08-10-20 Timberline Trail, Day One, Timberline Lodge to Ramona Falls
11.23 miles, 1,654 ft elevation gain, 3,980 ft elevation loss
Last year I had put out the word to my women's hiking group that if anybody wanted to do the Timberline Trail in August 2020 that we would make it happen. One person took me up on it and Trish joined us for the four day adventure around Mt Hood on the Timberline Trail. Trish had never done a multiday trip before and it was so exciting to take a newbie with us and show her the ropes. The Timberline Lodge parking lot was quite full with skiers (skiing still going on until Aug 31st on the big patch of snow), day hikers, and backpackers. It was a clear and sunny day with perfect temperatures to start our trip. For the first day we would actually be hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail with our goal of spending our first night at Ramona Falls. We took the alternate loop through Paradise Park and enjoyed the meadows full of wildflowers. The trail was also full of day hikers that we passed all the way to Paradise Park. Most backpackers wore some sort of face protection but the day hikers didn't. That part was disappointing. Paradise Park was beautiful and it was fun to see the "dinosaur egg" again, a gigantic rock split in two. We were thrilled to see some bear grass was still blooming. Then we had a long downhill to the Sandy River and Ramona Falls. Many cairns greeted us and showed us the way to the thin logs where we crossed over the Sandy River. After 11.23 miles, 1,654 ft elevation gain, and a whopping 3,980 ft descent, we arrived at Ramona Falls ready to be done for the day. Found a beautiful campsite next to a gurgling stream and was pleasantly surprised to discover no mosquitoes or bugs.
08-11-20 Timberline Trail, Day Two, Ramona Falls to Elk Cove
11.25 miles, 3,346 ft elevation gain, 1,299 ft elevation loss
After a delightful night's sleep, we hit the trail again and made a quick stop at Ramona Falls for a few pictures. It was eery standing on the bridge and seeing a completely empty area that is usually covered with day hikers. Remember that huge descent we had yesterday? Well, we had to gain almost all of it back today. Just before we took the shortcut trail that continued up towards McNeil Point, a couple backpackers coming the other way saw us and exclaimed, "Betsy's group!" I was a little startled at first and then Melodi Johnson pulled down her mask for a few seconds so I could see who it was. How fun to run into someone we knew! Melodi and her husband Mark started at the Cloud Cap campground and were also doing the Timberline Trail in four days counterclockwise, to celebrate their 40th wedding annniversary. How cool is that? Happy 40th Anniversary, Melodi and Mark! Continuing on, we came across our next creek crossing, the Muddy Fork River, a glacial, silty river that was running a lot higher than it was a year ago. Other hikers pointed to a log upriver that could be used for crossing. We scoped it out and determined that No Way Jose were we going to cross on that log. The boulders were also too far apart to stretch across so we made the decision to just wade across. We don't take the time to switch out shoes for sandals to cross, we just march through and hike our socks and shoes dry. Had a few more creek crossings today but we were able to use logs or rocks to cross. At lunchtime, we had a surprise as another Deva joined us for the day. Vicki, who was on the latter half of the Sierra trip, appeared after hiking up the Vista Trail and started westbound looking for us. She hiked with us to Elk Cove and then returned back to her car. On the north side of Hood, the wildflowers were beautiful. We even saw Avalanche Lilies, so unusual for August. The wind had really picked up by this time and stayed with us throughout the night. We were so glad we had camped in the trees to give us some protection from the big gusts.
