- Mt Hood
I forgot to check the Forest Service website for road information before heading out, so I got fooled by a sign at the junction of 1825 and 1828 saying "road closed 6 miles ahead." Google maps showed that Top Spur TH was 7 miles to go, so I foolishly thought the road was closed before the trailhead. I figured, no sweat, I'll take Lolo pass rd up to the other end of 1828. Of course, at Lolo pass road 1828 is closed. (When I got home I checked the website and discovered that road 1828 is closed from Lolo pass road to the junction with the spur road to Top Spur TH.)
There were tons of cars parked along the road here; I assumed people were heading up the PCT to the timberline trail. Or maybe north on the PCT, although given what folks are reporting about the downed trees, I wonder how successful that would be.
I considered my options, and decided to take the McGee Creek trail up to the Timberline trail. I hadn't ever hiked it and it has been on my to do list for a while. I drove the short distance on 1810 until coming to the unsigned spur road. Just after turning onto the narrow road, I had to back down to let a convoy of 5-6 trucks drive out. I started again up the road and made another mistake due of lack of preparation, apparently driving right by the official parking area for the trail head. Instead, I continued up the road, which my map clearly showed making a couple more turns and then dead-ending at the trail (this would be the 60's era national forest quads). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the road continued further than indicated on the map, running right along the trail, which made sense since the forest to the left seemed to have been logged sometime in the not too distant past. For the most part the road was very good, with just one short, steep section heavily carved by water erosion. But going slow and easy my sedan made it just fine.
The road finally dead-ended at a small circle, where I parked. I set off on the obvious trail that continued from the end of the road, but the trail petered out in about 20 feet. I went back to the parking circle and looked for evidence of a trail. I explored another faint trail off to the right, but it appeared to fade away into the forest too. I decided to go back to the first trail and see if I could bushwack through the shubs in hopes of finding the trail. I figured, if nothing else I could just bushwack up the ridge to the Timberline trail. The area surrounding the end of the road is a regenerating clearcut, filled with rhododendrons. It'd be very pretty in the spring. But it was nearly impassable, and everything was wet from overnight rain. Within 5 mins my hiking pants and my gloves were soaked. I realized I wasn't going to be able to travel through the clearcut, and decided to head for the mature forest off to the right -- where I should have gone in the first place. I had just about decided to give up and head back to the car when suddenly the trail appeared in front of me.
After flailing for 30 mins in the understory, hiking on a proper trail was a dream. The McGee trail is quite nice, pretty steady climb through lovely old forest (it seems to be about 800' elevation in about a mile from where I parked -- more gain in less distance than from Top Spur.) I was a bit surprised to find that the trail was recently cleared of blowdown -- I hadn't expected a less popular trail like McGee Creek to get any attention given the massive blowdown on the trails.
From the junction with the Timberline trail I passed more cleared blowdown. This photo is from that spot just above the trail junction where the forest thins out a bit on the north side. Now there's quite an opening in the canopy due to additional trees down. I counted rings on one of the trees that was about a foot and a half in diameter and counted 170 rings +/-10 or 20. That's quite a bit older than I expected for the diameter of the tree.
- Blow down on the Timberline Trail
- Cleared blow down
- Sun shining on the forest
- Glimps of Mt Hood from meadow on Timberline Trail
- Autumn slopes above McNeil shelter
The view from "the Dragon's Back" is always amazing.
- The ridge climbing up the side of Hood, like a Dragon's Back
After enjoying the view, I scrambled down the north slope onto that flat table area at the top of the cliffs that look over the creek flowing from the Glissan glacier. Views back at Hood.
- End of Barrett Spur
- View from the table below the ridge.
From there a nice hike down, bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun. I even remembered to cut off the McGee trail at just about the right place to find my car.
Despite all the unforced errors, it was a great day on the mountain.
