Where should you go when you have to hike in an atmospheric river?? Well, to the waterfalls, but of course! This is the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" plan. Living in the Columbia River Gorge means there are a lot of famous waterfall hikes in the area. But they are typically swarming with humans. So I never go near them unless the weather is terrible! Then, and only then, can I virtually have the trails to myself. The problem is that many of these trails are too short for me. So today I was going to connect about 4 different trail systems to make a nice 14 mile walk in the rain.
One of the things I do appreciate about Gorge hiking is how many little gorges and ravines actually pour down into the big Gorge. Any of these mini gorges can be climbed and investigated. We chose one and started to switchback our way up. We ran into a small handful of people, but mostly only in the first mile and then they all turned around and retreated for their warm and dry vehicles. Josie would not take her eyes off the suspicious humans for any reason!
The power coming down from the waterfalls was truly incredible after all our heavy rains during the week. The pounding sounded like a freight train in our ears and the spray was so intense that we couldn't open our eyes within fifty feet of it. We hardly noticed the water pouring from the sky when we stood near the waterfalls flowing over the rocky walls. It was as if all the water was in a big hurry to get somewhere. Since that is the way I normally feel, I could understand and see my kindred spirt there. I think my heart beat adusted to flow a little faster itself.
When we hit our first mile mark, we were able to see our first good viewpoint. We stood briefly to watch barges moving up the river and the clouds swirling around us, before heading up the trail where it seemed no one else wanted to venture. We were separating the men from the boys at this point.
As we continued up the tight ravine, the trail became rockier and slid in beside a rushing stream. The rocky walls hemming us in were covered in green moss and water was dripping pretty much everywhere. I kept having to tip my head down to keep the rain from pooling on my hood. I was wearing 5 waterproof layers on my top half, thick fleece lined waterproof pants over lycra shorts on my bottom half, 2 pairs of waterproof socks under Gore-tex boots, and a waterproof skull cap under 2 hoods. But even with all this (and the highest quality brands and fabrics), I knew it was only a matter of time before I would truly be wet all the way down to my skin. I didn't even bother to wear gloves knowing they would soak instantly and be most uncomfortable. As all my layers became saturated, they became heavy and uncomfortable anyway of course.
Sharing the ravine bottom with a flooding stream meant that at times it flowed over the trail itself. But every now and then there was a nice bridge to be thankful for!
The sound of flowing and dripping water was our only company as we continued up the wet trail. As the winds picked up, water blew harshly into our faces and ran down our necks. I had my rainfly on my pack and my gun in his dry bag, but everything else was getting soaked. My poor bandana that I use to blow my nose could have been wrung out it had so much rain water in it just from the few times I took it out of my pack's pocket. I kept my head down and focused on the slippery trail to try to avoid the worst of the rain from pelting my face. More and more damage to the trail became evident as we continued our hike away from the trailhead. We had to skirt a few trees and boulders from time to time. The water always found a way through though.
One of my favorite parts about climing this particular ravine was that the trail eventually snaked up a center ridge section while the river above split off to each side of this. As we switch-backed up that center ridge we could say "hello" to the river on the left, then the one on the right, and back again and again. It was as if we were playing a game of ping pong with both rivers and we were the ball. I enjoyed it immensely. The beauty took our breath away just enjoying the force and power nature has. Oh, the beauty of a simple stream in a mossy forest!
In one particular section, the water was rushing boldly close to the trail. Rivulets had escaped and were running between our feet. Nova was very concerned about this, but Josie thought the world was her oyster. This was quite evident in their facial expressions in this moment standing on the trail next to the rushing waters. Serious Beauty and Free-Spirited Beast they are.
Suddenly we were surprised by two hikers coming down the trail toward us. We hadn't seen anyone for some time. They were not dressed well for the weather and were clearly super saturated without proper raingear. One didn't even have a hood or hat of any sort. He was the one with the accent.....Polish perhaps? He was also the talker. He had something evidently very important he wanted to convey to me. "There is a huge landslide ahead," he warned me. "You would have to climb with your hands and feet to get over it and I don't think you can do it with those dogs," he continued seriously.
Can we all just take a moment to pause and smile together now.
