There’s a particular kind of smugness that comes with being at a trailhead just after sunrise on a Sunday. It lasts until you remember everyone else is still in bed for a reason. Still, Hunter and I set off up the Mirror Lake Trail towards Tom Dick and Harry Mountain early this morning, and I’m pleased to report the smugness was entirely justified.
It wasn’t even cold. A warm breeze was blowing, easterly I suspect, the sort that feels slightly out of place in October and makes you wonder whether you’ve brought one layer too many. (I had.)
Getting there
The hike starts from the Mirror Lake Trailhead at the south end of the Skibowl West car park, just before Government Camp on Highway 26. It’s a fee area, so you’ll need a Northwest Forest Pass or a day pass, which you can buy on your phone through recreation.gov if you have signal. It’s a very popular trailhead, so arrive early or come midweek. I’ve written about it in more detail in Mirror Lake, Mount Hood – start of the summer hiking season.
Mirror Lake Trail #664 climbs about 450 feet over the 2.1 miles to the lake, then the trail to Tom Dick and Harry carries on for roughly another mile and a half and a little over 600 feet to the summit ridge. Depending on which of Tom, Dick or Harry you visit, it’s 7 to 8.5 miles round trip.
Up to Mirror Lake
We had the trail entirely to ourselves on the way up. Not a soul. Just me, Hunter, and the sound of my own breathing on the switchbacks.
Autumn has properly arrived. The colours are out along the trail, and the fireweed has gone to seed in great silvery drifts that make a lovely backdrop for Mount Hood.
Fireweed gone to seed, and Hood doing its best to get in the shot.
Mirror Lake, however, was not living up to its name. That warm breeze was rippling the surface, so any reflection of Hood was more impressionist than mirror.
Mirror Lake, temporarily rebranded as Ripple Lake.
The mystery cairn
On the final stretch, where the trail turns the corner for the last leg up to the summit, there’s a rock pile I’ve walked past for years and never understood. It’s not a cairn so much as a cairn on steroids: an enormous heap of stones, with a stack of old timbers at its foot.
Answers on a postcard, please.
So I’m throwing it open to the collective wisdom: does anyone know what it is, or why it’s there? I’d love to know.
The summit
It was a beautiful day at the top. Going anticlockwise from Hood, the view takes in Mount Adams, Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens, with Mount Jefferson off to the south.
Hood from the summit, looking a little underdressed for October.
What struck me most was Hood itself. It’s not carrying much ice at all at the moment, and the glaciers are looking very bare. Whatever the last couple of storms brought has vanished remarkably quickly. If you’d like to know more about what’s happening to Hood’s glaciers, I wrote about it in Watching Mount Hood’s Glaciers Disappear.
There was just a faint tinge of smoke in the air, enough to smell rather than see. The fires seem to be pretty much damped down now, so it may well be one of the last whiffs of a very long fire season.
Hunter, contemplating the view. Or, more likely, lunch.
Hunter, naturally, had a marvellous time. He always does at the top of things.
The way down
As you’d expect, the descent was a different story: plenty of people heading up, enjoying a perfect autumn morning. I also passed a couple of campers who’d spent the night out between Ski Bowl and Tom Dick and Harry, which looked a rather fine idea in hindsight.
The best moment came right at the end. By the time we got back to Mirror Lake the wind had dropped completely, and the lake was finally doing what it says on the tin: an almost picture-perfect reflection of Hood, quite different from a couple of hours earlier.
Ninety minutes later, Mirror Lake remembered its job.
Sometimes it pays to come back the same way.
Conclusion
Tom Dick and Harry is one of the best short summit hikes around Mount Hood: easy access from Highway 26, a lake to break up the climb, and a summit view that takes in five Cascade volcanoes. An early autumn start is hard to beat, with quiet trails on the way up, warm colours, and the chance of a mirror-calm lake on the way back. If you’d rather make a loop of it, you can drop down through Ski Bowl in summer, though I’d suggest doing that loop in reverse; I learned that the hard way.
Trail details
- Start: Mirror Lake Trailhead (Skibowl West car park), Highway 26
- Trail: Mirror Lake Trail #664, then the trail to Tom Dick and Harry Mountain
- Round Trip distance: 7 miles
- Elevation Change: 1466′
- Pass: Northwest Forest Pass or day pass
- Dog friendly: yes. Hunter recommends it.
