Killen Creek Trail to High Camp with Olga - July 27-30, 2015

Mt Adams is in Washington and, except for doing the Ozette Triangle in the Olympic Penninsula National Park, I've never hiked in Washington.  This is new territory.  This photo of Mt Adams is from the south as you approach the mountain from Trout Lake.

My hiking companion was a good friend, Olga Reynolds.

Our goal was High Camp on the north flank of Mt Adams which is reached by traveling uphill from the Killen Creek Trailhead.  I learned about this hike from one of my nurses when I was having my knee surgery.  In talking to her I said I needed to recover by the middle of June.  She asked why.  I said so I can go backpacking.  Then I learned she was also an avid hiker who said that the Killen Creek trail to High Camp was one of her favorites.  At that point High Camp became one of my summer destinations.

The trail goes straight uphill for three miles.- no switch backs  My dad would have been disappointed in this trail because the grade was very steep.  One of his responsibilities in the forest service included trail design - he would have made at least a few switchbacks.  To compensate for the steepness, the Killen trail has many tall steps, made of logs dug into the trail.   Some were so big that I'd have to stop, place my trekking poles and will my self up.  Gong uphill wasn't too bad, but coming down was a killer - both of my knees were aching and my legs were wobbly by the time got to the car.

Here's the trail up to High Camp.  Looks very similar to trails in the Jefferson and Three Sisters Wildernesses.

At three miles we came to the interstate of the Cascades.

Now the one mile trail up the mountain began.  It was really steep and some hand over hand crawling was necessary. This view is after we had proceeded a bit, looking down

And here is looking up

More of the trail.

This part of the trail was on a slippery side of the mountain.  Our mantra was, "Do not slip.  Do not fall"

And a view of Mr Adams and the snow field that would be a long slide down, should we slip

Going a bit further and around the the hill, we walked into High Camp.  We were thrilled by its beauty and vastness.  I've been high on a mountain but never in such a wide and exposed place.

Campsites were not really obvious, but one passerby had told us to look for little clumps of trees and to walk in among the trees, and likely we'd find a tent site.  Sure enough, that was true.  Here you can see our campsite with my tent barely visible as a yellowish rectangle.  In the background is Mt Rainer.

Here is our "fun" picture at out campsite.

Our water source was a tiny creek that flowed through the meadow starting at about 2:30 pm - the result of snow melt further up the mountain.  When we woke in the morning, the creek bed was dry.

Sunset and sunrise the next day.

Our goal on our second day was to walk toward the mountain, reach the band of gray color which is a big mound of gravel, and get to an elevation higher that 7,000 feet

Made it!  We were at about 7,200 feet

Turning and facing north, this is the best view we had of Mr Rainer.

What a great alpine experience.  Perfect weather.  Views of three mountains.  Super fresh water. 

In 6 hours we were back in Portland.