On Saturday September 15th Laina and I decided to head out to what we thought would be an easy hike since on Sunday the 16th we would be walking in the Race for the Cure early in the morning. I am not sure why we thought this hike would be easy but we did, it could be that it was supposed to be shorter and at a lower elevation than the other hikes we have done or it could have been pure oblivion. In any case we put on our packs and headed on out to the trail.
For those of you live in the NW know that this year our September has been absolutely beautiful weather wise and as you can tell by my smile in the following picture I am excited to be out in the woods again.
This hike started out through the woods and pretty much up hill for about 1600 ft in elevation. Once we got to the top we broke out to view the hills in the back and overlooking houses on farm land.
I have lived in WA my whole life and I have also traveled around the US quite alot and to be honest I don't think that there is a more beautiful place than the Columbia River Gorge. I am so thankful that I live here and that this area is mine and Laina's new playground to explore and discover. Whenever someone new comes to visit us in WA one of the first places that I take them is up the gorge and we stop at the Cape Horn lookout - the following picture shows Cape Horn bridge from a different perspective and not one that I would take someone to see unless they are up to a sweaty adventure.
Aview of the gorge looking east
A view of the river looking straight across
A view of the gorge looking west from where we were
Here I am at one of the viewpoints with the smokey gorge in the back ground.A few blogs ago I told you that I wanted to start looking more at the details on my hikes and to be honest I have been doing just that, I have started taking pictures of when I say "oh what is that" or "oh look at that" then the camera goes snap, snap, snap. With this new committment I have really been learning to relax and ENJOY all the incredible things around me.
A huge tree with the center of it rotted out but it was still growing strong.
According to Laina this is bear poop I am glad we only saw the poop and not the bear....lol
Berries changing colors
Flowers starting to bloom
Foliage taking over a fence post
On the top of the hill there is a new lookout that is a great place to stop enjoy the view and have a little snack.
From this lookout we could see both the tops of Hamiliton Mountain and the top of Angels Rest - both hikes that I have blogged about in the past.
Here I am without all the packs - I realized that in most full body pictures I either have on a huge shirt or packs - this picture is for future refrence for me to see how far I have come in my weight loss journey.
A view looking east from the lookout
As we continued down the trail we came across this cool old shed or shack or something and I don't know why but I think it looks cool so here it is.
A tunnel just built in 2011 to help the hikers go under the highway - it is so beautifully constructed.
White flowers just barely budding out
As we walked through the woods we came across a bridge with this marker in the middle. I have to say I appreciate any work that James Proctor did on this trail because it is a beauty....may he rest in peace. As I have had time to reflect on the quote below his title it makes me think about some of the fog in my life. Not only is there the fog that comes in nature but in life we have things that get in our head or make us doubt that we can do it or that we are good enough. This weight loss journey is hard and there are things in my past that have fogged my thinking, but as the quote says "Onward, through the fog!" I am determined to blow the fog out of my mind and to get this job done in order to have a healthy way of life.
Another view up the river from a pop out in the trail
In the last blog (Angels Rest) I said to take note of the rock in the middle of the river, In this picture you can see the rock again and the hillside in the back ground is the hill that we climbed to Angels Rest - if the day would have been clearer you might have been able to see the rock on the ledge that we had our lunch on.
At one point we stopped so Laina could tie her shoelace and as we were standing there I heard this rustle in the grass between us. I hate snakes and mice and when I heard this noise that was the first thing I thought it would be but instead it was a baby bunny. He blends in to the brown grass but can you see him? He sat there perfectly still while we took pictures of him.
So at the bottom part of the trail after you pass through the tunnel we started going down hill more and we got to this nice rock wall (said with tongue in cheek) this part of the trail switchbacks down the hill to the bottom and not too much fun.
A view of the rock hillside that we had just came down.
On the backside of the hill this cool column rock 
As we rounded the corner we saw this waterfall and this gave us a time to cool off and enjoy the rainbow.
Ahh it felt so good!!!
Can you see the rainbow?
So in all the times that I have taken people to the overlook I always wondered how you got down to the house and meadow down below - well now I know you either hike or there is a road. The end of this trail was the worst part for me because we had to walk about a 1/3rd of a mile up hill on the road. But I have to say when we popped out on the road and we looked back up at the bridge and could see the people looking down at the river I thought it was so cool, because in all the times I have stood on that over look I never looked for hikers, well that changes for the future.
At the end of the hike when we got to the car both Laina and I were tired and when we looked at our final stats it was about 9.5 miles 142 flights of stairs - I have to admit that it was not a easy hike but it was a worthwhile hike that I am glad we took on the challenge.
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