Every Tom, Dick, and Harry... what?

Yesterday was Saturday and as is usual, we headed off on a hike.  We were planning on a trail in the gorge, as of Friday morning the forecast was for clouds and if I'm going to climb to the top of something it would be nice to have a view of something other than clouds.  As is typical here in the Northwest, the weather changed its mind and we awoke Saturday to a beautiful clear day so we decided to try another trail on Mt Hood, Mirror Lake with continuing service to Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain.

 



The trail starts through the forest along Mirror Creek and heading up the mountain.

 

The south end of the lake is transversed with a boardwalk set in the marsh with a loop around the lake, from there the trail made its way up to the top of the mountain.

 

Looking west from the trail you can see the valley in the foothills where Highway 26 runs around Mt Hood and the clouds slowly making their way toward us.

 

This is the final approach to the top, a scramble over loose rock to an elevation of 4850ft. 

 

From the top we could see 4 peaks, Mt Hood which was just over 7 miles from us, Mt Rainier , Mt St Helens, Mt Jefferson.  Some trail reports state we should be able to see 5, I think the 5th being Mt Adams which should be right from Mt Hood but she was hiding from us.

 

Once we get to the top the word trail is really more of a suggestion, hitting them with my trek pole they made a sound that implied they were partially iron. The trail follows the ridge line across the top. We went across to the first rock outcropping, the trail continued across but by this point someone who might have been me was really tired so we decided it was better to head back. The altitude seems to really beat me up, the days we've hiked on the mountain I'm usually exhausted and in bed by 830, I'm hopeful that might improve over time. Now I'm off to finish packing so I can spend the night trying to figure out what it is I've forgotten to pack.

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