Burnt Lake & East Zig Zag Mountain 25 October 2013

The hiking season has been blessed by God with great weather this year.  It was very foggy and miserable in the valley, but I read that at 2000 ft the sun would shine. Garnet and I headed to Mt Hood for our annual sisters hike.  The hike to Zig Zag is considered difficult (9.6 mi RT with 2350 ft gain) but we took our time and made it to the top by 1:15p  The skies were clear and the sun was in the perfect position to show off Mt Hood.  Burnt Lake was pretty too with some fall golden yellows and deep shadows.  We even saw mountain lion tracks.  A beautiful day.

cool 'shrooms

19th century burnt out snags

view from ridge

a 4-volcano day

sisters

lunch spot on the rocks

Mt St Helens on the left

Burnt Lake in the afternoon sun

Mountain Lion track

Snow hiking at Jefferson Park 18 October 2013

Another snow-hiking adventure.  I had heard that the snow was quite deep at Jefferson Park (5900 ft) so I was hesitant to go before this date.  I hiked with Marc this time.  We were encouraged when we didn't see any major snow until the junction with the PCT and then it was not that deep, just slippery on the trail.  By the time we got to the actual park, it was mostly all snow covered and beautiful.  The snow had compacted so that you could walk along the top and not sink in.  We hiked over to Russell Lake for lunch after 3 hrs of hiking this 11 mile trail.  The weather was perfect!  We only saw a handful of people the entire day.  On the way out, it warmed up considerably and the snow had even melted from the morning.  We arrived back at the car after a 6 hr trail/snow-hike.

first view

first serious snow

for about a mile you have amazing views of Jeff

crossing the creek

getting deeper

the first meadow

Park Butte

more meadpws

Park Butte

a tarn

another tarn

a tarn with cool rocks

Russell Lake

rocks breaking ice

Red huckleberries

 

Three Pyramids, Bachelor Mtn and Coffin

snowy peak

afternoon light

Cape Horn WA 11 October 2103

Becky, Bethany and I had to switch our plans to Cape Horn as Jefferson Park was very possibly covered in snow.  We arrived early - around 9:30a and began climbing up through a deciduous woods.  It was cool, but we warmed up.  Our first views were pretty foggy but the sun gradually did come out more and more.  We pretty much had the trail to ourselves too.  The trail was very easy to follow at the "road" junctions but when we crossed the road and had come down a bit we came to a three way junction.  We should have gone right, not left.  We ended up missing seeing the railway train tunnel and walking behind the waterfall.  Next time!  This hike will be pretty in the spring when the trees are sending out shoots and the delphiniums are blooming.

Hamilton Mtn

at the overlook

lunch spot perched on the edge of the cliff

moss pillows

a view of the cliffs

lots and lots of rocks, boots are handy

from the road walking back