Backpacked in three days with two of my brothers. Found ways to cross all rivers without getting wet. Section of trail between Ramona Falls and Top Spur was passable, but still has some blow down to contend with. A few dry sections of trail make having at least two liters of water smart; Cloud Cap to Newton Crossing was the worst. Great weather and minimal bugs.

Took a 3 day / 2 night clockwise trip around Mt. Hood for the first time! Weather was perfect -- probably upper 70s each day, clear skies, not too windy. 

The blowdowns from 2020 on Yocum Ridge are still very much in play. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND going up to Ramona Falls on the Timberline Trail, then dropping down to the PCT to avoid the blowdowns and rejoining the Timberline Trail after the Muddy Fork crossing. I opted for this route and it was a pleasant stroll through the woods, while a group I camped by the first night stayed on the Timberline Trail and stated they were constantly going over / under / through blowdown and many times there was no sign of the trail at all.

River crossings: Zig Zag river wasn't too bad. Hit it late morning and probably could have kept my feet dry (though I did not). I didn't reach the Sandy until 3PM or so, and the crossing other hikers told me about was not in play. IF you are there earlier in the day, then head upstream a little ways and you will see a log and some rocks to rock hop marked with cairns. The log was mostly submerged when I reached it, so I spent a great deal of time looking for another option and nearly camped at the river to cross it the next day. Eventually I found a slightly slower flowing area that best I could tell from probing on shore seemed not to be too deep. Forded it with trekking poles, water was right around my knee and center of the river was a faster flow than I was expecting. This was right where the trail picks back up. Muddy Fork (lower crossing) had a log. Coe Creek was another ford. Eliot Creek had a few logs lashed together that made for a pleasant morning crossing, though I could see them being submerged later in the day. I reached Newton Creek around 6PM and needed to get to the other side to access water. This was another tricky ford with water above my knees. Day 3 with Clark Creek and White River were easy and my feet stayed dry.

Water: plentiful throughout *except* from Cloudcap to the other side of Newton Creek there were two meager snowmelt streams and no other water. I filled one bottle at the first stream, figuring there would be more water and I'd probably camp in the saddle. Obviously not the case (:

Bugs: present, but truly not bad. Dawn/dusk and wooded damp areas saw more of them, but I was expecting swarms and was pleasantly surprised they were more or less a non-issue.

Navigation: Trail was mostly snow-free and trail is mostly easy to see throughout. A few patches of snow coming along the east side, but generally you can see where the trail picks back up on the other side. I found my Gaia app most useful at a few of the river crossings, relocating the trail quickly after making it to the other side. Particularly at White River this was helpful to avoid wandering around looking for cairns / markers / just stumbling on the footpath.

Other: Also highly recommend taking the detour up through Paradise Park. The area is beautiful and I don't think it adds any mileage just a little extra elevation. Wildflowers throughout the trail were showing up. Tons of butterflies and even a hummingbird were enjoying the flowers alongside me! Found a few blueberries along the way, too.

Solo two night backpacking trip around Mt Hood. Did the loop clockwise as this was recommended to be easier, which I think it was. I started from Timberline Lodge. Itinerary:

• Night 1 Camp: McGee Creek, 18 miles
• Night 2 Camp: South of Cooper Ridge high point, camped @ 7000', 13 miles
• Hike Out on Day 3: 10 miles

Gorgeous trail in good condition currently. Gaia clocked me @ 41 miles and 9000' ascent. Of the available options on this trail, I did the following:

• Paradise Park
• Yocum Ridge/Ramona Falls
• Bald Mountain connector trail (cutting off the trip around Bald Mtn)
• Cairn Basin (instead of Eden Park)

Paradise Park is gorgeous and worth the additional distance and elevation gain. Great view of Hood from nice meadows. Not many wildflowers here this time of year, but I imagine in July this route pops. Tons of campsites here. Highly recommend.

Yocum Ridge is the area with lots of blowdowns and washouts north of Ramona Falls. It is on the north aspect of the spur. South of the spur (just after Ramona Falls) the trail is in great condition. The area is passable, but is slow and tedious. I had no idea the sheer scope of destruction here prior to entering it. Trail crews have done a ton of work here cutting through literally hundreds of blowdowns and regrading the trail. It looks like a tornado went through the destruction is so crazy. It is about a 1.25 mile long section that you have to duck under a ton, like dozens, of very large blowdowns, which is difficult with a backpacking pack. There are also lots of big craters you have to go down and climb back out of where old growth root balls got torn from the ground when the tree fell. There is also some eroded sections that present some exposure (not death but broken limb), including one section pictured below that is pretty precarious and probably the most exposure on the whole trail. This section of the trail takes a ton of patience and is annoying to hike through. You can tell the area about 0.5 mile in to 1 mile in is still in the process of being improved. If you are running behind schedule I would avoid this section. It was very slow, it took me 1.25 hours to go 1.5 miles (from the start of the blowdowns to Muddy Fork).

