Mountain meadows, snowcapped mountain peak views, and some bushcraft hammock backpack camping

It started a few weeks back. I have wanted to get in a long walk and do some remote country backpacking. I have been looking at walks on one of my favorite websites for such resources for some time. Fawn and Atreyu just aren't as down to spend hours and hours strolling in the woods with a few extra pounds as I am. A few friends had gone back and forth if they wanted/could go but in the end no one did, soooooo SOLO!! 

 The trip in question is the Bonnie Butte via hidden meadows. I was planning to follow the itinerary provided on Oregonhikers.org. I was hoping to leave the house by 8 am so I could be on the trail by 10. Again.....well laid plans and all..... 

I don't get on the road until 10. Fawn and Atreyu waver on whether they are up to a backpacking trip or not. I had made secondary plans with a shorter walk just in the all too likely case they did want to go. But in the end, I do go on the solo trip if only a little later than I expected.

On the way up to the mountain, I stop in Rhododendron for a couple of beers for at camp and a snack on the way. I get a turkey and cheese sandwich, I don't want to be hungry starting out on the trail, and a few more snacks for camp, just in case.

Managed to finally get to the trial by noon and get all ready to get walking. The trailhead is not marked. I found it just by the GPS coordinates from the trail guide.
My pack is a little heavy moving out, but I'm not too worried as I'm not going too far. I won't 
give

you the turn by turn on the trail since the guide is pretty in depth and accurate. I will say a few things about how I felt about it. The very first thing I notice is that there is bear poop just right off the trail as I start, then coyote poop, then more scat and more and more. There was so 

much sign of predators in the area I actually stopped taking pictures of it. I find the trail pretty easy to follow for the most part, even though I did think I got lost for a little while, but obviously did not. There is a section where the first leg in meets up to the start of the loop  

and I had a hard time finding the trail crossing, I walked past it several times before finding it. I did realize that I need to work on my navigation skills as I thought I was following the map on the western side not realizing I was actually walking up the eastern side of the loop.....

  Where I actually do end up deviating from the trail description is when I get to the meadow.I was supposed to turn left at the meadow and go around the western edge, but I saw the signs leading to the campground and simply followed them. Not totally sure but I feel like this was a bit shorter and probably a little more pleasant of a walk, as the other way went on that bumpy road for a bit, but I did end up missing the view of Hidden Meadow. But I'm ok with the trade of seeing Bonnie Meadow a second time. 

  The meadow was beautiful. I really lucked out as I was there when at least 6 or 7 species of flowers were in full bloom. The photos I took don't even come close to show the sea of color resting on a carpet of green that was so quiet and peaceful. I could see just sitting there and letting whole days go by in quiet contemplating contentment. Just feeling the sun on your face. Listening to the bees and other insects flying all around and smelling the fresh crisp clean air. 

  Getting to the campground I run into the only people I would see the whole time on my trip. A couple with a dog on a big day walk. I take a minute to chat and we confer on where we all are on the map they are carrying before going our own separate ways. The campground was small, a few sites and a pit toilet. The road in was beat and worn, not maintained and full of giant pot holes. The sites each had a fire ring and a table and plenty of space to pitch camp. There was plentiful wood about if you were inclined to gather some rather than bringing it with you. I do recommend this camp for this hiking trip but my understanding of the road in is that it is 13 miles of what I was looking at and WOULD NOT try that in my mini-van.

   My plan is to watch the sunset on top of the Butte, so I decide to make camp have a big early dinner and get all the camp chores out of the way...
   First things first, I gotta decide my sleep system. I brought the hammock but was thinking about just cowboy camping or just setting up a simple tarp shelter. But truth be told we all know I'm gonna set up the hammock. I want to be comfortable and since I bought the stuff to do so I might as well. A combination of an ENO hammock and BearButt fly. Both pieces of gear work really well. The ENO is a little heavy and if I was going ultralight I couldn't justify the weight for the value. Placement of the hammock feels vital at this point. 
    

I want to put the hammock up somewhere near the fire, but not so close ill set myself or my gear on fire and there just doesn't seem to be anywhere that quite fits the bill, so....plan B. I decided to go ahead and put those bushcraft skills to use and build a tripod to hang my system. 

   I find 3 poles at least as long as I am with my hands up in the air and clean all the little twigs off of them, tie them together really well at one end and try it out, NOPE. A second, more successful try after a finding a way to press the poles into the ground and we are hung up. 

   Take a short break and then get dinner going. Cooking on the old MSR stove I make a combo dinner with little ramen noodles and an MRE (meatballs and sauce) that I picked up at Winco...... maybe it was because I walked 7 miles that day, but it wasn't too bad. I will openly admit, I even liked it.

   I got cleaned up, gather up some wood for a fire, and pack a little bag with just the essentials: a couple snacks, emergency supplies, water and a rain cover. All set and ready to go head up to the top of Bonnie Butte.The walk was pretty short and the trail was wide and easy to follow but fairly steep. The top of the Butte offered views in 360 degrees of several snow-capped mountains fields of wildflowers, the dessert off on the east and trees as far as the eye could see. Besides the fact I was standing on an old road and there was some signage here, one couldn't see evidence of people for miles and miles. The only way I was reminded that of human activity were the big dam (Bonneville?) and a bunch of wind turbines, both so far away I could only see them as specks with the naked eye.

   I had brought a book and was going to sit and read until the sun went down but I was decidedly exhausted and my camera batteries were quickly waning and I still had a mile walk ahead of me back to camp. I strolled back down to camp for some relaxing by the fire instead. The rest of the night is fairly uneventful. I pop a couple of beers and hang in the hammock with a book.

**Side Note** One of my beers was McMenamins Hammerhead IPA, a signature brew made by a local company based out of Portland. If you just about anywhere in the PacNW you know McMenamins. Very tasty beer, hoppy and refreshing, came in a can for the win.

Morning is standard on the trail morning. A small fire to warm up a few minutes, eat as much oatmeal and trail-mix as I can stuff into my gullet so I don't have to carry it. Filter just a little bit more than enough water to get me down to the trailhead. Break camp, pack up and start walking.

Walking back out is mostly just a walk. Other than the steep incline first thing of the day leading to several viewpoints, including the view over a lake and a valley, there is a time when I need to sit down because the insole of my foot starts screaming in pain and I need to suck down a few ibuprofen to make the 7 miles in just about 2.5 hours. Hit up a coffee spot for a breakfast sandwich and a hot cup on the way home.

A couple notes;
 I used the Sawyer Mini on this trip for my water filtering needs. It works great. The only thing I didn't like about it is the bag doesn't inflate really well and is not so easy to get all the water back out, forcing me to sit by the creek edge for longer than I think I really needed to. I think in the future I'll just pop this on top of a little disposable water bottle. It'll add less than an ounce to my pack and I'm certain it'll work way better.

On the topic of water: I realized the location of this trip was on the eastern side of Mt Hood which is a much more arid section than the opposite slope. I carried in with me 2 liters of water, which I considered the minimum I could get away with for an overnight and cooking the things I did. Walking up I was concerned that it would be the only water I'd have. Bonnie Creek is right at the camp and I definitely would just go one bottle on this trip again. I might still have some concern as it was only a small creek and somewhat of a trickle when I was there in early July. By late August or early Sept, I'm not sure I personally would rely on this being a reliable water source. Take your own chances

Look for my newest adventure soon. The fam and I have since gone up to Rialto Beach the town of LaPush for a quick weekend.

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I also will be trying out the camping vlog format. I took a lot of video on this trip so keep an eye out for that on youtube.