In the beginning

I had been up to the base of Cathedral Ridge once before, but that was many years ago. With my new little toy – a 360-degree camera – it was time to go up for another view of Hood.

I lived on the west side of Portland for many years.  A definite advantage of living on the east side is the commute time to the mountain is so much shorter.  In no time we were at the big parking lot at the Tip Top trailhead with maybe about nine other vehicles.

This is the easiest access to some of the best parts of Mt Hood and it can get crowded.  It was only 8:30 in the morning when we got started, so we did not run across very many people before reaching McNeil Shelter. The rest of the day was different as we passed almost 200 people. Maybe at half of those folks backpacking the Timberline Trail.