Angels rest to Devils rest 10 mile loop

or as I like to call it, the Dave revenge loop.

So back a month or more ago my girlfriend was out of town on business, and I wanted to hike. I also wanted to get up really early so I could have time during the day to do things after hiking. It was a Monday, I was off work, and I had a personal score to settle with Angels Rest.

See Angels Rest was one of the first hikes I did out here. It kicked my ass. Everything said it was moderate, even easy. But our first time out, I had to sit on a log for a long time getting my breath, and I thought I was in good shape then. I was fresh out of college, less soft then I am now, I should have killed it. But that day killed me. It embarrassed me. It shouldn't seem like a big deal to need a ten minute break on an uphill, but for me I was ashamed.

These days I obviously know better, no shame in a quick break. The Gorge is a different beast compared to the weeny hikes I did at home in Maryland. I'm still getting acclimated to how things work, even after 3 years. But I still wanted revenge. I knew the exact spot I took a rest last time, this time I was determined to make it all the way up without stopping. I did so. I kicked that goal's ass. Then I made it pay.

Angels rest is a knobby ridge exposed by an old fire sitting above highway 84 just after Crown Point.

Taken from google, not mine

It's a very popular jaunt due to how easy it is to get to the trailhead. I drove there on a monday morning at 7am, and it still had a few cars there. So at 7am I left my car and started my journey on a beautiful misty morning.

Exposed Talus Slope near the beginning of the hike

Angels rest is 2.4 miles to the top, gaining just 1500 feet. There is one point after you've climbed about halfway and you feel great, crossing over the creek, when you round a hill and see just how far you still have left to climb, and you get sad. But I wanted revenge. I powered up that sucker, passed my "failure spot" and made it to the top by 8am, passing an old guy with treking poles along the way. The views were fantastic.

The view along the ridge looking south into the mountains

View from the top looking east

Artsy crap looking west

if you look really hard, you can see Portland

Archer mountain and Hamilton Mtn at 8am.

I farted around on Angels Rest for about 40 minutes, taking pictures, watching chipmunks (or whatever they are, they looked like chipmunks) and fooling around. If I headed back now, I would reach the car by 9ish. But this where things got...ambitious.

From Angels Rest, there is a trail along the spine into the woods that eventually hooks up with Devils Rest, a wooded rock pile far back into the hills. Devils Rest has no good views itself, it's more of a fitness accomplishment hike, because it's 2400 feet up from where ever you start. I had already beaten Devils Rest once, coming from the Wakeena Trail. I remember it being hard and terrible, with the final hill from the Wakeena junction being a brutal merciless uphill for 1/4 mile that sucked, and the views weren't quite worth it.

From an overlook east of Devils rest and the only view on the trail.

I had no intention of doing that again. As you can see by the title of the post, intentions mean jack. I wanted to just wander up the trail a bit from Angels rest, just to get a sense of what shape it was in. Turns out, the trail was beautiful.

That's the kind of gentle slop and beautiful colors that would make anyone continue walking. So I started going up. The grade was very mild, almost flat. I walked along this trail for a half mile or so then came to a T junction. The Foxglove trail. One way went to the junction with the Wakeena trail to the east, another way went to Devils Rest to the west. Which is weird because I knew Devils rest was to the east. But whatever, signs are good. I turned up the path. The path got a little steeper, but still nowhere near turn around territory. I promised myself I would turn around the instant we started the real climb. But this was still gentle.

I came to another junction. One way had no signs, the other way to Devils rest. I pushed on to the east now, finally going the right way. Then I started to go...down. At this point I was far in, and getting committed to making it. After one more junction with a Wakeena trail offshoot, the climb finally began in earnest. I was too far now, why not make it. It couldn't be too far!

It wasn't, but that last quarter mile made me mad at myself anyway. Just when I was reaching peak cursing myself territory, going uphills without knowing how close I was, I saw the telltale rock pile of Devils rest. I was alone. I sat there for 15 minutes in total peace, listening to the sounds of nature. No humans, at was 9:30am, and I had already accomplished this. I felt good.

That's when I made my dumb mistake.

"oh, the Wakeena trail links back up with Angels rest, doesn't it? I could make a loop out of this, go down the rough hill, head towards Wakeena, and then make a lolipop loop!"

I had no idea how far of a walk this would be. I was imagining an extra mile. I was wrong. I started down the other side of Devils rest, and I was walking along the ridgeline for a while before I hit the big downhill.

From google, this picture shows both Angels Rest(the bare knob spot on the left and the little bump that is Devils rest beyond)

I reached the bottom of the hill, took the path towards the top of Wakeena, and saw a sign that made me sad. 2.4 miles to Angels rest. I was already 6 miles in. Now I had to walk 4.8 miles home. I've made a huge mistake. Oh well, I'm still fairly high up, surely it'll just be a sweet ridge back to Angles with little climbing?

No

I then spent half a mile climbing up at least half the distance I just descended till I was finally high enough to walk on a level path. This trail was very isolated, overgrown, and filled with purple wildflowers. 

It didn't take too long to get back to Angels rest, but then I remembered I still had 2.4 miles to go, and I got unhappy. Then I realized I was passing a ton of people who were only walking to the top of Angels rest and back like a bunch of chumps, when I was doing a 10 miles exploration. Felt pretty badass about that and those thoughts of accomplishment got me past the blistered feet and feeling spent to the car. 

This is the same picture from Angels rest 3 hours after the first one:

After all that, I took a long soaking bath and took a nap. I was spent. NW Hiker actually has a recorded version of the hike I did: http://www.nwhiker.com/CGNSAHike08.html. although they took a different path from the first junction it's the same loop. It was worth it, but I don't see myself doing it again anytime soon.