Timberline Trail 2013 — a sneak peek
Just over 40 miles — and lots of huge vistas, rushing rivers, deep creeks, raindrops, knock-you-aside wind gusts, friendly faces, and alpine adventure — later, and the Timberline Trail is behind us. There will be plenty of details and images to come, but for now, just a quick look from another epic trek on this classic Mount Hood trail.
Mount Hood Snowcats — in LO?
We took a somewhat impromptu family bike ride up to George Rogers Park in Lake Oswego on Sunday, mainly to check out the boats in the Oswego Heritage Council’s annual Collector Car & Classic Boat Show. A slight bicycle malfunction, however, sent us into the car show in search of a gearhead with an allen wrench instead.
We found one, thankfully, and also ended up finding something I never would have expected at a classic car show in Lake Oswego:
It’s an old-school Tucker Sno-Cat from 1968. No one was around to talk to while we were there, but I know from my research for On Mount Hood that snowcats in general have a long history on Mount Hood. Back in 1936, a WPA foreman came up with one of the very first snowcats ever while working on the construction of Timberline Lodge. The lodge also featured one in a great postcard for the ski area back in the 1960s and again for its spring ski pass this year. It’s a Tucker, just like the one we saw. (Tucker, by the way, is still headquartered in Medford, Oregon.)
The snowcats are still widely used on Hood and all over the mountain ski areas for everything from grooming and creating terrain parks to search and rescue missions, climbing shuttles, and as a way to get up to the one-of-a-kind alpine lodge on Hood known as Silcox Hut.
So, just kind of a cool little Mount Hood/Sno-Cat discovery while we were otherwise out and about. A few more pictures:
On Mount Hood at Timberline Lodge
The Timberline Trail has come calling again, and myself and three other writers will be treading its path in just over a week. It’s been eight years since Amy and I first knocked it off the list, so it will be great to see it all again and compare it to that hike, which happened in what almost seems like another lifetime.
On the same day that we’re going to kick off the hike, I’ve also been invited to be part of a book signing at Timberline Lodge with a few other authors whose books are also in the gift shop at the lodge. I’ll be there — on the back patio of the main lodge — from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, along with Sonia Buist, author of Around & About Mount Hood, Sarah Munro, author of Timberline Lodge: The History, Art and Craft of an American Icon, and Stephen Weston, author of In the Wild Chef, who will also be doing a cooking demonstration.
It will be a great way to get in the Timberline mindset before hitting the trail. Stop by if you’re up on the mountain that day…
Photo courtesy of Timberline Lodge.
2013 Pickathon Pics
Another successful and memorable Pickathon has come and gone, though it lingers: the music, the people, the art, the food, the kids, the lighting, Marco Benevento’s 2 a.m. Monday morning set way up in the woods that seemed to be just warming up when we peeled away around 4.
I didn’t get any shots of the Mountain View Stage with Mount Hood this year, though there were times when the mountain rose off in the distance while great tunes happened right there. But Amy and I did capture a few moments from the weekend that help to share a little bit of what went on. Such fun…
The main stage at Pickathon 2013.
Obligatory hula hoop shot.
Lake Street Dive at the Pickathon Cafe. Nothing more to say.
Spencer took ownership of this trail.
A little artwork along the loop trail.
New friends — and new boots — at Pickathon.
I had to work during both of Dale Watson’s sets, and even though a highlight of Pickathon 2013 for me was volunteering, I was bummed to miss him and a few other acts.
The rest of the crew got to see him and even meet him later on. Even signed Spence’s new ukulele. (A classic Madeline move below . . .)
Speaking of the new ukulele…
The kid busking thing has kind of become standard at Pickathon these days, but they still reeled in three bucks and some change.
We had incredible burgers from Kuza Burger — so good that we went back twice over the weekend — but we couldn’t resist giving the donut sliders from, I believe, Red Tomatoes, a try. Not as good as Kuza, but how to resist a cheeseburger served on a fresh-made donut?
Rockin’ out with King Tufff after their daytime set . . .
And late night . . .
Crashed out, filthy, and so content at the Woods Stage — kind of how most everyone feels after another great weekend at Pickathon.
Pickathon 2013
It’s kind of a stretch to connect Pickathon, the annual indie music fest happening this weekend in Happy Valley, with Mount Hood, but I’ve been doing it for a while now, whether it’s sharing a picture of the Mountain View stage, which offers a glimpse of the mountain in the distance, or using a line from the Heartless Bastards’ song “The Mountain” as an epigraph for the first chapter of the Mount Hood book. (I first got turned on to them at Pickathon 2010.)
Not sure I have any new connections to make between the festival and the mountain just now, but who knows, maybe I will after this weekend. In the meantime, a few images from last year’s Pickathon to get ready for this year’s . . .
On MOUNT HOOD 