10.5 miles of hiking • 3250' elevation gain •
With a 70% chance of rain today I will be honest. I was not looking forward to this hike! It all ended up working out great in the end, with only about 2 miles of rain. We arrived at the Wahclella Falls TH around 8:45a, and returned around 2p. The first two miles to the Tanner Butte TH were a combination of trail and old logging road, and went rather quickly. Once we reached the Tanner Butte TH, the trail started climbing much quicker and about a mile from the turnoff to the unmaintained portion of the trail, it started spitting hail a bit. We also started noticing snow in small patches. We reached the "dry" campsite and proceeded onto the unmaintained trail, which I think was my favorite part. The woods were foggy and cool and there was a quite peacefulness about the place. We reached the Wauna Point while there was still some visibility and were able to see Cascade Locks and Bridge of the Gods pretty easily. After a quick lunch, we returned down the trail. We encountered one gentleman with two dogs at the "dry" campsite, otherwise there were no other people on the trail. Once we reached the Tanner Butte TH again, it started to sprinkle a little bit and then it just started pouring. I whipped out my GoLite umbrella and was happy as a clam wandering down the trail. My hiking partner might have been giving me a hard time earlier about my umbrella but another mile down the trail and she was actually thinking I might be onto something. :)
