After a few month lay-off from hiking...I got back in the saddle today...well, it took the encouragement from my friend Nate...all he had to do was mention it..."Hey, the weather's going be warm and clear this weekend..." YIPPEE!!! That's all it took...Nate and I decided to go up to Mt Hood (where else does a Trailmaster go after a long lay-off?)...our destination today was Top Spur Trail...starting at 4,000 feet and roll-coastering our way to the ponds at 5,300 feet...finding the trailhead was an adventure by itself (yah, I left my Mt Hood map at home and didn't ask for directions)...but we made it to the trailhead and got our hearts thumping soon enough...the frozen ground crunching beneath our vibram soles...once we entered the Wilderness area we lost track of time and space and instead of turning left (at an UNMARKED trail junction) we continued straight to Muddy Fork (a river)...once we consulted my hiking bible and looked around at the scenery, we realized that we were not where we wanted to be...this added a few miles to our journey...once we got on the right trail, we were greeted with picture-perfect views of Mt Hood, fresh with a dusting of snow...all told we hiked 9.2 miles! (Pictured here: Top - Trailmaster soaking in the sun and basking in the glorious views / Bottom - Nate "you call that a challenge" Schmitz)...as you can see we got a few feet of snow :)
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