Miles hiked: 23.3.
A couple Great-horned Owls were carrying on near me for a while and I had some trouble getting back to sleep so read a while. Then when the alarm went off I was moving pretty slow and ended up just sitting in my bag drinking coffee and clipping my finger nails and listening to some coyotes chatting in the middle distance. Got walking a little after 6 and promptly ran in to Morning Star and Cookie Monster and talked with them a while. But no worries; don't have too many miles to do today.
The trail circled around Timothy Lake with Osprey and Kingfishers out doing morning chores then crossed a small inlet stream where I flushed some Mallards from an eddy. It was smokey again, and the occasional views out through the thick forest were hazy and obscure. After the lake I began the long gradual climb up the lower flanks of Mt Hood. For 15 miles or so it was up and up and up but always gently graded like the PCT is. The trees were big and growing close and rhododendrons were the main understory plant.
Forest details:
Finally after crossing a couple small highways with lots of weekend backpackers the trail climbed up out the forest and there emerging from the haze like a ship in the fog was Mt Hood. The upper slopes were bare and desolate looking with a few dirty glaciers and foamy, silty cappuccino streams charging straight down the mountainside carving deep canyons in the loose sandy soil. The trail was also loose and sandy, and the final approach to Timberline was like climbing a mile of sand dune.
I got down to the lodge which is a big old wood and stone structure and had a little wash-off in the hiker shower which isn't much more than a converted ports-potty with a hose running in through the top to a shower head. After that it was in to the lodge for some beers in a big airy lobby with Hitch Bait and Pops and Wallaby (camped with him at kickoff but haven't seen him since) and Barely and Sherlock and several others. Then we moved down into a little sliver of basement where we got awesome pizza and more beers while the room got filled with oven smoke and our eyes watered and we kept laughing and telling stories. Finally it was time to leave and we straggled out and back up the hill a couple hundred yards to the little patch of trees where we're all camped.
Birds:
Great-horned Owl
Oregon Junco
Pacific Wren
American Robin
Hermit Thrush
Brown Creeper
Osprey
Red Crossbill
Belted Kingfisher
Gray Jay
Mountain Chickadee
Mallard
Steller's Jay
Northern Flicker
Mountain Bluebird
Clark's Nutcracker
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