Where Does Water Go When It Falls?

The last two weekends we have gone to the Columbia River Gorge for hiking and viewing of the many waterfalls in the area. Last week we went to Eagle Creek Trail. It was fantastic. We hiked about 5 miles in total and saw three different waterfalls. The trail goes much further but we were running out of time. Dad carried the backpack and it was pretty heavy for a day hike, about 40 pounds. We need to get used to carrying the back packs for when we go on longer hikes or begin actual backpacking and camping. The trail was very muddy as it had been raining for weeks but had stopped raining on Friday. Initially we weren't going to go as they had forecasted rain. We drove over and since it didn't look like rain, we decided to go ahead and hike. After hiking for a short while, we came to an area where it was a straight drop down to the river and the trail was very narrow. There was a steel cable to hold onto. The footing was a little loose but we went ahead anyway. This is something that would normally scare mom to death but we went ahead regardless. The water was coming over the top and getting us wet, while we held onto the cable, in the mud and loose footing. For the section we were on, the elevation went up approximately 400 feet over the course of our hike.

Since we had the backpack, we took the peak stove and made beef stir fry from one of the freeze dried meals that mom got for dad for Christmas. It was so good. We found a secluded spot, overlooking a waterfall, and boiled our water. It took so long to cool that we didn't eat it all until about 30 minutes later.

Once we hiked beyond the cable area, the mud basically went away and gave way to rocks so the hiking was much cleaner from that point on. We kept going until we reached Punchbowl Falls. It was very impressive. We first hiked to the bottom, that was the easy part. When we went to hike back up, we weren't sure we were going to make it. (We did). We ate the rest of our lunch at the bottom so we had extra energy to hike back up.

On the way, we found a little snow, not much, but a little. This was the only snow we saw all day.

We have decided to get a day pack to take on the shorter hikes and then mom can carry it on longer hikes while dad uses the backpack. We had a great time and were totally worn out when the day was done. We slept very well that night.

The next weekend, we were going to go back and hike more of the same trail. Dad had been in Denver on Thursday and Friday and didn't get back until very late on Friday. We slept in a bit. It was supposed to not be raining but it was. We waited to see if it would clear and finally decided to go anyway. It basically drizzled all day. We wanted to go to Larch Mountain and hike but we couldn't get there. We drove up the mountain road for several miles but finllay, the road was closed due to snow. We decided to go back down and just do the waterfall route. We started at Latourell Falls and hiked two to three miles on it in the drizzel. It was great.

We took a daredevil shortcut across the raging river. Supprisingly, mom wanted to go across the log below with little to nothing to hold onto. If we fell in, and couldn't get out quickly, we would end up going over the falls. As stated earlier, it was raining and the log was kind of slick. There wasn't much to hold onto. We went anyway. It was very thrilling!

We then drove to the next falls, Shepherds Dell. We took several photos but the video is the best to show this falls. There wasn't much of a trail on this one, it was just a couple hundred feet. Mom is so cute in the photo so it had to be included as well.

From here we headed to Bridal Veil Falls. We hiked a couple of miles here. The first hike was to the falls and back and then we hiked to an overlook of the Columbia River. It was pretty foggy by the time we got to the river but this was a pretty good shot.

The next stop is Wahkeena Falls. It is very close to Multnomah Falls (the biggest of all) so we hiked from Wahkeena to Multnomah. We had a close call on the way back. Dad was in front of mom and got a little too close to the edge and the dirt gave way. We were about a hunderd feet above the road. He didn't fall but it was scary! Wahkeena is a great fall and Multnomah is the best known because of it's height and easy access. We got a little wet at Multonomah!

From there we headed to Horsetail Falls and ended there. Dad had hurt his ankle earlier and it was getting sore so we decided to stop after this. He took it out the window. We didn't even get out of the car!

All we had for lunch was a bag of trail mix so we decided to splurge and go to McGrath's Fish House for dinner. We ate lots of crab and shrimp. It was soooo good and we slept so well.

We love and miss all of you.