We were determined to get every last minute out of the nice summer weather so we decided to go on a mountain bike ride to celebrate our friend Bruce’s birthday at Falls Creek in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Here in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, the day started out mostly clear, with a crescent moon and the planet Venus in a mostly clear morning sky
Heading west towards Carson, WA, the clouds increased dramatically, hanging low on the peaks on both sides of the Columbia River. No doubt that rain was on the way. Don and I met Bruce and Lee in Carson and headed up into the forest. The last time we were on this trail we ran into a bit of an issue with the Falls Creek Trail 152 parking lot and access road decommissioned. We found out that the Forest Service was shutting down the 152 trailhead, you can read about it HERE if you are interested. Anyway, we parked in the Falls Creek 152A trailhead parking lot and headed out to find a new trail junction that led to the Falls Creek 152 trail, which is one of the best sections of the Old Man Pass/Falls Creek trail network.
Off down the new section of trail we go with Bruce leading the way
Followed by LeeMan
Soon enough, we were crossing over the lower Falls Creek bridge
By the time we started up Falls Creek Trail, it had started to rain. We were expecting it, but it’s the first rain in a few months. The trail dust was pretty much gone and the forest was a mix of green and yellow, I’m sure the plants were glad it was raining(if plants can be “glad”, that is).
We got to the top of the lower Falls Creek Trail climb and headed towards the horse camp. The trail was much improved over last weekend’s dust bowl
It was amazing how much more colorful the forest was from only a few days earlier
We stopped at the Falls Creek overlook, but couldn’t see too much; we were in the middle of a rain cloud
Got to the horse camp, the rain was steady, so we had a quick look around and headed back down the trail
We got back to the 152/152A trail junction and decided to ride up the 152A a little ways to check it out
We were all pretty wet and it was getting colder so we headed back to the trailhead parking lot. Couldn’t help but notice it is that time of year again; the wet time
We headed into Stevenson for a quick lunch and birthday beer with Bruce at the 130 Club, said our goodbyes and headed home. Looks like significant rain for the next few days, might have to sleep in tomorrow…
Source:
http://watermanatwork.com/blog/?p=2694