The "hint of spring" long run, Feb. 20

I did 15.8 miles for a long run today, Friday. That's because checking the long range forecast was showing a very wet weekend and next week. And today, it was beautiful!

I did the first 6 miles up on the ridge and back, stopping long enough at home to shed the jacket, then the last 9+ was several out and backs near the school. The first of the spring flowers are blooming!!! Even though the flowers were in the more open places, more likely to still get the heavy frosts, they are starting. Winter can't stay winter for much longer.

Here are the pics:

Nothing like wearing shorts in February...

Beacon Rock Adventure

Saturday, the 7th of February, Reggie and I climbed Beacon Rock with our special friend, Sharyl. Turns out it was Sharyl's first time up! It was a beautiful, windy day in the Columbia Gorge. Driving to Beacon Rock, there are several turnouts for admiring the view on the Columbia River.

Here's the view looking up Beacon Rock from the parking lot area, near the trailhead:
The trail is very well maintained; it was built between 1915 and 1918. The sign at the trailhead says 52 switchbacks. No, we didn't count them!

Where the trail really starts going up, they lock the gate every night.

From here, the views get better and better as the trail goes up. And looking up, you can see how 52 switchbacks is a very real number!

This little fern reminded me of the John Denver song, "The Flower That Shattered the Stone":

Still going up...

Here's a view of Hamilton Mountain - that hike is described (and photographed) earlier in this blog!

At the top, Sharyl and I took turns on the top rock! If you look really closely, you'll see I'm trying to hold the moon in my hand...

Going down was a lot faster than going up!

The adventure continued after we got to the bottom. The day was almost done, so we drove over the Bridge of the Gods to the Oregon side of the river. We got a sunset picture of Beacon Rock. Then, on the old historic Gorge highway, we stopped at Oneonta trailhead, for the tunnel was open! Then on to Crown Point for some more twilight/moonlight pictures. Then, with the moon as clear as it was, we thought we'd drive up to the view from Larch Mountain. But before we got there, we decided there was too much snow to risk getting stuck. We drove down to Old Spaghetti Factory instead...

Good adventure!