Last night was extremely windy; however, our tent site was nestled in amongst pine trees, and fairly well sheltered. We were able to sleep in just a little bit, and then headed down to the Timberline Lodge again waiting for the breakfast buffet to open at 7:30. I took some time to look around and get a few more pictures And then we ate.
We headed off, preparing to leave Mt. Hood in the background, and say goodbye to the Timberline Lodge.
We began our hike, going significantly downhill into the valleys below Mount hood. It was beautiful green with lots of water with a little streams cascading down the rocks.
We reached the Zigzag river, which is fairly easy to cross by hopping across some rocks, And then set back off uphill on the other side of the valley.
Many locals have told us about the Paradise loop trail, which parallels the PCT the mileage is almost the same, the Paradise loop is .1 mile more, and has a lot more uphill. It travels along a ridgeline and allows us to look back at Mount Hood the whole time whereas the PCT remains down in the forest, we opted to take the more scenic route. Although it resulted in 3580 feet of climb, the scenery is absolutely beautiful.
The Avalanche Lili is a new white flower we have not yet seen along the trail.
We’ve come to another mountain stream, fed by the snow off of Mount Hood incredibly beautiful, more than a picture will never do justice
We hiked this section with another hiker named Mini Chimi. She is a mature, 19-year-old girl with a great personality. It was enjoyable spending the afternoon with her.
We re-joined the PCT after descending back to it, and continued downhill into another valley. Occasionally the trail would come alongside this deep ravine with stunning waterfalls.
We came to Sandy River had to jump across a few rocks to get across and then continue down the trail where we found this Red -berried Elder bush.
Ramona Falls is .4 miles off of the trail. It’s an alternate route and will circle back around and connect to the Trail couple miles down. These calls are absolutely spectacular.
As we’re walking down the creek leading away from Ramona falls, we happen to look to our side and see this truly incredible cliff face had to do a regular picture and a panoramic. We then continued down the trail alongside the stream with beautiful foliage.
I came to this final stream before a campground that had a log for us to walk a crossed. It was an easy crossing.
We continue the very short walk up the trail and found our campsite for the night just off the side of the trail above the river. We set up our tents, ate dinner and settled in for the night.
Today’s PCT miles hiked 12.2
Total PCT Miles hiked to date 1569.9
PCT mile marker 2110.0
(Flipped over 542.8 miles)
