TR: Timberline Lodge Trails via Public Transit, July 2014

[Charley]

Back in late July, my weekend backpacking plans were stymied by a cascading failure of the cooling system in my Honda Civic (1999; 207,000 miles). I was not about to be deterred, though, so I recalled the Mt Hood express, and put together a trip up to Timberline Lodge via the bus system.

1. I took Trimet from my neighborhood (42nd and Holgate) out to the Gresham Transit Center; the ride cost $2.50.

2. At the Gresham TC, I picked up the Sandy Area Metro, which took me to downtown Sandy. The bus was quiet, clean and cool; the ride cost $1. An excellent ride along US 26! http://www.ci.sandy.or.us/index.asp?SEC ... pe=B_BASIC

I got to downtown Sandy about an hour before my transfer (I'd left too much "just in case" time), so I visited Meinig Memorial Park, which is a very pleasant way to kill an hour. It's quiet and wooded:

After exploring the park, I had to visit Joe's Donut Shop, where I was rewarded with an awesome huckelberry fritter!

3. From Downtown Sandy, I caught the Mt Hood Express bus all the way up to Timberline Lodge. This bus was quiet, clean and cool, as well! This ride cost me $2. http://www.mthoodexpress.com/

The trip took about 3 hours (would have taken two, had I not been extra conservative with the transfer times), and totaled $5.50! That's way cheaper than driving, even if my car gets 40 miles to a gallon on the highway.

I arrived at Timberline to find that the weather was awful. So I hung out in the lodge for a while. I eventually changed my original plan (hike west to Paradise Park) and hiked down to the White River area instead, as the wind was out of the west, and the weather was much, much clearer on the east side of the Lodge.

Hiking past the moraine:

With sunset nearing, I set up camp in a sandy wash near the PCT, and photographed the changing light:

Snags along the PCT at dusk:

I had a good night's sleep, and got up to see the sunrise on Mt Jefferson:

Then I hiked up to the Silcox Hut, then back down to the lodge, where I enjoyed a brief tour of the lodge led by a summer volunteer. If you're ever in the Lodge when they're offering the tours, I highly recommend it: I learned lots of interesting facts about the lodge.

I reversed my trip and ended up back at my neighborhood that afternoon! It was a nice trip, and a particularly relaxing way of getting up to the mountain. I will definitely be using the Mt Hood Express for skiing this year, as I can simply drive to Sandy and ride the bus up from there. It'll be safer and cheaper, too.

[Charley]

Mt Hood Express URL is the only one that worked. Don't know why!

[adamschneider]

Do links like this: {url=http://blahblah.com/}LINK_TEXT{/url}

(Replace the curly brackets with square ones, of course.)

[Charley]

Well, I tried. I suck at links.

[kmcdade]

Good to know that the transit routes work! Thanks for reporting back.

[sprengers4jc]

Great idea! We didn't know that transit route existed. Now, I can plan some snowshoeing trips despite having a car that sucks in the snow .

[romann]

I always thought it will take a ton of time via public transit. Doesn't look too long from your report & I can always drive up to Sandy (cheap gas there). Still requires some planning though.

[vibramhead]

This is truly useful info, Charley. I had no idea this option was available. Thanks for posting.

[drm]

As to the link, I think that the "http://www" part is required to start it off.

Nice to know that you can make it up there reasonably via public transit.

[retired jerry]

first go to a website, right click to select the URL, and left click "copy" to copy the URL

then click on "URL" above and it sticks in ""

with the cursor in between, left click "paste" to paste in the URL

Someone mentioned the new SAM shuttle to Timberline. I've eyed that same trip. 2 hours isn't bad. would save a little time driving. I should try it as an experiment. Need to look at the schedules good.