Dave & Keeley Hike Tom Dick & Harry

Keeley was officially brought on full time at her job, which was cause for celebration! We celebrated the only way we know how: by walking around the woods before drinking beer and eating burgers at a brewery. Any excuse to mark off something new on the list! 

THE GOAL

Mirror Lake is a beautiful smallish lake on the southern flank of Mount Hood. Resting above it is Tom Dick & Harry Mountain, named as such because it is a long ridge that has three summits. The trail goes to both. 

THE PLAN

Get To Mirror Lake trailhead early, do the hike, go to Hood River and celebrate the new job with some beer and burgers at Pfriem.

THE TRIP
Portland was cold, rainy, and cloudy with little visibility, which was a bad sign. Thankfully, once we got into the cascade foothills the clouds just abruptly stopped and the sky was clear. The trailhead is basically just a pullout off of HW 26. The trailhead was already full when we got there at 930. There were approximately 10 billion signs indicated no parking with threat of towing, which left us feeling kind of lost. Luckily, another friendly hiker told us about the Ski Bowl parking lot a mile up the road, which we drove to. It would add 2 miles to our hike, and both those miles were walking behind the guardrail on HW 26, but the peace of mind that we wouldn't get towed was worth it.

The trail to Mirror lake is about a mile long and is mostly just wide well graded switchbacks slowly up the side of the hill. It's a great walk through the woods and never very strenuous. After a while, you suddenly come across the Mirror Lake outflow creek and the first junction. The left trail winds around Mirror Lake. The right trail goes along the shore for a brief stretch then climbs up to TDH Mtn. We took the right trail, we could chill at beautiful Mirror Lake later.

We still stopped for some photos though, especially since our goal sat up behind the lake looking ominous.

Mirror Lake

The trail to TDH continues the gentle climb for another mile on a big long backside route. There is an open air talus slope halfway up that offers a fantastic view of mountain and the valley HW 26 climbs up.

After another mile of moderate climbing, the trail hits a gigantic man-made 8 foot tall pile of rocks and takes a hard left. The rest of the trail is mostly flat ridge walking until you hit another massive pile of rocks, but this time the pile of rocks is the summit.

Tree had a dick

Giant rock pile

The summit of TDH is incredible. It offers the best view of Mt. Hood I've ever gotten on a hike. The mountain just looms in front of you. Mirror Lake is visible down below. Off to the east you can see the town of Government Camp nestled in the trees. If you look really hard, you can find the Timberline Lodge. The other 4 volcanoes are visible as well. Adams sits on Hood's left flank. Rainer behind it. St. Helens off to the northwest. Behind you, a fantastic view to Oallie Butte and Mt. Jefferson. Truly worth it.

A full 360 panorama from the top

Mt Jefferson

The third summit of TDH

Mt Adams

The Timberline Lodge (Top right of the bare line leading down on the right side)

Government Camp

Mirror Lake

People on the lakeside

Dick and Harry summits

We hung out on the summit taking photos for a while then headed back down the trail to Mirror Lake, this time taking the loop trail to the backside of the lake. The lake wasn't a perfect mirror, but it was a pretty decent one.

Love that dick shadow

After that we walked back to the car, happy. Mirror Lake is totally worth the visit. You can camp here too, but with a lack of other trails off of the path, it might work better as a day visit.

Our burger at Pfriem was amazing and the traffic jam we hit on the way back was garbage. The Gorge did a bit of landsliding last week apparently.

RESULTS:
8 miles, 1600 ft of elevation gain, A good hike.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1253014147

A Fall hike to Falls Creek Falls

Well we started spring with what may have been my new favorite waterfall, and it didn't even get to hold that crown for a year. Sorry Abiqua Falls, you are now second place.

It was cold, it was very wet, and it was a long drive for a short hike, but it was pretty well worth it and we shall go back, hopefully in spring.

Falls Creek Falls is tucked away north of Carson in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, between Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens in lower Washington. It is a giant 3-tiered high volume monster of a waterfall that rumbles over 300 feet from tip to toe. It has been on my list for a while, but the drive kept me away.

Getting there was a long but beautiful drive. Go through the gorge until Carson, WA, then head north on the Wind River highway for a while until taking a couple turns onto a gravel road with a major pothole problem for the final mile. The potholes aren't bad if you take it slow, but there are a lot of the damn things. Still nowhere close to Silver Star Mtn, the worst road in history.

The trailhead is wide and the path is clearly popular, because even on this cold rainy day there were still upwards of 10 cars. The trees were in full color, which is hilarious. The trees that change colors in the PNW are all a lot shorter than the trees that do not, meaning that all around you are mighty tall evergreens with this bizarre under-layer of yellow at the base. Makes for a strange contrast.

Pardon the water drops, it was very wet out

There are a couple trail options in the area but since it was crappy out we did the basic 2 miles on the lower trail to the base of the falls. It was a pretty gentle uphill the whole time, crossed over Falls Creek on nice bridges a couple of times, and was generally very pretty. After 1.5 miles, you turn a corner and suddenly things get louder, and soon after that you get a glimpse of the top of the falls, which really sets the stage for what's coming. The top of the falls looks impossibly high from there, and in fact this upper tier is impossible to see from the lower viewpoint.

First glimpse of the falls through the trees

Shortly after the glimpse, the trail stops at the base of the falls, and the scope of the thing smacks you in the face. No picture does the size of the falls justice in the slightest. It feels huge and there was a ton of water flowering over it. This was wonderland type shit. I loved it. I could have sat there looking at it and grabbing pictures for an hour if it wasn't so cold and wet.

The lower tier

Middle tier

However it was very cold and wet so we went home.

There is an upper loop option to the falls, but we decided to save it for a better day.
3.65 miles, maybe 800 ft of elevation, lots of excess waterweight.