This last week we headed out to Portland, OR to spend time with our close friends Derek and Ariel. The following is our journal entry Willie wrote at the top of a fire tower in the Mount Hood National Forest. We hope you enjoy:)
April 1, 2011
The idea of staying in a fire tower was mentioned to us by our friends who moved to Portland, OR for Ariel to attend Naturopathic Medical School. Our vacation was planned, and now we just had to get ready for the trek to the fire tower.
We flew into Portland and spent the night with our friends. The next morning we loaded up their compact car and headed for the Mount Hood National Forest.
After renting snowshoes in Sandy, OR and getting local advice to head up towards a different, but much short route up the mountain. We drove the car until we hit snow on the road and simultaneously the gas light came on, oops. So we decided to leave the car at the snow line, grab our stuff and hope the nearest gas station would be within 30 miles when we returned.
Being from the Midwest and loving to eat good food and drink, we loaded up our purple sled and four packs (recently bought from Ace Hardware), and headed on our way. The sled consisted of the following:
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| Starting our adventure |
- 1 box of wine (5 liters)
- 12 pack of bottled beer
- 1 bottle of vodka
- 1 bottle of whiskey
- 3 buckets of food
- 2 liter of Sierra Mist
- 2.5 gallons of water
Even just doing the math on the water and wine, it most likely becomes clear to the reader that we had way too much weight. However, for us and our enthusiasm we did not realize this until just over a mile of me and Derek dragging the sled over intermittent snow and road for the first half mile, and then another half mile of the sled tipping over becuase it was too top heavy. However, Katie had mentioned several times the balance issue, but me, a stubborn German, did not listen until Derek and and I could not even go 50 feet without the sled tipping over.
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| Two Trempealonians pulling the sleigh |
Feeling defeated I gave Katie the box of wine for her pack. After pulling the sled no more than another 1/4 mile Derek gave Ariel one bottle of liquor and Katie the other from his pack and we took the beer off the sled and hid it for a treat on the way down. This was after Katie put 4 bottles in her pack and snuck the Sierra Mist (we tried to leave that too).
Now we were ready for the next 4.5 miles to the fire tower, or so we thought since we are adventurous and active people. But we all agreed that the rest of the hike was on of the most challenging hikes we have done. About three miles from the fire tower Derek told me that he forgot the combo for the fire tower. We kept it to ourselves until we were 1.5 miles from the fire tower (to keep morale hight), when Ariel asked Derek if he had the combo and he dropped his head and said, "that might be a problem." At this point Katie and Ariel took the lead and we continued the rest of the hike picking out trees to hike to, waiting to see the gate around each corner. Even thinking we saw the gate or tower at times.
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| Flagpoint Lookout |
Then finally we saw the radio tower, and then even better, the fire tower. At this point we had been hiking for 7.5 hours, continuously uphill, in snowshoes, and now it was dark and raining. I led the way up the tower hoping to find the lock open, but no such luck. With further investigating a carabiner wedged between the chain seemed to be the only thing holding the gate lock. So with a little force and some fist hammering it opened!
We Made It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A feeling everyone has when making it to your destination! with plans of doing hikes around the area we spent the next two days in the fire tower eating, drinking and playing games. Derek cooked all the meals which were amazing as always they are when he is cooking and when you are camping. But for real, the food was great, from mushroom tofu dinner, to soy sausage egg scramble breakfast. We enjoyed talking about the hike while Ariel read us the other stories and adventures of other hikers.
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| Willie claims he finished the puzzle |
Ariel and Katie even completed a Mt. Rainier puzzle while Derek and myself enjoyed cribbage and cleaning the place. On Friday we headed back down with a much lighter load, and the change of having the sled pull itself back down, rather than hauling it up the mountain. To put into perspective, the hike down only took 3 hours and 45 minutes.
Once we packed up our gear, we managed to coast into the closest gas station on fumes...
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