Started at the Mt. Hood Timberline Lodge at 5,900 feet, and climbed 100 feet above the lodge to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Turned west towards Zigzag Canyon, initially climbing to 6,200 feet then descending to 5,500 feet at east Zigzag Canyon Overlook, then climbed up the east ridge of Zigzag Canyon to 7,200 feet, traversed east down and up extremely steep gullies filled with glacial ice and snow until I was blocked by the last one that would have delivered a ridge that presented a straight downhill traverse back to Timberline Lodge, so I took the ridge I was on back down to the PCT at 5,900 feet, PCT to 6,200 feet, then back down to Timberline Lodge.

For this hike, I figured I'd do better with trekking poles than my mountain axe. Encountering the several wide ice rivers in a few of the gullies (extensions of Palmer Glacier) worried me at first, but they weren't too steep and provided mushy traction with my lug soles.

Got on the trail at 7:30 AM. Hiking time: 489 minutes and 26.39 seconds, or 8 hours and 9 minutes. Time-wise, the hike was 5/8 off-trail. Distance-wise, about 50% off-trail. Because I was carrying trekking poles, I didn't carry my tripod and all photos were hand-held. But most of the time I had full sunshine illuminating my subjects, so I didn't have problems with image blur due to camera shake.

Weather was absolutely superb: crystal clear, cloudless, and not too cold. But the climb up the east ridge of Zigzag Canyon from 5,900 feet to about 6,400 feet was murderously steep with lots of exposure. In spots I had to scramble on my hands and knees. At about 6,400 feet the ridge widens and the grade becomes much more manageable, although it still exceeded a 20% grade.

Studying the topo map at home before the hike seemed to indicate that if I climbed East Zigzag Ridge to 7,000 feet, I could get above the many impossibly steep gullies, but I kept running into them so was forced to climb higher, to 7,200 feet. Still I encountered deep gullies, some with rivers of snow and ice at the bottom. Every time I encountered a new one, it was disheartening. Would they never end, I thought. The gully walls were so steep that I was slipping and sliding all over the place, trying to climb up them by kicking steps into the loose volcanic scree.

Once I started sliding and to arrest myself I deliberately plopped down on my posterior and slid down in a backwards prone position instead of head over heels, which would have been disastrous. In the process, I knocked loose a full water bottle from my pack and watched it tumble down to the bottom of the gully that I had just climbed almost to the top of. I was not about to climb back down to retrieve it.

I finally came to the last gully I would have to descend into and climb out of, but it turned out to be even more treacherous than the one I'd slid on my posterior in, so I said, forget it, and I simply descended the volcanic scree ridge I was on until I ran into the PCT at 5,900 feet. It took me so long to descend to it that I began doubting that I'd ever find it, but wondered how it was possible that I'd missed it. Geographically, I knew that was impossible. Finally I saw it, and minutes later with great relief I was on it and I was speeding (uphill) back to Timberline Lodge.

What utterly amazed me was I never got tired on this hike, which was much more strenuous than last week's hike, the one on Oneonta Trail that rendered me almost helpless with fatigue. I don't understand it. Usually I'm really beat near the end of my hikes but I was as strong at the end today as I was at the beginning, even though I had to climb 300 feet back to the high point of the PCT before it descends to Timberline Lodge at 5,900 feet.

Total climbing today was about 2,000 feet, total distance was about 6 miles. It's hard to estimate an accurate distance because probably half of the hike was off trail and I come up with about 6 miles only by studying the topo map. In any case, I go