The Hike with Emma

Hiking Trip with Emma August 14, 15 & 16^th 2008.

I got up after 3.5 hours sleep at 4:20am. Emma got up earlier as she took her shower in the morning. We left the house around 6am and drove for about an hour to the trailhead. Emma took photos of the Columbia River Gorge as we drove. I steered while she took them. Got to the trailhead and then drove back to park the car where it was safer (according to the signs posted). We put on our packs and walked back to the trailhead (just under a mile) I tried to get accustomed to carrying 30 lbs on my back! Emma’s pack was 45 lbs. We passed the bridge to Tanner Creek Trail and continued alongside Eagle Creek until we got to the trailhead.

We climbed the trail crossing lots of wooden bridges and seeing lots of waterfalls. The trail at points had sheer drops on one side and so there were handrails of rope and chains. I listened to my i-pod and Emma would go far ahead of me. I’d catch up when she stopped to take photos. She took photos of all the waterfalls. There was Mecca waterfall first. After that waterfall we crossed the river using the giant round stepping stones. We hiked down a steep side trail about ½ mile and saw Lower Punchbowl Falls . We hiked back to the main trail and continued on. Then we saw the waterfall that is on the temple movie ( Punchbowl Falls ). Emma went under the barrier to hike closer for a better picture. We enjoyed hiking through forested areas. The sun was shining through the trees. We found out later that it was 102 degrees in Portland that day. The next day would be 100 degrees! The trail passed by a hillside of rocks with a sheer drop again. Saw our 4^th waterfall. We came to a chasm with a narrow path along the cliffside. Very impressive. Got to the 5^th waterfall and Emma climbed down to get the photo while I waited with Lucy ( Emma’s golden retriever)

Hiked over more bridges and a trail that was blasted through rock. We came to our 6^th waterfall and then our 7^th which was Tunnel Falls . We got to go under the waterfall through a tunnel. You get dripped on in the tunnel and then you get sprayed at the other side of the tunnel. Further up the trail we came to Twister Falls . The waterfall splits in two around the rocks and then comes together again. Lucy went out into the water to drink and stood on the very edge of the waterfall scaring Emma to death. Our 9^th waterfall was a short way before we got to 7 ½ mile camp, our intended destination for that day. The laces on my trainers had kept loosening and so now I had a sore front calf muscle just above the ankle. It was only 11:30am and Emma wanted to keep hiking as she said, “What will we do all day otherwise?” I said I’d change into my sandals and after our lunch break see how I my leg felt. Of course we hiked on! I packed my i-pod away at this point. Emma left me in the dust and I didn’t see her for a while. She was worried that I’d miss the trail switchback and so whistled and yelled to me across a chasm so that I could see which way to go. That was the last I saw of her for hours.

Further past the switchback, I came across another baby waterfall head, and then it seemed the trail came to an end. I thought I must have missed the proper trail. I hiked back to the switchback and yelled for Emma, but she was long gone. I felt totally alone and lost. I decided that I must have gone the right way as there was no other trail, so hiked back again to where the trail had seemed to come to an end. After careful scrutiny realized the trail did continue at the other side of several fallen trees. I was hurting in my hips, shoulders and back but my leg was no longer a problem. That pack was heavy!

When I came to a fork in the trail and saw a walking stick propped against the tree (where there was a sign post) I felt like angels had left it for me in answer to my prayers. It turned out it was Emma that had been the angel. She also left me an arrow made of wood pointing the way to go in case I didn’t see the sign, but I didn’t notice the arrow. I was very pleased to finally come upon Emma and Lucy. Emma said that she had been sitting there for an hour and twenty minutes waiting for me. It was at a confusing part of the trail where you had to cross a waterfall, and she didn’t want me to get lost. She had been sitting singing to the squirrels and chipmunks like Snow White heh! heh!

