Cape Horn

7 mile loop
http://www.strava.com/activities/217034620?fb_action_ids=10101091922795005&fb_action_types=stravainc%3Arecord

Cape Horn isn't really a cape, strictly speaking. It's more of a cliff side mountain/plateau. On the east side is a big flat farmland, then you hit the cliff, and on top of Cape Horn is more farmland. It's one of the first major landmarks in the Columbia Gorge on the Washington side and one of the closest hikes to the Portland/Vancouver area. It's fairly non-descript and if the signs for the trailhead weren't so obvious most people would probably drive right by it and never stop, outside the one road pullout on HW 14.

But It is very well advertised, and the locals have found it. Cape Horn is a unique sort of hike for the area. Slightly different vibe to it. For one thing, it's a new hike. 10 years ago this hike was illegal, all on private land. The Friends of the Columbia Gorge purchased most of the land, and now the area is open to hikers. It feels like a new trail. All the bridges over creeks are fresh with no decay. Twice the trail goes underneath the highway in elaborate tunnels. It's very well signed. At many points along the path you pass through or close to private land. To top it all off, half the hike is closed from December through July for nature preservation (Peregrine falcon nesting area).

The hike itself has a lot of variety to the scenery. Most hikes in the gorge have a theme. Woodsy, isolated hike, waterfall hike, perilous cliff hike, mega mountain climbing hike, etc. Cape Horn has a little bit of it all in a fairly easy package, so it's a good hike for beginners.

This is the second time we've hiked Cape Horn. We did it last spring early on during the "closed" season on a very misty day. The experience this time was a lot different. I was holding off writing this entry till I did the whole loop, and now that we finally did it (In what will likely be our final big hike of the year) I'm excited to write it up, because Cape Horn gave us something great for a final sendoff.

You start in a parking lot just off Washington State HW 14, well labled and the entire place was jammed with cars. Cars everywhere, very different from the last time we came here. We found a spot on the street up the hill slightly and began our journey. The day was bright and sunny, but cool. It's likely going to be our last non-rainy weekend of the year, and it's during the one or two weeks in fall when the Columbia Gorge is in peak color.

The hike starts as an uphill climb through the woods. Here there are few evergreen trees, and the leaves littered the ground in the best way possible. You go up switchbacks (at a reasonable incline, enough to work the legs but not destroy you) for about 1.2 miles. There isn't much to see and you just slowly climb through the woods while you are able to see faint hints of the progress you make through the trees.

After the first mile you've climbed 700 feet and are more or less at the top. Soon there comes a sign that directs horses one direction and says "viewpoint" at the other. This is one of two close together viewpoints on the trail and probably the best overlook on the path. One spot on the cliff faces east and you get a great view of the valley between Horn and nearby Archer Mountain. The second spot, the "Fallen tree" overlook, gives you a better view of the river and the Oregon side of the gorge. You can spot Multnomah falls, Devils rest, Larch Mountain, Angels rest, and on good days you can see all the way to Wauna point and Munra Point. Mt. Hood is blocked by Larch and Beacon Rock/the Dam is blocked by Archer. It's still the best view on the hike, so we took our time.

Early spring trip

View east, archer mountain on our side of river

Big Leaf

Multnomah Falls

Cows

Past the viewpoints back on the trail you soon start drifting downhill into less woodsy territory and into the backwoods of a farm. You take a brief detour on a fire access road and then end up walking uphill again, then it levels out on the upper plateau of Horn and you walk a straight line behind a line of firs and end up on Strunk road. At this point the woods is gone and you are walking across farmland on an old gravel road towards the edge of the cliff. Soon enough you head towards the edge, and there is a viewpoint that has been built up into a nice circular spot with a rock wall. A few big trees block the view, but you can still see a lot. I spotted a Bald Eagle flying around. During the nesting season this is where the hike stops as it's closed beyond here, but we could keep going this time.

Early Spring trip

One of the best pics of the day

Now the descent down the front of the cliff begins. We plunged back into the forest and started working our way down. Occasionally we'd come across a viewpoint. You follow the HW for a quarter mile then go under it, and continue down. At one spot you can eat above a waterfall, and then keep descending. Things eventually get rocky as you level out at the bottom of the cliff near the river and you have the classic "perilous gorge hike" part show up. One bad slide and into the river you go, 200 feet down. Then you climb back up through a talus slope, rest underneath the waterfall you passed earlier, and keep heading back towards the car. The final mile and a half is on a country road through the farms, not on a trail.

