Table Mountain, May 13th

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…



Interactive map To see the full map, click Menu and select Full Screen. You can also click Terrain to change the map style

Elk – King Traverse short version, May 6th

After doing Dog Mountain with heavy packs, Val and I were ready to tackle something with a bit more distance, elevation change and overall difficulty. And what better place to do this than the Elk – King traverse. The hike to the Elk Mountain summit might not be the highest or the longest but it’s certainly on the steepest list. That combined with the lack warm up time before you start climbing makes this an excellent training route.  Adding the King’s Mountain summit makes it even more interesting as the trail has numerous ups and downs before reaching the second summit. At that point, if your knees are not suffering enough, the steep descent to the parking lot will complete the job. I posted the hike for a small group of people on my meetup group asking them to bring heavy packs to train, if they wanted to do so. In the end, it was only Val and I carrying extra weight which made it a bit of a challenge for us to keep up with the rest of the group. But even with that, I t was a fantastic day with plenty of scenery, green, fresh air, friends and all the good stuff that makes a hike memorable

Interactive map To see the full map, click Menu and select Full Screen. You can also click Terrain to change the map style

Dog Mountain – Augspurger loop, Apr 28th

Val and I had been talking about backpacking for a while and placing potential trips on the calendar. While doing so, we thought that it would be a good idea to do some training hikes with some extra weight to get our backs and legs ready. So we pulled our bigger packs, filled them with a sand bag and some pillows to maintain shape, added water and our gear. By the end, our packs were about 35Lbs each. With packs ready, we decided to try them out doing Dog Mountain which would offer plenty of elevation gain on a very good trail plus the possibility of a nice wildflower display. Unfortunately the weather gods played against us that day so we got an overcast day with some very consistent wind. We were still hopping for the flowers thought. At first Val was not very optimistic about her ability to do the hike with the extra weight. I was very confident she would be able to do it without a sweat. So we started climbing up and, as I expected it, she was flying up at her normal hiking pace which is a bit faster than mine. As we gained elevation we got some pretty good view of the Columbia Gorge and increasing winds, no flowers though. We were too early for those. Without a lot of work and in a very normal time, we got to a very windy summit. Trying to find a place to take a break, we walked around but then decided to get under a big tree and cover ourselves with an emergency blanket so at least we could have some lunch while enjoying the views. After that, since we were feeling good and the rest of the hike was downhill, instead of going down the way we went up, we opted for the longer Augspurger trail that would be softer on the knees. This trail is interesting as it traverses in and out of the forest keeping you all the time in line with nice views. We got to see some wildflowers but not too many but the best part of the hike was getting back down to the car with a broad smile and the sense that we were in better shape that we thought we were.



Interactive map To see the full map, click Menu and select Full Screen. You can also click Terrain to change the map style

Tom, Dick and Harry, Apr 7th

Tom, Dick and Harry is one of those classic summer hikes that can be done in the winter as well. The problem is that a few years back, the ODOT decided to stop cleaning and plowing the parking area for this trailhead leaving the winter option almost closed. If there’s snow on the road, the only option is to park at Ski Bowl and walk next to the highway for about a mile to the trailhead. As you can imagine, that portion of the hike is not very scenic and would certainly leave a sour spot on an otherwise great day. But, if you look at a map, there’s the possibility of doing a backcountry route to Mirror Lake and the join the trail to Tom, Dick and Harry. This route requires some good navigation skills and crossing several creeks which, depending on the season, can be very challenging. If everything goes well though, after about an hour of forest navigation you come out of the trees at Mirror Lake with wonderful winter views all around you. As you walk around the lake you can enjoy the frozen surface and view of Mt Hood behind you. From that point on, it’s easy to re-join the TD&H trail and go up. Depending on snow levels though, it’s possible that the trail becomes difficult to follow so you may find yourself navigating thru pretty steep slopes. If something like that happens, there’s always the option to veer a bit to the south and start climbing towards the ridge which eventually will cross the trail again. Once there it’s easy to follow the topography towards the summit as you are out of the tree line. The rewards for all that hard work came right the moment we reached the ridgeline to the summit as the view to Mt Hood opened up right in front of us. We continued a bit more to a good flat spot where we stopped for lunch and to enjoy the sun. We had the option to go back the way we came but to make it more interesting, we opted for descending straight to the lake. As you can see in the map, it’s a far quicker but steeper route so we had the opportunity to do some glissading down to the lake. The rest was easy as we just retraced our steps to the car.



Interactive map To see the full map, click Menu and select Full Screen. You can also click Terrain to change the map style

Yellow Jacket, Apr 1st

This year we got some weird snow over the winter so there weren’t many good snowshoeing opportunities. This one was one of the few where, even though the weather was not very good and we lacked the views, the snow was pretty good. The Yellow Jacket trail is one of those that can be done in full or in parts depending on how much time you want to spend there and how the weather gods are playing it. On this one, we started from the Snow Bunny Sno-Park following the forest road that connects with the trail. The trail was easy to follow as long as you could see the blue diamonds on the trees. Along the trail we found a couple of challenges in the form of creel crossings that were not completely covered forcing us to find a log or something to cross. That worked pretty well until we got to the Salmon River. In good snow years, this small river is covered with a hard pack that can easily support your weight to the point that you barely realize you are on a river. This time though, we found a big gap were we could see the river flowing about 10 below our feet. Being unable to find a safe place to cross, we were forced to turn around and head back making this the shortest version I’ve ever done of the Yellow Jacket trail.



Interactive map To see the full map, click Menu and select Full Screen. You can also click Terrain to change the map style