The Timberline Trail

On August 15th-18th, my mom and I backpacked the Timberline Trail. It took us four days and three nights and it was just about 40 miles long. It was so gorgeous and by the end, I was wishing it were March so I could go out and live out of my backpack again.

Day 1: A Spooky Lodge and A Two Mile Detour

 On August 14th, I slept over at my parent’s house so that we could get an early start and head straight to the mountain. The next morning, we ended leaving later than we had hoped. We got up to the mountain around 9am and actually onto the trail by 9:30am (spoiler, this late start kinda puts a wrench in our mood later on). We put on our packs and walked up to the FAMOUS Timberline Lodge!!! Horror movie fans will know that the Timberline Lodge was used in the filming of The Shining. There is also tons of cool history behind its structure and remodels. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend visiting. Anywhooooo, we went to the lodge so that we could fill out our trail permit. This is just a slip of paper that allows the rangers to know about how much foot traffic is on the trail along with where you’re planning to camp. If something were to happen to us or we went missing, they would have a general idea of where we were supposed to be on a given day.

Sidebar: One of the biggest “rules” in my adventurous hiking/backpacking/traveling family is to always tell someone where you’re going (crime junkies will also agree with this). Whether it was a friend’s house after school or planning a weeklong trip to Europe with my new boyfriend, we always communicated. “___ is where I’m going and ___ people will be there. It should be about ___ long and I’ll be home around ___.” If there was a change of plans, all it was, was a quick text.

Okay, back on track, sorta… After we filled out our permit, we started down the trail. We were chatting away and after about a mile, we started to realize a couple things weren’t right. For one, there were no footprints on the trail, which was weird because this was a super popular trail this time of year. Next thing we noticed; we had been going downhill quite a bit for it being the start of the trail. We decided to turn around and go back to where we started. We then verified that we had, in fact gone down a mountain biking trail and not Trail 2000 like we thought we had. NOW back on track and 2 extra miles into our 11-mile day, we started down the correct trail questioning everything we did from that point on. At around mile 6 (on the correct trail) we stopped to have a bit of lunch but quickly packed up and kept moving because the biting flies decided that mom was perfect for their lunch! I felt bad just standing there watching her dancing to get rid of them while I casually ate my banana and almond butter, but not so bad that I didn’t laugh.

The second half of our day was all downhill until we reached the Sandy River crossing around mile 10. At that point we stopped to dip our feet in and refill our water. The new water in our reservoirs was ice cold and felt like a luxury after sipping on warm water all afternoon. We were both tired and kind of disappointed that we took a two-mile detour at the beginning of the day. It was really holding us back mentally. We crossed a fallen log over the river and followed cairns back to the trail. Originally, we wanted to continue to Ramona Falls but we didn’t know how much longer we were willing to go in that moment. We came to the conclusion that if we camp here, we can for sure get a good night’s rest and wake up ready to take on that extra mile tomorrow. So that is exactly what we did. We set up our tents, boiled some water for mushroom stroganoff and played a few rounds of Yahtzee to finish off the day. I fell asleep around 8:30 and slept soundly until 7 the next morning.

Day 2: A Killer Tree and A Fairy Forest

 I love waking up in nature. I know, I know, that’s super cheesy and cliché but really… fresh air, birds chirping, the sandy river babbling in the distance, a slight breeze through the leaves on the trees. It’s like a built-in morning meditation without even thinking about it.

When we both were awake, we packed up our tents and got breakfast ready. We each made a pack of dirty chai, ate a Costco muffin and I also ate my second banana with almond butter.

Sidebar: I love shorter distance food carries because you’re more willing to bring fresh food. It’s so much heavier than dehydrated food so in the event you’re hiking for more than three or four days, you don’t typically bring fruits and veggies like that. On this trip, I had either a banana or an apple every day!

After our bellies were full, we got back onto the trail and started heading toward Ramona Falls. It only took about a quarter mile before we got there so we must have hiked farther than we thought we did the night before. At this point on the Timberline trail, it usually breaks off from the PCT, which is Trail 2000. Because there was major blowout, a portion of the Timberline Trail was closed so we stayed along the PCT until our next junction. The first two and a half ish miles were level and quick to get through. After that though, there were going straight uphill for what seemed like forever. Every time I looked behind me, mom would get farther and farther away. She was a rockstar though and never stopped moving. So much so that when I would stop to get some water, I would look down and “try to find sasquatch.” (NO I’M NOT CALLING MY MOM SQUATCH! She simply was just as good of a hider).

