RedRum

Anyone ever see the movie "The Shining"?  If so, Redrum makes sense. 

Here I am at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood.  Such a beautiful day for October so it's time to do some exploring.  

The mountain is out today. Us Oregonian's refer to Mt. Hood as the Mountain.  We do have many mountains in our state but Hood is the largest and most well known.

Time to start my hike.  Looks like I have two choices.

1) Mexico: 2,108 miles.  Long way, great weather.

2) Canada: 550 miles.  Shorter, cheaper prescription drugs, and Little Fox.

Tough call.

Hmm, I think I will go to Zig Zag Canyon which is 3.5 miles.  It 

Made it to the canyon.  The water is still running pretty fast. I'll observe from a safe distance.

Back up the hill towards my lunch spot. The forest is so pretty on a sunny day. 

Time to head back to the lodge. The humans are mentioning ice cream and a beer (not at the same time).  I'm keeping my paws crossed.

Update: Neither a beer nor ice cream was provided.  Instead the humans made sugar free jello for dessert. 
How do I contact management? 

Timberline Lodge!

 Hiya Blog World. Little Fox here.  Today, I'm taking my pal Sandy on the abbreviated tour of Timberline lodge. As you can see, Sandy is posing in front of Timberline Lodge, built from 1936 to 38 by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) members and designed by the same architect who did the Ahwanhee Hotel in Yosemite. 

My goodness, if these walls could talk.  Built in the late 30s this lodge has been through a lot of history.  Still an operating hotel ($210.00 for tonight), it features a  nice restaurant, and a super bar with some local craft brews.  Cool furniture too.  This chair is what I envision old webbing to be like.

So many fun things to do here.  The hotel is a stop along the Pacific Coast Trail (PCT) so a few days in mid August the patio, restaurant and lobby is full of through hikers taking a needed rest, charging devices and playing games.  I wish we had more time to play a round of shuffleboard.

The lodge was not only built by the CCC crews and they were pretty resourceful.  Most of the things in this picture were reused or dare I say  upcycled (I want to stay on top of the current lingo).  The grates to the fireplace grill were tire chains in a previous life but thanks to the CCC they fashioned a safe fireplace grate.

The thingy's  to the right of Sandy were....wait for it.....yep reused rail tracks fashioned into a decorative andiron (the thing you put the wood on in a fireplace....thanks google). 

Sandy really likes this chair (he guesses it was also upcycled back in the day).

Timberline lodge has been in the movies.  

Did you ever see the Shining?  If so, you might recognize the exterior of the Timberline Lodge as the Grand Overlook Hotel in the Shining.

Let's see if we can get a better view.  I think this is good.  You see the balcony up there with all the flags? 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself stood up there as he dedicated Timberline Lodge in 1937. 

Kudos to the maintenance staff, they have kept Timberline in tip-top shape all of these years. 

Time to head back to town.  On the way I saw this sign and knew I needed my picture in front of it.

 

Journey of a Little Fox part 2

"Not all who wander are lost" ~ Tolkien (and many bumper stickers).


Day two of my journey involves a trip to historic Timberline Lodge.  Timberline is a mountain lodge that was constructed from 1936 to 1938 as part of the works progress administration. Skilled laborers who worked on the project earned $0.90 and hour and unskilled labor earned $0.55 an hour.  How much did supervisory stuffies earn?

Stuffies are pretty smart animals, many of the rugs, draperies, bedspreads, and other linens were actually made from old strips of Civilian Conservation Corps blankets.  If a stuffie was around during that time who knows what could have happened.

Besides recycling blankets they also re purposed cedar poles, used timber from the forest, and the foundation was but from rocks quarried off the mountain.

It was dedicated in September by President F. D. Roosevelt and he and Mrs. Roosevelt enjoyed a lunch of fresh salmon and huckleberry pie.  Those presidents really knew how to live it up.

Here I am hanging out at the same spot as FDR.  Now, he did a lot for us in Oregon and around the USA during the depression (lots of campgrounds, hiking trails, and roads to travel, yeah) but I am more of a Hoover fan.  Any president that promised a chicken in every pot gets my vote.

 Enjoying the same view that FDR had way back in the day.  My lunch DID NOT consist of salmon and huckleberry pie, instead it was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

Let's go inside. 

Always a good sign when you are greeted by Smokey the Bear. 

