Devil’s Peak, Oct 29th

So, I needed something short but not too short that would still give me a good workout. There are few hikes that meet these criteria so I picked Devil’s Peak from Cool Creek as it pretty much promises that plus wonderful views from the fire lookout. Since I posted the hike later in the week, I didn’t get to many takers but still got a pretty decent group of fast hikers. After the short drive and getting to the hidden trailhead in the forest, we started our slow climb to the ridge. The elevation gain is consistent the entire length so it doesn’t let you take a breather and for some reason, nobody in the group wanted to stop. Aside from that, there’s not that many views to talk about on the way up so we just huffed and puffed at a pretty speedy pace. The forest was dark and mysterious with sunshine rays filtering thru the trees. Then, we finally hit the upper section where you take a short detour to the fire lookout and there we were, in front of the immense view of Mt Hood right in front almost at arm’s length. Sun was bright above us giving us perfect temperature to stop for a byte before heading back down. I took the opportunity to check the southern end of the top which opens view to Mt Jefferson and Three sisters.
There was a bit of haze so colors were a bit strange. After that, we took our gear and retraced our steps back to the car taking advantage of the downhill. Once we got down and check the time, we noticed that it was just after 1PM so the hike did deliver – short but a good workout with the added bonus. Not bad for a Sunday.

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