We crossed the waterfall. Emma had watched some guys take forever to cross it earlier. She discovered why when we made our effort. My walking stick came in handy for both or us at this point. The trail kept on going through swampy parts. I got left behind again. At one point I was yelling for Emma again as it seemed like this couldn’t be the trail? It was like being in the middles of the jungle. Some guys came from the opposite direction and I said “Oh this IS the trail then?” They looked at me like I was mad and said “the trail to Wahtum Lake ?” On my assent they said “yes it is”. Emma had passed messages through these hikers and others that she was 10 minutes or so in front, and that there was about another hour hike to the lake. I thought “oh no that’s probably 2 hours for me going as slow as this”. I couldn’t go any faster as I was hurting from the backpack, especially my hips. I should have done some training hiking with a backpack. I had to just keep on putting one foot in front of the other. I had my bear bell attached to my right sandal and the ring of the bell made the slow pace as I worked my way up and up and up. It felt like it would never end. I went through spooky trees and thought how glad I was to have the bear bell to keep bears away. Eventually I met Emma at 5pm at the lake which was spectacular but lost to my appreciation at that moment. All I wanted was to be able to rest. Emma had waited for me to choose a camping spot as there was a fork in the trail, one going away from the lake and the other going around the lake. We walked a bit further and chose our camping spot. It was free camping as it was primitive. Emma put our tent up and we made camp. We both jumped in the lake into the icy water to help heal the hurts. We weren’t in there for long as it was too cold! Then we used our water filter, a great device, and got our water from the lake to use to make our dinner. Our camping stove, pot and dehydrated food turned dinner into a gourmet dining experience. Emma did the dinner and desert and make a fire in the pit. She was on the ball alright. J We ate lasagna by Natural High (I wou ld highly recommend this) and had raspberry crumble for desert. We crashed at 8:15pm after hanging all the food and toiletries in a tree away from our tent just in case of bears. The same guys that Emma saw take forever to cross the waterfall were camped further along the lakeshore and were very loud. At one point while we were sleeping some even walked through our comp talking with flashlights in hand. It was so wonderful to be able to lie down and go to sleep though. Lucy slept in the tent with us. I slept as well as if I had been at home. We got up very early when the sun was not yet up, but it was light. The sight was breathtaking when we came out of the tent and saw the lake and treed mountains, with the sun about to rise between the mountains. I washed my shirt in the lake and hung it on a tree to dry. It was the best cover-up I had and I knew that our next camp was to be mosquito infested. Emma made breakfast. We had scrambed eggs and bacon and hot chocolate. Yum! Dehydrated food is amazing.. We cleared our camp and packed our backpacks, and after a quick family prayer we were on our way again. We set off at 8:45am and hiked up a VERY steep trail to the top of Mount Ch---- Took lots of photos. The trail had been treacherous in some areas because of climbing on shale, but it was a beautiful view at the top. Very windy too. I was more used to my backpack despite some sore areas (hips and shouldrs) Emma was sore too. As we hiked down from the mountain I was looking forward to hiking to Hunter’s Camp 6.3 miles away. We hiked through forests where sometimes we’d have to get under or over fallen trees. We had had to do that the day before too and I found my stick most helpful, even at times essential (I would have been stuck or would have fallen and been injured without my trusty stick). Needless to say I had it with me on the way to Hunter’s Camp too! We took photos as we hiked rocky areas with beautiful views. We were on the Pacific Crest Trail that goes from Mexico to Canada . We met a man who asked us if we were hiking the whole trail. Ha ha!! I DON’T think so!! When we told him the hike we were doing, we found out he and his group were doing the same hike. We hit an area of the trail that went straight up and was infested with mosquitoes. We had met a group of men who took one look at Emma’s bare arms and shoulders and asked if we had any deet? We already had deet on, applied at our earlier camp, but later on applied more as were being swarmed! We followed the Ruckle Creek trail and tried to find Hunter’s Camp. We sat down in a forest at a seeming camp place but no signs to tell us that this was indeed Hunter’s Camp. So unbeknownst to us at that time we left it behind to continue hiking. When we realized our mistake we had already hiked down some very steep terrain and didn’t want to go back. Our plan was to hike to the nearest water spot and to camp there and make lunch. We never made lunch as unfortunately there was not water on this entire trail. It was steep, hard on legs, dangerous in places. Both of us slipped more than once. I bent my hand right back when I fell once and was glad it didn’t break my wrist. Emma had blisters on her little toes and cracked pinky toe nails which slowed her down considerably for a while and kept her from leaving me in the dust. We ran out of water half way down the trail. Emma was very worried about Lucy who was having a hard time and even whining, so she stepped up her pace despite the pain and was even running in safer parts of the trail. I got left behind again and we kept in touch by whooping back and forth to each other. I was totally dying as my legs were killing me. The trail continued switch backing down and you had the constant fear of slipping on the eroded dusty trail. There were open areas with the hot sun beating on you (100 degrees) and then shaded treed areas where you counted your blessings. After hiking down a mountain of shale, grunting painfully and slowly down one step at a time, I met Emma sitting in the shade of a tree with Lucy. She had been worried she was going to have to carry Lucy (70 pound Golden Retriever) so had decided to give her a rest in the shade, even though the dog really needed water. She said that she felt like one of the hobbits trying to get to Mount Doom and if she had had to carry Lucy she would have felt like Sam when he was carrying Frodo. That pretty well sums up what that leg of the hike was like J Some hours later when we could hear the river we all picked up the pace despite our hurts. The photo Emma took of my face when were in the middle of the difficult steep descending trail, says it all. You can see the pain and exhaustion on my face. When we got to the river we filtered water and drank and drank. Lucy lay in it and I sat in it and Emma soaked her feet in it. There was no place to put the tent so we decided to hike back to the car which was ½ mile away. We drove to the beginning of the Eagle Creek trail (where we started) and made dinner. It was about 7pm. Emma made 3 different dinners

and a dessert. I managed 1 dinner and 2 spoonfuls of another and 2 spoonfuls of dessert. I was too exhausted to eat. Amazing for me! Then we set up the tent and went to bed about 9pm. Wonderful, wonderful sleep! About 1am we heard people coming down from Eagle Creek trail (that’s where we saw all the waterfalls) and marveled that people would be mad enough to do it in the middle of the night. Saturday morning we got up at 6am and started to put the tent away. Lucy was dismayed to think that we were going to do more hiking and so she got into the tent and lay down refusing to budge. Emma took a photo of her with the tent dismantled on top of her. Poor dog she was walking very stiffly just like Emma and I J I wrote this and Emma looked through the photos we had taken to jog our memories as I wrote. We had planned to do the hike in 4 days but ended up doing it in 2. Emma made our breakfast and then we packed the car and headed for Portland .

our time at Peter and Lisa's house