I didn't think it possible, but here I was suffering hypothermia and getting near frostbite in my hands on a sunny end of May day. There wasn't even any snow or ice involved. I figured this would just be embarrassing to explain if I had to seek medical attention. Since that was not going to be an option, I knew I would need to sort things out on my own. Today we had driven south of the town of Hood River to be near Mt. Hood. I knew a great place to climb up on an exposed ridge with expansive views. Few people seem to go there and it is full of switchbacks and views, so I love it.
I should have known we were going to have challenges just from the drive there. I stopped at my favorite Gorge gas station and while cleaning my windshield the driver side windshield wiper completely fell off its arm to lay useless on the hood of my truck. I couldn't do anything but laugh. "Well my friend," I said to my trusty Xterra, "we are both falling apart. Its okay, I still love you and we'll get through this together." I was pretty sure we weren't expecting rain today, so figured it would be fine. I took the blade and threw it on the floorboard out of the wolf's reach so she wouldn't chew it to death.
Hitting my CD player as I got back in the truck to make the drive southeast, I was listening to an old CD. It was the greatest hits by Billy Dean who was a country singer very popular back in my college days. I was taking a break from all my constant Zac Brown Band and Aaron Lewis. Figured I needed something lighter today. I mostly prefer male artists for some reason, but I do make an exception for Bonnie Tyler as she could surely author the best theme song of my life. But I wasn't in the mood for her today either. So Billy Dean it was.
After a short time I realized I had just become obsessed with a new song I don't remember ever hearing before. I can't tell you what it was called as you won't believe me anyway. As the strong and independent woman that I am, you could surely not imagine the song I was drawn to on this day. But I will say it felt like the greatest love song any man has ever sung to a woman. That being said, after about the 11th consecutive time through the song it dawned on me that it might also be the best stalker song ever written. That gave me the giggles and I had to listen to it as a stalking song for another 11 consecutive times through. By then, it hit me though. This song was actually full of the best and truest words that could come from Jesus directly to me. You are right Jesus....you are my rope when the mountain is too steep and my hope when the waters are too deep. When troubled winds turn cold, you will surely share your blanket! Truer words had never been sung into my soul at the right time. I was about to experience cold winds for sure. We hit the trail and said hello to Mt. Hood.
The climb here can be a bit relentless. Up and up we go, tightly weaving up the switchbacks. You feel that you do about 28 switchbacks in a row, take a break, then do another 20. They just keep going. But I actually love switchbacks. They are certainly better than just cutting straight up! This particular trail sometimes weaves under forests that transition from firs to pines to oaks and other times through open vast meadows. But what it almost always has in common is elevation gain! Pretty soon, we were surprised to see Balsamroot still in bloom here. You could tell it was end of season for them, but the Lupines were still going strong and the beautiful red Indian Paintbrush was just taking off.
Since we were close to Mt. Hood, I knew the snow had just recently left these ridges so the flowers were a little behind some of the other areas where they got an earlier start to their bloom. Pretty soon, we found some Balsamroot blooms that were as large as my hand. It was as if we had entered a new land where everything was larger and greater than normal. But the most powerful thing on this day was surely the wind! It was pushing my body hard to the right on the exposed ridges as it cut from west to east. I had to be careful to keep my feet planted to not be lifted off the ground. I was thankful for the Wolf's extra weight tied to me! This is the kind of wind that sucks the breath right out of your mouth and nose. You have few options if you don't want to feel like you are drowning while standing on dry land. You can cover your mouth and nose with your hands to to protect the oxygen from being pulled away from you. You can try to turn your back on the wind and hold your head down low, touching your chin to your chest. Or, my personal favorite, you can do the shallow he-hoo, he-hoo breathing like a pregnant woman in labor. That actually works fairly well in these kinds of winds.
Now I have been in strong winds before....remember my December 2020 story when I was lifted off the ground by winds and had bones cracked from it? But this was different. These winds somehow had an incredible bite to them. All of my exposed skin was instantly turning bright red and stung like a thousand needles were piercing me. It was like being a dart board for a deranged acupuncture needle thrower. Sadly, I had not brought pants with me, but was wearing shorts and a tank top. I did have two hoodies in my pack, but once we were fully exposed on the upper windy ridges, I couldn't stop to take the pack off without feeling like we would die by not moving. So I tried to grin and bear it. The beauty around us did distract me to some degree from the pain and I made it a priority to take some photos instead of just suffering.
We made it to the upper summit which was our goal for the day. This use to be the site of an old Lookout tower and you can still find the foundational piers if you look closely. The views are outstanding as you can imagine. Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and even Mt. Rainier are all visible here on a clear day. But the winds must have been so terrible in a true storm from this place! My plan had been to sit up here and finish the book I was reading until sunset and then night hike out after enjoying the colors from the end of the day over the flowers. I unrolled my hiking blanket and set up some snacks for the girls. Everything was a struggle as the wind was trying to steal anything I took out of my pack. Somehow, we weighted things down enough to lay out and fight the pages of my book. I did put on both of my hoodies now that I had my pack off. Since we weren't moving though, the wind was really taking a bite out of us. Even Nova wanted to be wrapped in the quilt with me. How I longed for pants! I don't know what I was thinking other than trying to cut some weight after so many backpacking trips this month with painful shoulders and back.
