Little ZigZag Canyon (Hidden Lake shortcut)
Posted: November 9th, 2019, 8:25 pm
MOTIVATION, AND THE PLAN
Many years ago, I hiked up the Hidden Lake trail in winter or late autumn. Don't recall how high I got. Maybe all the way to Timberline Trail. I wanted to go do it again, due to a strange combination of nostalgia and curiosity. But I noticed AllTrails rates the hike difficult. I don't like difficult. I'm getting too old and fat for that nonsense. But I cooked up a scheme: Keep driving past the Hidden Lake trailhead to the end of Kiwanis Road, which would put me higher and closer to Timberline Trail. From there I could hike the deadend Little Zigzag Falls trail, and then continue offtrail up to Timberline Trail. A short walk on TLT would take me to the top of Hidden Lake Trail. Easy peasy.
THE ASCENT: FOREST
From the end of Little Zigzag Falls trail, there was a faint social trail. No surprise. It gradually faded, as I knew it would. This part of Hood can be thick with rhododendrons, but mostly it was open forest. I did have to zig and zag a bit in search of the clearest route, and to avoid steep banks of Little Zigzag Creek, but it was a generally pleasant bushwhack. Crossed the creek a few times along the way, when it looked like the other side was easier.
THE ASCENT: CANYON
The forest ended abruptly, and I was on rock, with a bit of a mountain view. I was glad to be out of the brush, and the hat/gloves/sleeves came off. The mossy creek was fun to follow, lots of boulder hopping. I came to the head of Little Zigzag Creek, at a spring just slightly off the center/bottom of the canyon. I stopped for a longish break, knowing it would be a dry less-interesting dustbowl above. But I also looked forward to easier travel straight up the dry canyon bottom. There were a couple steps (dry falls), but it was easier than expected. Even if I had encountered insurmountable challenges, it would have been fairly easy to scale the canyon walls, so I was never in danger of having to retreat downstream. Just a little above the spring, the canyon shrank, becoming narrow and shallow. Uh oh. Drat, did I veer into Sand Canyon down there? I knew that was a risk. Thinking back, there was a fork I took to the right, even though I knew I generally needed to stay left. But the left fork of the creek was maybe a quarter of the right fork, so I went with the bigger creek. Maybe that's where I veered into Sand Canyon. Well, too late to go back. I continued up until I saw signs I was getting close to Timberline Trail: increasing snow, and anthropogenic detritus, including salt bags courtesy of Timberline Lodge. Jackasses.
TIMBERLINE TRAIL
I almost didn't notice the trail. I saw boot prints, but that wasn't surprising so close to the lodge. A moment later I realized it was a real trail. Had to be TLL. Turned out my shortcut worked as planned: there's no way my ascent could be considered "difficult", so surely it was easier than hiking up the Hidden Lake trail. A problem though: Now I had to hike TLL farther than planned, all the way to Little Zigzag Canyon, and to Hidden Lake junction. But as I surveyed the trail into and out of my canyon, I started to think it looked a lot like Little Zigzag. Is it possible I actually had been on route the whole time, in LZZ as intended? Yep, sure enough. Funny, part of me was disappointed, as I was already planning a return trip to LZZ. I followed TLT to the Hidden Lake junction, and discovered the top of Hidden Lake Trail was under snow. For just a moment, I was concerned, but I soon realized there was no risk. If I lost the trail, I could just veer east towards Little Zigzag Canyon until I was below snow line, and then cut back over to the Hidden Lake Trail.
THE UPPER INTER ZIGZAG ZONE
It was early, not even noon yet (yay shortcut!). I considered continuing to Paradise Park and down the PP trail. But no, just did that a few weeks ago. Decided to poke around in the wedge between ZZ Canyon and Little ZZ, up above treeline. It's a neat place, great for a random stroll with no particular goal. I reached a scenic high point with a view to Mississippi Head, and sat down for a relaxing break. I had just cracked a beer when it started raining, and the wind picked up. I quickly repacked, putting critical items in ziplock bags, then downed my beer and headed downslope. It soon stopped raining, so I explored a bit more, but I couldn't dawdle. This was surprising and disappointing. Forecast said 10% chance after 4pm, so rain at noon caught me off guard. I felt validated though: the weather was the reason I picked a can't-get-lost canyon hike, so in a sense it would have been annoying if it turned out to be a bluebird day.
DESCENDING HIDDEN LAKE TRAIL
As expected, the snow wasn't a problem on Hidden Lake Trail. When it faded just a little below Timberline Trail, I was disappointed more than relieved. The hike down was uneventful, except for an unmarked junction. I was near Hidden Lake, and the social trails caused a little confusion. The one that didn't dead end was, of course, the last one I tried. It rained just a little bit on my trail hike, but I didn't really care. It was remarkably warm (Sepvember), and I was too low for wind to be a concern. I was sure I'd get to the Hidden Lake trailhead mostly dry, and indeed the precip never amounted to much.
