Loomis Adventures

Katie and I spent the Saturday of Mother's Day weekend hiking in the Jefferson Wilderness to Pamelia Lake and Grizzly Peak. It is still early season and we expected to encounter snow, so we packed accordingly. The weather was forecasted to be sunny and warm.

The Pamelia trailhead is approximately 62 miles East of Salem on Hwy 22 past Detroit Lake. The trailhead is off Forest Service road 2246 just past milepost 62 on the left. The parking lot is about 3.7 miles down the road (paved, but bumpy most of the way). There is an outhouse at the trailhead.

After a long, wet few months, we finally had enough sun and dry weather to enjoy our first spring hike on Sunday. We decided to venture to Saddle Mountain State Park in the Oregon Coast Range. The trailhead to Saddle Mountain is located 7 miles off Hwy 26 in Northwestern Oregon. The turnoff to Saddle Mountain State Park Road is on the North side of Hwy 26, between mileposts 10 and 11. This out-and-back hike covers approximately 4 total miles (according to Jason’s GPS) and gains approximately 1600’ elevation.

It seems like we had a very short winter this year, with Spring now in full swing. I am not quite ready to say goodbye to the snow. Luckily we still have snow in the upper elevations, so my friend John and I decided to go snow camping one last time this season. We hitched up my snowmobiles, loaded up my gear sleds, and headed toward Mt Hood. Our original plan was to head to forest service road 44 and see how far we could drive before unloading the snowmobiles and continue on FSR 4410 toward Lookout Mountain (before entering Badger Creek Wilderness Area).

After poor visibility sent us home 800 vertical feet shy of Mt Hood's 11,249' summit last Saturday, Matt and I decided to climb Hood again on Sunday. This time we chose the Cooper Spur route which starts from the Tilly Jane trailhead since there is still snow on Cloud Cap road (near Cooper Spur Ski Area). The route begins at around 3,800 feet elevation on Mt Hood's Northeast side and gains more than 7,000 vertical feet over about 5.8 miles to the summit. The route follows the Tilly Jane Ski Trail #643 to Tilly Jane Trail #600A to Cooper Spur #600B to about 8,500 feet in elevation.

After climbing Mt Hood Saturday (we didn't quite make it due to weather conditions) and re-energizing with lunch at the Cascade Dining Room in Timberline Lodge, I went downhill skiing for a couple hours at Timberline Ski Area before they closed for the day. My friend Jordan from work had been skiing all day at Timberline, so we met up at lunch before hitting the slopes.

The weather forecast finally predicted a mostly sunny day Saturday with moderate to low avalanche danger on Mt Hood. My last Mt Hood climb was an unsuccessful attempt up the Leuthold Coulior route due to illness and poor fitting boots. My friend Matt and I decided to try the Leuthold Couloir route again along with another climber Ryan. This technical route starts at Timberline Lodge (same starting point as the popular South route). Leuthold Couliour is to the West (climbers left) and above Illumination Rock.

I finally made it up to Mt Hood for a full day of downhill skiing at Timberline Ski Area on Sunday. It had been over a year since I last skied, but hopefully I will be up a few more times this season since I purchased a spring skiing pass. My friend is getting into ski mountaineering, so I figure I better brush up on my skills and spend some time on the mountain this spring.

My friend Matt and I picked a snowy weekend to try out hot tent camping (tent heated with a wood stove). We left early Saturday morning for Flattop SnoPark, Washington (SE of Mt Adams). Our plan was to snowmobile 10-20 miles or until we found a good area to snow camp. Flattop SnoPark is situated in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest near Indian Heaven Wilderness and Yakima Indian Reservation. It's NW of Trout Lake, Washington on NF-88 road.