Elsie went hiking July 28, 2013 11 miles 3,750 feet gained

Mississippi Head

3

Set out early Sunday morning with some girlfriends for Mississippi Head on Hood. Started at Timberline at 7am and made our way to Paradise Park. There is a route up the mountain from the Paradise Park meadows, as well as from Split Rock - we went up from Split Rock. We followed a scree path followed by some snow-traversing up to the Head, at about 7500'. Took in the views of Jefferson, Sisters, Helens and even Adams. But no plane crash wreckage - we aren't brave enough souls to lean out over the cliff or scramble down. We then headed up the glacier to 8200', although you really only need to go up to 8000' in order to safely traverse above the deathly drop into Zig Zag Canyon. Descended via Palmer ski lift where there were hoards of skiiers and snowboards and tents and jumps and snow bowls set up. School or training or practice? My friend said that Hood is where Olympic athletes practice because it is the only mountain the lower 48 that has snow year-round. True??? Anyway, fabulous day.

Trail Talk

3 people have hearted this trip.

Desert Fox · July 30, 2013

So how did you come up with almost 4,000' of elevation gain? The Timberline parking lot is nearly 5,900 ft, so even accounting for a few ups and downs heading out and back along Paradise Park up to 8,200 ft, it's a bit of a stretch to make the claim that you did 3750' of gain.

Karl · July 31, 2013

Desert Fox, the trail dips to 4750' through the ZZ canyon on the way to Paradise. Google Earth puts my track at 4450'EG when I did it last summer, as the route also drops another 350' to the prop on the cliff. (It's a great hike!)

http://gpsfly.org/a/1814

Elsie · July 31, 2013

Thanks for the info. If anything it was my mileage I was doubting -- we had an altimeter with us, so was pretty sure of our EG, but not so much on mileage, which seems we may have rounded up. :)