08-12-20 Timberline Trail, Day Three, Elk Cove to Newton Creek
12.19 miles, 3,310 ft elevation gain, 3,383 ft elevation loss
Whooowheee, what a windy night. There was fine silt inside my tent that the wind had blew in through the mesh on everything. I wear earplugs at night so didn't hear the wind, but there wasn't anything I could do about it anyway. It was quite cold and still windy when we started off. Today was probably the most challenging day of the trip, plus we had two of the biggest creek crossings of the trip to do. The Coe Creek crossing was the most challenging, followed by the notorious Elliot Creek crossing. The Elliot Creek is usually the one that most people are spooked about but the Coe took the honors this year. We arrived at Coe Creek and studied the recommended crossing noted by cairns next to the creek. We looked up and down and decided this is where we had to cross. I went first, but by the first boulder I slightly changed direction and went a better way. I didn't like that original route that would force us to leap for the final boulder before getting to the other side. We all arrived on the other side safe and sound! After a couple more miles we had to drop 500 feet to get to the Elliot Creek crossing. I had read a recent trip report to look for a school bus size boulder and there would be a big log to cross over. Yep, there it was. We had to navigate a gnarly sandy hillside to get to it. We were happy campers when we on the other side of the creek. A couple of guy backpackers who didn't know about the log used the boulder leaping method to get across. There was no way our shorter legs would have made it. Made the 500 foot climb back up and arrived at the Cloud Cap campground for lunch. Thankfully, a recent trip report had stated that the water supply at the campground was turned off and we had filled our water containers just before Elliot Creek. Other backpackers were bummed to find no water. I told them there were two ways to the stone hut, one was on the morraine where there was no water, and the other way was the trail up the ravine that had a small stream, so off they went on the ravine trail while we took the morraine route. What views of the Elliot Glacier and the Hood River Valley to the north of us! Each side of Mt Hood seems to have it's own identity and the east side is definitely different, with the terrain above treeline and exposed to all weather elements. It still has snowfields and rocky trail, so opposite of the smooth, dusty trail loaded with wildflowers on the north side. We reached Gnarl Ridge and started the long downhill to Newton Creek where we would spend the night.
08-13-20 Timberline Trail, Day Four, Newton Creek to Timberline Lodge
8 miles, 2,313 ft elevation gain, 1,893 ft elevation loss
Woke up to a beautiful clear cold morning. Linda and I turned on our DeLormes/Garmins Inreach Explorer devices (personal locator devices where we can text for help if needed, SOS services, and people can follow us via Mapshare) and both started beeping, Linda's more than mine. That's when we found out about the Mosier Fire. Aaack! Linda lives in Mosier. Her sister lives across the road from her and was evacuated. We all know how that throws one in a tizzy with all kinds of horrible thoughts. I told Linda we needed to get to the top of the ridge where we would have full cell service (via Mt Hood Meadows) and could find out what's going on. I lead the way across Newton Creek, where halfway across I found out that the logs were ICY. I waved the other two back while I scrambled for finger and toe holds so I wouldn't slip off. Got to the other side without falling in and then we proceeded to figure out how to get Linda and Trish over the creek. Went upriver and found a couple of small dry logs but there were a lot of spikey broken off branches that spooked Linda. Trish decided to go for it and practically ran the last few steps. Whew. There were some boulders but the stretch was too far. Linda finally decided to simply wade across and found a shallow crossing that was only ankle deep. Sheesh, all that worry... I had ATT cell service at the top of the hill but Linda's Verizon service was nonexistent. We decided to send Linda down the Newton Ridge trail that connected to the Elk Meadows trail and out to the road, called my husband (our personal trail angel) and made arrangements for him to meet up with Linda at Meadow's cross country building. Off she went, her brain in a whirl. (Note: we found out later that her and sister's houses were still intact and the Mosier Fire was one mile away. She was able to get to her house and pack up important stuff. They are staying at the Hood River Inn until the Level 3 evacuation is lifted.) Meanwhile, Trish and I continued on the Timberline Trail on our final day, enjoying the wildflowers through Clark Canyon and Heather Canyon, and the rest of Mt Hood Meadows, identifying the chairlifts as we hiked underneath them. Terrain looks so different without snow on the hills. As we started winding our way down to the White River, lo and behold, here comes Melodi and Mark up the hill! They spent the night at Timberline Lodge celebrating their 40th anniversary and now had a final 12 miles to go for their finish line at Cloud Cap. We arrived at the White River and saw that the river had split so we had two mini river crossings. The first one didn't have any way to cross without getting wet so we simply walked through the water. We rock hopped the second crossing and then were faced with a high wall of sand we had to get over. It was tough going as it would crumble as soon as we attempted to climb up. We finally found a slightly lower area and scrambled up a five foot wall of sand and rock. Now we only had another 1,000 ft elevation climb in deep sand where we connected back to the Pacific Crest Trail and finally arrived back at Timberline and the cars. Congratulations Trish, on your first multi-day backpacking trip, complete with river and creek crossings, tons of elevation, high winds, and yes, with your new trailname of "Shoehorn"!