The TNT

39 miles of hiking • 12250' elevation gain •

The next installment of the Acronymic Gorge Triple Crown (AGTC?) series of combo hikes: Tanner Butte - Nesmith Point - Table Mountain.

I got up at 3:15am on maybe 3 1/2 hrs of sleep and hit the trail to Tanner Butte under headlamp at a touch before 5am. Got to the top in a little under 3 1/2 hrs, back to the car around 11:30am, for about 6 1/2 hrs hike time, including the 20 or so minutes I spent up top. It was totally beautiful - for my money, I think Tanner Butte is still the best viewpoint in the Gorge. The Tanner Butte trail also wins as the most cobweb-iest trail ever.

Next, I backtracked to the Yeon trailhead and went up Nesmith Point. I hadn't been up there in a couple of years and where Tanner was a well graded slog, Nesmith was overgrown, steep, and rugged. Since Tanner Butte was half the total day's mileage in one go, I was starting to get tired going up Nesmith, and the last part (from the shoulder up to the old road) took forever. I passed a bunch of people who were descending from the summit as I went up, and managed to overtake three of those parties on the way down. No rest for the wicked, and I'd calculated there wouldn't be enough daylight for the total amount of hiking time I'd be doing. I left the parking lot for Nesmith at 12:15pm, took about two hours to get up, and was back at the car a tad before 4pm.

After Nesmith, I crossed the Bridge of the Gods and went to the Aldrich Butte trailhead, first stopping at the Hot Springs Resort to refill my water (it was a hot day!) and wasting some precious daylight in the process. I set out for Table at 5pm. 30 miles in, I still had enough for a decent pace on the old roadbed, but the Heartbreak Ridge bit from the kiosk up to the ridge was brutal. Strangely, the talus field was not - something about its step-like-ness? I got to the summit at 7-something and wasted quite a bit of time trying to find a tree that I could put my camera in for a self-portrait, then realizing that the sun was dropping fast, I headed back to the NW ridge for the descent - figuring this would be easier on the knees than either of the other two options. The sun started to go down as I was on the ridge, and by the time I made it back to the PCT it was pretty dark. I put on my headlamp again (a fitting bookend to the day) and proceeded to slog down the rocky trail, being attacked by moths who liked the light (one flew into my nostril??), and basically going as fast as I possibly could (which actually was pretty fast - West Ridge kiosk to the car in a little over 45 minutes) while my feet screamed at me and I couldn't see anything and my side started cramping - definitely time to end the day. Got back to the car a hair before 10pm, making it pretty much 17 hrs total for the day, including driving between trailheads.