8.41 miles of hiking • 3000' elevation gain •
With the clouds and weather, we waited around trying to decide what to hike. We had already nixed our intended hike. Finally, at 3:00 pm, we decided to just hike from Tilly Jane trailhead to Cooper Spur shelter. It was a good choice, and we had sunshine and views of Mount Hood the whole time. When the Tilly Jane trail first breaks out of the woods into the burn area, we saw many old beargrass flowers everywhere. I was disappointed we didn't see it when they were in bloom, it would have been great! The old burn area had a lot of flowers blooming, especially some yellow ones we were not familiar with. We saw some good patches of lupine and a little paintbrush as well. Lots of life in that burn area - many birds and chipmunks making noise and moving about. We also came upon a grouse right off the trail and it did what they usually do - wait until you are about a foot away from it and then pop up quickly, (which always startles me) and fly away. But, this one was a mama grouse, so she just flew over to a branch on a nearby tree. With each of our next steps, five little baby grouses popped up one by one and flew in the direction of mama. They were so cute! Once back in the forest, there seemed to be a lot of campers around the Tilly Jane Shelter and Cloud Cap area. We got up to the Cooper Spur shelter and then walked on the user trail to the right that goes on a small ridge toward Eliot Glacier. With the late start, it was a pretty quiet day on the trail, and we did not see anyone on the Tilly Jane trail on the way up or down.
