Barret Spur
Linette and I did an overnight trip on the north side of Mt Hood September 8th-9th with our friends Jeff & Kimberlee. We started at the McGee Creek trailhead, went east around the north side of the mountain on the Timberline trail, and camped below a snowfield on the side of Barrett Spur. An abundance of ripe huckleberries kept our pace slow on Saturday. From camp we watched the White Salmon Fire burning.
We hiked up to the saddle just below the top of the spur for one of the best sunsets I've ever seen. The wind was howling, but the photo opportunities were incredible. On the hike down, in the dark, we started to see lightning to the north. The bolts and flashes continued through the night. We never heard thunder. In the morning, smoke billowed from the south side of Mt Adams — the other destination we had considered for this trip. We would later learn that over 100 wildfires were started across Washington that night.
The persistant wind made for an unpleasant night being sandblasted in our sleeping bags. We wished for more protection than the DuoMid, but Jeff and Kimberlee turned out to be no better off in their tent. In fact, they sort of looked like they were emerging from a sandstorm in the desert in the morning, and we felt better about or site selection.
After a leisurely morning we took an off-trail route all the way back to the Cairn Basin shelter, which involved some fun bushwhacking. We headed up to McNeil Point for lunch. Low clouds had moved in overnight, and it suddenly felt like fall. We ate quickly in the cold before another bushwhack shortcut back down, and a cool, pleasant hike out.
Around 16 miles and 5,000ft e.g.