Sunday, August 21, 2005

Tired and dirty!

We camped and hiked all weekend. It went like this: we left Portland about 10:00 pm on Friday night. I know, silly, and likely disasterous, but we just couldn't face not going. So we did, arriving at the campsite at 12:30, finding a lovely spot, setting up, having a fire, etc. It was lovely. The next day we moved camp to another site on a river and with less dirt. We then hiked an amazing trail that we didn't even know existed. The best part was the view, which was of the Cascade Range and more incredible than anything I've ever seen. Then we heard a large crack and didn't think anything about it until later when the trail had a creek next to it that at first led me to believe that we had taken a wrong turn on the way back. Alas, soon we happened upon the creek as it was making its way down the mountain, something having set in motion a new water source. We followed it for a while then headed to camp to make sure we were prepared in case it decided to course through our 'perfect' campsite. Thankfully it did not.

Then today, we got up and drove to another trail, Indian Heaven, which was truly a bit of heaven, though the 1200ft of elevation gain in the first mile felt like hell. There were huckleberries galore and I do believe we each ate at least a quart. I skinny-dipped in water deeper than I am tall (an amazing feat if you know me at all), finding out later that a group of Reed hikers watched us the whole time. I ran down the mountain bare-footed because of blisters. Later, we saw some natural bridges, an ice cave and a big tree (the largest known ponderosa pine, ooooh).

A fantastic weekend, except for being much too dumb to bring a watch along on the hike today and missing kickball practice. Oooops, though likely they didn't need me anyway.

Photos up when I get the chance. SCT, feel free to add your own reflections, and thanks for a wonderful weekend.

3 comments:

Scriptsaurus said...

Glad you had a good time and I can't wait to see some photos.

Kickball was lame. Only 5 folks showed. I fear that only a small group feel any commitment and that we will be forfeiting games. I don't want to be a part of that.

jkf said...

Remember it is just kickball and it is summer, and I'm not getting paid to make this all happen. Shit, I'm just supposed to handle the nitty-gritty forms and e-mails and such, not babysitting everyone and making sure they are at practice or a game. Perhaps that should be your job. You wanna step up?

great sandwich! said...

HAHA--team sports suk!