Wahkeena

This was the intended hike last week when we hit the gorge and saw the haze that would make Angels rest and the view point a nice view of clouds.  Jay has been here before when hiking in the gorge and remembered Fairy falls and wanted to go back.  This week we headed out a bit earlier to Wahkeena falls, the last stop before Multnomah and since our trail map survived last week we didn't have to return to visitors center to get another where a nice volunteer would tell us we should try yet another trail that would leave me in agony... it took me until Wednesday to walk normally last week. No really, my calves and I were not on speaking terms.

From the road you'd think this place was rather unremarkable for a waterfall, lovely rapids but not much of a change in elevation unless you look all the way back in the shot.  We'll be there after a few switch backs and a lot of me stopping to take needless pictures to pretend I wasn't out of breath.

The first stretch was actually not that bad if you take the elevation out of it. Its smooth and paved and a pretty steep climb, the climb was also much longer than last week which did not bode well for my wimpy legs.

This is just before the first bridge and the highest point of the falls visible from the road.  From anything I can find on Wahkeena the entire stretch from the spring is considered part of the waterfall but may points appear more like heavy rapids.  We had our first set of switch backs to climb approximately 600ft in about a half a mile, happily also paved until we get to the first big split in the trails.

Near the top there was a view point dedicated to a fire fighter who lost his life fighting fires in the area with a beautiful view of the Columbia.

From the viewpoint we had approximately 200ft more to climb in some easier grade along the falls. Several bridges like the one in this shot and finally we turn a bend in the trail to Fairy Falls

This was actually pretty low in volume for the falls at this time of year but as it cascades over the rock face it gives the appearance of a lot more water.  Good thing too, you'll see the 'bridge' in place to help cross the water here on the bottom right of the shot.

From fairy falls we had another half mile to get to the spring, mostly through forested area covered in moss and ferns.

The spring was calm and quiet by comparison, the water coming up from the ground and moving swiftly to the point where it hits the elevation change and picks up more speed.

This was the first point below the spring I could get a descent picture, darn trees in the way.  This was an out and back trail so from the spring we headed back.  We were nearly tricked by some misleading trail signs into going to Devil's rest, the sign said .4 miles to Devil's rest.  After consulting my map and then looking at the opposing sign which someone had written in the word trail we realized it was .4 to the trail itself and still another few miles to Devil's rest. We headed up to Multnomah and ended it with a lovely snack from the lodge hehe

I think I got a bit carried away with the ketchup here, but I was starving even with a sandwich and snacks on the trail nom.

More pics are in the Flickr albums and at some point I will figure out how to map the trip on Every map since we haven't invested in any sort of a GPS device.