A day on Bald Mountain

Yesterday my friend Henry and I hiked about 7 miles in and out on a segment of the Timberline Trail in the Mt. Hood Wilderness. The Timberline Trail is a 41.2-mile loop that circumnavigates Mt. Hood, the tallest mountain in Oregon at 11,240 ft.  Our hike wrapped around Bald Mountain, a smaller peak to the west of Mt. Hood, and provided magnificent vistas of the big mountain in the distance.

This segment of the trail descends into the valley at the base of Mt. Hood (shown in distance in previous photo). The Muddy Fork, a small stream at the bottom, is still largely filled with snow, and the view to the summit of Mt. Hood from this spot is breathtaking.

We stopped without crossing the Muddy Fork, largely because the Timberline Trail beyond there has been closed by treefall from an extraordinary wind storm last September.

We hiked for about four hours with 934 ft of elevation gain. My average heart rate was 111 (peak 137), my legs were sore, but my brain felt sharp. What a great day!