I have a friend and neighbor who hasn't been "backpacking" since college a few years back.. lately it's just loading his family in a car and "car camping".
I finally talked him into a 3 day weekend of backpacking the Indian Heaven Wilderness.. unfortunately, we were snowed out ( this late melt is killing me )
So, we decided to just do an overnight on the eagle creek trail ( ole' reliable )
We were on the trail by 9am ( parked by the host -- no problems with breakins at all that I could see ) and had a nice relaxed walk to 7 1/2 mile campground. were at our campsite in about 3 hours
We saw quite a few day hikers on the trail and a few groups of backpackers... one particularly LOUD group of 2 young ladies in a white car at the trailhead letting everyone know how much they loved justin timberlake -- as much as I love hot college girls, I'm glad we weren't camping near them... we didn't have enough scotch and wine to drown them out.
Lots of cars in the lot, but only 2 other campsites being used.. we grabbed the southernmost one which is right on the river next to a great swimming hole.
Had a great ( but super cold ) swim... nice naps.. read, drank a little wine and just enjoyed a day without any one nagging us.
night time we had a fire, nice charcuterie plate with a good pinot, then fondue with what turned out to be a pretty decent box o' pinot grigio.
In bed and sleeping peacefully by 10.
woke up around 7.. had a nice breakfast and were on the trail by 9.. had a great walk down and we were back at the trailhead by 1130.
Here's the stinker... went to grab our post hike beers from the stream... and what do we find? 2 empties..... that's NEVER happened before... I'm guessing it was one of the groups of young guys who go to punchbowl to swim. Oh well... next time we're going to pack 2 cans and 2 bottles.. with the bottle caps being removed and some ipecac put in for good measure.
All in all a great overnighter.. nothing spectacular for those of us who have been there many times.. but my friend ( from montana ) was blown away by the scenery.
This is definitely "the" overnight or more hike for newbies to the area.
Eagle Creek overnight 7/12-7/13/08
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todd149084
- Posts: 57
- Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
- Location: sellwood
Re: Eagle Creek overnight 7/12-7/13/08
Ouch! And you know you were just looking forward to downin' those when you got back...todd149084 wrote:
Here's the stinker... went to grab our post hike beers from the stream... and what do we find? 2 empties..... that's NEVER happened before... I'm guessing it was one of the groups of young guys who go to punchbowl to swim. Oh well... next time we're going to pack 2 cans and 2 bottles.. with the bottle caps being removed and some ipecac put in for good measure.
Re: Eagle Creek overnight 7/12-7/13/08
That's a bummer about the beer! I'm excited to go up there this weekend, it will be my first trip past punchbowl falls!