Eagle Creek Hike

We are enjoying another Perfect Portland Weekend. Not only is the weather perfect but what makes it even more perfect is that our whole family is home!

Logan arrived home Thursday night with Jim who had been in Salt Lake on business. Life around our house is always just a little louder and a little more exciting when Logan is home.

Friday the boys and I made a trip to the AAA store to get some maps, electric converters etc. for Clark and his European adventure. We also went to the Columbia Employee Store where Clark got a great new backpack for his two week backpacking through Europe adventure and a couple of pairs of lightweight, quick drying shorts.

Saturday we decided to head out to the Gorge again for another hike. This time we went to Eagle Creek which is a beautiful and MUCH easier hike than last week's hike to Dog Mountain!

Clark was working and Tessa had an all day ballet rehearsal so just Jim, Logan, Cali and I went.

The hike has incline but nothing compared to last week.

Quite a bit of the hike is narrow and along the edge of a cliff. Fortunately they have put in metal wire handrails to hold onto!

There are several beautiful waterfalls along the way.

And a few places where you actually cross over water.

The path got quite rocky in parts.

About 4.5 miles up we stopped for lunch. Logan had packed us a nice lunch.

We were tired and ready to turn around and head back down when talking to another hiker we realized Tunnel Falls was just about another 1.7 miles up a head. We figured we were so close we needed to go see it as we had never hiked this far up before.

Although it added almost 4 more miles to the hike round trip we were glad we went!

Tunnel Falls is aptly named because there is a tunnel that goes behind the falls.

We ran into a group of Scouts from our ward who were also hiking. They were a mile or two behind us. When we saw them at church today they told us they had seen a BEAR on the way down - yes a real live BEAR had crossed the path right in front of them!

So glad we weren't hiking with them!!

We were pretty hot and tired by the time we made it back to the car - it was a 12 mile round trip hike. We were ready for some cool refreshment so we headed down the road to Cascade Locks to a little drive in - Logan wanted ice cream.

He ordered a large cone - the thing was HUGE!! I am so glad I got a small!!

He ate the whole thing too!!

Perfect Portland Weekend - Day Four

Day Four of our Perfect Portland Weekend started early.

The only child we could talk into joining us was Cali - the other two stayed home in bed.

We got up early and joined friends Marsha and Larry and headed out to the gorge. We spent the day hiking Dog Mountain. Dog Mountain is on the Washington side of the river just across the Bridge of the Gods. The guide book says it is called Dog Mountain because as the settlers came over the mountain they had run out of food and had to eat their dogs. Hood River was originally called Dog River but was changed when people didn't like the name!




This hike is listed as "strenuous" in the guide book. I had never done a "strenuous" hike before. I have done plenty of moderate but this was my first strenuous. It is rated strenuous for a reason - it is hard!

You go up 2,700 feet in elevation in under 4 miles - that makes for a steep hike. Despite some major huffing and puffing and frequent water breaks - thank goodness for the Camelback...we made it to the top. One of the main reasons to endure the torture of climbing Dog Mountain is the wildflowers - they are amazing this time of year.

Most of the hike is in covered, forest area where there are some pretty flowers but as you near the top you break out into the open and hike through hills covered in amazing yellow and purple wildflowers. The picture does not do it justice.

Once we reached the top we sat in the meadow area and enjoyed our lunch and the view - you could see both Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens.

I am kind of standing right in front of the view of Mt. St. Helens but you can see a bit of it to the right of my head. The wind was blowing pretty hard at the top!

The downhill trip was a bit of adventure because of the steep terrain. Fortunately only one of us fell (Cali) just a nice slide onto her bottom and a minor twisted ankle.

The last half mile my knees were feeling it and I am sure we will all be feeling it tomorrow. We popped some advil on the ride home!

Once home and cleaned up Jim and I went out to pick up the 22 rocket stoves our ward had ordered and we delivered them.

When we stopped at our neighbors, the Atacks, to drop theirs off they invited us in to join their family BBQ. Since I had nothing planned at home for dinner we gladly accepted - we had some amazing BBQ ribs - thank you Atacks!!

It was an amazing Four day Weekend here in Portland. We enjoyed ever minute of it and packed as much fun as we could into it!!

Hope the weather lasts so we can do it again next weekend when Logan is home!!

Perfect Portland Weekend - Day Three

So our perfect Portland weather continues.

Day Three - we enjoyed a nice Sunday. Church, BYU, Missionary Open House for Travis Burk returning from the Hong Kong Mission and then a neighborhood movie night.

And there was a lot of this going on in the afternoon...

Here is my fun new garden art - Jim put it together and got it in the pot for me - love it!

We enjoyed Sunday dinner on the patio. Just fun being together.

And there is always a few goofy faces when the camera comes out.

Using an infocus projector our neighbor's the Quillins hosted a neighborhood movie night. We sat in Osborne's yard and watched Cheaper by the Dozen on the side of Quillin's house - fun! I provided the treats - popcorn and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!