Quilting!

I started the Pinwheel Baby Quilt I am making for an expected family member.

Chinidere Mountain    6/22/2018     (Hike#38)

This trail starts at Wahtum Lake, on the upper end of the Eagle Creek fire zone. The area has been off limits since last September, but this particular trail recently reopened to public use. Connecting trails down Eagle Creek are still closed.

The trail immediately descends down 250 steps to Wahtum Lake.

From the shore we can just see the rocky promontory that we are hiking to – Chinidere Mountain.

We continued on the Pacific Crest Trail around the east side of the lake, through an area with several hanging gardens and lots of flowers.  The Chinidere cutoff at about 2.5 miles switchbacks up the side of this rocky promontory that stands above the forest. When we arrived, the top was still covered in fog and a cold wind swept the spine of the mountain.

Just 10 feet away we could sit comfortably in the windless sunshine and enjoy our lunch, hoping for the clouds on Mt Hood to lift.

Below us to the north, we could see the mosaic burn of the upper part of the Eagle Creek fire.

As we headed down the trail we walked out onto the ridge viewpoints to admire the wildflowers growing in the sunny rocky meadows and watched the clouds blow across Mt Hood.

Lots of wildflowers today – lovely.

 

By the time we drove down the road the mountain was free and clear!

Lookback:

On a clear day we could see all the volcanoes, north and south, from the top of Chinidere Mt.