OTHER PARTIES
I think I saw 4 people and a dog on Timberline Trail. That's all.
Many years ago, I hiked up the Hidden Lake trail in winter or late autumn. Don't recall how high I got. Maybe all the way to Timberline Trail. I wanted to go do it again, due to a strange combination of nostalgia and curiosity. But I noticed AllTrails rates the hike difficult. I don't like difficult. I'm getting too old and fat for that nonsense. But I cooked up a scheme: Keep driving past the Hidden Lake trailhead to the end of Kiwanis Road, which would put me higher and closer to Timberline Trail. From there I could hike the deadend Little Zigzag Falls trail, and then continue offtrail up to Timberline Trail. A short walk on TLT would take me to the top of Hidden Lake Trail. Easy peasy.
THE ASCENT: FOREST
From the end of Little Zigzag Falls trail, there was a faint social trail. No surprise. It gradually faded, as I knew it would. This part of Hood can be thick with rhododendrons, but mostly it was open forest. I did have to zig and zag a bit in search of the clearest route, and to avoid steep banks of Little Zigzag Creek, but it was a generally pleasant bushwhack. Crossed the creek a few times along the way, when it looked like the other side was easier.
THE ASCENT: CANYON
The forest ended abruptly, and I was on rock, with a bit of a mountain view. I was glad to be out of the brush, and the hat/gloves/sleeves came off. The mossy creek was fun to follow, lots of boulder hopping. I came to the head of Little Zigzag Creek, at a spring just slightly off the center/bottom of the canyon. I stopped for a longish break, knowing it would be a dry less-interesting dustbowl above. But I also looked forward to easier travel straight up the dry canyon bottom. There were a couple steps (dry falls), but it was easier than expected. Even if I had encountered insurmountable challenges, it would have been fairly easy to scale the canyon walls, so I was never in danger of having to retreat downstream. Just a little above the spring, the canyon shrank, becoming narrow and shallow. Uh oh. Drat, did I veer into Sand Canyon down there? I knew that was a risk. Thinking back, there was a fork I took to the right, even though I knew I generally needed to stay left. But the left fork of the creek was maybe a quarter of the right fork, so I went with the bigger creek. Maybe that's where I veered into Sand Canyon. Well, too late to go back. I continued up until I saw signs I was getting close to Timberline Trail: increasing snow, and anthropogenic detritus, including salt bags courtesy of Timberline Lodge. Jackasses.
TIMBERLINE TRAIL
I almost didn't notice the trail. I saw boot prints, but that wasn't surprising so close to the lodge. A moment later I realized it was a real trail. Had to be TLL. Turned out my shortcut worked as planned: there's no way my ascent could be considered "difficult", so surely it was easier than hiking up the Hidden Lake trail. A problem though: Now I had to hike TLL farther than planned, all the way to Little Zigzag Canyon, and to Hidden Lake junction. But as I surveyed the trail into and out of my canyon, I started to think it looked a lot like Little Zigzag. Is it possible I actually had been on route the whole time, in LZZ as intended? Yep, sure enough. Funny, part of me was disappointed, as I was already planning a return trip to LZZ. I followed TLT to the Hidden Lake junction, and discovered the top of Hidden Lake Trail was under snow. For just a moment, I was concerned, but I soon realized there was no risk. If I lost the trail, I could just veer east towards Little Zigzag Canyon until I was below snow line, and then cut back over to the Hidden Lake Trail.
THE UPPER INTER ZIGZAG ZONE
It was early, not even noon yet (yay shortcut!). I considered continuing to Paradise Park and down the PP trail. But no, just did that a few weeks ago. Decided to poke around in the wedge between ZZ Canyon and Little ZZ, up above treeline. It's a neat place, great for a random stroll with no particular goal. I reached a scenic high point with a view to Mississippi Head, and sat down for a relaxing break. I had just cracked a beer when it started raining, and the wind picked up. I quickly repacked, putting critical items in ziplock bags, then downed my beer and headed downslope. It soon stopped raining, so I explored a bit more, but I couldn't dawdle. This was surprising and disappointing. Forecast said 10% chance after 4pm, so rain at noon caught me off guard. I felt validated though: the weather was the reason I picked a can't-get-lost canyon hike, so in a sense it would have been annoying if it turned out to be a bluebird day.
DESCENDING HIDDEN LAKE TRAIL
As expected, the snow wasn't a problem on Hidden Lake Trail. When it faded just a little below Timberline Trail, I was disappointed more than relieved. The hike down was uneventful, except for an unmarked junction. I was near Hidden Lake, and the social trails caused a little confusion. The one that didn't dead end was, of course, the last one I tried. It rained just a little bit on my trail hike, but I didn't really care. It was remarkably warm (Sepvember), and I was too low for wind to be a concern. I was sure I'd get to the Hidden Lake trailhead mostly dry, and indeed the precip never amounted to much.
OTHER PARTIES
I think I saw 4 people and a dog on Timberline Trail. That's all.