Under the Weather

I came down with a nasty cold/flu early this week. Lunch-time naps, Nyquil, the whole bit. Not fun.

Friday night there was a farewell evening of merriment for Gary, one of the guys I work with at Summit. I barely stayed seated vertical at work all day Friday, so partying was out way of the question.

My hopes of skiing this weekend were dashed when I woke up Saturday still feeling ill. Luckily, the conditions were less than desirable. Webcams of Meadows looked harsh and it was blowing 40. My main squeeze at Summit and my bunny slope partner, Carley, texted me on Saturday to let me know that I didn't miss out on much. That made me feel a little better about being cooped up all week/end.

To my dismay, I woke up with a sore throat and neck glands swollen to the size of golf balls again this (Sunday) morning. Rats! I was determined to do SOMETHING with my weekend daylight hours. How about an easy snowshoe at Government Camp? I heard that the power was out in Parkdale, so getting anywhere near the mountain just wasn't a good idea today.

"How about a hike?", Tom says, trying to shut me up. YES! So, a hike it is.

We decided to do a hike that we've done once before–the hike to Wahclella Falls. The beauty of this trail is that there seems to be a payoff around every corner. The short trek begins right along Tanner Creek, which is a gorgeous creek with lots of green to set it off–rock formations, forest, moss. There are several remarkable waterfalls with nice little wooden foot bridges.

Tom admires Tanner Creek.


Standing on the bridge that crosses Tanner Creek, you can look up to your right and see where a huge landslide tumbled some colossal boulders into the creek. This landslide occurred in the late 1970s, so the rock monsters are covered with brightly-colored moss with a few small trees squirting out in spots.

We went off the trail a bit and climbed up to a barely-there waterfall that feels like someone turned the spigot off.


To prove that his new waterproof jacket is worth its weight in gold, Tom decided to stand in the main flow of the barely-there fall. "See ma. I done good. It works just like I said."

Tom under the weather:


To get the full-effect of Wahclella, which is actually two-tiered (and we WILL find a way to the upper tier), we climbed down to pool-level. This waterfalls is bubbling and frothing and MEANS BUSINESS. The conversation on the rock went like this:

Tom: "How much money would it take for you to jump in there?"
April: "I'd jump in right now! Look how cool it is!"

Then Tom proceeded to tell me how if I jumped in, I would get sucked under the waterfall and drowned. We could have saved a lot of oxygen if he would have just said, "Don't jump in there for any amount of money, because you'll die." ;)


The drive back to Hood River was truly scenic with the Columbia River super blowy with 4-foot swells and a towering, full rainbow right down the middle of the gorge. You can't beat that with a bat.