HANGIN’ IN THE HOOD

Art and Barbara finished with their reunion, and were leaving on Wednesday to continue towards Yellowstone.  But, not without some breakfast at the Multnomah Lodge, home of the falling star of our recent “Water Falls” entry. 

The dining room is suitably rustic, and on this crisp morning they had the fireplace going, the flames somewhat hidden in this pic.

The room might be rustic, but the food was absolutely great.  I had a balanced meal.  Large-cut homemade oatmeal (the heart went pitty-pat), a homemade pecan roll with a glob of melting butter (heart went lurch), and a side of thick bacon (heart stopped).  Oh, yes!

I guess I’ll have to re-subtitle this blog, “Eating Your Way To An Early Grave.”  Anyway, we had a great feed, then it was adieu to Art & Barbara until December’s caravan at Live Oak.

We made our way back to the rig to pack a lunch, gas up the scoot, and head for Mt. Hood.  It was still overcast down in the Gorge area, but we were hoping for better weather more inland.  Those hopes sank as we climbed and got into the town of Sandy.  Overcast turned into heavy fog and low clouds.  We couldn’t see 300 feet.  We thought about turning back, but decided to push on.  I had to reach around and wisk the water off the windshield with my glove as we sloshed through the murk.  Good thing we persevered, because we suddenly broke out of the murk into an absolutely beautiful sky just before reaching the town of Government Camp. 

There we toured a small local museum dedicated to early skiing and mountaineering, which was pretty interesting.  There, we also got our first peak of Mt. Hood above the treetops.

 

This is basically it’s WNW side, the one that you see from Portland.  Unfortunately, the rest of the approach road comes in from the SW, so you see the side that gets all the sun, and it’s not nearly as photogenic. 

However, if we turn around at this spot, we see the very pretty Mt. Jefferson beaming in the distance.

It’s about 44 miles away at this point.  You can just barely see more of the Cascades in the far distance to the left of Jefferson.  The road we’re climbing leads to another of Roosevelt’s WPA projects, the Timberline Lodge.

Unlike the ho-hum at Crater Lake, this one is very worthy of the trip.  This is part of the front facade and the right wing;  there’s another wing to the left out of the picture.

The entry door is livened by a neat wood carving.

The lower entry area.  The fireplace is open on four sides.

Unlike other national park lodges that we’ve seen, this one boasts a host of artwork in various styles by artists of the 30’s.  We both really liked the techniques employed by nearly all of them.  This is only a sampling. 

Much of the furnishings are the originals, refurbished by the local preservation society.  I was impressed by this massive ping-pong table.  You’re not going to fold and role this puppy away.

I called upon my Delta Chi skills (we had one of these) and slaughtered Loni in shuffleboard.  That light stuff is sand on the boards so the metal disks slide better.

Outside, there were other architectural gems, like this carving at the end of a log beam.

The front of the lodge is on the opposite side from Mt. Hood.  But the view from the front porch of Mt. Jefferson ain’t shabby at all.  Yeah, we’re real glad we didn’t turn around in the fog.