peaberry green: Hide and Peak

This past July, I had a fun visit with my Aussie-born, Ardmore-based friend, Sue Perry. We spent a few days kickin' around the gorge and spent one very amazing morning exploring Cooper Spur on the north face of majestic Mt. Hood.

Hood River was sunny and warm when we started our drive into the valley and up the 8-mile road that winds 6,000 feet to the Cloud Cap Inn and parking area for the Cooper Spur Trail. As we drove towards the mountain with clouds hovering around the top, it definitely crossed my mind that we might do a lot of work for no reward. I could imagine myself standing almost halfway to the top of Mt. Hood, telling Sue that "the mountain's RIGHT THERE! i swear it!" I kept my fingers crossed. ;)

Sue and 10-foot visibility. Poop.

The clouds were clinging about when we parked the car and it was about 15 degrees colder at this elevation. We climbed the trail up, up and up to the point where we should have had a jaw-dropping view of Hood, but instead, we could only see about 10-20 feet. Crapola.

After about 30 more minutes of hiking up, we decided to take a little break. Although we couldn't see anything, we could hear large rock slides. Creepy. As we sat there, the clouds rolled in and out, revealing and taking away our view. We willed this big poppa to show himself, even if for just a minute. It worked!

Sue and brilliant blue skies.

Me feeling pretty good for having patience as a virtue.

We used binoculars to get a closer look at the massive field of crevasses that dominate Eliot Glacier. The clouds dispersed long enough for us to catch a glimpse of the huge waterfall dropping down to the moraine below—this water is the source of the Hood River. :)

Thanks for comin' out, sir!

As we hiked back down toward Cloud Cap, the clouds hiding the valley opened up as well. We even got a peek at Mt. Adams. This is also a good place to get a view of all the deforestation in Mt. Hood Nat'l Forest. :(