Giving this place every effort I could, I was determined to read and enjoy myself. But I pushed things farther than I should have. As a small person, I can get cold quickly, but this was unreal. It wasn't long before I realized that I couldn't even turn the pages of my book anymore as my hands were completely numb from the wrists down. It was brutal to pack up and get my kit back on my back without being able to even close a buckle or move a zipper due to my numbness. Somehow we did it, shoving the quilt back in the kit and feeling the needles diving into my bare legs again. We tried to run off the peak, but it was really more of a painful shuffle. I had to drop in elevation and get some shelter from the wind! I was literally standing in the full sun, but freezing. For about a half mile I could not feel my hands in any way at all. Then for the next half mile after moving as fast as we could, I started to get feeling back, but it was that super painful burning and tingling sensation that told me I was pushing frostbite.
The pain made me do something I never do. Sometimes when I am in pain on the trail, I will bend over at my waist and do a huge, but silent scream while clenching my fists in mid-air. I pride myself on being a quiet person and I never want to disturb another hiker or wildlife, so these screams are always silent ones. But they do make me feel better. Not today! Today, I knew I was the only one for miles around and that even if someone was right next to me in this wind, they couldn't hear me. So today, I bent over and screamed loud and long for all I was worth from somewhere deep inside my gut. Oh, that felt so much better than a silent scream I thought! Both girls stared at me as if I had lost my mind. I just smiled at them and said, it was okay.
As we were descending, I couldn't help but stop and take a few more photos as the beauty around me was hard to miss despite my frozen digits. My eyeballs had not yet frozen so I figured I could do it. I struggled getting the camera out of the bag on my belt and almost gave up getting the lens cap off, but finally got it. No pain, no gain.
Nova took a moment to pray to God to make the winds stop for me. Good girl Nova!
After what seemed an eternity, we had dropped down in enough elevation and found a stand of trees to buffer the worst of the winds for us. The rise in temperature from this small change was almost unbelievable. So I took my pack off once more and laid out my quilt and book. I was really committed to get some good reading time in today! This spot was great because it was not only sheltered by some large fir trees, but we were laying among flowers with our feet facing Mt. Hood. The sun was on my face and I could feel myself thawing out. However, instead of reading, I instantly fell into a hard sleep. That is until I felt someone watching me. I woke up to this face just staring at me.
"Stop being a creeper Josie!" I told her and finally got out my book again. As I was finishing the book about Chris's hike around the UK coastline, which took him about 3 years of tough grafting, I loved hearing him say that the epitome of success was to wake up each day with a passion for what you do. He said, "it's better to spend your days failing at something you love than succeeding at something you hate." How true those words are indeed I agreed. I am so thankful that I am able to do something I am passionate about every week. I am surely creating memories to base my life on. These are the journeys that mean everything to me. Having my girls by my side experiencing the ups and downs with me has surely been the true joy of it. I shared my heart with God in that moment while watching Josie watch the mountain with the sun shining upon us both.
Around 6:30pm, we decided that it was getting cold again as the sun was dropping below the trees and some clouds that kept pushing in from the west. Since I was stupidly without pants, I decided that instead of watching sunset from this location, we would drop in elevation again, to a place I saw while hiking up that looked amazing and even more sheltered. The descent was pretty fast as it was our only way to try to generate heat. Words cannot express how cold I was once again after laying for so long on the ground. But the lower we went, the warmer the air became and the wind was almost completely gone by the time we reached the location I had remembered. It was like heaven here. For the third time today I laid out my hiker's quilt to enjoy a picnic. I had two small oranges left for me and a couple of special bones for the girls. We snacked on these as we watched the day run its race to the finish line. I knew it would be worth staying to watch sunset here.
The tree of life theme was not lost on me again. God was showing me something. I went back to that verse from Revelations 2:7 from last week's tree of life to break down that section about what it means to overcome. Other versions say "to the one who is victorious" or "to the one who conquers" or "to the one who perseveres." If we overcome, are victorious, conquer and persevere, we get to eat from the tree of life in paradise. This is not an easy thing, These are strong words. These take work and hard grafting. What do each of us do in our lives to make this effort? So many of us have different things we need to overcome. We each have our own challenges to conquer. My challenges are different than yours, but both are hard. Stay strong. Keep the faith. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! The sunset spoke to my heart as I contemplated what God was telling me.
As the final rays of the sun ducked beneath the horizon, I knew it was time to hike out. I was determined to navigate all the lower switchbacks on the way to my truck missing its windshield wiper without turning on a flashlight. The dark clouds made me think rain was coming. I couldn't help but think about that song again though. God did share a blanket when the troubled winds turned cold! He did give me a rope when the mountain was steep. And, he surely gave me hope when the waters ran deep! Good night Mt. Hood. Thanks for watching us all day along with my Savior!
Once again, I am going to share some of my other favorite pictures from this hike. I hope you enjoy them!
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