Hiking time: 452 minutes and 42.75 seconds, or 7 hours and 33 minutes. However 2/3 of the way back along the Polallie Ridge Trail, I ran across a woman about 50 years old going up (I was going down, so we couldn't hike together) that I talked with for about 45 minutes, so really the hiking time was more like 6 hours and 45 minutes. She seemed very interested in my photography and told me she wanted to be placed on my announcement list. So I gave her my email address and she seemed to look forward to corresponding with me because we had a lot in common, including intellectual parity. She lives on Mt. Tabor, so is only a few miles from where we live. However, like everyone else I meet on a trail, she never did send me email so I could tell her about my Pbase site.

The Tilly Jane Ski trailhead starts at 3,850 feet, and climbs to Cloud Cap Inn at 6,000 feet, the usual jumping off point for a climb up Cooper Spur for a perch that looks down on the Elliot Glacier. Total ascent including uphills on the way back: 2,300 feet. Total hiking distance: 6.8 miles.

The Tilly Jane Ski Trail has lots of pitches at a 20% grade, as did the Polallie Ridge Trail on the way back. I used to drive to Cloud Cap just about every year for the 2,500 foot, 3 mile climb up Cooper Spur to 8,500 feet for world-class, close up views of the heavily crevassed and Elliot Glacier.

Both trails I hiked today mainly went through the burn that swept across the east side of Mt. Hood a few years back and there were many striking scenes along the way, both going up and coming back. Along the Polallie Ridge Trail were many beautiful Ponderosa Pines I photographed. Burns in many ways are more varied and interesting than living forests.

At the Cloud Cap Inn there was a completely open view of Mt. Hood and I got excellent photos of Elliot Glacier, just before clouds moved in, ruining the view.

Took 214 photos, of which 138 made the cut.