinks she is a saint, and he doesn't know that she has a big deep hole in her. Then, I was tired. I decided to have a nap.

ultra light weight bourbon
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Woke up in an hour or so, and headed down on the cooper spur trail towards TJC. Going down was much easier both in effort and navigation, I didn't use microspikes.

View going down
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The trail had snow on most of it, becoming patchy halfway to the campground. When I reached the campground, I was feeling sleepy, so I brewed some coffee before heading down to the TH. At the trailhead there were 10 cars parked. Overall, I only saw two parties on the trail, excluding the TJC area.

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Chip Down
Posts: 3037
Joined: November 8th, 2014, 8:41 pm

Re: A day in the hood: Cooper Spur and Laurance lake

Post by Chip Down » June 18th, 2017, 1:13 pm

You bourbon drinkers have it so easy. :lol:

mrblisterdundee
Posts: 31
Joined: April 14th, 2017, 8:24 pm

Re: A day in the hood: Cooper Spur and Laurance lake

Post by mrblisterdundee » June 19th, 2017, 10:16 am

Did you make it all the way to Cooper Spur? I ran into a Mountain Ranger — first on the mountain, and then later in the day at Solera Brewery — who said he tried to make Cooper Spur Sunday morning but was getting blasted by winds. I almost reached the shelter Sunday afternoon but turned back about 1/2 mile away after losing the trail a couple times. There was a huge, thick cloud that settled down to the timberline, so I'm doubting I would have had a view anyway.

dibgerge
Posts: 6
Joined: March 15th, 2015, 8:45 pm

Re: A day in the hood: Cooper Spur and Laurance lake

Post by dibgerge » June 19th, 2017, 3:53 pm

mrblisterdundee wrote:Did you make it all the way to Cooper Spur? I ran into a Mountain Ranger — first on the mountain, and then later in the day at Solera Brewery — who said he tried to make Cooper Spur Sunday morning but was getting blasted by winds. I almost reached the shelter Sunday afternoon but turned back about 1/2 mile away after losing the trail a couple times. There was a huge, thick cloud that settled down to the timberline, so I'm doubting I would have had a view anyway.
I stopped at the shelter. I was lucky on Saturday, it was nice weather just few clouds and not windy at all, but unfortunately I was winded. I saw a group at the shelter, and I think they kept going up.

mtnhiker56
Posts: 125
Joined: August 21st, 2011, 7:29 am

Re: A day in the hood: Cooper Spur and Laurance lake

Post by mtnhiker56 » June 19th, 2017, 6:42 pm

I like your style in travel and your sense of humor...thanks for the trip report1

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