This was the start of our adventure up Mount Hood. There is nothing quite like the wilderness, and a backpack with only what you absolutely need. Kind of gives a sense of freedom... Please refer to my previous post for the full details of this adventure. These are just the long promised pictures.


The trees had a lot of fur (moss) hanging from them, especially at about 5000 feet.
This is my backpack and tent site the first night. We finally found the trail head at midnight and got to bed at about 1:30 since it was so hard to find an acceptable tend site (lots of underbrush and some marshy areas). The bottom part of my backpack has my sleeping bag and on the outside is my mat for sleeping (dark red). Inside the main compartment is water and most of the food. My room mate carried the tent (only 4.5 lbs!). In the small pack is my teeny tiny Bible and of course there are also stuff sacks with the bare minimum in them (extra socks, extra layer of warmth, toothbrush, flashlight, etc). It is really quite addicting...
This was a glorious view of Mount Hood from the switchback trails that went up to Elk Meadows. A Sabbath treat, to be sure.
We had to cross this creek to go up the trail switchbacks. Others had put logs across so that it was quite easy to cross.

This is where the actual loop starts. We camped the second night up here and had a lovely campfire and cooked our food over it.

Wow! This was definitely the most breathtaking part of the backpacking trip, the view of Mount Hood framed by elk meadows.