Today’s trip was my (more or less) annual Birthday hike. Most years I try and do a hike on my birthday. This year the challenge was picking a trail that was accessible but was also mostly clear of smoke from all the fires burning. I picked Thunder Mountain and Skookum Lake (they kind of go together since they are both short and you have to hike most of Thunder Mountain to get to Skookum Lake). It was accessible and it seemed far enough away from the fires that the smoke shouldn’t be too bad. Thankfully, I was correct and the day turned out really well.

We headed out about our normal time and I knew we would be driving thru some smoke on 224. The Narrows fire, which started really small has blown up a bit and so there was quite a bit of smoke in the Clackamas Canyon:

When we got to the junction with road 63, the gate on road 46 was past the junction. We turned on 63 and headed up. Right past the bridge, there were a bunch of firefighters that were working on clearing brush along the edges of road 63. We proceeded slowly thru there and then continued up road 63. We got to the 6320 junction and headed up. At that point the sky was relatively clear of smoke, but as we proceeded up the road the smoke started to get thicker again – I was a bit worried that we were going to be hiking in smoke. Thankfully, as we approached the trailhead, the smoke started clearing up again and by the time we got to the trailhead, the sky was pretty clear:

We suited up and headed up the trail. The trail starts in an old cut area so the route is a bit rougher than further up. There are a couple of areas of thimbleberry that are always difficult. Once past that, you enter some beautiful old growth forest on a very well built trail:

When we got to one of the higher switchbacks there is a nice view to the east/south. It was kind of neat looking seeing all the smoke stuck in the valley below:

We continued up the trail, making really good time. The trail is in really good shape and someone cut out a bunch of logs earlier this year, so it was pretty easy going. We soon reached the junction with the Skookum Lake trail, which meant the top of Thunder Mountain was really close. We made it up to the top of the mountain and stopped to have a snack and some water (it was too early for lunch).

I got a pretty good picture of Mt Hood and Mt Adams from the top of Thunder Mountain:

We had our snack and water and then looked around a bit. I found something I’ve never seen before – there is a benchmark on top of Thunder Mountain and I did find it, but it is partially gone – I’ve never seen a benchmark break up like this:

After that, I decided to head down a trail on the south side of the mountain – I was wondering if that might have been the old outhouse location or something – I don’t remember exploring that area before. We wandered down and the trail kind of quit. It is possible the outhouse was down in that area but I didn’t find any remains or anything. Since we were almost down to the trail anyway, we just headed downhill to meet the trail rather than go back up and follow the trail down.

We got back to the junction with Skookum Lake and headed down. The beginning of the trail heads thru the old burn areas (this area burned in 2006 and again in 2024). The tread is mostly in decent shape, with a few short areas that could use a little work, but the trail is easy to follow. Once you get down thru a few switchbacks, the trail heads along the north side of the ridge and continues switchbacking down to the lake. It is on the first switchback where a couple of trees uprooted last winter and tore up a couple of segments of tread.

As you progress down, there are some rather brushy spots – mostly huckleberries that overlap the trail, but it is easy to follow down. I cleared a rotten log that fell on the trail and exploded – it was easy since it was already in pieces. We soon got down to Skookum lake and proceeded to the campsite at the northeast end of the lake. Skookum lake was very calm today:

We stopped here and ate lunch and just enjoyed the peace and calm of this area for a while. As I was coming down, I was starting to get a bit worried they would close the road behind me and I would be stuck driving the very long way over and around Mt Hood. I decided to try and get back to the truck as quickly as I could.

We made good time back to the junction with the Thunder Mountain trail and headed down. I took this picture from the switchback on the way down – comparing it to the previous picture you can see how much more smoke was in the air a couple of hours later:

We continued down the trail and soon got to the spring next to the trail. Thor decided he wanted to use it to cool off – DOH!!!:

This is what it looked like on the way up:

After that, we continued down the trail and soon got back to the truck. Originally, I was going to continue down the 4620 road to the end, as there is a really nice landing at the end with an incredible view (assuming there were no new logs on the road – it was all cut out in the 2024 Sandstone fire work), but I decided to skip it today in the interest of getting back early. We hopped in the truck and headed back down the hill.

When we got back to the end of road 63, the firefighters were still brushing out the road and when we got back to the junction with 46, the barricade had been moved. I stopped to talk to the guards and they said that road 63 was closed that morning – but I was still able to get thru. A bit further up 46 there was a dozer doing some work in the old burned area – not quite sure what.

When I got home I checked the Mt Hood NF website and it still showed road 63 open – I hope it remains open because there are quite a number of trails that are only accessible via that road now and if it closes, it significantly reduces options for hiking.

I was glad I was mostly able to avoid the smoke – it was a good way to celebrate my birthday. I hope we get some rain soon to dampen these fires and keep them from growing.