Date: August 4 & 5, 2017
Miles: 2073.2 – 2106.4
From Timothy Lake to Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood came in to view, huckleberries appeared and the trail meandered through the woods.
We stopped for lunch at Frog Lake campground and were joined by a bunch of wasps, one of which hid in my tuna wrap and stung its way out of my mouth when I ate it. I soon had the Kim Kardashian look, but only in half of my upper lip.
The last mile or so of trail before the Lodge turned into a slog uphill through enough sand to fill a beach.
That night we found a campground to crash in down the road from the Lodge, and I was able to cowboy camp for the first time in a while because the evening was blissfully bug-free.
The next day we managed to sleep in until 7, then headed up to the Lodge to get a first course of breakfast down before my Mom arrived for a visit.
Now, normally one of my mottos out here is ‘Don’t believe anything anyone tells you’ because people have a tendency to say things like, ‘It’s downhill from here,’ and ‘Town (fill in the blank) has the best milkshakes on trail,’ and ‘You’re almost there’, all of which are rarely true. So I was skeptical when I kept hearing that Timberline Lodge has a fantastic buffet. Best breakfast on trail. Which, I can say now, is absolutely accurate. I was making my way through a smoothie and a plateful of house made pastries when Mom showed up with my brother Eric and his wife Courtney. It was so wonderful to see them.
After breakfast we wandered around the Lodge grounds, admiring the building. Eric and Courtney left, and we all reluctantly went through the process of getting ready to leave society and head back out into the woods. I said my goodbyes to Tim and Mom and we hiked into the afternoon sun.
There were a lot of people on the trail, including a couple from my old town of Cathlamet that I hadn’t seen in quite a while. The trail had some hills in it today, and also some epic views of Mt. Hood and even Mt. St. Helens.
We crossed the Zigzag and Sandy rivers and took a trail alternate so that we could see Ramona Falls, which was worth the detour.
