A Summit Day

I'm almost beginning to think I should rewrite the purpose of this blog to be: Hiking. ;) Seems like we're doing a lot of it, but its so enjoyable, it burns a ton of calories, and we're trying to soak up as much of the beautiful Oregon outdoors as possible now that we're back!

Yesterday was intended to be a long hike day, but instead we did one of the jaunts we've done before through Forest Park--which was 8.5 miles and we ran the last mile decline back to the car. We then had enough time to get home, shower, and grab some grub to run over to my aunt's for a BBQ with my extended family since Granny's been up here in town for the weekend!

So today we got up, grabbed our bags and headed out to Elk Creek Campground, which was where we'd intended to go yesterday. The guidebook (60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Portland) that I recently got the hub had said that Elk Mountain Summit was difficult, but since we've been doing some inclines and other "moderate" hikes, we thought it might be do-able. Ha! It was like a deer trail straight up--gorgeous views, but after 1/2 mile and with encroaching rain clouds hub decided it might be too dangerous for us today. (He might go back to do it again later, but I'm passing...)

These pictures are from the first part of today's hike, attempting Elk Mtn.

Since we still wanted a decent hike, we decided to hike along the Wilson River Trail (20.8 miles in length total, but just 3.5 miles to where the Kings Mtn Summit trail met it). Along the way it started raining and hub dug a poncho out of his pack for me and a coat for him. We crossed mini-waterfalls, bouncy log bridges, and enjoyed the scenery.

Wilson River Trail from Elks Creek Campground to Kings Mtn Summit trail:

This was a large meadow/clearing in the middle of the forest. It appeared to have a natural spring and some ponds--the type of site where you usually find old homesteads, but we didn't see any indications of any here at all.

Once we made it to the Kings Mtn Summit Trail hub decided we should go up it a bit to get in some extra mileage.....and between the two of us encouraging each other on, up was what we ended up doing for the next 2.5 miles. Luckily hub and I make great hiking partners, when one of us wants to quit the other encourages and we make sure to look out for each other on the trail. At one point, I definitely had to encourage myself to keep going as I have a partial fear of heights that seems to hit most frequently on rocky areas, but I'd seen some kids and older couples coming down the trail so I pulled together my stubborn nature and told myself that I could make it too. With hub's encouragement and just focusing on my feet, we kept going until we made it to the top where we signed the summit registry (approx 3300 ft).

Kings Mtn Summit Trail:

Then we got to turn around and head back down both the summit and the Wilson River Trail, although we ran about 2 miles total of this today. Altogether we made it 13.9 miles and the views were gorgeous! We're hoping to eventually go back to overnight backpack the entire 20 miles of the Wilson River Trail.

Not too bad for two days on a long weekend together. Hope each one of you had a great weekend too!