It's the Last Ride

I was up by 6:45am in part because I couldn’t sleep. My shoulder ached and I couldn’t get comfortable. I made my way downstairs after carefully dressing in my running clothes. After completing some sit-ups I decided to try push-ups despite my shoulder injury. The pain was still present, yet somehow I was able to rip off 50 alligator-armed push-ups. I left for my run immediately after. It had snowed overnight – about two inches in Gov’t Camp. The trail was sloppy as the temperature hovered near freezing. By the time I had finished I had flung slush all up my backside.

Breakfast was ready upon my return. The girls had whipped up yet another morning delight. After breakfast we got moving quickly. We needed to shower, pack, and check-out of the condo before heading up the mountain for our final day of skiing. We closed the door to our condo around 9:45am. I was happy to be heading back up the mountain to ski, but at the same time sad about leaving. The four days & three nights on the mountain went really fast.

We were gazing down the mountain at 10:30am. The sky was almost completely sunny save for a cluster of clouds surrounding the Hood’s summit (happens often). And at this elevation, the overnight snow was more like 4 fresh inches. We all skied a green run to get our legs back under us. After the initial run we took the new Jeff Flood Express lift up. I took another spill as my skis hung up in the thick, fresh snow. Thankfully, it would be my last fall.

We made that run ours for the remainder of the day. It was really quite invigorating – long, fast, and curvy. We still held out hope that they would open the Magic Mile, probably our favorite run. The weather was hardly an excuse, at least at that point. By then the summit was in clear view. They never did open it, however. Later, they cited welding work taking place on the lift. Somehow we doubted it. We made the best of things and skied the new Jeff Flood run the rest of the day. We broke for lunch and brew around 1pm, but kept our time in the bar to less than an hour so that we could get in as many good runs as possible before the 4pm closing.

Bob broke free from the group around 3:15pm eager to take some more advanced runs without the worry of less skilled skiers. The rest of us skied Jeff Flood until it closed. We truly tore it up the final two runs. Even Mindy was skiing with the confidence of a true intermediate skier. We emptied the lift just before 4pm. I gazed over the park and then ahead towards the lodge realizing that the short ride in would be my finale for at least this trip.

We met by the lockers where we turned in our rented gear. There we waited for everyone in our party of seven. Once everyone was accounted for Glenn & Bob took the vehicles up to the historic Timberline Lodge where we would spend a final hour or so before driving back into town. Just like last year, the final day on the mountain provided the most spectacular views of the mountains to the south and the summit of Hood itself. We took plenty of pictures. We left for home (Glenn’s) around 5:30pm.

We stopped in Government Camp so Bob could check the condo office for his camera battery charger, but they were closed. We pulled out of Gov’t Camp around 5:45pm just as the sun sunk below the mountain tops on the western horizon. Portland bound!

Our first stop was Tom Shepherd’s place. We all got out to bid Tom farewell until next time. We arrived back at Glenn’s around 7:30pm. We quickly carried in all of our gear and began reorganizing for our departure tomorrow morning. The plan called for dinner out at a local establishment, but Mindy was too tired and requested a bye. Glenn, Tommy, Bob & Mary Ann all headed out to McMenamins on the waterfront.

Staying back provided me the opportunity to get completely packed for our return home. That took only ten or fifteen minutes. Afterwards I popped some popcorn and enjoyed a little TV before an early bedtime. I think we were in bed by 9pm. I wanted to be up by 5:30am PT.