Every Friday I leave school at 2:30. All other days I stay until at least 3:30, sometimes later depending on what I’m working on. But Fridays, oh Fridays, I can’t wait to leave. I generally head to a super, secret, stealth location to get a beer with friends. It’s a good way to start the weekend. Recently, any and all forms of alcohol in even the most minute amounts give me a raging headache. It’s probably not the worst thing in the world. Anyway, my sister texted me on Thursday night and said, “Hey, we should hike tomorrow when you get off work.” It seemed like a good substitute. Although, I wish all my friends were with us.
We headed to Salmon River, again, and finished off the trifecta. We can’t go there again. There are only three hikes and we have now done all of them. It’s 20 minutes from my work and there are two Subways on the way. It’s pretty perfect. Now that the snow is melting, we can go to a lot more majestic Mt. Hood hikes pretty quickly from my work, so I’m excited for that.
Of the three Salmon River hikes, this one was by far my favorite. It’s an awesome 7.8 miles and only 950 feet of elevation. It is a truly beautiful hike and the dappled sunlight only made it even more incredible. The light was amazing. It was shining in the most interesting ways and highlighting different aspects of the world around us. The hike starts along the river, which is lovely, meanders through a moss-covered wood, also lovely, and then heads up to a vista. The views are stellar.
We saw so many people on the trail today. It’s something we have to become accustomed to again. During the winter, we often only saw one or two other people. Today we saw about 40. I find it very encouraging that so many people are out in the world getting fit and enjoying the outdoors. I also want them out of my way 🙂
We are planning another hike to the dis-used railroad in the Tillamook National Forest. My sister says a “boy” needs to come with us because “that place is scary.” I was telling her about this second “trail” and its cool features, including a couple tunnels, when she explained to me that “everyone knows that tunnels have bears and axe murderers in them.” Apparently they work in cahoots. The bears can take people down and then the axe murderer can help with dismemberment or vice-versa. She then clarified that not all axe murderers are cannibals, but “most are.”
My sister and I are dog fans. There were tons of cutiepants dogs on the trail today. I want a puppy someday. Remington would eat a puppy, so it will be awhile…or maybe forever because Remington is an immortal vampire pig.
On the way back down, we kept rolling our ankles. My sister rolled righty like 50 times. I rolled lefty about 10 times. We yearned for Matt Smallwood’s ankles. My friend Matt Smallwood is physiologically incapable of rolling his ankles. It’s his super power, and on the downhill I want it desperately.
For information about Salmon River West click here.
52hikesin52weeks 