2 weeks at Camp Kiwanis, then a 2 nighter on Mt Hood

I spent the last two weeks as a counselor at the Mt Hood Kiwanis camp.  It was a very rewarding and amazing experience.  The first week, I was paired up with a 19 year old male and the second week, I was paired up with a 37 year old female.  It was my job to make sure they had the best time at camp!!  Our group had 9 counselors and 9 campers, plus a supervisor and assistant supervisor.  It is a great organization.  If you are interested, here is the link to their site.

Week 1

week 2

I had one day off in between the two weeks, to go home and rest.  At the end of the second week, we decided that since we were already on the mountain, why not go backpacking :)

It is about the one year anniversary of us hiking, so we decided to go back to where we started: Elk Cove via Vista Ridge trail.  Here is a hike description with directions.

We got to the TH at around 530 and were on the trail by 6.  The first few miles of the trail are through a burn area.  The result of the "Dollar Lake fire" from 2011.

new growth amongst the burn

We decided that we would camp at Wy'East Basin the first night.  It was about 730-745 when we arrived.  We found a nice spot under the trees to set-up camp.  There was an almost full, bright moon shining that night.  We made dinner, set-up the tent and called it a night.  

Us at Wy'East Basin

We woke up the next morning, made breakfast and packed up our gear.

me enjoying some coffee before heading out

 We continued on for another mile to Elk Cove.  Along the way, Cher noticed a large fungus growing along the Pinnacle Ridge trail junction.

There's a fungus among us

It took us just about an hour to get to Elk Cove.  We took time to enjoy the mountain views along the way. 

Mt Hood from Elk Cove

another view of the mountain

Mt Adams

 We were hoping to get our same spot as last year, which was a little ways down the Elk Cove trail, but it was taken.  We took a spur trail, just north of that campsite and found another, that was more secluded.  We had a nice view of the mountain.  There were a few others camped in the area, but no one was too close.  After getting camp set-up and relaxing for a bit, we decided to explore the Timberline trail to the east.  We headed down the trail for about 1.5 miles.  It was a nice and relaxing.  We got to a section that started heading down pretty steadily ( I think to the Coe Creek crossing ) and decided to make that our turn around point.

The wildflowers in meadow were still plentiful.  The smells were amazing! And the view of the mountain is always beautiful from here.

There were some awesome cloud formations moving swiftly over the mountain.

Ridge to the west of camp

It is a great place to camp, because the creek is so close for refilling your water supply.

This is how Diego helps refill water

a little grasshopper hung out with us

he requires a tapestry to use when sitting on logs ;)

foraging for his food

Diego likes to sunbathe every chance he gets

there was a fire ring, so we made fire(and some smores)

We woke up Sunday morning and took our time packing up camp.  We had a nice breakfast and then headed back to Wy'East Basin.  We too about an hour break there to take in the views again and cool off in the alpine streams.  It is such a gorgeous place!

Rainier, Adams and Cher

Us cooling off

There weren't too many hikers coming through at the time.  When we started heading down the Vista Ridge trail, we ran into more people the closer we got to the TH.