Transportation Routes, Hotels, Guides, etc.—The trip from Portland to north side of Mount Hood is made by rail (Oregon-Washington Ry. & Nay. Co. from Union station) or boat (The Dalles, Portland & Astoria Nav. Co. from foot of Alder street) to Hood River, Ore. (66 miles), where automobiles are taken for Cloud Cap Inn. Fare, to Hood River, by rail, $1.90; by boat, $1.00. Auto fare, Hood River to the Inn, $5.00. Round trip, Portland to Inn and return, by rail, $12.50; by boat, $12.00. Board and room at Cloud Cap Inn, $5.00 a day, or $30.00 a week. Accommodations may be reserved at Travel Bureau, 69 Fifth street.
To Government Camp, south side of Mount Hood (56 miles), the trip is made by electric cars to Boring, Oregon, and thence by automobile. Cars of the Portland Railway, Light & Power Co., leave First and Alder streets for Boring (fare 40 cents), where they connect with automobiles (fare to Government Camp, $5.00). Board and room at Coalman's Government Camp hotel, $3.00 a day, or $18.00 a week.
Guides for the ascent of Mt. Hood, as well as for a variety of side trips, may be engaged at Cloud Cap Inn and Government Camp. For climbing parties, the charge is $5.00 per member.
The trip to Mount Adams is by Spokane, Portland & Seattle ("North Bank") Railway from North Bank station or by boat (as above) to White Salmon, Wash., connecting with automobile or stage for Guler or Glenwood. Fare to White Salmon by rail, $2.25; round trip, $3.25; fare by boat, $1.00. White Salmon to Guler, $3.00. Board and room at Chris. Guler's hotel at Guler P. O., near Trout Lake, $1.50 a day, or $9.00 a week. Similar rates to and at Glenwood. At either place, guides and horses may be engaged for the mountain trails (15 miles to the snow-line). Bargain in advance.
The south side of Mount St. Helens is reached by rail from Union station, Portland, to Yacolt (fare $1.30) or Woodland ($1.00), where conveyances may be had for Peterson's ranch on Lewis River. To the north side, the best route is by rail to Castle Rock (fare, $1.90), and by vehicle thence to Spirit Lake. Regular guides for the mountain are not to be had, but the trails are well marked.
Automobile Roads.—Portland has many excellent roads leading out of the city, along the Columbia and the Willamette. One of the most attractive follows the south bank of the Columbia to Rooster Rock and Latourelle Falls (25 miles). As it is on the high bluffs for much of the distance, it commands extended views of the river in each direction, and of the snow-peaks east and north of the city. Return may be made via the Sandy River valley. This road is now being extended eastward from Latourelle Falls to connect with the road which is building westward from Hood River. When completed the highway will be one of the great scenic roads of the world.
From Portland, several roads through the near-by villages lead to a junction with the highway to Government Camp on the south side of Mount Hood (56 miles). The mountain portion of this is the old Barlow Road of the "immigrant" days in early Oregon, and is now a toll road. (Toll for vehicles, round trip, $2.50.) Supervisor T. H. Sherrard, of the Oregon National Forest Service, is now building a road from the west boundary of the national forest, at the junction of Zigzag and Sandy rivers, crossing Sandy canyon (see p. 71), following the Clear Fork of the Sandy to the summit of the Cascades, crossing the range by the lowest pass in the state (elevation, 3,300 feet), and continuing down Elk Creek and West Fork of Hood River to a junction with the road from Lost Lake into Hood River valley. The completion of this road through the forest reserve will open a return route from Hood River to the Government Camp road, through a mountain district of the greatest interest.
Southward from Portland, inviting roads along the Willamette lead to Oregon City, Salem, Eugene and Albany. From Portland westward, several good roads are available, leading along the Columbia or through Banks, Buxton and Mist to Astoria and the beach resorts south of that city. North of the Columbia (ferry to Vancouver), a route of great interest leads eastward along the Columbia to Washougal and the canyon of Washougal River (45 miles). From Vancouver northward a popular road follows the Columbia to Woodland and Kalama, and thence along the Cowlitz River to Castle Rock.
