Timberline Trail Guide

Timberline Trail Guide

The Timberline Trail is a roughly 40-mile loop around Oregon’s Mount Hood. It’s eye-poppingly scenic, one of few trails I’ve been on that seemed to constantly have fantastic 360-degree views. If you start from the Timberline Lodge and travel clockwise (as most people do), you’ll have Mt. Hood on your right and on the left come a procession of other mountains in the distance–St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, Bachelor and Jefferson. It takes many hikers 3-4 days to traverse, and I highly recommend it–so let’s talk about how to do it!

One of the many dusty, gravely sections. Bring your gaiters!

There are a bunch of sites out there with useful information, and I’ll reference some good ones here. Read these first since they’re informative, but they did leave out some super important information, which I’ll try to fill in.

  • Oregon Hikers Field Guide – useful for pointing out the campsites with mileage markers. If you buy a map beforehand (or have an offline one on your phone w/ GPS), plot out the campsites you think you might stay at.
  • Clever Hiker’s Guide – really good general guide, up to date as of 2016.
  • The Big Outside – honestly I didn’t read all the words but the pictures were great

General Tips

  • As far as mountain hikes go, this has relatively few steep descents and climbs. Any 10 mile section of this trail will be easier than 10 miles of trails like Kalalau, Mauna Loa or Waimanu (Muliwai) in Hawaii, South Kaibab in the Grand Canyon, The Presidential Traverse in New Hampshire, and most Yosemite Valley trails. If you’ve done one of those (for reference), or if you can hike 10 miles a day in the mountains with your pack relatively easily, you can do this loop in 4 days.
  • Plan your water – there seem to be a ton of streams on the map, but many of the bigger ones are super silty and will clog a filter pretty easily. Don’t feel bad about stopping to fill up and filter water and carrying it when you find a cool & clear stream, since there’s bound to be a campsite you stumble upon that is super nice except there’s no nearby water. If you can, plan campsites & water ahead of time but if you’re lazy like me then you’ll probably just end up begrudgingly hiking after dark until getting to the next water source.

    A lot of the faster-flowing streams pick up silt and arent the best to drink from
    A lot of the faster-flowing streams pick up silt and aren’t the best to drink from
  • Wake up early – You’ll make it further and have more fun hiking in sunlight. If you dilly-dally around in the morning like we did and don’t get going on the trail until after noon, you’ll end up hiking in the dark which is not as much fun.
  • Make a fire – most established campsites will have a fire ring for you to safely build a fire. There’s tons of dead, dry wood around most of the campsites and it’s a nice way to stay warm, so bring some firestarting tinder (or your best bushcraft) and some campfire stories to tell.

    Staying warm by the fire
    Staying warm by the fire
  • There will be berries – If you’re hiking in mid- to late-summer the berries will be ripe! Huckleberries look like blueberries but are not. We called them not-blueberries and they were plentiful on the trail and tasty although a bit tart. You’ll also probably see yummy raspberries, and another red berry (mountain ash berries?) are abundant however unfortunately don’t taste very good.
    Huckleberries aka "not blueberries"
    Huckleberries aka “not blueberries”

    Not very tasty berries. Mountain Ash?
    Not very tasty berries. Mountain Ash?

Gear Recommendations

  • Map – we all had smartphones with maps, but Google Maps is not detailed enough and you’ll probably lose signal before you have the presence of mind to download an offline map. You can buy a map for $12 from the gift shop of the ski lodge (the dull concrete building across from the more ornate Timberline Lodge)
  • Gaiters – probably the number one thing I wish I’d packed but didn’t, I only saw a few other hikers on the trail with these and was super jealous. There is a ton of dust on parts of the trail (perhaps because of the recent fires), and in a few sections you’ll be scrambling through loose gravel and rock, which will keep getting into your shoes. So do yourself a favor and bring these.
  • Hiking Poles – if not two, bring at least one. They are super useful for stream crossings (which you’ll be doing a lot of). The water level was low when we went in August, so we were able to avoid getting our feet wet in all but one of the stream crossings by gingerly making our way from rock to rock (and leaning on our hiking poles liberally to ensure we didn’t slip).
  • Sunscreen, sunglasses & hat – there’s an exposed section of trail after the Eliot crossing that’ll cook you if it’s sunny out. You’ll probably have a long-sleeved shirt since it’s pretty cold at night (even in August), so bring one that’s light enough to wear during the day to protect your skin.
  • First Aid Kit – sounds obvious, but you probably don’t have cat-like reflexes like me and you’ll slip at some point on either the loose rock or the slippery ones when crossing a stream and you’ll cut yourself, I guarantee it. Luckily due to my cat-like reflexes I didn’t.1