The ironwork is pretty amazing. Makes sense that you would have a fancy fireplace in a mountain lodge. 

Nice view from the inside looking out.  Mt. Hood decided to show itself today. 

They have all of these comfy Adirondack (Muskoka in Canada as I learned from Sandy) out in the back for relaxing.  Now, how do I summon a waiter for a drink?

I need to talk to Sandy about getting a chair that is my size.  

Walking around the lodge is almost as exciting as walking in it.  The lodge is dramatic from the front.  Now, we just need to move all of these cars out of my picture. 

Back inside.  I found the pool.  I am not a historian but I guess the pool wasn't there when Roosevelt dedicated the lodge. 

I recognize some of those flags.  Let's see, Canada.  France (right Ben?).  US Forest Service.  United States of America.  Switzerland, and possibly Mexico in the background?

All of this adventuring is making me tired.  Luckily, the have some nice picnic tables outside.  The ski lift in the background ins't working since it's Summer but that mountain in the background looks like a cool place to hike.

A plan to escape the heat....

The weather has been unbearably hot recently; in the lower 90s recently so we hoped that a day trip to the mountain (Mt. Hood) would help us cool down.

After Foxglove one of my favorite wildflowers was in bloom, Beargrass.  If you haven’t seen Beargrass before it’s a grass that grows pretty high and even though it looks prickly it’s flowers are beary soft. 

The big groves of Beargrass were near the trailhead and as we continued on the trail we came across this bridge.  The snowpack has been low this year so the creek wasn’t the rushing river it can be but it doesn’t really matter because of the sturdy bridge.

Mt. Hood decided to peak out from behind the trees. 

Hmm, this trail seems to continue on and upward.  I wonder what we will find around the next corner?

 Lupine!  Lupine is starting to come out.  Sequoia enjoys the smell of Lupine, I wonder if I can get some seeds from the garden store and plant some at our house?

This marker indicates we have reached out junction.  To the left we eventually get to Timberline Lodge (and maybe have a big glass of lemonade) and to the right we can go to Cloud Cap Inn and relax on the porch.  Either option is good for me.  My roommates say it’s too far to hike to either of those places (plus you can drive there anyway) so we are going to have lunch.

No pictures of lunch but it was much better than before.  PB and J, trail mix, string cheese, chips, and a pasta salad.  On our way down we saw just one Indian Paintbrush.

Our original plan was to escape the heat.  Did we do that you ask?  No, it was just as hot on Mt. Hood as it was in town but that’s OK.

A nice relaxing hike.....................

Hola Amigos,

No, I didn’t just get from a trip to Mexico (sigh)  just thought I would spice up my greeting.   On my hike today to Tom, Dick and Harry Mountain I did see something that I think all of us stuffies should visit.  I love Salmon and Huckleberries….clearly this is the place for me.

 We hiked up to the top of the mountain today.  The wildflowers are past their prime (by the way Jerry how is your garden holding up?).  I did see lots of these red berries but I was afraid to eat them just in case they gave me an upset stomach.  It’s no fun being sick.

We hustled up to the top of the mountain to see a beary nice view of Mt. Hood.  From this viewpoint you can usually see Mt. Adams, Mt. Jefferson, and Mt. St. Helens but there was too much smoke or smog in the air for any of that today.  It was a great lunch stop.  

 

There is a lake down below, it’s called Mirror Lake.  I hope I can see Mt. Hood’s reflection in it when I get there.

No luck, but that’s OK.  I think I might just sit here on the dock of the bay and relax.

Usually when we finish a hike it’s time to go home.  Interestingly today we had some extra time so we ventured off to see Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood.  I would highly recommend it, of course they didn’t serve Starbucks but nobody is perfect.

Being thirsty I decided to see what was happening in the bar.  The bar was closed (huh) but it was animal themed so that’s cool.  The Blue Ox Bar at Timberline Lodge looked beary interesting, I was hoping they would serve me a nice cold beer or at least a nice cool glass of iced tea.  I do like the mosiac in the back, seems like something Beanie might enjoy as well. 

I decided to explore the rest of the lodge.  They had this cool room with a wooden ping pong table and a shufflebear table.   

I saw this big group of people heading outside so I figured I should follow.  They were going to a big patio overlooking Mt. Hood.  Lucky for me they had this nice fence for me to pose on.  Hmm, maybe I will see if the bar is open now?….