13 miles of hiking • 4250' elevation gain • 1 night
Went up Adams from Bird Lake to Sunrise Camp with a gaggle of girlfriends. Beautiful day. Mostly a bunch of rock and scree scrambling, but a few remaining snowfields were a welcome sight for traversing. In the distance, could see a huge fire to the east of Hood/Warm Springs area. Saw plenty of goats, active booming rockfall, and two climbers descending through heavily crevassed snowfields - more thrilling than a James Bond movie! Our original plan was to descend via Ridge of Wonders and to Little Mt Adams and Bench Lake, but we dilly-dallied at Sunrise a bit too long and it was decided to head back down the known route the way we came. Anyway, after the long, happy day, my friends went back home and I made camp at Bird Lake for the night. The next day, I had originally endeavored to do a 16-17mi loop around Snipes Mtn and Aiken Lava Beds...buuut I really didn't feel like it and didn't think it would be that interesting of a trail anyway. So I slept-in to the late hour of 8am (but I did catch the early morning orange glow of Adams through my tent mesh) and decided to start my morning with a trail run around Bird Creek Meadows Loop - an easy hiking trail, a moderate running trail. Crooked Creek Falls was quite a sight. After that, ate breakfast and ventured on home. The road access is super-dicey, but my dinky little sedan made it okay. Slow and steady.
