I feel like we cherry-picked one of the more beautiful parts of the PCT for our hike. The trail started behind the lodge at about 6000 feet up Mt Hood. There were lots of wildflowers, the weather was perfect, and the trail itself was very nice. I was wishing my mom could have been there with us.
The southern portion of the PCT could definitely take some lessons from this section. This was hiking like I remember from when I was a kid. There were mountains, rivers, and trees. It was so beautiful. It seemed like we were hiking at a good pace but Dad's watch proved otherwise. Maybe I was taking too many stops for pictures :)
At some point it dawned on me that we had three generations on the trail--my dad, me, and my niece. Very cool. I wondered if there would be a four generation hike at some point in the future.
At the start, we were on the south side of Hood with a great view of Mt Jefferson to the south in Oregon. Shortly afterwards as we rounded around the west side of the mountain, our view changed to Mt Adams and St Helens to the north in Washington. Views of Mt Hood came and went.
We had a couple creek crossings that challenged us. Sandy River is a notoriously sketchy one. There was a lot of water and it was really moving. We scouted out a spot upstream where the river broke into three smaller sections. The first two were navigated with some rock hopping, the third required a walk over a small log. Thankfully we all made it to the other side completely dry. It was quite a feeling of accomplishment. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures or videos of the crossing of Sandy River as we were all busy helping each other get across.
We enjoyed the lunches Mom put together for us. The spot we chose for lunch was near a trailhead for a trail to Ramona Falls. We saw lots of day hikers taking advantage of the nice weather to hike to the falls. I had hoped to see a PCT thru-hiker but didn't. The herd of hikers is still well south of Mt Hood, so I knew it was a long shot. I kicked a few rocks off the trail when I thot about the PCT hikers who would soon be hiking this stretch. (You are welcome, Fire Ball!) Earlier in the day we saw a guy run/walking the Timberline Trail which overlaps the PCT on the west side of Hood. It's a 40-mile trail around the mountain. He only had a little food and water, planning on completing the route in one day. I think I'd like to try that...minus the running! Summer days are long in the Northwest so there's enough daylight to make a 40-mile day possible.
We were around mile 16 when my niece's knees began to protest. At mile 20 the trail crossed a small road. She didn't think she'd be able to complete the hike and so I tried calling my sister but had no cell service. There was a car there with three guys on vacation from New York. They offered to help. Two of them stayed behind and the third took us down the long 8-mile road into the little town of Zig Zag where I was able to call my sister. The willingness of people to selflessly help others isn't seen that often but when it happens it's very touching. He refused gas money asking instead that we pay it forward.
So, just like that, the hike was over. We are all limping around, the result of too many miles without enough training. But it was so worth it for such a beautiful day of hiking.
