[at-l] Trip to Washington and Oregon: June 14 - 21

[papabear.nyc at verizon.net (Papa Bear)]

Trip to Washington and Oregon, June 14 - 21, 2004

Last week I had a delightful time visiting my daughter in Portland Oregon and doing some hiking and climbing together.

I arrived on Monday and on Tuesday we visited OMC (Oregon Mountain Company?) where we rented some winter mountaineering equipment.  My daughter got some crampons and I got Kolfach boots, crampons, ice axe and MSR show shoes.  Then we were off to Mount Adams.  This was the first of the two major mountains we were attempting - Mount Hood being the other.  

We went east on I-84 to Hood River, crossed the Columbia and had a late lunch In White Salmon, Washington.  Then it was an hours drive up to Trout Lake to the ranger's station, pick up the permits and finally onto the forest service road up to the trail head.  I'll leave the complete trip details for the next note, but in summary, there was snow cover the entire route (plus on half a mile of the road below the trail head),  we camped the first night at about 6800', we attempted the summit the following day but had to turn around at about 11,200', and then hiked out.  Although the weather and conditions (except the excess snow, some of which was soft) were almost perfect, we didn't plan the strategy optimally, and I for one, did not have my hiking legs.  But summit or no summit, we had a great time and now have an excuse to return.

We took Thursday off and got up early Friday morning and headed for Mount Hood.  We had reserved with the Portland Parks and Recreation guides and met Rodney, our guide at 8:00 AM at Timberline Lodge.  Friday was spent in "Snow School", where we practiced snow walking and climbing, crampon and ice axe use, rope team practice and self- and team-arrest procedures (self- or team-arrest means stopping yourself or a team member from an uncontrolled fall down a steep snow or ice slope).  We stayed at a lovely lodge near the bottom of the road for supper and about 4 hours of sleep.  We were back at the mountain at midnight, took the snow cat to 8500' and went up as a team, reaching the snow capped summit (11,239') just after 6:00 AM.  We were down by 10:15, exhausted but exhilarated by the climb.  The weather had once again been great (except for a cloud just on the summit) and the strategy and pacing was much better than for Mount Adams - hey that's what you pay the guides for!

On Sunday we visited two natural areas in or near Portland.  Kelly Point Park ( http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=5054052&e=518428&s=50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25 ) is in North Portland at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers, and although surrounded by industrial facilities, contains a beautiful wet bottomland ecosystem, primarily of Cottonwood.  We then visited Sauvie Island, just downstream on the Columbia River. This island is about half farms and half wildlife preserve.  We visited one of the preserve areas, the Oak Island nature Trail ( http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=5062889&e=514321&s=200&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG100 ) and went through an Oak Savannah ecosystem (a dry bottomland).  This was equally marvelous but totally different.  It was a pleasure to find these natural areas so near a large city on a busy river.

Then it was back to NYC on Monday. It had been an exhausting but marvelous week.  I can't wait to get back.

This note will be followed by two notes containing Trip reports for Mount Adams and for Mount Hood.

For a complete album of pictures, see: http://gallery.backcountry.net/papabear_2004_northwest

Regards
Pb