We had to hike on Thursday this week. My sister had to work all day on Sunday and she does next week too. It’s almost as if the scheduler at Costco is doing it out of spite at this point. I had intended to hike with her on Thursday and then again with Josh Kanable and Jeremy Wedell on Sunday, but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.

My sister met me at work at 2:30 on Thursday. My students leave at 2:20 so I thought I could run out and we could immediately head up the mountain with as much light as possible. Unfortunately not one but two sets of parents came to see me after school so our start was a little later than we intended. We were heading up to Salmon River to do the quick 5 mile 200 feet in elevation gain hike, but that didn’t work out either.

When I told Josh Kanable that we were heading up to Salmon River he suggested an alternate route. We parked at Salmon Butte and headed up. There was quite a bit more than 200 feet in elevation change in this hike, but we were okay with it. It was a sunny, beautiful January day and the air was cold and healing. As we walked parallel to the river we crossed multiple springs making their way to the river. Some were crossable by strategically placed rocks, others required fancy footwork including balancing on a piece of firewood. We stayed dry though.

As we headed up we were looking for a rock that signified an offshoot trail, following Josh’s directions to amazing waterfalls. After hiking for quite some time we realized we had obviously missed it. We decided to keep heading up until it started to get dark and then maybe hit the trail Josh suggested on the way back down (if we could find it). We headed through beautiful forest until my sister got freaked out about getting stuck in the dark and then we headed back down. I have no idea how many miles or how much elevation we did. Doesn’t matter. It was lovely.

On the way back down we did indeed find the rock and the trail behind it. We were supposed to head in about a half mile and then head up the river toward the falls. We walked about three hundred feet down the steep trail and then I stepped wrong on a root and fell, hard. I heard my knee pop and I hit the ground. It hurt bad enough that I had a picture of my sister hiking to the car, driving to the highway, and calling 911. I definitely imagined them finding me in the dark and being one of “those” hikers on the news. I rested on the ground for a minute and then tried to stand up. My knee, the troublesome area, held my weight. We made our way back to the car and had Subway in Sandy.

That was two days ago. I was feeling a lot better today. I was going to go on a hike tomorrow even though any sort of twisting still causes a shooting pain. I was putting something in a low drawer and I squatted down to look into the drawer. It turns out that, unbeknownst to me, I cannot squat with this particular injury. I fell to the floor writhing in pain and it was like the injury had just happened again. I’m going to rest and ice and hope that it gets better.

Despite the fall, it really was a great hike and a wonderful way to spend a Thursday afternoon. It is at least partially my fault because I forgot to take my hiking boots. Live and learn.

For information about the Salmon River Hike click here.