Today, I am going to tell you a story about a hike with a trail-side birth, a tree of life, bones, lizards and snakes with long tongues. Scattered into this story will also be sunrises and sunsets, a flower memorial and the perfect wedding photo if a wolf was ever to get married.
It was the hike before Memorial Day Weekend and I planned to backpack to a place I had never spent the night at before. One year ago this week, Nova and I did our very last hike alone together. This is because it was just days after that hike that Josie the Wolf joined our family and hiking pack. On that hike a year ago, the wildflowers were truly outstanding and I got some of my favorite photos of Nova with Balsamroot and Lupine flowers. So I figured, this was the week to take both girls to spend the night in paradise to commemorate this anniversary special only to us. What I did not know on the long climb to our intended bivvy site was that with the 5 days of over 90 degree temperatures this month and massive winds off this cliff side trail, the flowers were pretty well decimated. It was what I call the Forest Gump effect. I thought it would be perfect, only to prove that with flowers, I never know what I am going to get. I struggled with the disappointment of the beauty we were missing, but pushed myself to focus on other joys. Coming up the trail late in the day for a backpack, we were completely alone in a gorgeous eastern Gorge location that would normally be crowded. Josie found her joy pretty quickly when she discovered a small pelvis with lower vertebrae attached. The bone collector was surely in her element once again.
We focused on the beauty of this trail. Most of this footpath traverses open grassy meadows with views all around. Occasionally it meanders through small stands of Oak trees. The sun was out with blue skies all around. It truly was what every hiker longs for (minus all the ticks!). Miles and miles stretched out before us as we came in on the long approach, starting on an alternate trail and then connecting over to a different series of trails. There are so many paths beckoning to your boots here that it can truly be a maze and feels like a chose your own adventure. It took me many, many hikes over the span of a couple of years to have explored every trail here. I love them all and can't really pick a favorite, but I often do a figure 8 loop that takes me through the best of the best. Let me show you some of the trail views on this hike!
As we were climbing up the final push to our intended campsite for the night, we were hiking a very cliff-side trail. There is a huge expansive cliff system here with at least 300 foot drops off the steep side. The trail, gets very close to this drop and the winds always whip fiercely through here making you feel that at any moment you will be dashed to your death on the rocks below. In fact, lower down the trail from where we were climbing toward our camp, there is a plaque commemorating a young man who did fall to his death here. Not something that exactly instills confidence in hiking the cliff side path, but the beauty of it is unmistakable.
Just as we summited the top of our cliff-side shelf and were anxious to set up camp for the night, we found a new friend who startled us coming out of the grass as he was clearly heading right for our campsite. Well great minds obviously think alike I thought. Our new friend appeared to be a large Bull Snake, but I had to check his tail to be sure. I was surprisingly able to distract Josie and keep her behind me while I examined our new friend to make sure he was not a Rattlesnake. While Bull Snakes do absolutely strike at you (I have gotten two to strike at me in very exilerating moments!!), and they do hurt, they are not venomous. What I could not get over though was that this guy was incredibly long for having such a tiny head and skinny body. Most of the Bull Snakes I have found are much larger in diameter. This guy was also much more docile than the others, but that was also probably because I was not pushing him since I knew the Wolf would grab him in an instant if he made a noise or moved too quickly. Nova was actually the first to get to see him....or should I say her shadow said hello first?
Once I knew this friend was not venomous, I let Nova stand next to him. But she kept a close eye on him! I estimated that he was about 4 foot in length. What was funny was that his tongue was super long too....just like his body!!
After he crossed the path and went into some other tall grass on the other side.....the grass may indeed be greener on the other side in this case.....I realized that if I set up camp where I had planned, the snake and I would be sharing our bivvy site. That meant that I would need to worry all night long about Josie finding him and trying to grab him. But it also meant that his desire to seek heat during the night would mean that he could slither into the sleeping bag with Nova and I at any time. While I do love snakes, I have to draw a line at spooning with a 4 foot Bull Snake in a sleeping bag! So I decided to change the location of our camp slightly. Somehow, dropping down only about 100ft to a lower cliff-side ledge seemed like a better plan. Realistically, the snake could easily have come that far, but I felt better for it. Besides, I told myself, the views to the east would actually be better in the new camp location. We found a few decent bunches of flowers to pose with as we searched for that new campsite.
Eventually, I found an almost perfect circle of dying Balsamroot blooms that beckoned me to sleep in their vacant center. They would act as our shelter and wind break, such as they were. Despite my disappointment that they were not still in full beautiful golden blooms, I wanted to spend time to thank them for their flowering season and honor them. With doing about 60 hikes a year, I know I may only get Balsamroot for 2 or 3 of those hikes. I made sure to give them a moment of silence as part of their memorial service and told them I would come see them earlier next year in their full splendor.
The girls were tired after all our miles of hiking and anxious to bed down for the night. So we laid down and while they napped, I read until sunset arrived. I was facing with my feet to the west and my head to the east. When I looked south, I could see Mt. Hood and the Columbia River smiling at us. It was beautiful and all other hikers had clearly headed home for the night. We were going to have it all to ourselves! Magical! Yes, I was eating an orange and saltine crackers for dinner. Don't judge me. Turns out the wolf really likes crackers too! If it makes you feel any better, I did have 3 strips of red licorice for dessert, which I did not share.
