Hiking time: 475 minutes and 58.28 seconds, or 7 hours and 56 minutes. Hike was about 10.5 miles round trip with a total elevation gain of 2,000 feet, from 3,500 at the trailhead to 5,500 feet after bushwhacking 1/4 mile into the extremely brushy Elk Cove.

In Elk Cove, millions of black flies were trying to eat me alive and I quickly tore off my pack and cracked open the insect repellent and lathered up. From then on, the dunces simply bounced off my body as if they were blindly crashing into a tree. I felt one bite me before I got the insect repellent on but I think I brushed him off (dead) before he injected me with his horrible saliva, because I didn't develop any welts from this hike.

At about the 3 mile point on the Elk Cove Trail is a rock out cropping at 4,715 feet called Inspiration Point that has a spectacular clear view of Mt. Hood with the spectacular Coe Glacier, front and center.

Took 189 photos of which 108 made the cut. All of these photos were hand-held. I did not take my tripod and I used my mountain axe for balance, not my trekking poles. The hike was through a forest that burned to the ground in 2011. What a treat walking through a spectacular burn after seeing sea after sea of green all summer long! Wildflowers were great! Gorged myself on huckleberries. Feet were hurting at the end of the hike, but examination later found no damage. Also the thick belt I was wearing below my pack waist band was digging into my hip causing a lot of pain. Coming back I was able to lift it up at one rest stop and it didn't bother me the rest of the way.