Live Timberline Trail Survey Results – 2023

Road to Lodge was closed due to an accident,so we hiked up Glade Ski Trail from Government Camp and started where that trail intersects Timberline Trail

20

17

21

38

26

13

30

20

35

30

5

28

21.9

33

28

30

28

33

5

30

38

30

25

22

22

15

30

12

40

40

25

7

17

30

28

49

25

35

27

28

32

50

20

30

25

43

28

21

18

35

26

21

33

35

25

26

30

14

28

5

15

30

35

35

28

33

30

23

28

32

40

27

22

19

35

30

28

35

35.5

28

27

30

33

26

33

18

34

14

28

27

26

26

20

17

30

33

25

30

27

35

26

27

20

35

17

35

35

35

35

29

6

40

32

28

15

No

Soreness

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

no

no

None

no

No

No

no

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

Unable to eat much without feeling sick - only consumed about 2500 calories over the 3.5 day hike.

No

No

No

Sore shoulders

No

No

O

No

No

No

no

No

No

Nope

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

No

no

No

No

Leg cramps (despite drinking multiple liquid IVs & stretching)

No

No

No

No- just damp feet

I did not, but members of my group did

No

No

Nope

No

None

No

No

mild altitude headaches at night (normal for me)

No

No

No

Severely sprained ankle at elk cove and hiked out fine

no

No

No

no

No

Fell end over end down Eliot bank. Skinned shin. Not bad. Startling mostly. 🙂

No, but the knee pain is chronic, not specific to this trip

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27

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52

66

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60

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76

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70

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61

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58

99353

97504

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97211

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54235

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77024

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Florida

98115

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United States

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I have done the entire trail 4 times now. Twice in August and once in Sept. I do feel like conditions were significantly more dangerous than I had anticipated for this June 16th circuit. The river crossings were NOT an issue, it was the steep sloped snowfields that made it treacherous.

Amazing trail. Loved it. Painful at this time of year, however. Would be much more enjoyable having it clear, especially given downed trees.

Elliott ridge had a ton of trees down. Otherwise it was a great trip that I took about a month to early. The snow crossings were extremely difficult and dangerous with my lack of crampon's.

We hiked CCW from cloud Cap. We spent the night at Timberline Lodge. Did a 2 day, 1 night trip.

This trail is no joke. Make sure you are ready to go up and down. Cross logs and rivers. Lots of sun exposure in the burn areas…. Make sure to know when you need to carry lots of water and when it’s ok to carry minimal. FarOut app worked great for information $9.99 for the Timberline trail. You could see elevation, gain and loss… water, and possible campsites. It is a fun trail with lots of views of Mount Hood and surrounding mountains.

Beautiful hike. Lots of blow down which was hard and funny (we were laughing at each other) at the same time. There are parts of the trail that have exposure where the trail is deteriorating, this will get more dangerous over time. Women need to use a kula cloth so they are not leaving tp on the ground. People need to carry out tp (men and women, #1 and #2)

It was much harder than I anticipated. I have done a lot of backpacking (mostly from MN) and I struggled with the ups and downs. Knarly ridge was also super hot and hard.

Good times!

I wore Tevas about 1/3 of the trail.

Ladd Creek was our most difficult crossing. We searched a long time for a safe ford, and it ended up reaching our crotches. It was 6pm, though we also crossed Zigzag at 5 and Newton at 4:30 with no issue. We recommend Ladd Creek be included in the list of major crossings.

I found several piles of toilet paper in a lot of camping areas and it smelled like crap as well. It was disturbing how much tp was just laying in camp sites. Also, I had to go several miles past intended camp sites due to camp sites being full. However, it was still a great experience and I really enjoyed it.

We put our phones on airplane mode entire trip, so I have no idea of coverage.

Great day overall, so beautiful and perfect weather! A true slog the last couple miles up from the White River.

Great hike; met lots of friendly people all the way around. We loved getting up-to-date beta on stream crossings; got great info from a Scout leader on where to find the best spot on Coe and had a very nice young man reach out to grab my arm/hand as we were crossing a deep part of Eliot.

I was considering bringing my dogs but I am very glad I didn’t mostly due to the long exposed areas but also due to downed trees, steep river banks and crossings.

I was considering bringing my dogs but I am very glad I didn’t mostly due to the long exposed areas but also due to downed trees, steep river banks and crossings.

Down trees were tough and the exhausting

Dry and very dusty, but so beautiful and challenging.

A favorite. I'll be back again.

Love it. Try to do it every year.

Gave ourselves 4 days, finished in 3. Flowers were off the charts, miles came easy.

After crossing the Elliot at 2pm, I will NEVER do it again like that. I advise planning your trip around an early morning crossing. It was dangerous and terrifying. All the other rivers were manageable even at the worst of times. Although every year is different.

The Mt Hood Meadows reroute was miserable. And after being on the trail for 3 days and 30 something miles, having to come across that unexpectedly was incredibly infuriating. My friend and I were so delirious and angry we pondered running by the trail warden sitting there. Reality kicked in though and we opted not to ha. But seriously walking several miles around was ridiculous and I’m still not sure why I even had to. And in the end we still had helicopters flying over us. They had several employees manning the trail reroute, it seems like they could have let us cross in groups in between flights instead of having no concern for those on the trail and just saying ”go around”.

