We try to “go to the woods” at least four times a year. Ideally, this would be something elaborate like a long backpacking trek or crosscountry skiing or somesuch. With all the house remodeling going on, though, it’s been hard to get the time. But these sorts of things you have to make time for, or they fall through the cracks and are forgotten. That would be a shame, because the woods has powerful restorative value for both body and soul.
Luckily for us, we live in a region where the “great outdoors” is truly great… and close at hand. We drove three hours to take a brief 15-mile overnight backpacking trip, and accidentally got some great photos of waterfalls and dropoffs that you only find in places that have recent (geologically speaking) volcanic activity: New Zealand, Hawaii, Guatemala… and Oregon! The picture above is a falls call “Tunnel Falls.” Yep, that is a tunnel the trail passes through behind the falls.
Back at the trailhead, we saw some kids from a school field trip. But as we hiked a few miles into the mountains, we stopped seeing them, and that’s when the really dramatic terrain began. “I don’t think I’d be brave enough to take kids on this part of the trail,” Emily said as she looked down into the yawning 500-foot chasm two feet off the trail. No guard rail to spoil the drama.
There are also some pretty breathtaking bridges, like “High Bridge” to the right. If you click on the image and zoom in, you can see Emily on the bridge, giving the height a little perspective. We crossed five or six similar bridges during the hike. We were planning on going farther, but this time of year the dark comes on quite suddenly and early! Luckily, we had all the gear we needed with us, so it didn’t really matter where we stopped.
It was nice to get out in the woods, take a break, and recharge for more work on this darn house.
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