Yes, you better believe a lot of thoughts went through my head as the soggy man spoke to me with his serious eyes. I wanted so badly to tell him these dogs were tougher than both of these hikers combined. I wanted so badly to tell him about some of the dangerous trails and situations we had been in and that we were more than capable of handling a mere landslide. I am not merely a tiny woman despite how I might look! But I also knew I needed to be civil and so just told him thank you. When he saw that I was turning to continue up the trail, he tried again to tell me it was too dangerous. Eventually, he gave up, shaking his head and gravely telling me "good luck then" as if he expected us to die. They were the last hikers I would see the rest of the day. A tiny, tiny piece of me wondered if it really could be all that bad. But we contiued onward to see for ourselves. After a short distance, we arrived at the landslide. I asked Josie what she thought and her face mirrored mine exactly. "Huh?"
That little pile of branches, trees and rocks under the waterfall was the "Impassable landslide" that would kill us. It barely slowed us down in our ascent of the trail. I smiled from ear to ear and shook my head. "Amateurs" we all said in unison. What would that man think if he knew we would be coming back over this landslide in the black of night on our way out night hiking when water levels would be much higher? But I had a greater goal on my mind now than the goofiness of fellow humans. We were almost to the infamous springs! There is a place on this trail where a spring just wells up right out of the ground and gives birth to a new stream. I had been there once before about four years ago now and it was the coolest and sweetest water I had ever tasted. Since it is a true spring bubbling forth from the earth, I don't bother to filter or treat it. I couldn't wait for a big drink! The spring comes up right next to this stone under the ferns.
It is so strange to watch water coming up from the ground like this. It made me think of the story when Moses used his staff to hit a rock and made water come forth for the Israelites. Now God had told Moses to only speak to the rock and water would come out of it, but he was being dramatic and hit it twice with his staff. I was careful to not hit the rock at this spring, but only spoke my thanksgiving over it for blessing us with the best drink of the day. Clearly I like my drinks on the rocks!
As we moved west bound on the trail, I decided that I was going to go to another viewpoint called Angels Rest. Then I would veer up and take the Devils Rest trail to the top of that peak and loop back around toward the way I had come in while exploring a few other trails that called to us. I enjoyed some of the trail names in the area....clearly on a floral theme. There was the Foxglove Trail, the Lilly Trail and the Primrose Trail. On the way there, we found ourselves in the fog and enjoyed true peace and solitude. Following this fluffy behind added to my view.
While the Wolf could shake her coat and expel all the water almost instantly to stay dry, poor little Nova was getting wetter and dirtier as we went along. We couldn't stop or she would get cold, so we tried to keep moving at all times. Just before leaving the top of Angels Rest and heading for Devils Rest, we had a few decent views peaking out at us! But mostly we were in the clouds with the angels.
I knew that I should probably stop to eat something warm now that we were about halfway through our hike, but with the pouring rain, I couldn't bear to drop my pack and just stand in the downpour. So I did my best impression of gumby and reached around to the side pockets of my pack where I had some candy stashed. One of the Ladies at my work gave me some rather addicting home-made Christmas candy she called "Crack". Nothing like having an eighty year old Christian woman give you crack for your hike I say. Anyway, I gobbled it down and had such a burst of sugar coursing through my veins that I no longer needed to eat anything further. Thanks Gayle!
I did raid the treat bag that hung off my tactical belt and liberly gave out all the treats to Nova and Josie in lieu of their mealtime. We could do this while continuing to walk, so it worked well in the heavy rain. As we walked along, I realized that I liked the Devils Rest trail more than the Angels Rest trail. It was wider, dryer, higher and sent us up a climb at a gentle pace void of the normal feel of elevation gain. The trees were enchanting with little undergrowth. It seemed as if I could breathe more deeply on this trail than the previous one. In fact the trail even tried to woo us with mossy arches we could walk under. The very tree branches covered in moss made me feel that this was a primeval forest.
