The Narrative Image

See Also Mt. Adams / Bird Creek Meadows http://thenarrativeimage.blogspot.com/2007/09/mt-adams-bird-creek-meadows.html Hellroaring Canyon Overlook From 09-03-07 to 09-23-07 This time, determined to reach Iceberg Lake, I opted to take the Climber’s trail (number 20, I think) which follows the edge of the cliff overlooking Hellroaring Canyon. Above the viewpoint area, the grass told a very succinct story about dehydration. Even though I had a clearer idea of where I needed to go to reach the lake based on my scouting activities weeks earlier, I still found it difficult to follow the ‘trail’ when it veered off into the rocks. More than once, I found myself completely trail-less and in those instances, I used a simple strategy that I call, ‘go up’. Sometimes I would run across what appeared to be artificially stacked rocks – cairns – that I assumed were constructed to mark ‘the way’ for hikers and climbers. But it takes a little bit of faith to follow them (they could just as well be t...

Mt. Adams as seen from the Cooper Spur trail I used hike number 36 in William L. Sullivan’s 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington as my introduction to the Bird Creek Meadows area on the south-east shoulder of Mt. Adams. I like the Sullivan Guidebook because it includes the nearby hikes in Washington and also because the actual physical size of the book is 8½” x 5½” x ⅝” – that is, it fits easily in a pack. I had to leave the Monkey-cam at home. The Monkey-cam is supposed to be cleaning the apartment and doing the dishes to qualify for probation after the Cooper Spur incident. Hike number 36 turns out to be two different hikes that have only Bird Creek Meadows in common. The short-hike-way that launches from the Bird Creek Meadows trailhead requires a long drive over a crappy access road. The alternate South Climb Trail is longer, but its access road is supposed to be less crappy. My goal was to reach something called Iceberg Lake and my reading of the rough sketch i...