11.2 miles of hiking • 1750' elevation gain •
We decided to head out on the east side of Mt. Hood to hike the Surveyor Ridge Trail. To gain access, we took the Zig Zag Trail. The Zig Zag Trail is a nice workout as it gains 750 feet in the first mile, and you'll go through many switchbacks until you meet an intersection with the Dog River Trail. There is also a trail to a viewpoint of Mt. Hood, but we opted to do this another time as we thought there would be a better view on Surveyor Ridge.
We saw no hikers and about 7 groups of Mt. bikers. All in all the trail was fairly devoid of people, which suited us fine! We took a wrong turn, that led us away from the Surveyor Ridge trail, but we walked the roads to make a large loop that met back up with it. Unfortunately, we went further than intended, and my wife wanted to get back ASAP, so we went straight back to the car (we have a dog at home).
It was a very warm day, but we were mostly under the canopy, and the occasional wind helped cool us down! It was a great hiking day!
