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Trip Report

Timberline Trail — Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024

Southwest Washington > Columbia River Gorge - OR

Did this in the CW loop from Timberline Lodge over four days when my permit for Adams was canceled due to the Williams Mine Fire. 

All the creek/river crossings were fine.  Nothing was exceptionally sketchy, and if it seemed that way, looking up or down stream usually found me a better spot.  Plenty of dogs went across as well, but I would feel very nervous about that myself.  (Dogs seemed quite happy about it.)  I didn't keep my feet dry, but with the amount of water around there, you don't really.

Speaking of water, ranger station cautioned about only filtering from springs, not the fast creeks, in order to avoid glacial silt.  This is mostly obvious, and there are some faster creeks that look like they've filtered through meadow and ground long enough that they're fine to filter from. There are a few places at the moment with 4ish mile stretches without water, so that's relevant, but not super critical.  Asking others usually got the info I needed on water, and carrying capacity for 2.5 liters was enough.

Started 5:30pm the first night, so camped at a fabulous little spot by Lost Creek that was absolutely empty.  Camped at Elk Grove the next night, with much busier sites.  Camped just after the Newton Creek crossing the last night with a whole lot of other people around.  I'd probably try for different camps next time, but I had to find hammockable ones.

The trail is around a volcano with glaciers - expect lava rocks, ash, sand along with your standard dirt tread.  Expect long stretches without shade in the sun.  I hike plenty, but the terrain definitely takes more out of the legs/ankles/knees than your standard forest, and I'm glad I had two full days and two half days to do it.

Flowers at the moment are amazing, bugs are annoying a bit when you stop, but all in all, great trip.

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