Columbia River Gorge

In mid February, Roy and I headed down to Portland and the Columbia River Gorge for a nice weekend. We spent Friday night in Portland at a Swanky Hotel called the Nines. Highly recommend it. Right downtown on the light rail and above Macy's. I did some shopping, and the we had a nice dinner at Roy's favorite Portland Restaurant, Basta's.

The next day, we drove along Highway 14 and checked out the waterfalls. It was incredibly windy. At one point, we stopped at a scenic point along the highway high on a ridge. I got out to take some pictures and walk to the lookout building. I almost couldn't make it back to the car. I seriously thought I might blow away. There was a family there holding a little baby, and I was horrified. I don't think I have ever been in wind that strong. After getting our fill of waterfalls, we crossed the Columbia and spend the night in Stevenson at the Skamania Lodge. What a great place. After a lovely dinner of nachos and sweet potato fries, we were pooped.

Sunday morning, I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. Instead, I drove back across the Bridge of the Gods and hiked three miles in on the Eagle Creek trail. What an amazing hike. Fairly flat, but right along the river, sometimes beside it, but more often high above it along this amazing gorge. There were so many waterfalls, and the rising mist made for some great photographs. Roy was just getting out of bed when I got back to the hotel!

winter hikes

My knee has been recovering very well after my surgery in November. I was off pain meds in three days and off the crutches in a week. I started doing some short walks (couldn't really call them hikes) around the local parks in January. I even went for a snowshoe in Whistler in early January. It was hard not to ski, but snowshoeing along a groomed trail in over a foot of new snow was good consolation, and much cheaper than a lift ticket!

I started hiking in mid February, and since then, I have done West Tiger Mountain 3 and 2 in the snow, a bunch of hikes around Cougar Mountain, and some hikes in the Columbia River Gorge and in Boulder Colorado. I'm ready for spring flowers! Today I hiked a 5 or 6 mile loop on Cougar Mountain. Not much elevation gain, but I had about 25 pounds in my pack. That's the most weight since my surgery. A few trees were leafing out, but the trail still had snow on it in places thanks to yesterday's storm. And it was MUDDY. This may have been the muddiest trail I have ever been on. Guess spring is on the way.