I laughed when I thought of the verses from Matthew where God tells me that the path to destruction is wide and broad. But the path to life is narrow and difficult and few find it. This Devils path was wide and broad and surely leading to destruction I thought! I must resist the ease with which the Devils Rest path was trying to pursue me. I can hike with angels and demons, but in the end, I really want to only be with the angels. This brought to mind some lyrics from an Aaron Lewis song about Angels and Demons where he says, "One is straight from Heaven and one's sent from Hell.....and both of them love you when no one else will. It's funny how pleasure and pain are one and the same." Ah, such true words.
Right now pleasure and pain were one and the same for me too. The pleasure of watching darkness fall on the Devils Rest trail over the mossy trees and ferns was mixed with the pain in my feet. Since last week's hike where I shredded the skin off the back of my left heel, I had not healed well. In fact, after five days of pain, I finally took off the three layers of bandages I had been wearing to get a better look and discovered that the damage was greater than skin deep. Once the inflammation was down, I could see that I had a hole in the ligaments beneath the skin creating a donut on the back of that heel which kept filling with fluid. My body was clearly unconsciously overcompensating for this on the 14 mile walk today and my right heel spurs were now flaring up from the extra pounding on that side. I was wearing neoprene ankle braces under my socks today along with more bandages, but the pain was wearing me down, mentally and physically. Chronic pain is no fun and I felt like I was at war with my own body. I will win I told her.....so suck it up.
Josie distracted me from my pain and dark thoughts with her signal that she smelled human. I call it her "Fee Fi Fo Fum....I smell the blood of an Englishman" signal. She moved off trail and showed me a pair of nice sunglasses laying in the dirt and ferns in the dark. I smiled. That Wolf can find anything touched by human hands! It didn't matter that those glasses had been rained on for who knows how long. Never underestimate a Wolf I say! She would be a wicked search and rescue dog if she could be trusted not to eat some of the humans she found.
As I kicked on my flashlights to continue our hike after dark, I soon saw a trail sign that caught my attention. It was probably the cutest trail sign I have encountered and I had to of course take the She-Devil path and see what it was all about! This led to a rocky outcropping which probably had views in the light of day, but it was a little creepy in the dark and murky clouds I will admit! I later read that it is reported there are gnomes living under the boulders there. We did not see any in the dark unfortunately.
Eventually, we decided we needed to begin our circling descent down 3000 feet of elevation. I chose one of the many side trails to make a loop hike, but quickly learned it was not well traveled and unmaintained. We climbed over tree after tree and worked hard to identify the trail through the overgrown brush in the dark. Nova took the lead and before long we were back at the spring and working our way down to the landslide in the dark. We did find the waters running higher and faster than when we hiked in. More water was gushing down the trail itself and at times I worried that the trail would be obliterated by the high waters and block our way down the ravine that led to our truck. If that happened, I reasoned we could climb back to the top of this ravine and then try another farther east. But it would add a lot of miles.
Luckily we made it, although I had very, very wet boots by the end. At times the water was running deeper than the tops of my boots, causing cold waters to flood down into my socks. The good news is that this cold water then numbed the pain in both of my feet and strangely made me feel more comfortable for the remaining miles, despite the squishing.
When we arrived at the truck, looking and feeling like drowned rats, we stripped down to our birthday suits to try to get into dry clothes. But sadly, it was raining so hard that despite my moving quickly, the dry clothes became soaked themselves. I gave up and just hopped in the driver's seat. I cranked the heat on and checked my temperature. I was only 94 degrees, so not bad at all despite having been wet and clammy to the skin for hours. I filled the girl's bowls with the supper they should have eaten on the trail and gave it to them in the back seat. As my seat warmer soothed my tired backside, I pulled out my thermos of hot noodles I had for today. I turned my new Chris Stapleton CD on in my stereo and watched long, slow trains moving along the Columbia River just below where I was parked in the dark as I ate. If there was one thing I knew in that moment, it was that there could not possibly be any 5-star restaurant on the planet where I would rather be than in my truck with heated seats, hot noodles, a country crooner and my girls now snoozing behind me. Besides no fancy restaurant would have the adorable little mouse running around the garbage can in the parking lot that I was watching I thought. It was all divine. "Ah, the path is narrow," I thought. May I always walk the narrow and difficult path in this life! "Give me the crooked places." I whispered to God.
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