Saturday, September 11, 2021
Fall color hasn’t really started in the mountains yet so we picked an exercise hike today. We parked at the Frog Lake Sno-Park and headed north on the PCT:
We hiked north for 4.2 fast easy miles until we reached the trail to Palmateer Point:
There were about 30 downed trees on this stretch, although they were fortunately small:
We reached a junction with a signless signpost and headed towards the viewpoint:
View of Frog Lake Buttes and Bird Butte:
From Palmateer Point there is a nice view of Mt. Hood, looking very naked at this late point in the dry season:
We could see Barlow Butte and its viewless summit:
Barlow Ridge:
After a break at the viewpoint we returned to the junction then headed towards Twin Lakes, first crossing Palmateer Creek:
We reached Upper Twin Lake where you can normally see the top of Mt. Hood, but a cloud had just moved in:
We sat here for a little bit watching the ducks:
And some gray jays:
From there we headed to Lower Twin Lake. It was getting cloudier:
There were a ton of people at the lower lake and it was loud, so we didn’t stay long. We climbed up out of the bowl, reconnected with the PCT, and returned back to our car.
Gaia stats: 10 miles, 1,600′ elevation gain
