Got in the car at 5:30 AM and headed 61 miles to Timberline Lodge on the south side of Mt. Hood at 5,900 feet for a hike overlooking the White River Glacier.

Hiking time: 306 minutes and 25.92 seconds, or five hours and 6 minutes, pretty quick for my weekly hike. The White River Glacier Overlook is on a ridge between the Salmon River bordering its west side and the White River bordering its east side. Both rivers run from the north to the south. The trail starts from Timberline Lodge on the Timberline Trail running east at 5,900 feet and then after about 1/5 of a mile comes to the beginning of an unnamed trail that runs up the ridge to the left. The "ridge" is actually a maze of intersecting "sub-ridges" that run up towards the summit of Mt. Hood and the trail weaves in and out of this maze, always below the ridge lines until about 7,300 feet when all the ridges come together for spectacular views down the east side to the heavily crevassed White River Glacier. I continued up the ridge to 7,750 feet, although I wanted to reach 8,000 feet but the ridge was narrow and there was a constant ferocious wind of 40 mph and I was worried about being blown off the ridge to my death, so I turned around. I didn't experience any distress at the high elevation but it did slow me down so much that I didn't experience any muscular exertion during the hike and so didn't get as much exercise as I would have at a lower elevation. It's my lungs that got the workout.

The trail was primarily composed of deep, loose volcanic sand (that fortunately was coarse enough not to stick to anything) and there was steep sections where it was three steps forward and one step backward, so it was very slow going, especially at this altitude which was by far the highest I've climbed in years (my record for the past year was two weeks ago at 6,500 feet on Lookout Mountain on the east side of Mt. Hood).

In the past I went up this ridge many times and I remembered that I used to enjoy taking the ridge line back down, not following the trail, because it was more fun with much better views, and I resolved to do this near the beginning of the trail by the time I'd reached 6,200 feet. But by the time I reached 7,000 feet I changed my mind and decided it would be easier if I followed the trail all the way back down to the Timberline Trail. There was one spot on the trail that was so steep I had to crawl up on my hands. When I finally turned around, it was really fun and easy plunging down in the sandy trail. I was even able to stride along without the aid of my mountain axe for stretches.

I was getting hungry but wondered where I'd be able to eat with the fierce wind. Finally, just before the trail hit the steepest spot at 7,300 feet in a ridge of enormous boulders perpendicular to the fall line, there was a mountaineer-built stone wall behind which I could receive relief from the wind, and I holed up there to eat lunch. But then by the time I got down to about 7,000 feet, I'd lost the trail! So I was forced to walk the ridge lines after all, but that was fun and presented an interesting challenge, working out the best route switching from one sub-ridge to another, until I ran into the trail again at 6,200 feet.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable, extremely scenic hike, especially going downhill on the way back. Also there was not a hint of forest fire haze and for the first time in weeks, the air was crystal clear with a deep blue sky. Took 232 photos of which 132 made the cut.