Sleeping Beauty Hike

Monday, Columbus Day, I had the day off and it was a perfect blue sky day, so I talked my friend Kevin into doing a hike. He wanted me to do the Beaches ride with him and his tri club which would have been perfect race training. But it was one of the last good hiking chances probably, so off we went. Drove out to Hood River and crossed the bridge and then up to Trout Lake and then some forest roads. A couple miles down a dirt road we came to a tree across the road. It wasn't large, but big enough that you couldn't go over it and cliffs on both sides. Oh well, an hour and a half drive for nothing. No, we're here, so we took one end and managed to snap it and then maneuver it off the side of the road after about 20 minutes of strenuous lifting. Then about 6 miles of dirt to the trailhead where there were 2 cars- huh? We thought the tree had been there for awhile. Started out and this is a very steep trail, so it was a good workout. Saw a mom and her teenage son coming down and asked them how they drove in and they came the same way we did. They said there wasn't a tree in the road then. After they left Kevin and I looked at each other and said "that's the purpose of our being on this hike today". There's no way they could have moved that tree. Got to the top and it is a top of the world view with a front row view of Mt Adams. (top picture)
Heard voices when we got to the summit and then I saw a couple coming out of some rocks below, they waved and started down. Kevin saw some rocks that he wanted to climb to, so he did.
I took pictures of Mt. St. Helens and some others, here's St Helens. Stats for the hike: 2.8 miles (round trip) 1400 feet gain.

Week's workout
Swim class on Wednesday and then Wednesday evening I ran the Marine Drive path for 4.6 miles at an 8:33 pace. Thursday I rode from the base to Marine Drive and back for 16.7 miles with an average this time of 16. Had a coworker ride with me and 16 miles is a long ride for him so we took it fairly slow. Before work Thursday I took a picture of the Marine Drive path showing Mt Hood, but Mt Hood didn't show up too well.