Wednesday, August 01, 2007

The Virgo Hike at Mt. Adams



My friend Melissa invited me to go hiking and camping with her and her sister-in-law (we're all virgos!) and their dogs Judy and Molly this past weekend. I passed up the beer festival for it! I am so glad I did.... but I forgot how grueling it can be! I haven't hiked with an overnight pack since college.

The only speedbump was that the original trail the ladies had planned to hike was not accessible. A 30-foot stretch of the two-lane road was totally GONE. An older couple who live nearby said that the Forest Service was not going to repair the road for at least a year because of budget shortages. What a shame- the Gifford Pinchot National Forest is so amazingly beautiful! These photos don't begin to capture how gorgeous our hike was.

We found another trailhead nearby which was mostly uphill-UGH!. We camped at Lookingglass Lake- a small, slightly sulphuric lake that we enjoyed all by ourselves. We were warned of the flies and mosquitos by other hikers, but we camped there anyway and we had just a few. They were definitely worse on the trail during the day! Even slathering ourselves in bug cream and spray didn't seem to help on the way to camp. Unfortunately, the day after our return I found several small bites.

If you make it Mt. Adams, stop at the bakery/cafe connected to the Chevron and get a huckleberry smoothie.... mmmmm! Delicious!

Special thanks to Melissa for carrying the tent!

Mt. Hood from Mt. Adams


Lookingglass Lake from our campsite


On the way back....

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