Nearly got stuck on the Timberline Trail last week because I trusted my phone battery

I was doing the full 41 mile loop around Mount Hood and figured my phone would last for GPS since I had a power bank. But it died after 6 hours in the cold drizzle near Ramona Falls. Turned out I forgot to charge the bank the night before. Ended up having to follow cairns in the fog for 3 miles until I hit a shelter. Does anyone carry a physical map for routes they already know?

2 comments

2 Comments

perez.thea1mo ago

Oh man, that's rough. I mean, who hasn't done the ol' "forgot to charge the power bank" trick, right? It's like a rite of passage at this point. Maybe it's just me but I feel like the cold just sucks the life out of phones even faster than you'd expect. Honestly though, following cairns in the fog sounds kind of like a scene from a horror movie, glad you made it to that shelter.

pat_hart1mo ago

Following cairns in the fog" yeah that's the part that gets me. Everyone's talking about batteries and power banks but nobody's mentioning that cairns themselves can be tricky. I've followed cairns that were clearly placed by someone who had no idea what they were doing, just piling rocks on top of each other leading nowhere. On Hood especially I've seen hikers create their own little rock stacks that just confuse people. Next time you're out there give the cairns a second look before you commit to following them. Some are legit USFS maintained, some are just wishful thinking.