This is another hike I’ve done at least three or four other times and as always is very rewarding and never disappointing. Table Mountain is a very prominent point in the Columbia Gorge that is hard to miss as the face of the mountain is a vertical wall with a unique triangular shape. Story goes that a long time ago, this was a huge mountain that eventually collapsed and fell into the river cutting it’s flow for some time forming what is known as Bridge of the gods. At some point the river resumed its course forming a bend around the debris. Apart from being a hike destination that offers amazing views of the gorge and it geology, this hike is also a great workout. You don’t have to take my word for it though. The trail that goes to the summit is called the Heartbreak Trail for a reason. Since Val and I had done already two good backpacking training hikes, we thought we needed something a bit harder and with more elevation gain to complete the cycle. Val was not able to take her pack on this one. I on the other hand, decided to go with it and carry 45LBs up Table Mountain. I don’t know what I was thinking! We started at a very descent hour on what it looked to be a perfect and very hot day. The first part of the hike went pretty quickly as we took the connector trail to the PCT and then the PCT to the Heartbreak Trail. To that point everything was ok and I was carrying my load without a problem but then came the uphill. This trail just goes up and quickly. With the load and the heat I thought I couple of times that I was going to faint, but I kept my pace chugging along. That day I was trying a couple of things for hot days, one was a shirt with lots of ventilation and the other is a bandana like thingy that is filled with a gel that can absorb a lot of water. The idea is that, if you put this around your neck, as the water evaporates, it helps you to cool down… It doesn’t work. I pretty much felt like I was being choked with warm gel. Thinking and adjusting these two things kept my mind occupied enough to keep my pace and actually make it to the summit. We took a lunch break up there dangling our feet into the precipice and enjoying the views which, as always, are simple spectacular. After a while, we started our return hiking towards the north side of the mountain were you can get the other view; the one that includes Mt Adams and Rainier. On the way there we found some lingering snow that on this hot day became perfect for a little snow ball fight and baseball practice. But then it was time for the inevitable hike down. Even though the back trail is not as steep as the trail going up, this one is slippery due to scree and is out in the open. So we just took our time and slowly came back down to the PCT were we took the same route back to the cars. At the end my legs were nearly shaking so I promised myself to never do this again with a pack. As a side note, I can’t leave this story without telling something that happened that day. As we were hiking down, Val dropped her camera without realizing and lost it. Some days later I was checking the PortlandHikers website and noticed a post about someone finding something on that trail the same day we were there. I contacted this person and two weeks later Val got her camera back…
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