The HW 14 overlook

The fall colors were spectacular and it gave us enough of a workout without beating us into the ground. At this point i'd call it the definite gorge fall hike. Most of the Oregon side is evergreen trees and hidden in shadows because of the cliffs, but Cape Horn is very flat and gentle and gets a lot of sun, and the surplus of trees that have color gives it a special feel. It was nice to complete the loop and send the hiking season off with a good one. We may do shorter winter hikes, but nothing strenuous for a while as we enter the rainy season. 

Sauvie Island and Warrior Point

 Sauvie Island is a big river island at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, created by the Multnomah Channel leading off of the Willamette. Sauvie Island is a big flat swampy island that despite being so close to Portland proper (10 miles north) has almost a middle of nowhere feel to it. It's about half quaint farmland, and half wildlife refuge. There is a nude beach in the northern sections. It's a very quiet, peaceful place. It's also the place to be in October, as every farm has a corn maze, tons of cheap food, pumpkins, cider, and mud. It's the fall place to be for Portlanders.

Last weekend I went up with my girlfriend and another friend, we did a regular corn maze and a haunted corn maze, drank cider, stuffed our faces with hot dogs and corn on the cob, and got mud all over our shoes. This weekend, we wanted to do a simple hike since it was a crappy day and neither of us felt like doing anything difficult. We ended up with an interesting adventure.

Warrior Point is the northern most tip of Sauvie island, isolated in a wildlife refuge past all the farms and the nude beach. The road is kind of crappy getting out there and it feels very alone that far away from things. You need a day pass to park there, and it's a steep 7 bucks, but we hike so much I had no issue giving funding to a probably underfunded refuge.

The hike to the warrior point lighthouse is 7 miles, out and back. The Elevation gain is maybe, a foot? the trail is a flat ATV access road through forest and beach to the rocky outcrop of Warrior point. We started out by accidentally taking the wrong path that curved inland, but before we turned around it was worth it because we saw a cool snake.

Not sure what kind of snake it is, I'm not a biologist. Looks like a Northwest Garter Snake with minimal google research. It was really pretty.

Back to the real road, it's just an access road that parallels the beach up the island to Warrior point. There is no elevation to climb and we spent a good amount of time walking on the beach itself, until the tide came in and forced us onto the road again. There are various meadows and clearings along the way, but you are mostly in the trees. The wind was blowing leaves down around us and it was a lovely walk. The rain came and went. On the beach you can see the Lighthouse all 3 miles away, and it looks closer than it ends up being as the walk is pretty long, but quiet.

Eventually you end up at the rocky outcrop of Warrior Point with the small concrete lighthouse. The wind here was intense, and we hung out on the North side so we were shielded. There is a nice log to sit on and watch the boats go by. The sky was getting dark and the wind was picking up.

We got a text from a friend saying that a wind warning had just hit PDX and was coming our way. We decided to head back at a brisk pace and that was when the hike got interesting. The wind was very strong and it was ripping small branches off the trees around us. We entered one of the clearings along the way only to watch a huge branch rip off a tree 20 yards to our right, and the danger finally hit. For the next mile we basically jogged, ever watchful of the trees. At one point a branch hit 5 feet from me, and the trail back was completely different as it was covered in branches and fallen bits. Luckily after about a mile once we got farther inland the wind cooled off and the sun even came out so the danger left. Regardless, it was a huge relief to reach the car.

Our hike was probably not the usual result of this hike, but Warrior Point was still very nice and if you want to get away from the typical crowd it seems like a nice place to have an easy stroll through the woods, with some bushwacking exploratory options.

Table Mountain

Table Mountain.

Back in the early onset of the year, right as the weather started to clean up a bit, we set a goal for ourselves to hike as much as we could, and that we would build up to a final goal hike. That goal was Table Mountain.

Table Mountain is on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge, right next to Hamilton Mountain and right behind Aldrich Butte. It's not the tallest peak in the gorge, but it is probably the most dramatic of the high peaks. Table has a giant sheer cliff face on the front, what remains of a massive landslide 300 years ago that temporarily damned the Columbia river and created the land bridge known by natives as "the bridge of the gods", which is now celebrated by a little truss bridge from cascade locks with the same name. The slide also created the islands that now house the Bonneville Dam complex. It's a very dramatic area. In the mist and fog this large mess of landslide and cliffs looks like Jurassic park. It's very picturesque and it always takes a good photo.

