Near the end of the school year, my running partner Julie and I realized that if we woke up really early, we could sneak in a good trail run during the week and make it back to Portland in time to pick up the kids. Inspired by the opportunity to hit the trails, we spent much of the summer dreaming of the days school would begin and we could try our new plan out in earnest. Today marked our first successful outing of the new school year.
The 5:00 am alarm was jarring, but seeing the sun rise as we pulled in to Timberline Lodge was worth it.
Our destination was Paradise Park, high on the slopes of Mt Hood for a solid run of twelve miles. The first climb up from the lodge to get on the Pacific Crest Trail had us both sucking wind in minutes.
Thankfully the gorgeous day revived us from our miserable breathing habits.
Armed with a new camera, I wasted little time in recruiting my new found model for some action shots.
This would be a recurring theme. Thankfully she was a good sport for me.
Playing around with some photo effects.
The light was amazing all morning.
I found myself in awe of the grandness of the area versus our puny selves.
The trail down to the Zig Zag canyon is full of water. I was so focused on capturing the images that I totally missed the fact that a guy we passed was carrying a gun. He had shot a bear, he proudly told Julie, and then asked if she wanted to see it. It was in his backpack. "That poor baby bear" was all I could think when she told me her story. Now, I don't know if he really shot a baby bear. Or a bear at all. I know it wasn't a large backpack, so it couldn't have been big...this is just the silly thought that kept rolling through my head. We've decided that he was crazy and hadn't shot anything at all, because we like that version of the story much better.
More tricks of light on the ridges.
The entrance to Paradise Park.
A lot of water flows through this area, creating little oases high on the mountain. Gorgeous.
Julie runs up towards the broken rock, one of the coolest sights of the day.
One more photo effect.
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| A shot of me taking photos. Cracks me up. |
The hike information:
Paradise Park, via the Timberline Trail
Total mileage: 13 miles
Rating: INSANELY AWESOME.
Wow, what a beautiful morning run! Certainly worth getting up early for this. Why would someone shoot a baby bear? Terrible!
ReplyDeleteJohann - I don't know if they guy really shot a baby bear. I updated my post to reflect what I was really trying to say, which was mostly that I couldn't stop thinking about a tiny bear being in the guy's backpack. We did see two hunters up on the trail, which really surprised me. I didn't think hunting would be allowed in an area with so many hikers. The only wildlife we saw was birds and chipmunks, though plenty of deer tracks were on the trails. I would be surprised if the guy had actually found a bear to shoot.
DeleteThanks for sharing!!!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous, and a good reminder that sometimes you see things in the early morning that you won't have a chance to see at a later hour.
Stunning!
ReplyDeleteGorgeous! Great idea to get up super early, too, to get a long run in. I'll have to try that :)
ReplyDeleteThose are some amazing shots!
ReplyDelete