Eventually I made it up to the junction where the PCT and the TT officially break off from one another and waited for mom to catch up. While I was waiting there, there was a very nice gentleman and his wife there too. He asked, “Timberline or PCT?” I told him that its just the TT for now, but I am doing to PCT next year and can’t wait! He went on to tell me that he is on the last stretch of his PCT journey (entering the last state is the final stretch I guess) and that he has loved it! He told me he got his trail name “Decades” because he had planned to do the hike when he was 23 and he is doing it now at either 53 or 63, I can’t remember 100%. WOW! I love how the outdoors bring together so many different types of people! Mom caught up shortly after and we chatted a bit longer about his start date and the Guthook app and what type of gear he wished he had vs. wished he didn’t have. We all wished each other luck on our journeys and continued onward.

The next stretch of trail was covered mostly with old blowout, so we had to climb over some logs and crawl under others. One tree had a piece of caution tape that read, “KILLER TREE!” I laughed to myself and kept trekking on. After a couple more miles, we came to a clearing on the top of one of the cliffs and it was just like a movie moment. Imagine this; you’re walking uphill and climbing over logs, there are sun beams breaking through the pine trees all around you. The bugs look like fairies in the sunlight and the dust looks like glitter. You take a couple more steps through an archway of green pine branches and on the other side is a massive mountain peak with just the slightest amount of snow on it. You step into the sun and feel your skin instantly get warmer, then a breeze of fresh alpine air blows by just to bring you back to reality… this is where we ate lunch!

With our calories back up, we started on the trail again and before too long, I misgendered a marmot. (I’m sorry little marmot, I shouldn’t have assumed your name is Oscar and that you had a family at home to provide for). As soon as I started assuming things about this marmot, it ran away and hid. I knew it was because I wrongly made assumptions about its life and not because I was walking straight down the trail towards where it was sunbathing... Anyway, this was an extremely visual day. After I offended the marmot, we came to an old burn patch on the mountain. Now picture this, bright baby blue sky, neon green brush, and dividing those were the old dead trees sparkling silver in the sun. It looked like someone had turned up the saturation on my eyes and everything was technicolor. AH it was so beautiful! On top of that, way in the distance, you could also see Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams AND Mt. Rainier if you squinted hard enough through the smokey haze. It was like this most of the way towards Elk Cove, which is where we planned to stay that night. We took another break about a mile from camp to refill our water and let our feet breathe. Once the wind started picking up about an hour later, we decided we should probably get to camp and start setting up our tents before it was too stormy. This was a good decision because once we found our camp spot, the wind was gusting, and we couldn’t keep the stove lit without it being inside the vestibule! We went to bed right after we ate because we wanted to try to get up a bit early to hit our Elliot River crossing as early in the day as we could.

This was the worst night ever. My anxiety was so high and there seemed to be nothing I could do to calm myself down. I didn’t have a full-blown panic attack, but my anxiety did prevent me from falling asleep until 3am when I finally passed out from exhaustion. A combination of knowing my first ever, real river crossing was the next morning mixed with the fear that the wind brought was extremely overwhelming and I could not calm my thoughts. As it got later and later too, my thoughts got worse and worse… from, “what if a branch falls and rips our tents?!?!” to, “WHAT IF SASQUATCH FINDS US AND KILLS US AND STARTS EATING OUR BODIES AND DAD WON’T EVEN BE SAD BECAUSE HES TOO DISTRACTED BY THE FACT THAT HE MISSED THE CHANCE TO SEE REAL LIFE SQUATCH?!?!??!?!??” Obviously, this is horrible and would never happen, but it’s just an example of the horror I go through in my mind. Typically, at home I have CBD drops that I’ll take to help me relax enough to fall asleep… I have now added them to my PCT packing list.