    These are totally not slippery logs right about to collapse and make you fall in the stream. Probably.
    These are totally not slippery logs right about to collapse and make you fall in the stream. Probably.
  • Don’t buy “Around & About Mount Hood” – You’ll see it online if you’re researching the trail, I bought it in REI in Portland, it’s probably in the gift shop at the lodge. Mostly contains info about accessing different parts of the Timberline Trail from various parking lots which you don’t really need if you’re doing it as a loop. We bought two copies which regrettably didn’t get much use.

    Don't buy me!
    Don’t buy me!

Route Recommendations

  • Paradise Loop – Don’t skip it! You’ll get some nice pictures and it’s also a great place to camp (although pretty close to the start at only a little over 5 miles from the start).

    A view from the Paradise Park loop
    A view from the Paradise Park loop
  • Eden Park – Don’t skip it! It does add a little bit of elevation gain but you’ll also get a scenic meadow and a walk through some crazy silver-white and heat-curled dead trees, a reminder of the recent fire. It’s probably super creepy at night.

    Just past Eden Park, Nightmare Before Christmas style trees
  • Eliot Creek Crossing – The trail for this section is not on the map, but don’t worry too much about this, as of August 2016 the trail is pretty clear right up until the ridge before the creek, and after that the markers aren’t great but the false trails are obvious because they simply vanish into thin air and drop a few hundred feet. Then just go back up the trail and try the next one. Probably the most annoying thing about this section is the loose crumbly rock and gravel, but you remembered your gaiters, right? If it’s been rainy and the stream looks swelled and crazy don’t do it, but otherwise just take it slow, be cautious and you’ll be fine.2

    Eliot Creek crossing - loose rock everywhere
    Eliot Creek crossing – loose rock everywhere
  • The Last 2 Miles – this isn’t really a recommendation since there’s no way around it but the White River Crossing and then the steepest climb of the loop are your reward for doing the Timberline Trail clockwise. The last mile of uphill through quicksand-like dirt left me thinking “I can’t think of a worse way to end a hike than this”, but then a quarter mile before you get back to the parking lot the sand stops and you forget all about it as the Lodge comes back into view. Just know that this part is going to be bad for 2 miles, and then hopefully you get back to the parking lot in time to have a nice meal at the Lodge.

If you’re thinking about doing it, do it!

We did it as a last minute, poorly planned adventure, so mainly got on the trail way after noon every day and ended up hiking into the night, searching for water. And then on the last day I had to hike 15 miles to get out due to poor time/mileage planning. But you won’t do that because of all the tips I gave you! Even though we didn’t plan very well we all still had a great time and the weather was stupendous, sunny yet mostly cool, visibility for miles and not much wind. I highly recommend the time of year we went (late August). The pictures don’t do it justice, and it was one of the best backpacking trips I’ve gone on so far. I hope this helps you plan your trip if you decide to go, and if you do, let me know how it went!

Walking off into the sunset
Walking off into the sunset
Map of the trail we actually did
Map of the Timberline Trail from the GPS – GPS track (TCX format)

 

  1. OK, fine, I did fall and cut myself.
  2. Probably
API Automation on your wrist with Zones

API Automation on your wrist with Zones

Thanks to an August Smart Lock and a Raspberry Pi with a 5V Relay jury-rigged to the building door buzzer, I’ve exposed two Web API endpoints that allow me to unlock my building complex door, and my front door. In the past I’ve run a website1 that I access on my mobile browser to buzz in. It was clunky and had very low WAF but it worked.

untitled_clipping_090916_121838_pm

After Google I/O in 2014 I got a Samsung Gear Live smartwatch which faithfully adorned my wrist until the charger pad disintegrated2 and it sailed off into device heaven. Its replacement was a Moto Sport 360 watch. I’d tried in the past to integrate my Web APIs with my smartwatch with the IFTTT app and the Maker Channel, but the latency of the app and the web request action was high enough to negatively impact WAF, so I needed a different solution.

