Mount Hood

It's the beginning of the return of photography to plantboy. I have posted some photos of my trip this past weekend to Mt. Hood, in Oregon State. Mt. Hood is that majestic volcanic spire that citizens of Portland get to see on a daily basis (weather permitting, of course). It's also the highest point in the state of Oregon, topping out at 11,237 feet above sea level.

And what a fantastic mountain it is! My only complaint about my trip is that it didn't last long enough. My friend Nate and I arrived on Saturday afternoon and hiked from the parking lot of Timberline Lodge up to about 7,000 feet, just below the lower "barn" of the upper chair lift. The photo at the bottom of the landscapes and wildlife section, showing the movement of stars within the night sky, was taken from our campsite. Next time I will get the focus right, I promise.

We woke up around six in the morning to watch the sun rise on Mt. Jefferson and the Three Sisters to the south. As the shadows in the lower mountain valleys gradually grew slimmer and slimmer, the temperature rose from about thirty degrees, which was the nighttime low, to about seventy degrees at midday. Phenomenal. The air stayed clear until large volumes of dust began blowing up the side of the mountain from a dry river valley below, but we took advantage of the chair lift to get above the clouds of stinging particles, up where the view was even better than before.

The snowboarders blew me away. I found the advanced course by accident, just climbing around among the rocks. The guys and gals on boards and skis were pulling some stunts and tricks I'd only ever seen in video games and movies. So I took about a hundred and fifty photos of them flying off the biggest jump in the course. One guy asked me if I was a scout. I replied no, and he jokingly commented that it was too bad, he was looking for some new gear. No doubt a scout would've been able to hook him up with a nice pro deal. I watched him land some very impressive 540 degree turns and full flips off the jumps. Look to the photo of the one-foot-strapped-in snowboarder to see who I'm talking about. You might see him on a Wheaties commmercial someday soon.

I ventured far above the tree line to what must have been 8,000 feet before I headed back down. My lips are still sunburnt. Aside from some hyperactive ground squirrels and very diffuse wildflower patches, the vegetation and critters didn't play much more than a bit role in the environment. Mostly the terrain is dominated by volcanic rock and ashy, gray soil. It's very unlike Mt. Rainier, from what I remember. Most of the plants were foreign to me and the soil was especially unusual. I wonder what quirks of geology yielded Mt. Hood?

When we got back to the lowlands, the thermometers had broken ninety pretty much everywhere. We cruised back home up I-5 in a scorchingly hot little Geo metro, arriving back in Olympia about four in the afternoon. I immediately took a bath and a shower, after sweating like a pig for two straight days. Ahh. How refreshing.