Rigby the Hiking Dog and I took a group of strong hikers from Top Spur TH on Mt Hood up to McNeil Pt, past the ice caves and continued offtrail south to reach Yocum Ridge.
From Yocum Ridge, we located the ridge trail and followed Yocum Ridge down the Timberline Trail junction across the Muddy Fork crossings, and back up to Top Spur TH for a 16.9 mile loop with almost 5000 ft ascent.
NOTE: The traverse between McNeil and Yocum requires navigation and is a rather long 3.1 mile traverse. There are many dropoffs and some steep sections, even though Yocum Ridge is always within view. It is easy to cliff-out or dead-end within a steep section.
We started the morning by going past Bald Mtn, our objective ahead:
We followed the ridge trail then the climber's route up to McNeil Pt:
..and took a break at McNeil Pt:
Then headed offtrail in the direction of the ice caves:
Approaching the caves - we did NOT go near the entrance nor go in the caves - too dangerous.
Our first crossing of the outflows from the glacier.
View close, but not too close to the ice caves:
From here, we headed down and climber's left of the ice caves:
I was worried about the last crossing of the cave drainages, but we lucked out as Gene found an easy place to cross, near the base of a multi-tiered waterfall:
A brief lunch here:
Then it was a steady ascent offtrail to meet Yocum Ridge:
The views were great:
More ascent but flattening out:
We rested at a small meadow before reaching Yocum Ridge:
We scrambled up to the user path at the top of Yocum Ridge, headed down Yocum Ridge trail to the Timberline Trail junction and headed across the two Muddy Fork crossings before sunset:
Then back to Bald Mtn, down the trail to Top Spur trailhead by 925pm. A wonderful adventure day with a strong hiking group!
Approx mileage: 17 miles
Approx ascent : 4900 ft
GPS track: http://gpsfly.org/a/6272
CraigG and Rigby the Hiking Dog