Tough trail. Glad I did not do it in 1 day. Blowdowns and river crossing easily added an extra 3 hours.

Had to divert 4 miles extra at Mt Hood Meadows due to helicopter activity. The detour was very poorly marked, numerous people were confused where to go, the meadows employee who stopped us from continuing the timberline trail completely underestimated the detour distance and time required, and the helicopter flew directly over our heads numerous times while we were on the detour. This was an abject failure on their part.

It’s an awesome trail!

we didn't cross eliott, but had trail support bring us to Ramona falls. a slip there felt like it would result in certain death, which none of us felt confident we wouldn't slip. plus the climb out looked very difficult.

Overall, I loved my experience on the Timberline Trail. That being said, the descent to Eliot CW was a bit life threatening at times going over big logs on the cliff side. The cairns were helpful especially at river crossings. If I did it again, Id spend 5 days instead of 4.

Really great trail. Wish it wasn't so busy. Sometimes I felt like I couldn't stop to enjoy the hike because I had to hurry to get to a campsite before they were all taken.

Only issue we had was climbing up wall out of Elliot Branch after water crossing. It was precarious and we didn’t make the safest choice. We were tired.
Also, just past Ramona falls the signage to continue on the trail was easily missed as it was angled in such a way we walked right past it and added extra mileage on accident. Could be better marked. To avoid going towards the Sandy trail parking lot unnecessarily!

We camped at Elk Meadows on night 3, which was amazing and empty except for us. Worth the extra miles and gain imo

Beautiful trail, we loved it!

Downed trees got a bit much on the north side, but overall were less than expected. Very grateful for trail crews doing good work!

It was more rugged than I expected in places. It was more difficult than expected.

Fantastic! Beautiful! Free and no permits! Freedom, baby!

Check out the Cascade Circumnavigation Challenge

The descent out of Eliot was pretty dangerous in our experience.
We also had 1 group member fall in, lose a pole and filter, and fracture a wrist attempting to rock hop Newton.

It was amazing!

Add “walked through” to your river crossing options.
Add “slept with food” to your food options.

Enjoyed a wonderful night camped other hikers not in our group at the Cooper Spur shelter. We shared stories, laughs and food. Was delightful. This memory sticks with me.

The number of downed trees (not in the previously closed area) was much more than expected and much more than found in similar jurisdictions in other states. The biggest difficulty with the trail, along with finding suitable campsites. Most established sites were within 100 feet of water or under dead timber. Trail surface was very good, overall. Most of the crowds seem to be PCT hikers and day hikers, not Timberline Trail hikers.

The trail is in good condition! I didn’t think the scrambles down into Elliot or newton etc were that bad

As should be clear, afternoon crossings of rivers/streams are way harder due to the flow

Wind going CCW up to highest point knocked me down twice.
I wish there were mile markers on the trail.

We opted to take Timberline Trail going CW from Ramona Falls. Blowdown slowed us down and crossing the Muddy Fork via Timberline Trail was a little tricky to find a place to cross. In future, we would opt for the detour. My friend and I are from the midwest, so the elevation was a challenge, but we loved the views and are so proud of ourselves for overcoming all the challenges/obstacles this trail threw at us.

Grateful to those that work hard to maintain the trail. It was an incredible experience!!

The climb out of the Elliot was extremely dangerous and will prevent me from ever doing the hike again.

I wanted to just keep going around. 6 days was no enough!

In mid August last summer, we took a left trail at a fork after McGee creek, before Cairn basin. We ended up in a gravel parking lot with little water and no energy to retrace our steps. Fortunately there was a vehicle waiting for a day hiker who gave us a ride to Timberline Lodge. We had to bag the trip.
This year, that left side trail was blocked with logs and the right trail had a Timberline Trail sign posted.
Thank you who ever fixed the problem.

No Verizon cloud cap to near paradise park. West side day hikers without understanding of trail etiquette or yielding. Some very rude

Both Newton & White River had terrible water quality, would not recommend using them if one doesn’t have to.

The scramble down to cross Eliot stream is somewhat dangerous. Plan plenty of time.

We’re very lucky to have this fantastic trail close and easily accessible

So glad I picked late-season! No bugs, no crowds, no rain, easy crossings.

Bring a pack rain cover

In the 3 night & 4 days we had set aside for this adventure, we didn't make the planned mileage so we had to leave the trail at the Ramona Falls trailhead.

Did Timberline to cloud cap to Ramona and out.

Yocum ridge was fun and in pretty good shape considering. Trail crews have been doing incredible work

I thought it was fantastic experience. I cant wait to do it again.

Whomever cut the trees on the west side to make the trail passible did outstanding work.

It was amazing!

It was hard to truly tell if 600 was closed or not Romona to Bald Mtn via Muddy Fork (blowdown damage) so I went 797 to 2000. I saw people posting they went via the “closed” route. No big deal, just hard to tell open or not so chose to treat it as closed. This map shows closed: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd523132.pdf

Last year went counterclockwise from timberline on a September weekend and couldn't find a place to camp in elk basin so had to continue up the hill until I found a place