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Yesterday we went to Vernonia for Salmon Days and then to Elk Mountain for our first Difficult Hike.
We were beginning to hike Elk Mountain by 3 o'clock, which is pretty late.
We knew we would climb 1900 feet in only 1.6 miles which meant VERY STEEP climbs. Our usual, moderate, hikes are 2.5 miles long with a climb of 1450. So...it was hard. So hard.
It is impossible to express our frustration and anger and exhaustion. The best way to describe the hike is to tell you that I said, "This hike is a fart" several times.
I put one foot in front of the other. And again. And again. And again. It was steep the whole way.The summit. I am at the box that holds a hikers' log. We put the date, our names and "Done." No gushing paragraphs about how great and worth it the hike was.A picture of our first time by. Our second time by it was much darker. We tried to take the long loop around, back to the beginning. After an hour of getting nowhere and hearing rustling we turned around to go down the way we came. We used the back of the camera screen for light and kept talking so as not to be too scared. We have arrived at the beginning! Water has been drunk with abandon. We reach the car safe and sound, change our clothes, drive home quietly. Once at home, we shower, I start a load of laundry to clean the dirt of the day off, and I climb straight into bed.