Ramona Falls is gorgeous - like the most gorgeous waterfall I've seen all summer, maybe ever. I had no idea what to expect. It is a bunch of columnar basalt that the falls go over, hitting the tops of the column and then spreading out before hitting more below, repeating the process, making a large triangular shaped waterfall. Really unique. To add to that, the columns are super mossy. Awesome waterfall I highly recommend. The route I would recommend here if going clockwise is to go to Ramona Falls then turn west on trail #797 to reconnect to the PCT, then go up the PCT to Bald Mountain/Top Spur to avoid the blowdown section.

Bald Mountain Connector trail cuts off about 1.2 miles. I took this because it was running late and I was worried I would not make it to the next water source (McGee Creek) and campsites before dark. If I had more time I would have done the trail around Bald Mtn since I think it offers a nice overlook of the Muddy Fork drainage.

Cairn Basin is the default Timerline Trail (#600) route and I would recommend this over Eden Park (#600H) since I believe Eden Park drops down into a more heavily forested area whereas this section is more open/travels through an old burn area so the views are great.

River Crossings: Doing this trail so late in the season rewarded me with pretty easy crossing for all creeks along the trail. I was able to rock hop or cross on logs every single creek with dry feet. The only creek I accidentally dipped one of my toes into was Newton Creek and I think this is currently the toughest crossing going CW. Going CCW this crossing gets much easier because you will have a step up onto a log vs a step down off the log which is tougher. I had two trekking poles with me and these helped a ton. Rock hopping over the creeks would have been much tougher and riskier without my poles to help me balance. Eliot Creek currently has some logs tied together as a bridge and is easy to cross. However getting down to it there is a 15 foot almost cliff you have to get down. There is a rope there so getting down wasn't too challenging, but I had to take my time and pick my footholds carefully. Getting out of Eliot, the trail was hard to find and I went the wrong way at first (prioritize looking for cairns over looking for footpath/footprints). Coe was shallower than Eliot but moving much faster, but was able to rock hop pretty easily. Sandy and White were similar, rock hopped over without issue after looking for the best route (sometimes cairns are here to show the best route). Muddy was extremely casual to get over. I image these conditions will hold until the next big rainstorm. Ladd & Compass were easy. All would have been straightforward to ford if needed currently, but taking shoes off is a pain. From the washout sizes of all of these, I can easily see how many of these become impassible in the Spring and early Summer. Saw lots of people with dogs who got them through these crossings, though they said it was more of an ordeal and more treacherous for the doggy.

A few other notes:

• I highly recommend trekking poles for the creek crossings
• Saw as many trail runners as I did backpackers
• A decent number of dogs, both large and small
• Dry sections: between Muddy and McGee & between right after the Cooper Spur high point and Newton Creek, only really needed 1L at a time, so much water still on this trail, except at those two sections I brought 2L.
• Snow Crossing: only one short ~20' snow crossing right before the Cooper Spur high point. Easy crossing. Heard no running water underneath. Snow was surprisingly firm/stable when I crossed at 5 pm.
• A lot of the campsites on Cooper Spur are very exposed to the wind and the ground is sandy, making pitching my trekking pole tent very challenging. I had to be picky about my spot and continue hiking until I found one that had more wind protection. Had to stack rocks on top of my stakes and even then a couple yanked out from the wind before bed/over night. If planning on camping in this area, I'd recommend bringing your larger stakes.
• The old shelters along the trail are extremely cool
• The buffet at Timberline Lodge closes at 2 pm. I didn't know so dilly-dallied when I finished, and when I finally made my way over there I had missed it by 9 minutes. (no they won't let you in after haha, I asked)
• I was running low on light so camped at a campsite between the two forks of McGee creek, the first site I found after getting water. It wasn't a great site. There were GREAT sites only another 100 meters along the trail I realized the next day. And more and more good ones throughout this section and continuing through Cairn Basin. You can be picky here about your site.
• The section East of Lamberson Butte is especially gorgeous subalpine meadows
• Lot fills up FULL on the weekends
• The sections that overlap the PCT are super smooth and very fast to hike on
• Saw squirrels, chipmunks, grouse, hawks, & ravens. Saw deer and elk tracks. Saw a BIG & FRESH bear patty, been eating lots of berries, just past Muddy Fork on the way up to Bald Mtn right on the trail (classic). Saw coyote scat in a few places.
• A surprising amount of wildflowers still out
• A ton of sandy sections, so gaiters help a ton

Happy Trails!