From Hamilton Mountain's summit

From Wauna Viewpoint, late afternoon in winter

From Buck point, early morning, mid summer

From the mouth of Eagle Creek. Table (left) and Greenleaf (right) in view. 

Table Mtn. is 3417 feet high, and most of that is elevation you climb. You can start in a few spots. One, the first option ever available, is to use the Bonneville Damn trailhead. This follows the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) for 8 miles to the top, making it a 16 mile hike. Nope. The second option is the Aldrich Butte "trailhead", which is just a large spot of dirt near the Bonneville Hot Springs that leads you up an old fire road to the PCT and Table Mtn. This is the shortest way. We did option #3: park at the Hot Springs resort, and take the trail in the backlot to the Aldrich fire road. Both of these options cut the hike in half, a manageable 8-9 mile distance. Since this was to be our crowning achievement of the hiking season, we decided to go all out, rent a room at the hot springs resort for that night, hike the mountain early and come back to hot tubs and luxury for one last hurrah. This was going to be our biggest challenge of the year, lets come back to a place that can rest our legs in hot springs.

We got to the resort and checked in at 10am. A late start, but since we didn't have to drive back to PDX that night, it didn't worry me. We were on the trail at 10:08. It started off bad: the first 100 feet of the trail from Bonneville was overgrown with prickly blackberry bushes. I got a few scrapes, but since I had thick socks and tough shorts, only got about a 6 inch area below my knee cut up. Keeley had less protection and fared slightly worse, but we got through it. The connector trail from the Hot Springs goes up a hill for half a mile at a decent gain, then levels out for a wonderful stroll through a large expansive undergrowth forest. Here the humidity seems to lift a bit. After about 1.2 miles, you cross an old stream. Last time we were here, for Aldrich Butte, the log bridge was new and pretty. That was Easter. Now the bridge was broken and decomposing.

Taken in late April, bridge intact

Taken late august, bridge not so intact

Shortly after that we hit the Aldrich fire road. Turn right, walk a few yards, and follow the road to the left. A small user trail goes straight. Around the turn in another minute or so comes yet another "straight or left" choice. Aldrich is left, this time we go straight. And the second climb begins. The trail starts going up at a medium, Indian Point type steady incline, for about half a mile. Soon you hear the sound of a creek, and you are walking along a gentle ridge upwards at a slightly softer incline. The fire road remains wide and rocky. After about a mile+ from the junction you come across the PCT. The PCT and the fire road criss-cross several times until the fire road sort of vanishes and from here you follow the PCT. Now it feels like a classic Columbia gorge trail. Steep hill on both sides, big green mossy trees all over. Up to this point the climb hasn't been so bad. It hasn't been easy per say, but it's been easier than Dog/Hamilton/IndianPt/Hardy Ridge so far. This was...alarming. That elevation has to come sometime right?

After being on the trail for 2.5 or so miles, you come across a nice big sign showing you are entering the Table Mountain area. On the right is a smaller path heading straight up into the hill. to the left is a continuation of the more level PCT. This is the junction to the heartbreak ridge trail (the up one to the right). However it wasn't labeled, and a sign on the big sign said "table mountain" pointing along the PCT. All 3 guides I had took heartbreak ridge to the top, but I wasn't sure it was the spot. Then a runner came from the PCT side, I asked if she knew, she said she didn't, but the way she came from did go to the top. That was good enough for us. I'm glad we chose that way instead of HB Ridge, but I'll get to that.

We followed the PCT for another quarter mile or so until we hit another big sign for the Table Mountain area. this time we took the path up. This is when Table Mountain shows it's hand. Hiking stops being fun and you just want to die. Life sucks. Screw it all. Why am I doing this. This sucks this was such a bad idea. You see up to this point the elevation climb hasn't been hard. but past this junction...it gets horrible. Worse than the worst parts of Dog Mtn. And it would be like this for the next mile. Within mile 3-4 of our hike, we gained 1200 feet. The trail went up the western flank of Table, first in the forest but soon coming out onto exposed rocky slopes. On the plus side, you finally get a view here, and can see your progress so far.

