To run around a mountain: Timberline Trail!

Really, this post is mostly an excuse to put pretty pictures of Mt Hood from many different angles on the internet.

 

(like this one, with one of the million waterfalls we saw)

 

But hey! I ran around Mt Hood yesterday! The 40-ish mile Timberline/PCT trail combination around Mt Hood is particularly lovely, except for maybe the last few miles, where I swear they moved Timberline Lodge (the end, that is) way further away from where it should have been. But for realz, it’s an amazingly scenic trail, and it is so fricken cool to see Mt Hood from all its various vantages.

 

(I’d never seen this southeasterly view, for example)

 

From Portland, we always see that classic triangular, perfect-volcano mountain shape, but it was super cool to see all the other features that make it distinctly un-triangular from other sides.

 

(the east side, looking particularly trapezoid-like;)

 

I wasn’t really sure if I could run that far, but also sort of figured that if my friend thought he could, then — gosh darn it! — I could too. Which turned out to be the case. Though when I say “run,” I actually mean run some parts, and walk all the long uphills. heh. And toward the end, I might mean more of a penguin-like shuffle than any true run;)

 

(we also had to take some breaks to delight in the flowers, of course, like these muppetlike western pasque flower seed heads:)

 

But hey! We did it! We circumnavigated the mountain, that impressive behemoth of a volcano that dominates the Portland viewscape! AND, the best part (well, maybe one of) was that as we were running around it, we could see Mt Adams (as well as Jefferson, St Helens, and Rainier) in the distance, and it was so lovely that LAST weekend, I was up on top of Adams, and earlier this week I was up at St Helens for work. I feel particularly close to all our nearby Cascade volcanoes right now:)

 

(Mt Adams as seen from the east side of the Timberline Trail)

 

AND yay! This is the longest I’ve ever run! My very first unofficial ultramarathon! So psyched that it’s possible!! As always, a hearty thanks is due to friends who push me to do things that I might not otherwise have conceived of as possible. Thanks, Jarrett! :)

 

 

 

(Randomly, if you want to see the details of this run, some fellow I don’t know has it posted on his Strava account here. It took us much longer than 9 hours to complete, but the mileage and elevation specs are the same.)

YAY!! :)

(More pictures here, if you still need a Mt Hood fix;)