Saturday, May 11, 2019
Greg and I hiked up Bald Butte today, which is south of Hood River. We started at the Oak Ridge Trailhead. One of several nice things about this hike is that you get views right away:
About a mile into the hike the trail zig-zags up a slope that is dotted with wildflowers this time of year. And of course there are more views:
Back in the woods, we saw some nice fairy slipper wildflowers:
And some trillium
We got our first peek at our destination:
We reached the junction with the Surveyor’s Ridge Trail and turned left:
Flowering currant:
We crossed under the power lines and started the final steep push:
Mt. Hood:
The views and the wildflowers continued as we hiked up:
OHVs are not allowed up here, but there is nothing to stop them. We saw signs of their presence:
The views from the summit are pretty great. Mt. St. Helens to the north:
Mt. Hood:
Lookout Mountain to the south:
The tip of Mt. Jefferson off in the distance:
Dirt bikes are not allowed up here, but two of them came up from the other direction and stopped for a break:
After enjoying the view for awhile we headed back down:
On our way down the Oak Ridge Trail some hikers came uphill and said that a hiker had injured themselves on the trail and the rescue crew was bringing them out this way. So we moved off to the side of the trail and sure enough a few minutes later a crew of guys were wheeling a stretcher up the trail on one of those big two-wheeled contraptions. The guy had injured his leg somehow, but was going to be ok.
It was a very warm day so we were pretty hot by the time we got back to the car. Our bodies are not yet adjusted to warm weather!
