Cairn Basis, Mount Hood Wilderness, Oregon

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
08/19/2018	8.2 miles	4 hours 51 minutes	1,977'	27:58

Map: National Geographic, Mount Hood Wilderness
Parking: See book
Directions: 100 Hikes / Travel Guide, Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington. Hike #73 to Cairn Basin.

Our hotel called in the middle of the night to say our luggage was found. What a relief - because Glen's backpack was in his luggage. I fell back asleep - not remembering any of the details of the call. We slept in until 7:30 am. We had been planning on trying to keep more in NY's eastern time zone - which helps for waking up early to hike. But we were exhausted. I loved our hotel. We ate breakfast outside overlooking the river & Washington state. Lovely! Breakfast was made to order, so it wasn't fast, but the food was so good, and worth taking the time for. From our breakfast table, we could see people swimming across the Columbia River - maybe some sort of event. We'd also see kayakers and stand up paddleboarders on the river.

During breakfast, we could smell smoke, and the air was hazy. I always heard about wildfires in California and Colorado, but have learned that the rainy Pacific Northwest is not immune. After breakfast we checked with the front desk and they had our luggage! This meant Glen has his backpack, so we could go hiking. We decided we had enough time to go to the Mount Hood area for a hike. I literally jumped up & down in our hotel room because I was so excited to see Mount Hood. I should of saved that energy for the hike, lol.

I wanted to see Mount Hood, and I wanted to see wildflowers. That was my goal! It took us over an hour to drive to our trailhead. We passed by many pear orchards and wineries driving south from Hood River. Then onto a one lane forest road, eventually turning to gravel. We were happy we rented a Subaru, though we actually saw a Prius at the trailhead.

Wilderness permits are kind of new to me. We had to fill them out at most trailheads. There wasn't a fee, but you had to fill them out, and carry the second page of your permit with you on the trail.

We ate huckleberries on the way out to Cairn Basin. We saw others hikers stopped, just grabbing handfuls of them and stuffing them in their mouths. I've never had huckleberries before - to me they look and mostly taste like blueberries. If someone hadn't told me, I would have assumed they were blueberries.

We turned right on the Vista Ridge Trail. I've heard that some people find burn areas depressing, but the combination of silver trees and pink fireweed was magical. It was hot with no shade in the burn area. We passed the Eden Park Trail and took the next right onto the Timberline Trail. The Timberline Trail is a 40 mile trail that circumnavigates Mount Hood. I NEED to backpack this loop. It's a 4 day backpack - anyone interested?

I'm not a fan of water crossings - and one of the creeks was raging. A couple across the way pointed out a suggested crossing place for us down the creek. There were two crossings. I remembered to unclip my backpack for the second crossing. It was hard to look down, because seeing the raging creek below the log I was crossing on made me dizzy. I was proud of myself, as I really, really feel uncomfortable with doing crossings.

We passed the Cairn Basin shelter. And then took the Eden Park trail, which had a nice view of Mount Hood from a meadow. We had another crossing of Ladd Creek, also hard for me. We returned to the Vista Ridge Trail and retraced our path back to the car.

I adored this hike! One of my favorites from our trip. The trail's terrain was sooooo nice too. So much smoother than terrain on the east coast. We called the trails in Oregon "retirement trails" as they were so much easier on our joints.

Glen normally doesn't take photos on our hikes, but he did today - this place is pretty special. The hike was really dusty - our legs were brown with dirt. We got dinner at a vegetarian market in Hood River. Then did a short walk along the Columbia River behind our hotel.

View of Mount Hood driving to our trailhead

Fireweed was all over. It's one of the first plants to come up after a wildfire

Burn area with Mount Hood in the background

Lupines - we saw so many of these, but most had already finished blooming