The tour book of the Portland Automobile Club, giving details of these and many other roads, may be had for $1.50 in paper covers, or $2.50 in leather.
Bibliography.—The geological story of the Cascade uptilt and the formation of the Columbia gorge is graphically told in Condon: Oregon Geology (Portland, J. K. Gill Co., 1910). For the Columbia from its sources to the sea, Lyman: The Columbia River (New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1909) not only gives the best account of the river itself and its great basin but tells the Indian legends and outlines the period of discovery and settlement. Irving: Astoria and Winthrop: The Canoe and the Saddle are classics of the early Northwest. Balch: Bridge of the Gods, weaves the Indian myth of a natural bridge into a story of love and war.
The literature of the mountains described in this volume is mainly to be found in the publications of the mountain clubs, especially Mazama (Portland), The Sierra Club Bulletin (San Francisco) and The Mountaineer (Seattle). Many of their papers have scientific value as well as popular interest. It is to be hoped that the Mazamas will resume the publication of their annual.
Russell: Glaciers of N. Am. p. 67; Emmons: Volcanoes of the U. S. Pacific Coast, in Bulletin of Am. Geog. Soc., v. 9, p. 31; Sylvester: Is Mt. Hood Awakening? in Nat'l Geog. Mag., v. 19, p. 515, describe the glaciers of Mt. Hood. Prof. Reid has published valuable accounts of both Hood and Adams, with especial reference to their glaciers, in Science, n. s., v. 15, p. 906; Bul. Geol. Soc. of Am., v. 13, p. 536, and Zeitschrift fur Gletscherkunde, v. 1, p. 113. An account of the volcanic activities of St. Helens by Lieut. C. P. Elliott, U. S. A., may be found in U. S. Geog. Mag., v. 8, pp. 226, and by J. S. Diller in Science, v. 9, p. 639.
The ice caves of the Mt. Adams district are described in Balch: Glacieres, or Freezing Caverns, which covers similar phenomena in many countries; by L. H. Wells, in Pacific Monthly, v. 13, p. 234; by R. W. Raymond, in Overland Monthly, v. 3, p. 421; by H. T. Finck in Nation, v. 57, p. 342.
Dryer's account of the first ascent of Mt. St. Helens may be found in The Oregonian of September 3, 1853, and his story of the first ascent of Mt. Hood in The Oregonian, August 19, 1854, and Littell's Living Age, v. 43, p. 321.
The Mountain Clubs.—For the following list of presidents and ascents of the Mazamas, I am indebted to Miss Gertrude Metcalfe, historian of the club:
| PRESIDENTS. | OFFICIAL ASCENTS. |
1894 | Will G. Steel | Mt. Hood, Oregon. |
1895 | WillG.Steel—L.L.Hawkins | Mt. Adams, Washington. |
1896 | C. H. Sholes | Mt. Mazama (named for the Mazamas, 1896), Mt. McLoughlin (Pitt), Crater Lake, Oregon. |
1897 | Henry L. Pittock | Mt. Rainier, Washington. |
1898 | Hon. M. C. George | Mt. St. Helens, Washington. |
1899 | Will G. Steel | Mt. Sahale (named by the Mazamas, 1899), Lake Chelan, Wash. |
1900 | T. Brook White | Mt. Jefferson, Oregon. |
1901 | Mark O'Neill | Mt. Hood, Oregon. |
1902 | Mark O'Neill | Mt. Adams, Washington. |
1903 | R. L. Glisan | Three Sisters, Oregon. |
1904 | C. H. Sholes | Mt. Shasta, California. |
1905 | Judge H. H. Northup | Mt. Rainier, Washington. |
1906 | C. H. Sholes | Mt. Baker (Northeast side), Wash. |
1907 | C. H. Sholes | Mt. Jefferson, Oregon. |
1908 | C. H. Sholes | Mt. St. Helens, Washington. |
1909 | M. W. Gorman | Mt. Baker (Southwest side), and Shuksan, Washington. |
1910 | John A. Lee | Three Sisters, Oregon. |
1911 | H. H. Riddell | Glacier Peak, Lake Chelan, Wash. |
1912 | Edmund P. Sheldon | Mt. Hood, Oregon. |
