Adam Schneider's
digital photos

September 25, 2005: I took the I-84/Hood River Valley route to get to the trailhead at the Clark Creek Sno-Park; for future reference, I think it took about the same amount of time as Highway 26 through Sandy would have. I didn't really know what to expect from this hike, but it turned out to be fantastic; and it's a loop, which is much more fun than hiking the same trail twice. It was a little too late for most wildflowers, of course, but the understory -- ferns, huckleberries, strawberries, mountain ash -- was ablaze with fall colors. I like the forest on the east side of Mount Hood because it's drier and rockier, and therefore more open, than the west side -- it's less monotonous to hike through on your way up to the tree line.

From the trailhead (4250' elevation), I started along Clark Creek to the Elk Meadows Trail, poked around Elk Meadows (5250') for a few minutes, then turned left and headed up the Gnarl Ridge Trail to the Timberline Trail, which I followed north and west to an amazing saddle (6500') below Lamberson Butte that overlooks Newton Creek Canyon and is covered in volcanic rocks that have been shattered into thin plates by centuries of freezing and thawing.

After backtracking for a mile down the Timberline Trail, I turned right at the Gnarl Ridge Trail junction and headed across Newton Creek (a slightly hairy crossing, helped immensely by some logs that someone had lain across the water), then left (southeast) down a ridge crest on the Newton Creek Trail and into a flood plain alongside the creek. All told, including the little side trips at Elk Meadows and on Gnarl Ridge, I covered between 12 and 13 miles.