Klickitat Rail Trail from Harms RD TH 3/15/14

8.8 miles 300'EG

WTA Field Guide 

PH Field Guide
Garmin Track 

For today's hike, we decided to head to Washington.  We stopped in the town of Lyle for a few snacks and then headed north on Centerville HWY to Harms Rd.  The TH is about 0.5 miles down the road.

A view of MT Hood from Centerville HWY

Some fellow travelers on the road

When we arrived at the TH, we were surprised to be the only ones there.  We headed west along the creek.  There are a few gates to go through, as this area is an open range.  

watch out for attack cows!

getting started

It is a nice wide rail that goes along an old railroad bed and follows the creek the entire way.

nice easy trail

lots of shrubbery along the creek

There are so many things to look at along this trail.  Not only to you get to enjoy some beautiful landscapes of the canyon, there is a menagerie of wildlife and some wonderful pieces of trail art.

altar that looks like it is straight out of "True Detectives"

that is a rattlesnake skin laying on the skull

lots of "trail art"

Some of the wildlife we saw were marmots, birds and lizards.

marmot in the rocks

sunbathing lizard

garter-snake

We hiked for a few miles, until we came to bridge 26-9 and decided to have some lunch.

bridge

bridge and creek

time to relax

After a little rest and refueling, we headed down the trail for a few more miles.  About 1/2 mile after the bridge, there is a nice waterfall that flows into the creek.  We decided to splash some water on our heads here.

We continued on until we hit about 4 miles and decided to turn around.

enjoying the view

canyon walls

Columbia Desert Parsley

Grass Widow

 

contrail shadow on the clouds

On our way back, we stopped at the waterfall again to cool off a little.  I noticed a spot on the dog that isn't normally there...IT WAS A TICK!! Minor detail that I forgot about this area...Ticks galore!!

I found two more on him upon further inspection.  We decided to wait to look for more. 

We got back to the car and packed up and headed out.  

Once we were in the car, I spotted a Western Meadowlark on the fence that decided to spend a few minutes performing for us.

Western Meadowlark performance

We enjoyed the song and then headed to The Dalles to stop for some dinner at Cousins.

On the way back to Portland, Cher was trying to pull a "dead leaf" out of her hair, only to discover that...IT WAS A TICK!!  Her first response was to mildly flip out and flick it.  Luckily, it landed in the cup holder, so she was able to grab it with a tissue and kill it.  

After getting home and getting cleaned up, we did thorough tick checks.  Luckily, we didn't find anymore of the little parasites.

We both got a little farmers "tan" (burn)

It was a great hike and a beautiful day!!

Trillium Lake Snowshoe 3/1/14

6 miles  EG:600'

We got up early and headed up to Mt Hood for some snowshoeing.  We decided to head to Trillium Lake for the morning.  Diego decided that after his long day at daycare the precious day, he was happy just staying in bed and being a lazy pup for the day.

We arrived at the TH at about 830 and were on the trail by 845. We were surprised that there were only about 10 other cars in the lot when we arrived.

All bundled up

We waited to put on our snowshoes until we passed the road gate, as there wasn't much snow in the parking-lot. 

As we were donning our gear, a mom/dad/small daughter walked up to us with a mini snowboard and asked if people snowboarded here.  The mom was walking around in slacks and stiletto heels and the dad seemed a little clueless.  We told them that the only hill here is really right at the beginning and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have the little one learn to snowboard down it.  We directed them to the snow-bunny park across the highway and said they might have better luck over there.

There were only a few others that were getting started when we were.  We headed down the hill on our short adventure.

we saw a few groups of cross country skiers

and a few sled dogs in training

 The trail was in good shape.  The snow was pretty compact, but not too icy.  

We had fun comparing the scenery this year to the two trips we had last year.  The lower snow level was pretty noticeable, especially near the road gates.  We remembered that we didn't even see them last year because they were covered in snow.

We decided to go to the shelter at the day-use area and enjoy some hot cocoa and an early lunch.  Within a minute of taking off our gear and breaking out the food, the little camp robbers (AKA Grey Jays) were working their cuteness to try and score some food.

taking shelter

camp robbers

time for a warm-up

Tofu-spaghetti...YUM!!

While we were eating, a group of three skiers came in and enjoyed the shelter with us.  They had a lab with them that enjoyed stalking the birds.

After about an hour, we decided to head back.  We stopped at the boat ramp for a quick lake picture.

trying to get a snow picture

bundling up

no view of the mountain today

On the way out, there were a lot more people than we encountered on the way in.  We were glad that we had gotten an early start.

Cher heading out

creek

The parking lot was pretty full when we got back to the car.  We took off our wet outer-layers and hopped in to the warm car.

a little build-up while we were away

We were both starting to get hungry, so we decided to have an early dinner and stopped by The Skyway Bar and Grill in Zigzag.  We enjoyed the atmosphere and the food.

appetizer of beer-cheese soup and frickles(fried prickles)

Apparently I thought I was really hungry, because I ordered a cup of soup and  frickles for an appetizer and then a bacon-cheese burger with a fried egg.  Cher got the Mac and Cheese with bacon.  By the time we were done with the soup and frickles, we were stuffed, so took the rest home for supper.