Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17, 2014

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RobinB
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Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17, 2014

Post by RobinB » August 19th, 2014, 8:30 pm

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Opening picture! Glacial lake at the base of the Adams Glacier, just above High Camp.

My wife Krista and I went for a quick overnight on Mt. Adams this weekend up from Killen Creek TH to High Camp / Adams Glacier Meadows, with a dayhike to the (unnamed?) lake a thousand feet above High Camp, right at the foot of the Adams Glacier. The short story is that the flowers are peaking, the trail's in great condition, and, as Karl and Dean warned me, the bugs are apocalyptic. There weren't many black flies, but dozens of mosquitoes swarmed whenever we stopped.

We left Portland around 4:30 Saturday "morning," and, with a few construction delays on 141, were at the trailhead by 8:00. The roads were all definitely passable by passenger car, but there were a few spots on 2329 where we went very slowly. After futzing around for a little while with our packs and breakfast at the (full!) trailhead, we started up the pleasant, wooded trail toward High Camp.

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Obligatory trail sign picture. (Does everyone take these?)

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Stairs!

After a mile or so, there was a small-ish meadow with some small-ish flowers.

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The white ones.

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"Wait, that's not a flower!"

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Oh, but that is!

A little later, the meadows started in earnest, as did the views of Adams.

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Hello!

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And hello to you too!

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Killen Creek (I think?)

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Lupine!

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Paintbrush!

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Just before the PCT junction.

After the PCT junction, the Killen Creek Trail turns into the High Camp Trail, but things (and flowers) remain about the same. The trail does braid a little, but route finding is never an issue.

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I know I've already posted enough of these, but I took ten times more than I'm posting, so...

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Cairn of Doom.

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Route finding is definitely not an issue.

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This looks more impressive than it is.

The work to view ratio on this hike is ridiculously low, and we got to High Camp before we knew it. If someone were looking for a first backpacking trip, this might be a great candidate. Totally easy and totally gorgeous. We set up camp near a clump of trees, took a quick nap, had an early lunch, and set out an a leisurely dayhike. I think the trail veers left at High Camp, but we went straight up, over a small moraine at the base of the Adams Glacier.

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Looking back at camp.

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Up the moraine.

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GOATS!

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Goats, walking away. They just weren't that into us :(

Once we got over the moraine, the scenery became gloriously alpine. I could have spent an entire day just looking around.

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Adams Glacier! The sounds of constant rock and snow falls were incredible.

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Water draining off of the glacier.

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A little further down.

After hanging out by the creek for a while, we headed north-ish over a small snowfield to the glacial lake, stopping every couple feet to take more pictures.

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1 out of 785,684.

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"Iceberg, right ahead!"

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Views from the Other Shore.

As we walked around the lake, we ran into a couple of bros planning to swim (!). I thought they were joking, but when we were walking back toward camp, we heard a high-pitched shriek, somewhere between marmot whistle and 80s hair metal falsetto. I think that means they got in, at least to the waste. :shock:

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Me, glad to be filtering, not swimming, in the stuff.

The marmots had apparently heard our buddies doing a (slightly higher pitched) version of their call.

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"One of our kind is in trouble!"

We got to camp with quite a bit of daylight still to spare, so I went for a little golden hour stroll around the meadow.

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Camp.

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Lower meadow. If High Camp proper were full, or if you were just after some solitude, this would be a great place to camp.

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There were small streams all around the lower meadows.

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And really cool snow fields.

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The scale's deceiving here: this wall was at least fifteen feet tall.

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It was really difficult not to take 100 versions of this picture.

Dinner was an abbreviated affair, running around trying to escape the mosquito riot going on outside our tent, but I braved the onslaught to watch the sunset.

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It was glorious.

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Cloud ocean.

The bug situation was still pretty bad the next morning - when we woke up, the mosquitoes were on the tent mesh looking intently in - so I ran around for a little while taking pictures, but mostly we just packed up and ran down.

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St. Helens!

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Rainier!

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Goat Rocks / Another Gratuitous Exclamation Point!

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A few last looks at the flowers before heading home.

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vibramhead
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by vibramhead » August 19th, 2014, 9:13 pm

Okay, I'm definitely going there next weekend. Beautiful shots!
Time spent hiking will not be deducted from your life.

GPS tracks on Wikiloc.

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romann
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by romann » August 19th, 2014, 11:03 pm

Powerful shots of Adams Glacier! But be careful mountain spirit has been watching you :o
Face.jpg

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RobinB
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by RobinB » August 19th, 2014, 11:30 pm

romann wrote:But be careful mountain spirit has been watching you :o
Oh man! And here I was worried about the marmots...

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kepPNW
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by kepPNW » August 20th, 2014, 2:02 pm

Wow, most excellent TR! It was like being there all over again. But not itching afterwards. :lol:
Karl
Back on the trail, again...

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drm
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by drm » August 20th, 2014, 2:37 pm

I'm planning to go somewhere up around there in September, when the bloodsuckers are DEAD. I prefer to be able to lounge outside my tent with a cup of java in leisure. Avalanche Valley, Sean and JoJo's Lake, this lake. So many good destinations. And I bet a few more that can be found with some effort. Maybe I will need to take extra time and visit all of them. Of course the flowers will be gone . . . The green won't be as vibrant . . .

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-Q-
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by -Q- » August 20th, 2014, 3:32 pm

A full trailhead at 8am?!?!
YIKES :shock:

High Camp is great, and the hike up Killen Creek is great, but I don't understand the fascination that the masses have with it. There are so many other great hikes at Mt Adams, and I find most of them totally devoid of hikers.

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drm
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by drm » August 20th, 2014, 4:07 pm

-Q- wrote:High Camp is great, and the hike up Killen Creek is great, but I don't understand the fascination that the masses have with it. There are so many other great hikes at Mt Adams, and I find most of them totally devoid of hikers.
One word: easy.

Killen Meadows is like 3.5 miles and not much uphill. Only hardcore folks actually SEEK more EG.

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-Q-
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by -Q- » August 20th, 2014, 4:27 pm

drm wrote:
-Q- wrote:High Camp is great, and the hike up Killen Creek is great, but I don't understand the fascination that the masses have with it. There are so many other great hikes at Mt Adams, and I find most of them totally devoid of hikers.
One word: easy.

Killen Meadows is like 3.5 miles and not much uphill. Only hardcore folks actually SEEK more EG.
Yes, I guess thats quite true.

Oh well, all the better for the rest of us :P

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Boozeman
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Re: Mount Adams: Killen Creek, High Camp, etc - Aug. 16-17,

Post by Boozeman » August 20th, 2014, 7:02 pm

I was just up there earlier this month and can sympathize with your mosquito dilemma. I got all the way up to High Camp and was going to stop there for lunch, but as soon as I took my pack off I was completely engulfed by the little buzzing vampires. I must have missed one spot on my arm with the repellent and I received about 15 or so bites there!!! :shock:

Beautiful pictures of the scenery BTW. I'm really jealous that you saw goats when you were up there. I was looking around for them, but they didn't make an appearance. The other views are definitely worth the climb to get there though. ;)

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