Day 20. July 14th
We were going to have more elevation gain this day. We had agreed the night before that we would break camp by 7 to start hiking. As per usual, we were ready by 7:30.
Another beautiful clear blue sky favored us all day. The general theme today would be heading south towards Mt. Hood and gaining elevation. In a pattern that would be repeated in the days ahead, Brad and Joshua would steadily hike further ahead. They were definitely natural hikers with long strides. They were kind enough to wait for me to catch up at trail junctions or water sources.
Mt. Hood kept getting bigger as we approached. There were a variety of flowers along the way.
The blooming rhododendrons were very impressive.
We ended up camping at a trail juncture. This turned out to be the intersection of a few popular trails. So while eating and sleeping, we had many groups of people tramp through. Most were respectful, but a few at night failed to heed one of the rules of the outdoors: sound travels far. Falling asleep on a clear, windless night, I heard snippets of conversations about GMOs, which trail to take, and why they didn’t bring more water. Eventually, all was quiet. No owls, either.
backpacking over the hill 