A dozen or more years ago I joined a Mazamas hike up Cook and all I recall was climbing straight up through thick brushy growth, gravel roads, and transmission towers. I must have been in a sour mood.
Goal this day was the OH Cook Mtn. loop. One plus about low expectations is how the little things can make you high. Perhaps it was the passing of time and the landscape becoming a little wilder or maybe it's just me - a little older.
So I had a good time taking in a decent array of wildflowers. Many others not pictured including some tiger lilies.
I continued up into more green carpeted forest. Stunning. It was then I concluded my previous Cook Hill excursion did not feature this lovely routing.
Things got wetter as I got higher. I emerged at either the "small meadow" or the actual summit meadow - not sure which. I had also emerged into a thick mist, gusty winds and driving horizontal rain. Just like that. I layered up under a tree. Wasn't that cold but I wasn't really geared for this kind of action. No views to be had, and recalling fairly open roads on the top I reluctantly retreated back down to the lower meadow for an early lunch.
That was okay. I felt I was on the divide of sun and mist, dryness and dampness, life and such.