July 8th, 2014
Portland and hanging around with Lynda an extra day were well-deserved. Lynda had left me some guide books to look over, and I opted to do a 12-mile o/b waterfall hike in the Gorge area, the Larch Mountain Trail hike as described in the "Best Hikes with Dogs Oregon" book by Ellen Bishop. There were some great ideas in that book and I wanted a challenging hike. Hiking Hood would have been what I would have done, but not with Sadie.
The Larch Mountain Trail hike starts from a high parking lot and descends six miles to the lowest overlook. That part was easy; getting back up was more taxing! I also made the mistake of procrastinating at her home for a few hours, instead of taking off at 7am to get there by 8am. I didn't leave her house until 9:30am.
I got stuck in an hour-long traffic jam when an ODOT van tore an electric cable that fell across the interstate. Traffic came to a crawl and then stopped. It was just my luck I was the first vehicle in line; I saw the last few vehicles race over that downed cable before ODOT firefighters closed off the interstate. Walkers and cyclists along the bike trail adjacent to the interstate were also forbidden from crossing over the downed cable. A worker told me that they can't let any more vehicles cross over until an electrician confirms that the cable is not live. The media were at the scene before the electrician, so perhaps my DOGHUIS made the nightly news. That knocked-down cable kept most of east Portland without electricity for over 12 hours. I wasn't too upset as I had food and water with me, and made sure the senior Golden Retriever a few cars down had some, too. Truckers kept their refrigerated goods cold by keeping their engines running and many people opened their car doors to let in cool air. I chatted with the woman in the lane next to me. I saw no tempers flair. That's the part that should have made the local news!
This delay caused our hike start to get delayed. We didn't get to the trail head until 11:25am. I had estimated this hike to take us six hours, and I knew this late start would get me back to Lynda's later. We were the first cars at the parking lot.
Most people who hike the Larch Mountain trail start this at the lower end, at the Multnomah Falls Lodge, located right off Historic US30. After a mile of uphill hiking, they reach the upper falls, and then go back to their cars for a decent 2.6-mile hike that never leaves the falls. Starting at the upper trail head provides for a more quiet, people-free start. The lodge from here is 6.8 miles one-way. I opted to just hike down to the upper part of the famed Multnomah Falls, cutting off .8 miles to avoid the touristy, loud crowd.
The trail goes to the left of the toilets, past a picnic area of forgotten tables and moss-covered signs, before it slowly descends. It's an easy forest walk at this point, walking under tall pines and wildflowers as it meanders downhill and crosses over an old lava rock slide. I didn't bring extra water for Sadie because I figured she would drink from the creek, so when I finally did hear gurgling water noises, I was relieved. The creek appears at almost three miles into this hike at the first footbridge, a modified log. Sadie crossed this bridge and the steel one shortly after this one, with ease. We met three diehard hikers who had started at the lower trail head and made the upper trail head their destination, but we were to ourselves on this stretch. Sadie was off-leash and enjoying the walk. There were several trail junctions where hikers can see other falls, but we stayed on the main trail.
Once I reached the creek, the scenery changed. I was now parallel to Multnomah Creek, surrounded by an array of wildflowers and big raspberries and impressive rock formations. I picked many of the deep orange berries, knowing they weren't quite ripe yet. The tart juices gave me a bit of a zing. Sadie drank the creek water, got her paws wet, and continued on downhill with me. These last few miles truly were beautiful, with various small or dramatic falls along the way. Trees were overhanging the slopes as if reaching for sunlight. Birds twittered, butterflies pranced around the creek, and a cool mist covered my skin. I stopped many times to gaze at my surroundings, understanding quite well why anyone would want to seek out this hike for solitude, beauty, and awe. And I hadn't hit the main falls yet!
I didn't hit the masses of people until into the 4th mile. The many falls became prominent, and the trail either widened or became muddy from the mist. I had to put Sadie back on her leash, much to her chagrin. For a while I even rested at Ecola Falls so that she could rest a bit. Here young people pranced around in their swim wear under the falls. I continued down the trail as more people were coming uphill. Parts of the trail here were muddy from the mist and quite slippery; making this a rather treacherous section as the trail had nothing stopping anyone from falling over the cliff. I made the Upper Multnomah Falls my turn-around point. This was an overlook to the dizzying falls below, where most of the people walked up to before turning around. What the start of the trail had in solitude, this turn-around point had in crowds and noise. I didn't stay long.
The return hike was much more tiring, and I tired out faster than expected. I stopped a few times to rest, and couldn't be any happier to see the van again at 5pm! An RV was next to us, with a little girl speaking with a French accent wanting to pet Sadie, who didn't want the girl near her and jumped back into the van. Other people were also parked here to view the vista from Sheppard's Overlook, the summit of Larch mountain. I was too tired and hungry to do that.
Getting back to Lynda's wasn't easy, either. I was in rush hour, got confused with the exits, and got home two hours later! She had been waiting for me.
"Ready to eat?" she asked me.
"Yes, and I'm paying!" I said, to make up for her hospitality. She took me to an eclectic section to have me try the many "food carts" in the area. Lynda likes Asian cuisine, but the cart (I call them food vendors) were closed. We ended up eating at a German restaurant, Prost! because it had outside seating for the dogs. We joined two men sitting at a long table, Donovan and Steve. Steve came from Germany ("My mother named me Steve because she was a big fan of Steve McQueen!") and Donovan had served in Germany during his army years and developed a liking for soccer while there. There were many people sitting in the back, still discussing the unbelievable 7-1 Germany win over Brazil in the World Cup. I had completely forgotten about the World Cup today, but we saw highlights on the big screen TV. Both dogs sat quietly by our sides. Sadie was especially silent.
I ordered a simple curry wurst that came well-presented. I also had two beers. Lynda had a similar meal with non-alcoholic beer. My bill came to $40 for that. We didn't stay long to chat with the guys as we both were tired now and Lynda had to get up early for work.
This was my final day in Portland. I stayed up late again going over hiking guides for eastern Oregon. There is still so much to see and do here. Hopefully I can make it back here again.
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