Smith Rock Again

We went to Smith Rock again with our friend Aaron. This time we actually got to climb more than once! Although, the wall we origionally wanted to climb was closed for falcon nesting. Luckily there were lots of other fun walls to mess around on. 



We didn't actually climb this but it was really cool to watch other people climb it. Maybe someday if we practice a lot... The mountain in the distance is Mt. Hood. The picture doesn't do the scenery justice. It was a gorgeous day!

Rory going up the first climb of the day.

Me at the top of my first climb. I forgot I had my camera in my pocket until I got to the top so I took a picture and put it back in. It fell out on the way down and broke! R.I.P. little camera. You'll just have to imagine all the fun routes we climbed after that.

In Memory of my camera: It went a lot of places with us and didn't actually break as much as I thought it would after falling 30 feet. It still turns on! It just won't stay on. Sorry mom and dad.

Slackline

Rory made himself a slackline today and we tried it out. And tried and tried and tried. 

We both eventually managed to balance on it. We even got one step in occasionally! Rory's goal is to be able to walk the whole thing by the end of the summer. I can't believe people actually do yoga on these things!

Columbia Gorge

For the long weekend Rory and I took off to the Columbia Gorge. It's beautiful up there! I'm tempted to convince Rory to become a fruit farmer just so we can go live by Mt. Hood. Year round snowboarding!!! Our first stop was Maltnomah Falls. There were a tooooon of people there. We went for a little 5 mile hike and once we got over a mile up the trail the people disappeared. We got a little wet from mist and misty rain.

We camped that night at Ainsworth State Park where they require you to buy firewood at the park. Wet firewood. It took a very very very long time to get the fire started so we could roast our hot dogs and s'mores. We went to church the next day in Stevenson WA. It was such a cute ward! More than half the people there were definitely over 80. To get there we crossed The Bridge of the Gods. 

After church we headed back to the woods and hiked up the Eagle Creek trail. We were trying to make it to Wantum Lake but it didn't quite happen. We hit snow. It was 13.3 miles to the lake but we only got to 12.7 before we decided we should have brought snow shoes. The hike was incredibly beautiful. Everything was so green! And wet. Seeing a pattern? A lot of the trail was blasted out years ago by the CCC into the side of a steep drop off.

Luckily they put hand rails in for those who are a little afraid of heights.

We saw loads of beautiful waterfalls. They were wet. 

My favorite one was Tunnel Falls. The CCC used their amazing blasting skills and put a tunnel behind this fall so we can get around it. The tunnel was wet.

Good thing we had our rain coats with us!

I was so excited to see trees that weren't junipers!! 

A little while before this picture was taken we met some guys on the trail and one had snow shoes on his pack. I thought in my head 'That's silly, there's no snow'..... I was wrong. There was lots of snow. We got wet. Plus, right before this we crossed about three streams and my balance is bad to start with but add a pack and I'm about as stable as a drunk monkey. My shoes got wet. They're waterproof however so my feet did not get wet. Nice.

After deciding not to post hole to the lake we found about the only flat spot on the mountain and snuggled our tent into it. It was a tight squeeze. We ate our dinner, drank our root beer (yes, we packed in root beer), and played a game of Phase 10. I'm breaking the pattern. We didn't get wet in the night. We stayed nice and dry in our oh so fluffy sleeping bags. Our tent was wet on the outside though. We camped in a cloud. The next day we hiked out and drove back home to the desert where it's..... wet.