Munra Point already looks tiny

Hamilton Mountain Summit

Hardy Ridge summit

wider view

very wide view

girlfriend view

 The trail gets hard to follow as you climb over rocks and around very thin edges. And it just keeps going up. On one side of "windbreak rocks" it is death. On the other side is a painful roll down a rocky hill. And you just go up. Up. Up. It felt like it would never end. After a while you leave the exposed ridge area and plunge back into the thick woods. The uphill evens out a bit as you cover more horizontal ground, with several spurts of painful climbing. It really wore on us. We had both fallen out of shape this past month due to workloads, and it was killing us. This was without a doubt the hardest hike I have ever done.

Then we saw it. A ridge up a hill with no trees behind it. At the top of the hill was a sign. This was it. I got a huge burst of adrenaline and suddenly none of the climb mattered. I practically ran the final tenth of a mile to the sign and leaped in the air to celebrate. We had done it. Our goal had been met. We topped the beast. The top is mostly level meadow on the western side, and we walked along the top of Table's majestic cliff. The drop was over 1000 vertical feet. We threw some rocks. In front of us we could see almost the whole gorge. It was a hazy, atmospheric day, which sadly prevented us from seeing the major cascade volcanoes but still gave us a unique view as the sun rays penetrated the thick air. We ate, took pictures, and just admired our accomplishment. It felt good. After a half hour of messing around, it was time to go home. It took us 3 hours to go 4.5 miles up, hopefully it would be less going down.

turkey vulture at the top

Greenleaf Peak to the east

Dude contemplates life at the top

Keeley at the top

facing northwest. You can clearly see where the park ends, ugh

Looking west

peak meadows

sitting at the edge of the sheer drop

feet and heartbreak ridge

Indian Point! We were up there!

heartbreak ridge and the gorge

pillar and a huge fall

heartbreak ridge

heartbreak ridge is very striking and you have no idea it's even there from the water levels. 

success feels great

Our path up. You can faintly see the trail

The air was thick with haze, but you could sort of see mount hood back there

heavily edited view to the east

rock in the river and Cascade Locks

Eagle Creek!

look at those socks

the sheer drop down

Going down we decided to take heartbreak ridge, and make a lolipop loop. We saw the junction at the top of Table, so we knew where it would link up. We began our descent.

The descent may have been worse than going up. Almost immediately we came down upon the heartbreak ridge "boulder field", a talus slope with no trail, you just had to climb the landslide following poles marked with ribbons. It was 400 feet down, and it took forever. The rocks were loose and a wrong step meant a broken ankle. It was the most focused and stressed I've ever felt on a hike (outside going down Munra Point). By the bottom we had to stop, simply from mental exhaustion of being so focused on our steps. After that the trail keeps going down a bit, then goes up a hundred feet or so, and you come face to face with the giant cliff of Table Mountain. The only reason to take heartbreak ridge is this view. The boulder field sucked, and what was incoming was even worse.

the boulder field from above -keeleys picture

the boulder field from below - keeley's picture

the only view from Heartbreak ridge that was worth it. The sheer cliff face of Table Mountain. We had just been right at the very top, not even big enough to be visible from here.

My picture of the boulder field from above

From that view on, it was downhill to the sign junction. it was about a mile to the sign. and it was 1600 feet of elevation down. The boulder field became a cakewalk as we had to slowly and painfully (my poor knees) go down a slope so steep that at several points, I crouched and did a controlled slide. All I could think on the way down was how awful this would have been to climb. But eventually we made it down the hill to the sign, and we took a long much needed break from the stress. From here on it was a 2 mile walk home, but the walk was far more level and while it took us a long time to reach the hot springs, we were happy. We had done it. Our goal had been defeated. Next year we may try for some of the longer, tougher hikes on par with Table, but for now, we came and we conquered.

We hung out in the hot springs soaking our tired legs, which hopefully helped a lot because even now as I write this a full day later, my quads ache like nobody's business. If it would have been worse than this without the springs, oof. Table Mountain is a worthwhile goal indeed, though you want to hit it on a nice day, maybe a slightly cooler day then what we did. I still don't see the argument for using Heartbreak ridge. If you really want a loop hike okay. The only thing it offers is a nice view of the cliffs, but the other back side also provides great views.

God bless the Columbia Gorge. We will be back. Too much left to see, but much has finally been seen.

Pink is our path up, blue our path down. If you look closely along the upper blue path, you can see the boulder field (grayish spot next to the trees and the blue line) That boulder field is roughly 400 feet tall, for scale.