Mt. Hood Wilderness Backpacking – Need advice

[Christopher Wilke]

I'm going to be in the Portland area for business this week and decided to stay the weekend for some backpacking. I'll have Friday late afternoon through noon on Sunday for hiking so I was thinking something in the 20 mile range. I wanted to do something near Mt. Hood and thought the Paradise park area looked pretty cool. I was hoping to get general feedback, good camping spots and any pertinent info to the area from all you knowledgeable locals :-)

Thanks!

[Christopher Wilke]

Anyone?

[Jeffs Eleven]

Mc Neil shelter is cool. its only 10miles IIRC (from Lolo Pass road)

The thing i've come to find after moving to the PNW is since its stratovolcanoes you're either dayhiking or a shortish out-and-back, or you're making lots of miles to get to or from somewhere else. Does that make sense?

In a mtn range you can walk around a large area of cool stuff.

A stand-alone mtn you either walk up it, or down it. The circumnavigation of Hood (Timberline trail) is only like 44 miles. (which is actually longer than it used to be, due to a bridge out.

I mean I guess you could go from Timberline (ski area) to Mcneil shelter and back. (assuming you meant 20miles one way) I'm not sure of the mileage but its probably around 20.

[Mary D]

http://www.portlandhikers.org not only has an excellent forum with lots of trip reports; it also has an excellent Field Guide. Retiredjerry does a lot of the maintenance on it. The Paradise Park hike is described here:
http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Paradise_Park_from_Timberline_Lodge_Hike

At the end of the Field Guide section there are links to recent trip reports. And of course there are many other hikes listed, too.

[Christopher Wilke]

Thanks for the feedback. Portland Hikers was definitely helpful in planning the trip. We ended up doing a loop from Paradise park trailhead up to Paradise park. We also threw in a little jaunt partway up Mt. Hood above Paradise park. All in all a great first trip in the PNW with excellent weather!

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