The organization and success of the Portland Snow Shoe Club are mainly due to the enthusiastic labors of its president, J. Wesley Ladd. Between 1901 and 1909, Mr. Ladd took a private party of his friends each winter for snow shoeing and other winter sports to Cloud Cap Inn or Government Camp. Three years ago it was determined to form a club and erect a house near Cloud Cap Inn. The club was duly incorporated and a permit obtained from the United States Forest Service. Mr. Ladd, who has been president of the club since its formation, writes me:
"Our club house was started in July, 1910, and was erected by Mr. Mark Weygandt, the worthy mountain guide who has conducted so many parties to the top of Mt. Hood. It is built of white fir logs, all selected there in the forest. I have been told in a letter from the Montreal Amateur Athletic Club of Montreal, Canada, that we have the most unique and up-to-date Snow Shoe Club building in the world. The site for the house was selected by Mr. Horace Mecklem and myself, who made a special trip up there. The building was finished in September, 1910. It is forty feet long and twenty four feet wide, with a six-foot fireplace and a large up-to-date cooking range. The organizers of the club are as follows: Harry L. Corbett, Elliott R. Corbett, David T. Honeyman, Walter B. Honeyman, Rodney L. Glisan, Dr. Herbert S. Nichols, Horace Mecklem, Brandt Wickersham, Jordan V. Zan, and myself."
The Portland Ski Club was organized six years ago, and has since made a trip to Government Camp in January or February of each year. The journey is made by vehicle until snow is gained on the foothills, at Rhododendron; the remaining ten miles are covered on skis. The presidents of the club have been: 1907, James A. Ambrose; 1908, George S. Luders; 1909, Howard H. Haskell; 1910, E. D. Jorgensen; 1911, G. R. Knight; 1912, John C. Cahalin.
The Mountaineers, a club organized in Seattle in 1907, made a noteworthy ascent of Mount Adams in 1911.
Climate.—The weather conditions in the lower Columbia River region are a standing invitation to outdoor life during a long and delightful summer. Western Oregon and Washington know no extremes of heat or cold at any time of the year. The statistics here given are from tables of the U. S. Weather Bureau, averaged for the period of government record:
Mean annual rainfall: Portland, 45.1 inches; The Dalles, 19 inches. Portland averages 164 days with .01 of an inch precipitation during the year, and The Dalles 74 days; but the long and comparatively dry summer is indicated by the fact that only 27 of these days at Portland and 15 at The Dalles fell in the summer months, June to September inclusive.
Mean annual temperature varies little between the east and west sides of the Cascades, Portland having a 57-year average of 52.8° as compared with 52.5° at The Dalles. But the range of temperature is greater in the interior. Thus the mean monthly temperature for January, the coldest month, is 38.7° at Portland and 32.6° at The Dalles, while for July, the hottest month, it is 67.3° at Portland and 72.6° at The Dalles.
While mountain weather must always be an uncertain quantity, that of the Northwestern snow-peaks is comparatively steady, owing to the dry summer of the lowlands. During July and August, the snow-storms of the Alps are almost unknown here. After the middle of September, however, when the rains have begun, a visitor to the snow-line is liable to encounter weather very like that recorded by a belated tourist at Zermatt:
First it rained and then it blew,
And then it friz and then it snew,
And then it fogged and then it thew;
And very shortly after then
It blew and friz and snew again.
Erratum.—On page 72, I have been misled by Dryer's statement into crediting the first ascent of Mount Hood to Captain Samuel K. Barlow, the road builder. The mountain climber was his son, William Barlow, as I am informed by Mr. George H. Himes, of the Oregon Historical Society.