After all the hikes I planed in October, I was kind of tired so my original plan was to stay home for the weekend, but when Lisa called me on Saturday to go on this hike, I wasn’t able to say no. I think I needed a long hike like this with just a couple of friends. The plan was to climb Ruckel Ridge to Benson Plateau and come back down to Eagle Creek. In total this hike is about 15 miles and climbs a bit over 4000’. Lisa did mention that the original plan was the “easier” way to do it, but since we didn’t find the trail head to go up Ruckel Ridge, we did it in reverse, the hard way. As you may remember, I did Eagle Creek a couple of weeks ago and one of the nice things is that it climbs gradually. After 4 miles in, the elevation gained was not much but considering we were going to Benson Plateau, which could only meant that we were up for a steep climb. Once we got to the turn out, it was like going up a fire ladder. That climb took us about three hours almost non stop until we cleared the trees. We rested for a while and then continued back into deep forest. By then it was already getting dark so I didn’t take more pictures. Lisa did comment about a cougar sighting in the area so we did the entire Plateau singing and making noises. The descend on Ruckel ridge was as grueling as the ascend with the added bonus of darkness. Hiking back out in the middle of the night looking at the lights in the Gorge was simply magnificent.
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