It's been about 1-1/2 weeks since the knee surgery and I'm quite thankful that crutches were never needed. Although there were some painful times in the first few days, it was easily handled by pain killers. I went to the Dr. on Friday to have the two stitches (yes, only 1 per hole in my knee) removed after the knee surgery. It was suggested that I take things slowly (keep to about 2 miles total) or the healing time would be extended if more inflammation occurred.
So this is my first real post surgery
hike, and I was trying to keep it simple and easy, but didn't succeed.
All the info I found about the
Rooster Rock State Park hiking trails indicated it would be easy, and it really did go well except it was quite a bit longer, and with more elevation gain than I would have liked. After paying the $5 park fee, we drove to the east end of the parking lot where signage and a restroom resided.
Yes, we knew there was a clothing optional beach where we were headed, but didn't expect anyone in the cool and cloudy weather.
It turns out we only saw two hikers during the entire trip.
There were a couple of guys playing a round of frisbee golf.
And as we walked down the trail we were surrounded by a somewhat desolate and sandy environment in these lowlands.
We made a left hand turn and continued on until a right hand turn was made. The trail was very wide and there were some flooded areas along the way to the beach.
Finally, reaching the beach afforded us a beautiful view east into the Gorge.
And the view into the Columbia River Gorge was spectacular!
As we continued hiking east along the sometimes vague trail, we got great views of Sand Island!
Looking inland along this section of the trail yielded a desolate view of the grasses and leafless deciduous trees.
We eventually reached the eastern end of the trail system and looked to the right (west) to see the hill that needed to be ascended.
I really wasn't expecting this climb, but didn't want to turn around as we were already 2 miles out!
We were going so slowly and I hadn't been looking at the GPS.
So we very, very slowly ascended the grassy slope.
As you can see from the photo below, this grassy area is visible from I84. I had always wanted to climb that slope, after seeing it, and finally did!
The trail along the ridge was like a wide rollercoaster, and we took it very slowly. It was actually a very nice area and some of the deciduous trees were quite gnarly and large. I84 was always a stones throw away and far below and off to our left. There are also two trails that parallel each other for a significant length of the ridge, which is a future hiking opportunity.
And we finally got back to the car, three hours later.
So although the
hike was 3.2 miles with just over 400ft of elevation gain, we really took our time and stopped often for breaks. Oh, and we have proof below that we can walk on water.
It felt great to get back out on the trail, and the
hike didn't seem to bother my knee.
