On to Mt Adams…

5/18/16

Billy and I had a restful evening at the Timberline Lodge.  We woke to a surprising sunny morning.  We were lazy in getting going and departed at 11:30 am for Hood River.  The drive was incredibly scenic, getting views from the Southside to the Northside of Mt. Hood.  Clouds had begun to overtake the summit making the mountain appear as an active volcano pluming smoke.  Our summit bid weather couldn’t have been more perfect!

Mt Hood from the North

Mt. Adams

We stopped for lunch in Hood River before crossing the Columbia River onward to Trout Lake, WA.  We had glimpses of Adams along the way.  The driving was enjoyable through the countryside.  In Trout Lake, we stopped at the USFS ranger station to get beta on climbing/access conditions.  The road to the South Climb trailhead was almost melted out.  We drove up the Mt. Adams Rd to FS rd 8040.  The road was well maintained for the first 6 miles before it hit dirt.  We passed the Wicky Shelter and stopped at the Morrison Creek Camp ground to scope out a campsite.  The grounds were deserted.  A few wildfires had ravaged the area in 2008, 2012 and 2014.  The burn scars made it look uninhabitable.  We moved on up the steeper and rough road in our front wheel drive rental- Hyundai Santa Fe.  We reached the impassible part of the road blocked with snow.  A ranger was cleaning up the area and chatted with us a while.  The start of the #183 South Climb trail was a few hundred feet up the remaining road.  With the weather looking unsettled and our bodies still a bit beat up, we decided not to attempt a summit bid on Adams.  We will have to come back for it, and climb St. Helens too (if it doesn’t blow up).  

We did geared up for a couple hours hike to treeline of the #183 approach.  Most of the trail was on slushy snow, but no post-holing occurred.  We made it to treeline in an hour, just over a mile and 1,000ft of elevation gain.  We were the only ones up there.  The weather was looking grim.  A lenticular cloud had formed a cap over the summit, which is a sign of bad weather conditions.  Billy and I felt good of our decision not to ascend.  We could see the route up to the Lunch Counter, our proposed high camp.  We snapped some pictures and mentally detailed our route up for the future.  We headed down to the parking area in 35 minutes and chatted with a guy who was from Minnesota.  He had taken 5 months to travel the west coast by himself and climb; Shasta, Whitney, Helens, Hood, Baker, Glacier peak, Washington, The Sisters, Bugaboos and he still was going to climb Adams and Rainier(he had already trekked up to Muir).  Pretty impressive trip.  

The #183

Spying the upper mountain on the South Side Route

Mt St. Helens to the West

Mt Adams capped with a lenticular cloud

The Wicky Shelter was to be our camp for the night.  We had the spacious wooded primitive camp to ourselves and only had 2 vehicles pass through in the 24 hours we occupied it; one being the guy from Minnesota.  A deer wanted to befriend us, or maybe she just wanted food, nevertheless hung around well into the night.  The surrounding trees were enormous and covered in moss.  The rainforest is a cool place.  We stoked up a fire, ate some dinner and had a good night sleep.  Can you believe that all that threatening weather cleared out?  Well it did!  It could have given us a window to summit Adams.  Oh well, next time...

The morning was again lazy and we broke camp around 11 am planning to go on a day hike that the rangers recommend.  It was a drive back into Trout Lake and up another forest road.  There was no sign marking the trailhead so we continued to drive until the road was narrow and blocked by blowdown trees.  I bet our rental vehicle has not had such an adventure.  Frustrated, we drove back to the ranger station and exchanged information with the rangers.   They admitted that there is normally a turn of sign on a spur road which marks the trailhead, but obviously had been absent.  We returned up the road and were able to find the trailhead to the Sleeping Beauty Trail.  

Summit of Sleeping Beauty

The valley to the North

This hike was steep right out of the gate.  It switched up through thick wood.  We had no map or expectations of the hike.  My calves were on fire!  The trail took us up the rock to a bald and dramatic summit.  It was super windy and cold.  We had some views of the valley below, but the volcanos were buried in clouds.  The hike was 1.4 miles and 1400 ft gain.  We made the top in 44 minutes.  We descended in 25 minutes!

Our travels now took us back to Hood River and along the Columbia River to Portland.  Rain had set in and made the drive a bit white knuckled at times.  On the way we booked a room at the downtown Hilton for some plush comforts.  We strolled downtown Portland in a down pour and found my favorite Rogue Brewery Public House for good food and beer!  

Sleeping in a comfy bed again was nice.  Our final morning started with a Starbucks sit down and people watch, another stroll through the city before packing up the vehicle.  We did have time to stop at the Portland Flagship REI on the way to the airport.

Our flight back to Denver was uneventful.  I ended sitting next to a young, free spirited gal who never stopped talking, Oi!  She was however very nice.  Here ends another excellent, adventurous and successful Pacific Northwest trip!

Next up Volcanos of Mexico…