High elevation and up close personal views of Mt Hood, reason enough to do Cooper Spur. The other reason is that this hike is great for training purposes when you are planning on climbing a mountain. Not only it gives you the steep, exposed experience but also gives you the high elevation one as it starts at 6000 feet and goes to about 9000 feet. Since Val and I had our aims set on climbing Mt Adams towards the end of the month or beginning of August Cooper Spur was a perfect choice. We were also super lucky with the weather as we got a crystal clear day that gave us some incredible views. As we did last time, instead of taking the normal trail, we took a user trail that is becoming more official as time goes by. This trail climbs quickly to the ridge line just south of the Elliot Glacier run off. This route opens up views of the mountain and an incredible canyon as well as a clear view of the route to follow. From the ridge we noticed that some of the switchbacks on the face of the mountain were still covered in snow so some of the climb was straight up instead of the normal switchbacks. Still, we kept our steady pace until we connected with the actual trail and continued pretty much straight up to the signed rock which, seemed we reached much faster than expected. Last time we hiked this route we got to the first wind shelter and then turned around. This time, we less snow on the ridge, we continued up and were able to reach the upper wind shelter were we stopped for lunch while admiring the views of the crevices on Eliot Glacier that were almost at arm’s length. After the necessary rest and just before the wind started cooling us beyond what was comfortable, we started our hike down following the normal route passing by the shelter and then entering the forest to finish back at the trailhead. So we got our training and the rewards that come with it.
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