Day 3: Some Gnarly Rivers and An Uphill Battle

 I’m sure you can guess how this morning went with a night like that… not great. Mom and I were both exhausted but waking up at 8am was later than we had expected so we just packed up camp and got straight to hiking (spoiler again, this comes to bite us in the butt later). We felt obviously tired from the freight train of a windstorm keeping us up all night, but our spirits were still high. We were eager to get to the Elliot and had a decent pace to start off the day, until we came to the Coe River crossing which neither of us were prepared for. Mom said that the last time she came, there was hardly any water and that they just hopped across. This was not the case here. We spent about a half hour scoping out a good place to cross and eventually another hiker caught up to us and we all agreed on a spot to cross and helped each get through with minimal water in our shoes. Once across, our adrenaline had worn off and we both were starving. Mom suggested that we make some food to at least give us some sustenance, so that’s what we did. We had oatmeal, energy bars and some electrolytes on the side of the trail. Feeling a bit better, we continued onward towards our next river crossing. After a couple miles, we started feeling the effects of our food and were in a much better mood. When we got to the river (just as we were expecting), the entire trail leading down was washed away from a landslide and the only way down was to CAREFULLY scooch. We made it down, put on our sandals and started looking for a place to cross. We were poking our trekking poles in the water to see how deep certain areas were when we noticed a man crossing downstream. He got across fairly quickly, so we started walking down to cross there as well. I went first. Sandals on, pack unclipped and loose, I took my first step and immediately lost my breath. I forgot that the water was going to be ICE COLD! In another instant, my heart was pounding, and my foot had gone numb. I slowly took another step, and I was no longer thinking about the cold water, now up to my knees. Fighting the current, my only thought was to get across safely. A few more steps and I was out, immediately I felt a thousand needles in my toes as my feet began to regain feeling. I waited on the riverbank and watched as mom crossed… she made it look so easy! Once we were both across and putting our hiking shoes back on, I couldn’t help but burst into tears. I was feeling so overwhelmed with emotions and anxiety and probably still exhaustion from the night before. I had officially done my first “in the water” river crossing. I never doubted my ability to do it but of course with my worry filled brain I was thinking of every possible worst outcome. My mind was flooded (pun intended) with thoughts like, “If your foot slipped, you would actually be hurdling down the side of a mountain to your death, instead of eating that apple and pretending that it was no big deal.” But also, “OMIGOD GURL!!! YOU ARE SUCH A BAD ASS! YOU’RE SO HOT! GO YOU!” My therapist says I, “have problems regulating my emotions.” I’ve got to say, this seems like a perfect example of why.

Back on the trail again and the next three miles are straight uphill in SAND. This was the portion of the trail where I really just put my head down and trekked on. The wind had picked back up now that we were out of the trees and in the clouds. There wasn’t a view even if I had picked up my head at all. We just followed the cairns for miles until we made it to Gnarl Ridge. We planned on camping there but as we got closer to where we were thinking about camping, we started passing more and more hikers that mentioned the Newton Creek crossing and how they were up to their knees in it. We thought, “oh crap, another river crossing that we weren’t prepared for!” Still about 2 miles from the crossing, we set up camp and decided yet again to get an early start the next morning. The wind had died down almost completely but it was still a bit chilly so we set up our tents across from one another and played a few games of Yahtzee by tossing the bag of dice back and forth to each other. This was followed by chocolate mudslide for dessert and a deep, much needed sleep.

Day 4: A Three Mile Sprint and Some Friendly Faces

 The final day! After sleeping much better than the night before, we woke up, had a big oatmeal breakfast and started heading downhill toward the Newton Creek. Once we got there, we were surprised to see that it was really not bad at all. We were able to hop across some rocks without even getting our shoes wet, so we just refilled our water and kept moving. Most of this day was either downhill or a slow and steady incline, so I felt like we were moving pretty fast. We came to a few more creek crossings with beautiful views and crossed them with no problem at all. Eventually we came around to Mt Hood Meadows (which is where I grew up skiing). It was so cool to see how different it looked in the summer vs the middle of winter. The bright blue chairlift could barely be seen against the blue sky and the green (kinda sketchy looking) lift almost got lost against the trees. Also, turns out “meadows” is the most appropriate name, as it was literally endless meadows of flowers and streams as far as you could see.

We eventually came to our last river crossing which again was just a couple hops across some rocks, and then started heading straight uphill for the last 3-4 miles. I was excited to get back to the lodge and go home and see my family and animals, so most of this day was spent just trudging along. Once we hit the trail sign that stated we were jumping back onto the PCT, I got a new rush of excitement. I was speed walking as fast as I could, again, uphill and in sand at this point. I’m sure I was slipping back farther than I was moving forward with each step, but I didn’t care. I would be doing this exact trail next year around this same time! The sun was hot, and I was motivated to finish as soon as possible. Mom was still behind me staying at her own steady pace, but I could see the lodge in front of me, so I kept trying to pick up my pace. The excitement of getting back onto the PCT mixed with the end to this hike where I learned a lot about my physical capabilities along with mental ones, really pushed me to keep going. I turned one last corner and could see the trail leading to the parking lot. I turned around and saw that mom was no longer behind me. I didn’t want to finish this trail without her, so I waited for her to catch up and we walked down to the lodge together! WOO HOO! We did it!!

As we were walking back down to our car, literally having just stepped off the trail, we heard our names being yelled across the parking lot… WHAT A COINCIDENCE! Our family friends that I had grown up with just happened to be visiting the lodge at that exact moment! What are the odds that they haven’t been up here in 25 years and when they come, we happen to be finishing our backpacking trip at the exact same time! Haha, what a small world and a great end to our trip!