Ramona Falls via Bald Mountain - 13 miles

Today's hike had a few challenges, and some phenomenal views. I would highly recommend this hike to any responsible adults.

Summary
Distance: 13 miles
Elevation Gain: 2200
Location: Mt Hood National Forest
Attendance: Boy Scout Hike - Darrin, Connor, Dale, Doug, Michelle, Dallas, Me, Sage & Alex T.
Start time: hit trail at 9:38am arrived back at 6:40pm (we had some troubles. but all was ok.)

  We hit the trail full of excitement. It has been a long time since I have been to Ramona falls, and I did a great job building the excitement. We hit the trail with a bit of confusion on where we were crossing the Sandy. There has been a major flood since the last time I had been out there, so it wasnt in the place I was familiar with. But we found it a bit up the trail. I love how fellow hikers had made paths out of the rocks to point the way where the trail was at. It made things very clear.

The crew getting ready to head up.

We connected to the Pacific Crest Trail 2000 with in a few miles and went west heading up Bald Mt. The map and books I had explained that it was a large elevation gain in 2.4 miles about 1500ft. But according to our GPS it was around 2000ft. Needless to say, it was a bit of a challenge for some of us to get up that steep part. But we kept at it. Then stopped for lunch at almost the top of the PCT near the top of Bald Mt. we soon realized the bugs were awful. Biting flies, and mosquito were everywhere.

Our first obstacle. Little did we know that there were many more to come.

Dallas holding up the tree. It was a strange anomaly that we found along our hike up Bald Mt.

 We quickly got through lunch and then arrived at the top of Bald Mt where we headed south on the muddy River fork of the Timberline Trail 600. The trail remained fairly level for some time, and then we came out of the woods to this beautiful view of the Sandy River Valley. Wow! The wild flowers were spectacular and the view of mt hood was amazing. I think we could've stayed here for a long time enjoying the view.

Our view as soon as we walk out of the trees. Wow!

Now go around the bend and see the next view of Mt Hood! Wow! Wow! See the Muddy River coming down the center at the base of Hood? Thats where we are headed.

The boys right before we round the corner.

Sage and I enjoying a rest at the beautiful view on the side of Bald Mt.

But back to the woods we went, heading down towards the basin. There were a lot of creeks along the way. I think Sage counted a total of 60 something small creeks that crossed our trail just along the Timberline Trail. But who's counting. Lol.

Cooling off at one of the creeks

We made it to the bottom of the valley and then went out into the open sun following the river bed until we reached the Muddy River fork of the Sandy. it took some time to find a way to cross this river several times. I think it was a total of 4 times we crossed this river, getting through to reconnect on the other side.

Our first river crossing.

The Muddy River

We climbed back up the other side very gradually through an over grown trail, and came across some serious road blocks. Trees down, and landslides had wiped out alot of the trail. But we go through it with some adventures. :o) Unfortunately one of our hikers got sick during this section of our trail. We are not sure if it was the Elevation Gain or Electrolytes, but we took alot of breaks through this section of the trail. This put us a bit behind schedule, but we dont leave anyone behind, especially this far into the trail. so we moved forward.

One of our road blocks. Wow, huh?

After we got through the obstacle course, we rapidly descended down to Ramona Falls, where we enjoyed a nice break, and had some foot repairs, and water reloading. From Ramona it was a quick trip back about a couple miles to the trail head.

The boys enjoying a break at the base of Ramona Falls