24 Aug 2017 - Graham
previously: lassen volcanic national park
The Columbia River Gorge is truly a must-see landscape. I wasn’t planning to see it. Thankfully, Portland friends dragged me my first weekend in town to Lost Lake near Hood River so I could experience the awe first-hand. And, thankfully, I realized that I, the solo traveler without a schedule or commitments able to sleep on couches, should probably be the one to make the drive to visit some dear friends with two young children and jobs and septic issues, rather than making them drive the 7 hours roundtrip in a single day during the work week. Anyways, that’s how I ended up driving last Thursday from Portland to Kennewick, Washington.
For some reason, I thought Starvation Ridge sounded like the most appealing sounding hike along the route. To be fair, the full title of the hike is “Starvation Ridge Waterfall Loop.” And the trailhead has free parking and is right off of the highway.
The directions from the Outdoor Project were a bit imprecise, as they often are. So I ended up taking a wrong turn and doing the loop backwards. But that mistake resulted in a much more fun and rewarding hike because I did lots of steep, gravelling scrambling on the way up rather than on the way down. Plus, getting a little lost is fun! And I had saved a map of the hike and was never really lost. And I had packed plenty of snacks.
The views of the Gorge were as incredible as promised. As I came around the curves of the trail, the stiff wind and steep drop-off to the river below reminded me of my fear of heights. But that fear is turning into a pleasant sort of thrilling fear, rather than an existential dread.
The final waterfall, Lancaster Falls, was so impressive and the heat so oppressive, that I decided to take a quick skinny dip. It was, if I do say so myself, a bold decision. And so I decided to capture my boldness via my phone camera’s timer setting. I wouldn’t usually share nudie pics on the internet, but the picture turned out pretty darn well. Avert your eyes if you don’t want to see butts…
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