Written December 2019
Two more weeks to go until we were off to Switzerland, and about 3 weeks until we started our series of hikes in the Alps. So we decided to go up to the highest point in the Columbia Gorge…Mt Defiance…one of the most difficult day hikes in the area, with close to 5000 ft of elevation gain, with roundtrip mileage of around 12 miles. It was going to be a long day, so we woke up early on Sunday morning, and got to the Starvation Creek trailhead at around 9am, ready to hike up some steep terrain!
Our hike started off easy…on a paved path parallel to I-84, and because the first cut-off trail up to the main trail was washed out, we needed to go a little further up the path to make our way to the main trail, but at least we got to see a couple small waterfalls because of this. But this also meant more elevation gain over a shorter distance later on.
Not long after these falls, the steep ascent started…and didn’t really let up for most of the hike up…except for maybe a couple short sections. It was a tough hike for sure…but thankfully, we found some good solid branches to use as hiking sticks which helped us out a ton going up!
Most of the trail was under the tall trees, but there were some nice views every now and then that kept us going and made for some nice breaks. For the most part though, it was just hard hiking.
It wound up taking us a little under 4 hours to make it to the peak. It was a super tough hike up, but the views made it all…well…not totally worth it. There was a nice view of Mt. Hood, but I was expecting to have 360 degree views from up here, being the highest point in the gorge… but there was really only a view in one direction. So we rested here in front of Mt. Hood for awhile, as we ate our subs for lunch and let our feet relax out of our hiking shoes.
After lunch, we decided to explore a little bit more around here before making our way back down the path, as I read something about a loop to do up top. I really wanted to see if there were other views to be seen from here. We spent about an hour more walking around and getting semi-lost up here…but at least we were able to see 2 other mountains from afar, as well as a nice-colored lake down in the distance.
It was starting to get a little late in the day now, and we still had a long way to go down…so we started to make our way back now. Going down was NOT easy…and some sections were actually much more difficult than going up because of the steepness and looseness of the terrain. We really needed to concentrate going down, or we’d be on our butts. Being a long day already and walking on tired legs…it was a tough time!
A couple hours later, we were finally through the tough section, and we could sense the end coming. We probably still had another hour or so left, but at least we knew that there shouldn’t be anything too difficult remaining based on the what we remembered coming up the trail.
We finally made it back a little after 6….nine hours from when we started! What a day…definitely a great preparation hike for Switzerland…but we both agreed that this was a hike that we did not have to do again in our future!
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Golden Ears > Mt Defiance
The Dating Life of Norina and Jonathan 