- gspencer16
Day 88: Timberline Lodge to Indian Springs CG (30.6 miles - 2125.1)
Updated: Sep 17, 2019
August 3, 2016 - The wind last night never stopped. Luckily for me my tent held up well except for all the sand that got blown in. Didn’t realize how much was in there until I woke up.
Slept in since breakfast at the lodge wasn’t until 7:30am but still hard to sleep past 6:30am. Got there just before it opened so talk with the other hikers. Probable half the people at breakfast were hikers as everyone says it’s the best breakfast stop on trail and I agree 100%. It had everything so I had to try it all. There were cheesy eggs, potatoes, sausage, ham, French toast, waffles (with lots of toppings), smoothies, yogurt, cereal, fresh fruit and several kinds of pastries. Really the only thing missing was bacon but for $15 that was a great deal considering I was at a lodge near the top Mt Hood.
With a full stomach I got back on trail around 9am and planned for 30 miles so I would have an easy 15 into Cascade Locks the next day. I figured I probably wouldn’t need a lunch break stop because breakfast would last me awhile. I really just ate snacks throughout the day so no big meal like I normally do during the day.
The hike started off heading down Mt Hood and just like heading up I had sand to deal with, hard to keep the sand out of the shoes. As I was heading down I got some great views of the west side of the mountain until I got into the woods where I had a steep long climb on the other side of Mt Hood as I hiked north. Then was in the woods for the rest of the day but every once in awhile I would have an opening seeing the north face of Mt Hood.
One thing about hiking in the woods is the trail is normally level so makes for fast hiking but can be boring. However I did come across a nice waterfall, Romana Falls.
At my last water stop I ran into another guy from Tulsa, so that was cool. The break didn’t last long as the bugs were way too bad so I hiked a little longer until the bugs didn’t seem too bad.
The last part of the day I hiked along this ridge where I got some great views of the Washington Cascades. I could see Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier and Mt Adams all at the same time.
Got into camp around 8pm and there were lots of people, mostly large group section hikers so it was hard finding a spot to camp but found a small spot just big enough for my tent. The campgrounds is right at Eagle Trail junction which most take it down to Cascade Locks rather than the PCT because of all the amazing waterfalls which I plan to take as well.