I was still reading the book about the guy who hiked the entire coastline of the UK and was just to the part when he had hit Scotland in winter. His descriptions of how cold and wet and miserable he was had me putting on my long pants, and two extra hoodies I had brought with me. As the wind picked up in the evening hours where I was, I also added my stocking cap, gloves and put Nova's night time hoodie on her too. It was funny that we were surely feeling colder than it was just by reading his hiking experiences in Scotland's winter conditions!
But what was most impactful in that moment was reading why Christian Lewis felt so called to hike. "It was the culmination of a lifetime's desire to seek real adventure and experience a connection with the wilderness and the wildlife that inhabits it. I wanted to be away from the white noise of modern life and embrace untouched nature for what it really was. I wanted to feel free and undo the shackles of society. The wilderness was just the place to find out who I really was, what I was made of...." I had surely found a kindred spirit in this author!!! Later when he adopted a dog on the trail and they hiked together, he described how his bond to her was unlike any relationship he had ever had with any human. He truly understood what it is to love a dog! To read his words while laying on my sleeping bag watching sunset with my girls and feeling such a connection to someone on the other side of the world, gave me hope for humanity yet.
When the night sky came out, the stars were brilliant. Just this week I heard someone say that dogs don't look up and watch stars like humans do. I have to beg to differ! I have seen both of my girls watch the stars! Meteors certainly attract their attention. I have also watched them both come up to a vista and stop to visually scan in all directions to take in the views before them. I can see that they clearly become awestruck by views. They also seem to love sunrises and sunsets. You can never convince me that my girls don't enjoy views and beauty just like I do. In fact, sometimes I have to drag them away from a viewpoint to keep hiking as they often want to enjoy the sights even longer than I do.
Despite strong winds hammering our cliff-side camp, we stayed pretty warm. I did have 2 of my rechargeable sleeping bag heaters with me. I set one off around 8pm and the other at around 2am. At one point when Nova was out of the sleeping bag at 3am, she started to shiver. But as soon as I tucked her back inside she was fine. We slept fairly well all things considered. I will admit that my sleeping pad kept losing air during the night and did leave me laying uncomfortably on the hard ground. This happened the last time we used it too and I was hoping it was a fluke. Clearly I need to consider replacing this pad before my next overnight trip. The snake never came to join us like a heat seeking missile in the night, but I did find a tick in my hair if that counts for anything.
I awoke to pale light filling the sky to my East. Sunrise was finally here! I quickly put my boots on and grabbed my camera so we wouldn't miss a moment. I felt like I had awakened in the Serengeti. It would not have surprised me in the least to have a lion walk by us.
It was just before 5am, but we started to pack up camp and set out breakfast. The girls were thirsty, so I was glad I had extra water with me. This hike has 2 creek crossings, but both were pretty far away from where we were. I had over 4 liters of water with us on this trip, so I knew we would be fine until we made it to the first creek on our hike out. As I was taking sunrise pictures, Josie decided she had had enough and didn't want to do any more photo shoots. She is funny about pictures in the morning. I think she is just not really a morning wolf. People often ask me how I know what my girls are saying. Well they are both pretty clear in their communications. This time I got pictures of Josie's photo shoot tantrum. Can't you just hear her begging...."pleeeeassse, noooo more pictures!!!! I juuuusssttt can't bear it!!!!"
As we hiked out not seeing a soul at this early hour of the day, we were instead stirring up all the lizards on the trail. These little guys scurry like lightening and give Josie the time of her life. She adores them and wanted nothing more than to catch one! She almost did several times, but they seemed to always be just a tick faster than her! This one sat in a tree and taunted her. Oh, how she wanted to climb that tree!
We continued on the winding and twisting trail through the meadows and oak trees enjoying the feeling of the early morning sun. You can almost taste the birth of the new day in those early morning rays. Somehow the sun just feels different at that time of day on the trail. It is as if all my hopes and dreams are still possible when I am hiking during sunrise. The world is full of joy. love and such potential. You can even smell the awakening of the earth at this hour and I adore every moment of it! All the song birds for miles around were singing for joy as well! How I talked to God and thanked him for each moment of this backpacking trip!
Before long we came to signs of a new trail-side birth. At my feet was a delicate and tiny blue egg shell. One of the song birds had a new baby today! I hoped that the little guy or gal would live a long and happy life here among the trees and flowers.
As the sun continued to rise on the horizon, I came to a tree that paralyzed me. It truly looked and felt as if it should be called the Tree of Life! It made me think of the verse in Revelations 2:7:
To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life in the Paradise of God.
I contemplated what it means to God for us to overcome for the miles ahead of me as we continued to head to the truck at the trailhead down by the river. I needed to get to work, and the clock was sadly ticking by faster and faster as I found myself procrastinating leaving this beautiful place to go back to those normal "shackles of society". But before we reached the trailhead, I found a place that was surely made for taking wedding photos. The wolf was no longer feeling self conscious about her early morning photo shoot and volunteered to pretend she was the bride next to the giant oak tree among the flowers here. If only I had a veil for her I thought!
Since I took over 800 photos on this hike, I will once again share a few of my other favorites here with you. Most of these are of Nova when Josie was refusing to be a photo star! Of course Nova never turns down a chance to be photogenic!
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