Mississippi Head - Illumination Saddle Loop - 2014/07/27

[Guy]

Today Chiyoko, Shelly & I reprised a trip I first took with Eric, Brad, Peder in October 2012. A loop from Timberline over to Paradise Park up the West side of Mississippi Head & then on to the Illumination Saddle at 9200'.


Opening pic..

When your ultimate goal for the day is at 9200' and you are already at 6000' dropping down to 4800' is probably not the best move but that is what we did



Climbing up the other side of the Zigzag Canyon we soon arrived at the old Paradise sign...



When we were at this spot just a month ago this sign was completely buried by snow!


What this same spot looked like on June 29th of last month!

From here it was just onwards & upwards, first through the lush green meadows of Paradise.



Then on through the rocks with Mississippi Head getting closer..





Finally snow!





Great views from the top of Mississippi Head!







The high point on Mississippi Head is 7300' still 2000' feet below our goal for the day! With this in mind Chiyoko & I settled for a telephoto shot of the old B26 propeller this time around. Shelly made a quick side trip down there though to check it out.



After a bite to eat we set off for Illumination Saddle







Slowly but surely Illumination Rock got closer! We were also treated to a flyby





Finally we made it & plodded up the last few steps onto the saddle








Looking down on Yocum Ridge!

Two other groups were there, a couple who had set up camp & were planning on staying the night & a group of 4 who rode the Palmer then skied across. They got back before we did ..

It was a bit cold & blustery on the ridge so we didn't hang around for very long & soon began our express decent to Timberline Lodge.





It took us 6 hours to get up to Illumination Saddle the long way & 90 minutes to get back to Timberline the short way!

A great day to be out on the mountain, 11.3 miles & 4750' of EG.



A few more pics of the day here.

[adamschneider]

When your ultimate goal for the day is at 9200' and you are already at 6000' dropping down to 4800' is probably not the best move but that is what we did

It's a hell of a lot better than doing the same loop in reverse! The misery of climbing up out of Zigzag to Timberline Lodge (on my way back from a normal Paradise Park hike) is what first got me started on the idea of going up and around the canyon.

[retired jerry]

Nice! I got to do the whole loop some day.

[kepPNW]

Excellent extension to the "standard" Mississippi Head loop! Was the snow firm enough up there that microspikes helped? Seems everywhere I've been in the last couple weeks (max 8500'), the top inch was soft enough that I didn't feel the traction would've made much difference.

[Roy]

I am hoping to do this one soon Ive had it on my list for a while I just did not feel up to it for some time.
Great photos as always and its good to see your partner is keeping you in line and out of trouble.

[CraigG]

Love it! Did you approach Illumination Saddle from climber's left (west?). I gotta do this soon before it gets all melted out.

[rainrunner]

Ditto what everyone is saying about needing to do this trip! Your hikes always look so great.

[Sean Thomas]

Ditto what everyone is saying about needing to do this trip! Your hikes always look so great.

Double ditto as Im a total Hood newb. As always, great TR and pics, Guy!

[Guy]

Thanks Everyone, yes this a great hike & now is the time to do it while there is still a layer of snow to walk on - much easier going.

The shortest version of this hike, just to the Saddle & back would be under 6 miles, the version we did around Mississippi Head was just over 11. Another intermediate option would be up the East side of the Zigzag Canyon from the Timberline Trail VP.

Love it! Did you approach Illumination Saddle from climber's left (west?). I gotta do this soon before it gets all melted out.

Craig, no we approached from the South East. On our way up from Mississippi head we crossed over just below the bowling alley of rocks that come tumbling down with regularity. On the way back we just scuttled through it quickly .. Most of the rocks that roll down here are between baseball & football size but there were a few watermelons & pumpkins among them so keep your eyes open

[adamschneider]

The shortest version of this hike, just to the Saddle & back would be under 6 miles

That's what I did last October, and yeah, our route was just a hair under 3 miles each way. (As the raven flies, it's 2.56 miles from Timberline Lodge to Illumination Saddle.)

By the way, in October, the big fat ridge of snow (the one y'all are standing on in the photos) wasn't there; we had to get our northward views from atop the sketchy little rock ridge below you.