10 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
Celebrating the Winter Solstice, in the sun, on a snow-covered mountain, with friends... Priceless.
Got a wake-up PM, asking if by any possible, last-minute, remote chance, might I be free to hike? Winter solstice? Sunny forecast? Before the first cup of coffee, "Yes!" was the only possible answer. Heh, but given the alarm hadn't been set, we weren't really off to the earliest of starts.
The fog burned off by the time we got through Camas. It seemed a bit windy. The Cape Horn overlook was as beautiful as ever. The park gate was closed, so we had to park down by the big rock and heated restrooms, oh darn. That added an extra mile, or so, to the classic loop, and starting as we were already after 11am on the shortest day of the year... Yeah, that was just about right.
The road up to the regular parking lot was glazed ice, so the gate thing was good. Found a fair sized tree had fallen on the CCC picnic shelter, but didn't appear to have done any significant damage. The iciest stretches came early, even before the power lines. But it was clear that the melt was on.
As we neared Hardy Falls, that little trickle off the to left was absolutely shooting off the cliff above, straight into the trees. The Pool of the Winds was churning as I've never seen it! Such a sight. And sound. Absolutely roaring.
As we stopped to admire one of the many spectacular viewpoints, another friend just happened to amble on up the trail and decided to join us! Most of the forest trail was fairly bare on the front-side, except for those areas in perpetual shade which were still a teensy bit treacherous. At least without microspikes.
Portions of the normally-in-December-frozen trail were more creek-like, as meltwater cascaded down. The final stretch to the summit was all snow-covered, though, as was the traverse over to the saddle. Whispy blue skies, low golden sun, and long - very long - shadows ruled the day.
It was breezy enough on the saddle that we only paused briefly for a quick lunch snack, before continuing on. Having less than two hours of daylight left as we departed, Don's Cutoff seemed the best way back. That turned out precisely true, as we witnessed a most wonderful sunset over Beacon Rock midway down, after walking through the most golden-lit forests covered in snow.
We arrived back at the big rock right as darkness descended. Couldn't have found a better way to welcome back the light!
