Jean and I had been trying to hike to East Zigzag forever. So this was finally the day and we set out. First off, I forgot my rain coat - really I didn't forget, I just didn't think it would rain. It had been so nice!. Then we got a little turned around by taking the wrong road here and there. We ended up getting to our turn off 3 hrs instead of 2 hr after leaving Keizer. When we started up the road to East Zigzag it became very horrible in short order. In fact after 30 min and 1 mile into it, we bailed, found a spot to turn around (which wasn't easy) and headed back down. We opted to hike Mirror Lake which was just a few more miles up Hwy 26.
When we got there it was still pretty socked in with clouds. Then it started raining. We had stopped at a shop in Rhododendron to get me a poncho, so at least I had that. The forest was pretty but there were not many flowers. The vanilla leaf was blooming. When we got to the lake, we didn't even know it because we couldn't see it. I am posting a photo of it as we first saw it. We hiked around the lake, and saw, amazingly, people camping and hiking, then tried to find the trail to Tom Dick and Harry Mountain. The trail had been behind us (I remembered a cobweb so I knew we were going in circles) so we backtracked. We got up to the top and it sort of looked like it would break up, so we ate our lunch and chatted with a couple from Philly, PA. No clearing though...but it had stopped raining. Hiked back to Mirror Lake hoping it would clear up - it did enough to see the little lake. We will have to go back when it is a clear day. It was an easy 6.4 mile hike with 1500 ft gain.
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| Our first view of the lake and Mt Hood??? |
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| On top Tom, Dick and Harry Mtn |
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| Paintbrush |
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| Some wildflowers on a rocky hillside |
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| Mirror Lake |
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