One-day 16-hour full loop, clockwise from Timberline Lodge - started on the Mountaineer Trail, went through Paradise Park and by the McNeil Shelter. 40.5 miles, +/-10,500 feet as tracked on Caltopo.

I decided to go clockwise to have 1000 feet of ascent at the end rather than 3000 - I'm happy with this choice, as it put me in beautiful Paradise Park shortly after sunrise and on the highest elevation section as a climax towards the end of the day. Still a tough slog up the dune at the very end, but fortunately the bar at the Lodge serves food till 11 pm. 

--Trail is in great shape - much admiration to those who cleared out the blowdown along Yocum Ridge, which is now totally walkable with a bit of log dodging and a few tricky steps in the gullies. Water sources everywhere, including a potable pump at Cloud Cap. Three or four walkable snow patches.

--Water crossings were not difficult at this point in the season, though some could still be tough with a dog, and finding the trail on the other side sometimes took a minute. 

--GPS was not necessary but was helpful at river crossings and some unmarked junctions, and would certainly be useful with more snow. The four-part WTA written description linked on this page was helpful to have downloaded (also had cell service at various points).

--Trail was populated but not crowded on a Tuesday.

--I was worried about smoke as Oregon is having a bad fire season with a few small ones near Mt Hood, but I didn't see any.

--Finding the actual trail from the parking lot took a minute - I ended up walking behind the lodge and then west on the Mountaineer Trail beside mountain bike paths for about a mile, which worked fine. For a more direct route, from the hiker/overflow parking lot that's on your right as you drive up towards the lodge, walk up the path on the west side and then bear north towards the summit, rather than towards the hotel, and you'll intersect the PCT/Timberline running east/west.

--Definitely recommend going through Paradise Park. McNeil Shelter was fine but not essential. Don't take the cutoff trail next to Bald Mountain - you miss a nice view.

Date: August 10, 2024

Location: Mt. Hood Meadows

Arrival Time: 5:38am

We last hiked from Mt Hood Meadows in 2022. At that time we were able to park in the parking lot.  Now there is a gate (open) with a large sign indicating the hours of 10a-5p Sun - Thurs and 10a-6p Friday - Saturday.   Just turning around in the lot, we were quickly intercepted by a man in an SUV advising us we could park outside the gate and walk in to hike.  We parked just outside the gate where there was one other car parked. He also confirmed the vehicles on the right/East side of the lot are allowed to camp and must have their own” greywater” systems (weekend camping).  The website states:
“Pick-up truck campers, camping trailers and RVs will be permitted to park in the parking lot in the designated Main Parking Lot area and strict accordance with the rules” “overnight RV vehicles must be fully self-contained for water, wastes, fuel and garbage”.  Tents, and sleeping in passenger cars is not permitted.  

Road conditions: Paved the entire way, it is easy to park outside the gate along the road.

Weather conditions: We began before sunup, temps were in the mid-50s to start and about 70 when we finished.

Trail conditions:  The trails we traversed are mostly in great shape.  Where the Timberline trail crosses Clark Creek there is still a significant snow bridge to cross.  It was fine when we crossed but be careful as the creek continues to melt and weaken the snow.  

Trail grade and tread: Very good tread.  Some loose scree as you climb out of Clark Creek.

Hike features:  Wildflowers, streams, waterfalls, views of Mt. Hood, ripe huckleberries

Wildlife: None, though we did see some bear scat in the section between Clark Creek and Umbrella Falls.

Bugs: buzzing pollinators, no bothersome bugs

Flowers are great around Mt. Meadows, further East the lupine is spent.  The huckleberries were large, plentiful and juicy along the Elk Meadows and Newton Creek trails - some of the best we have ever seen.

Number of cars upon return: Several cars parked in the lot when we returned a bit before 10am. They must allow folks to enter the lot and park a bit earlier than 10a as the lot already had ~20 + cars at 10am. There are signs that state restrooms open at 9am though according to a camper I spoke with they were not open at 9a.

Mileage: 10.52

Elevation gain: 2200

The Timberline Trail was busy.  A few small groups of trail runners caught up with us and passed us, at least one pair began this morning from Timberline Lodge.  We also crossed paths with some small groups of backpackers going the opposite direction, finishing up their round the mountain adventures. 

#HikeAThon 2024