Another adventurous escape on the Timberline Trail

We thought we were in the clear, that the last mile or two of the 41-mile Timberline Trail that encircles Mt. Hood wouldn’t put up much of a fight. Sure, the crossing of Eliot Creek is notoriously daunting. After four days on the trail, we knew it was still coming. But reports from other hikers passing us in the opposite direction were optimistic.

It’s not bad, they said.

There’s a rope, they said. Even a log bridge.

And they were largely right. Actually crossing the mighty stream that plows its way down from the mountain’s largest glacier of the same name wasn’t that bad. Getting down to it, however, was a slippery, bouldery, precarious trial that had me fretting that our 40-mile streak of safety was about to break.

But it didn’t. All six of us – a cadre of friends who’ve shared years of outdoor adventures together – made it down, albeit slowly, across the creek and back up a steep, long slog to the Cloud Cap Saddle Campground on the northeast side of Hood where we’d left a car four days and 41 miles earlier.

It felt fantastic to be back, but also to have been away. Four days backpacking on the Timberline Trail had been an immersive escape. We saw blue alpine skies and nonstop drizzle. We crossed grassy meadows that double as prime ski terrain in the winter. Fortuitous planning – we’d started on the north side of the mountain rather than the south – found us indoors at the historic Timberline Lodge for the rainy second night, where we refreshed in the mountainside hot tub and pool, ate pizza and dried out. And we picked huckleberries, shared the trail with a stubborn grouse, marveled at the luminescence of Ramona Falls and on and on and on.

We had left behind any troubles and escaped to Mt. Hood, if only for a spell. It’s something that the mountain provides – an escape. A glorious respite from the real world. A chance to truly focus on the present and worry not about work or responsibility, troubles or heartbreak; to contemplate instead just how you’re going to cross that next river or how spiritual it is to come upon a luminescent waterfall in the forest and simply sit down in front of it and wonder.

The Timberline Trail and Mt. Hood are always perfect for that.