So I made an app: Zones! It was a good opportunity to try out Xamarin, which allows you to make native-ish apps. Recently made free for Visual Studio users through an acquisition by Microsoft, it was an interesting experience. It didn’t seem 100% polished but it did the job.

With Zones, you configure Geofences and then link those to Web APIs. The APIs can either be auto-activated on entry/exit, or can make notifications appear on your phone or smartwatch so you can activate them manually. This has worked well for me– I turned off notifications on the phone and only show them on the watch. Now I can quickly unlock the building complex door while walking up to it without having to pull out my phone, unlock it and navigate to a website or app. And any other location-dependent web service I expose could be added to the app easily.

This app is meant for developers (or at least someone with access to some Web APIs), which is okay with me–I did it more to see what developing a native app with a wearable component was like, not to make any money (it’s free in the Play Store) or have a ton of people use it. Can you think of other things to use Zones for? Here’s a few I thought of:

  • Timeclock integration – Clock in and out when you’re at the office
  • Garage door opener – I don’t have a garage but if I did I’d probably try to do this
  • Toggle security alarm activation – Would have to expose a web service for this
  • Turn off all the lights – There always seems to be one light left on when you go to bed… although it’d have to be a connected IoT light for this to work.

Anyway, hope the app is useful to someone else and if not it was an interesting intro to Android APIs, now I know about Xamarin for writing Android apps in C#, Google Play Location Services, backgrounding Android services, and Android Wear APIs.

screenshot_090916_053154_pmCheck it out in the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.m4rc.zones

 

  1. nicknamed “OpenSesame”
  2. probably due to excessive exposure to sweat from hiking, marathons, etc
Hello world!

Hello world!

“Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!”
— Automatic first post, words of encouragement

This my obligatory first post for 2016. I’ve tried many times before to start (and keep) a blog, but eventually lack of time, motivation and interest end up letting the blog slowly grow into a state of disrepair and ultimately abandonment. Presented with repeated evidence that this is the final destination for the effort, why keep trying?

To whom much has been given, from him much is expected.1

As a human being who is inquisitive about the world and wants to go out and experience it, I’ve been helped tremendously by the first-hand descriptions of various places, and travelogues from people of all stripes. I’ve felt more confident when traveling to a foreign place after reading about it, and even without traveling to a place I’ve felt as though I could experience it a bit through the descriptive or humorous writings of others.

As an entrepreneur and small business owner, I’ve been influenced (in good ways and bad) by many great blogs out there. There’s no shortage of useful advice, but in addition I find it motivating to read about the personal experiences of success and failure from people succeeding on a massive scale, or owning a failure on a public stage.

As a self-identified foodie, reading recipes or watching video content online has inspired me to try eating and making new and exciting foods! So many Pinterest “Nailed It!” fails to go along with all the wins.

Finally, as a software developer I’m so indebted to others for their writing in the form of blogs, answers on Q/A sites, tutorials and just plain source code. I’d reckon that the average developer doesn’t go through a single day without referencing a blog or answer site, or reading over someone else’s code or open-source library. While writing software is not just a process of cutting and pasting code found online, it sure helps to find and read the thoughts and code of people who have attacked similar problems in the past and won (or at least lost and logged the failures).

Image from my 1997 blog "Web.Marcus"
A random image from my 1997 blog “Web.Marcus”

So– I’ve been helped so much, and have enjoyed the content of others for so long that I feel both obligated and excited to contribute as well. Part of the reason the web is so great is that everyone2 is able to put their content out there, some of it will be good and some will be not so good, and eventually some of it will end up helping someone. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that, or at least keep this blog going for long enough to say that at least I tried. And if not, there’s always next year.