Day 47: Latourell Falls to Hood River

August 7, 2014
Day 47
53 miles

Good morning form Lutomah Falls along the beautiful Colombia River Gorge!

Despite being on the road at 6:00 (to avoid a potential park ranger I thought might be coming around to unlock the bathrooms) I made terribly slow progress due to the frequency of worthwhile sightseeing opportunities. The first was Multonomah Falls, just a couple miles down from where I camped. I got there and ate breakfast before anyone else was there. 2 hours later this would not have been possible as vans, cars and tour buses spilled into the parking lot and flooded the sidewalks with bodies.

View of upper falls from the bridge.

I hiked up the path to the top of the falls to get this view. It's a 620 food drop for the waterfall.

On my way down, I met a spry old woman who I talked to. I found out that she was 79. All I have to say is she had the best pace of anyone I saw going up the 11 switchbacks. And she had a backpack, too! And she was going on an 11 mile loop. She told me I missed the best part. It was really inspiring to see someone her age being as active as she was. She still teaches backpacking and winter camping classes! I'm more and more convinced that you don't stop doing things because you get old, you get old because you stop doing things. Cool gal.

I made about 5 miles before I cam eto Oneota Gorge. This was buckets of fun to explore. I got to climb over these logs.

And after the logs it looks like this and you have to wade in the water.

And then it gets chest deep.



And if you go all the way back, you find a waterfall that has carved out a swimming hole.




I found it most fun to try and swim under the waterfall, turn onto my back, and then look up at the rock walls and the sky and the falls and the mist while the water pushes you back downstream. I did that several times until my body couldn't keep itself warm.

I give it two thumbs up.

 There were some other beautiful sights and parks along the way.

This was my general mood for the whole day.

I got the maps that I will be using!

And after turning south at Hood River, I caught some glimpses of Mt. Hood. This is as much as I could see before darkness forced me to seek camp in a ditch beneath a slow driver pull-out thing.