Mount Adams, WA

Info: Mt Adams, WA

We started the adventure with a leisurely morning of waking up eating a big breakfast and hitting the road around 10am.  It's just over a two hour drive to the ranger station where we each had to buy our $10 wilderness hiking passes with blue bag equivalents.  We thought it would be a nice easy hike to camp that night but the rangers quickly bursted our bubble.   We were told that it was a three mile hike just to the trail head because of the late winter and the low snow level.

So two things killed us the first day, the snow and a wrong turn.  As we started driving up the road there was a little confusion to which road we needed to take.  Right after leaving the ranger station we took a wrong turn.  We kept on driving because we were told that people would be parked on the road.  Because we were looking for all the cars we kept on driving until one snow drift stopped us in our tracks.

Digging out the truck

We spent about two hours digging our selves out mostly because when I would gain a little ground I would get a little excited and keep on driving to the point where I would just get it stuck again.

After finally getting to the trail we had the long grueling hike up to camp.  We didn't gain as much ground as we thought we would had but the unexpected snow set us back quite a bit.  We couldn't have asked for better weather, I spent most of the time hiking in only basketball shorts and a t-shirt.  The weather also gave us some amazing views.

Tyler just gettin' it

Sam and Dane with Mt Hood in the background

We started the next day leaving our tents and large packs behing and started up the mountain with our day packs.  Hiking is hard work and Tyler had spent the past month getting in shape for this were Sam and I spent the last month doing nothing and it showed.  Unfortunately we were not able to reach the summit, some bad weather was rolling in near the top and we were loosing sun light, so just below the false summit we turned back.  It was a smart and safe choice. 

So close to the false summit

The best part of the trip down was glissading.  It was a blast and in a way made all the work worth it.  After receiving the suggestion to slide down on a Frisbee we decided to go cheap and bought some thin plastic plates at a gas station on the way up.  They didn't work out and we all just ended up riding down the mountain on our butts.  It was a lot of fun while the steep slopes lasted, but when we had to get back on foot the work began again.

Some parts of the hike down where just as hard as the way up, partially because we had to hike back up due to overshooting our camp.  This is what really made the hike hard on our bodies, it was killer.  When we finally got back down to the truck we determined that we had been hiking for a total of 12 hours that day. 

Each of us still want to summit Adams, but we all have learned that we should do it later in the season.