Christmas at Mount Hood
This year for Christmas we traversed our way up Mount Hood in Snow Shoes to the ever chilly but beautiful Tilly Jane Cabin. We gave ourselves a late start, prioritizing a delicious Christmas Eve breakfast over an early hike, so we didn't make it to the cabin until just after nightfall. It was so dark out by then that our dim flashlights did little to keep us on the path. As we covered the last mile of ground, the stars began to pop out along with a sliver of light as the moon waned toward a new phase.
When you choose to spend your holiday sharing an 80 year old warming cabin with some 15 (F) degree weather seeping in through the boards, you can usually expect good company. So on our three day Christmas adventure, we met quite a few wonderful groups of considerate day hikers and their pups, a couple who have hiked to the Tilly Jane Cabin in Christmas tradition for the past 8 or more years, a solo cross country skier from Camas, a kind couple who drove all the way up from the Southern California coast just to hike through Mount Hood, and a group of friends visiting from SF.
Then, somedays there will be those who may be less considerate in which you must still share. If you're in a shared space, please please please be mindful of others. On the morning of day three, I'm sorry to say that a group of 5 loud hikers busted in at 3am with their all of their lights on, disrupting all of these kind people from their sleep. The person sleeping below almost got stepped on as they entered the cabin this way- forcing him to move to the colder upstairs after letting them know there were others already upstairs as well.
Blatantly disregarding this, they stayed up for another two hours, cooking and talking loudly with all of their lights on, almost smoking out the rest of us above with the open fireplace. We were lucky to be leaving soon after, but the rest of the group were planning on sticking it through.
It wasn't the best experience to end our first real Christmas adventure, but it's also not enough to sour the trip. It was absolutely stunning up there; we had blue skies and an endless bed of stars to keep us warm when the fire was low.
(Snuck in a few photos older photos of Mount Hood and one of Alaska.)