18 June Fri: We depart via foot 0850, the winds have returned early in the morning again from the north west and by the time we get to the ranger station for directions and it is blowing so hard we can hardly stand upright. Our caps go into our packs. It must be gusting 30 knots. We see a sign on the base of the mountain about a man who purchased the Rock in the early 1900’s and around 1917 he and friends built the staircase in 3 years. It is almost a mile in length, and has a railing and different flooring, some rock, some cement/rock and some wooden planks. There are numerous switch backs and the views are circumferential up and down the gorge. Shatoosh looks like an ant from the top. A coast guard chopper zooms the top headed up river and a sea plane heads down river. A train on the Washington side winds its way below and we loose sight of it in the forest. We see 2 leaves blowing upwards in the up currents, and the ospreys, vultures soar in the updrafts, while the chickadees chirp their hearts out in the lower portions of the forest. The falls across on the Or. side can be seen through binocs. We have hiked slowly and savored each switchback. Who knows if we will ever be bac
k to hike this peak again.
k to hike this peak again. I can’t help thinking of Lewis and Clark. The day as they entered this gorge after leaving the high desert areas of the Snake, they thought this was a sight to behold. Thousands of geese, deer and elk roamed the hills. If it weren’t for the food in the frig I don’t think Care and I would have eaten much if we had to rely on hunting today. We head back and try to find the ice lady who states, they are almost out, so we take 2-10 lb bags of chipped ice and continue hiking back to the boat It is hot and the ice is heavy but we arrive at 1230 and a total trip of about 5 miles.
We shower and have lunch and laze around reading, watching all the little boat fisherman with a few catches of salmon and sturgeon. Evening Care spots another Merganser family with 8 older babies. They nestle down for the night on a log boom at the entrance to the dock area. Several dock fisherman appear, one is from Russia and catches 2 small sturgeon. Someone said they had caught an 8 footer off the dock recently. Well, that would be something to see. Another spends the afternoon and night fishing for squaw fish as they have a bounty on them at $6.00/fish. They destroy the natural habitat of fish and many people make their livings by fishing for squaw fish.
