Rainy weather, again. It seems that his time of year the weather gods like to play games with us hikers. During the weekdays we’re getting clear and mild days but comes the weekend and we get the heavy clouds and rainy forecast. With an impending shower, Val and I picked again a close hike so, even if we got drenched, we would be back home to a hot shower in reasonable time. Haven’t had visited Hamilton Mountain for a while, we decided to head there and do the long loop. AS we hiked up towards Hardy falls we kept an eye on the dark clouds above us. Just before the falls we took the little detour to the viewpoint deck that offer views of the creek bellow. For some reason it was not impressive as we have seen it before. The waterfall on the other hand was pretty as always. We didn’t have all the shiny reflections or small rainbows as there was no light getting to the falls so after the bridge, we just pushed up on the trail. Soon we reached the first clearing where the trail goes out to a rock outcrop. In past visits I remember scrambling around to get on the very edge of these rock formations but with the impending rain and very dark clouds, we decided to continue up. Just as we were getting back on the main trail, we got some pretty strong gusts of wind and some rain drops. Luckily it didn’t let go. From the ridge we could clearly see the Columbia Gorge below us and pockets of rain on the other side of the Gorge. Pretty much every valley was getting a good soak. From there we pushed all the way to the summit where we stopped momentarily to grab a bite trying not to get too cold. Our plan from there was to continue on the loop so we followed the ridge north until we got to the Equestrian trail. Normally we take this trail all the way down, but at the very first switchback, we have always notice a small sign that reads “Don’s Cutoff” and a small trail that seems to drop of the side. Since we were doing good time and so far were still dry, we opted for taking this trail and explore it. The trail travels north as it descends thru the forest towards Hardy Creek. The cutoff itself is not too long and adds bit less than a mile to the entire loop. Once down, the cutoff gets to the Upper Hardy trail that goes down back to the equestrian trail to close the loop or goes up along the creek. Being dark and almost rainy, I didn’t take pictures on this section of the trail but the trail is really forested and nice. Finally, we got back on the Hamilton Mountain trail to descent the last portion to the waterfall and then down to the parking lot. Contrary to the forecast though, we got at this point a bit of blue sky and even some sun filtering thru the trees. Despite the pending dump, we got lucky and walked out dry and happy.
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