I woke up early, and stayed in bed late. It wasn’t a cold morning or anything, I’m just getting used to late starts. There was no hurry to be anywhere.
Soon enough, the trail reminded me that I was making progress, though.
The trail started with conifer-laden views of Mt. Hood, but quickly descended to lush creek valleys.
The valley was part of the Eagle Creek Alternate, which followed a network of narrow creek valleys. These valleys have creeks in the bottom, and many tiny tributaries flow in across the trail.
I was gathering water from one such tributary, when who should appear but Elizabeth.
She’d also made a mistake counting mileage on the alternate, and was nowhere near as far from Cascade Locks as she thought. So we were hiking together again.
As we progressed along the valleys, everything got steeper.
Then, we reached the main attraction: Tunnel Falls.
The rest of the hike took us across several bridges, sometimes over very deep crevices.
The last stretch paralleled the freeway, which was surprisingly pleasant, considering.
As soon as we got into town, we had dinner at Thunder Mountain Brewing, a highly-rated brewpub on the river.
At last, we went over to the motel, and went to sleep. Altogether, I’d highly recommend the Tunnel Falls area to weekend backpackers — the scenery is terrific, there’s plenty of water, and nice campsites.
congrats on the progress! tunnel falls looks really beautiful, oregon is quickly moving up the destination list for me – wish i had taken more advantage of going up there when my uncle lived there.
also nice beard marcus, you’ve got the full mountain man look going now 😀
Such beautiful pics! So happy you and Elizabeth are continuing the magnificent adventure.
Elizabeth took great photos also, but you showed how a good camera makes a difference. The crispness, color, and sense of depth are all enhanced.