oh what a journey this was.... by far our biggest comedy of errors in the woods to date.
This was supposed to be a journey to Table Mountain... but ends up not being that way. To start with, we had two different sets of directions giving us two different tailheads to start from, although we didn't know it at the time. We finally end up at the trailhead behind the hots springs resort and we were off. We head up the powerline access road as the directions as instructed... but never get to the some of the landmarks we are looking for.... because I was following the directions from other trailhead, and amy the trailhead we left from. After about a mile of head scratching we stumble upon a nice couple who appear to be as confused as we are. We compare notes with them, and then the four of us decide to double back, until we decide we know where we are. After the four of us have decided we are on the right track, we split up from there. We just keep following the trail from that point, and at a Y in the trail, we follow the right branch as the directions say.
We just keep getting deeper and deeper into the woods, and appear to keep traveling west for quite some time, when we should head north at some point.... and the hilltop that we are supposed to pass to our left stays to our right. It just isn't adding up. I finally get a signal on my iPhone and use it to find out location on the GPS, and sure enough we are walking all the way around Ardridge Butte... ALL THE WAY AROUND. When we finally meet up with the trail we are supposed to be on (as confirmed by some polite hikers we cross the path of), we are both over it... tired, frustrated, and cranky. Instead of going up the trail to Table Mountain as planned, we decide to summit Aldridge Butte and call it a day. We get to the top, and it is indeed a lovely viewpoint with a scenic panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge, but in out current moods we are just ready to be done.
On the way down, I decide that I want to find the right way back if it kills us, so we can come back later and actually climb Table Mountain. Now that we KNOW where we are at, it should be fairly straight forward.... one would think. We just follow the forest road down until there is a lake to the left, then we take a left trail to the lodge.... well it turns out the lake is more a meadow... It prolly is kinda lake like in wetter seasons, but at this time of year, it is a grassy lake bed. We end up passing the turn, but luckily figure it out about half a mile past. We double back, and actually find the trail this time. At this point the hike finally goes as planned... every thing is as the book says it should be.
When we get back to the trailhead, we look around for the trail marker we missed, and Amy does indeed find it in plain sight.... about 10 feet up a tree and on board not much bigger than 8" X 18".
While this hike turned out to be one of the better adventure amy and I h ave had together, neither one of us were in the mood to appreciate the comical nature of it at the time. The one good point of the trip is that in retelling it, it has inspired me to get our pack better prepared.
I would post some pics, but I can't seam to find any. I think between out confusion and crankiness, neither of us bothere to document squat, so instead here's a funny bigfoot picture.
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