This hike was adventurous and extremely beautiful and awesome. Total hiking distance was 10 miles with an elevation gain of about 2,300 feet with all the ups and downs and false routes that had to be retraced. All this took 10 hours, 26 minutes, and 34 seconds, one of my longest (temporally) day hikes since reaching middle age at 65 years. Not surprisingly, I did get very tired the last hour of the hike, but surprisingly my feet survived and did not experience any notable pain.

There were adventurous difficulties on this hike: a difficult bank to climb after crossing a very picturesque waterfalls, choosing the wrong fork at a trail junction that leads to a bushwhack that I retraced (about a quarter of a mile) back to the correct trail, a tricky traverse through a scree slope with problematically large boulders to puzzle through, and worst of all, a very difficult, dangerous narrow passage along a cliff with steps so high that I strained my short legs over loose rocks and boulders. Thigh muscles in my left leg especially remains sore two days later, although they are not muscles that get exercised during my morning jog and so their soreness has not constrained my daily jogs.

Coming back past the half-way point, there is a long descent along an east-west running ridge with nothing but smooth dirt, and I found myself racing back along it at probably 4+ mph, amazing for my short legs. Then I hit the beginning of the roots that slowed me down, to a energetically spent crawl, once I hit the amazingly rooty Top Spur Trail, the last quarter mile of the hike.

Hike started at 8:45 AM, 0:00:00 hiking time o'clock. Milestones:
1. 2:14:59 o'clock (2 hours, 14 minutes, and 59 seconds after the beginning of the hike): first open view of Mt. Hood along the long, east-west running Timberline Trail (second open view of the hike: there's an extremely popular view shortly after the traverse up the Top Spur Trail). At this milestone, I stopped to take pictures of the mountain and eat lunch.
2. 2:47:13 o'clock (32 minutes and 13.22 seconds after the previous milestone): resumed the hike.
3. 05:45:25 o'clock (2 hours, 58 minutes, and 25 seconds after the previous milestone): arrived in the McNeil Point area, explored around, and ate the rest of my food. Had an animated and humorous conversation with a 35 year old who was playful and youthful -- from his appearance and behavior I guessed he was in his early 20's.
4. 06:36:47 o'clock (51 minutes and 21.61 seconds after the previous milestone): started my return hike back to the car. The sunlight on the mountain was fantastic and I took lots of photos.
5. 10:26:34 o'clock (3 hours, 49 minutes, and 26 seconds after the previous milestone): got back to the car. This 3:49:26 leg of the hike was what it took to descend 2,300 feet and the entire 5 mile return from McNeil Point back to the car. The descent back down the Top Spur Trail is about 1/4 mile and 350 feet through the the most root-infested trail I know of and extremely demanding footing that I've tripped and fallen on more than once, and since it's also steep, it's dangerous to carry my camera, so I put it in my pack for the descent back to the car. This time I concentrated my attention on the roots and rocks and made it back without a slip, although I was physically exhausted by this tricky descent through the roots.

Took 402 photos (not surprising considering the distance, hiking time, and scenic value), of which "only" a highly selected 169 made the cut.