Mount Hood is such a varied and wonderful place to hike. We frequently find ourselves up on her. Nova and I backpacked up to this stone shelter….one of the few times I have actually spent the night in a shelter rather than out in the open. This shelter was built in the early 1900’s, and in my opinion, is in the best condition of the ones left standing on the mountain. The chinking on this particular shelter was far better than the Cooper Spur shelter on the other side of the mountain…..as the wind did not whistle through nearly as badly as the night we spent there and it was a warmer night than expected for us! Although that might have had something to do with the 2 portable warming devices I snuck into the bottom of our sleeping bag that night. What a glorious thing to sleep with warm feet up on a mountain! But in our shelter that night, Nova only cared about her bedtime bone!!
The sunset that night was amazing, as were the shooting stars we viewed through our shelter door. When we woke before sunrise, we decided to climb up further towards the peak. We stood very high up on the upper glacier literally watching the birth of a river come out of the side of the mountain as the sun rose above the peak. What a way to start the day! We did find something amazing while on that climb, but you will have to read more about that in our October 2022 posting!
Before this July day ended though, we ended up offering first aid to a bludgeoned hiker caught in a rockfall in the same ravine we needed to cross. Luckily, I always pack a very robust first aid kit in my pack. I can flush, suture, wrap, splint, cut and suck snake bites, filter water….you name it, I am prepared! I can even read you a story from a book that will always be somewhere in my pack. But the weight of my very robustly prepared pack probably has something to do with my now chronic shoulder and back pain. I think this is a curse for small hikers. With only weighing in at 105 pounds, a conservative 25 pound pack for me is like an average person day hiking with a 50 pound pack or more! Carrying everything needed for myself and Nova....even with a super lightweight sleeping bag and pad, is challenging. This is part of why I don't bother with tents....I can't take the weight. Food and water of course weigh the most, but then I always insist on carrying a quality camera, gun and knife, which are also not lightweight. I have grown accustomed to these heavy packs, almost feeling like I am putting an old friend on my back when loading up at the trailhead. But on overnight trips when my pack weight is really pushing up higher, each step ascending steep climbs sometimes feels like gravity just wants to pull me back down!
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