Thinking of hiking the Timberline Trail - when can you start?
(a) Before July - expect extensive snow, consider this to require specialized skills and equipment.
(b) First two weeks of July - still some snow, microspikes are likely to still be needed.
(c) After mid July - generally snow free
YMMV - snowpack and early melt notwithstanding. I have written a little more about this here: https://hikeit.info/2025/04/13/when-to-hike-the-timberline-trail-a-guide-to-early-season-travel/
Spent the night on Mount Hood up at Mirror Lake. Beautiful sunset and sunrise - and great company!
As we are already talking about hiking the Timberline Trail this summer - currently we are running at about 111% of average with a storm or two predicted over the next week or so. How this will melt - still to early to tell. But given this it leads to a pretty typical mid to late July time before the trail is snow free for most hikers.
There is a little more analysis of this here - https://hikeit.info/2025/03/23/how-is-the-snowpack-piling-up-on-mount-hood-2025/
I'll keep updating this as the spring progresses.
Lots of snow on Mt Hood this weekend - so much that the Nordic tracks were not groomed on Sunday at Meadows - so as an alternative I went snow shoeing behind Govy - lots of fresh snow and Hunter had a great time
Neither me or my son snagged a Wonderland permit ☹️ - for me this is the sixth year in a row I’ve been unsuccessful - can always try for a walk up permit - still have a poker in the fire for Enchantments.
Good luck to all of you who were successful!
Quick hike up Pilot Butte - Three Sisters in the background - Bend in the foreground.
This little creek is raging today - most of the year it is dry - but after a heavy downpour it turns into its own little torrent that blocks the trail - it’s will die down super quickly after the rain stops.
