Table Mountain - Saturday, May 4, 2013

With the final countdown to Denali underway (and Europe playing on repeat in my head), I headed out to the Columbia Gorge to hike Table Mountain. Situated between Hamilton Mountain and Greenleaf Peak, Table is a monster. It has earned a reputation as one of the more difficult Gorge peaks with 3,200 feet in vertical gain. But the rewards are great, and the painful stretches are short.

Table Mountain.

Recent Gorge trips have been about training and lugging my heavy cat litter-laden backpack up the trail. This one was different -  I decided to ditch the expedition pack for my lightweight CamelBak holder. I was joined by my friends Dave, Liesl and Matt. After our usual pre-game hashbrown-fest at Gravy in Portland we drove to Cascade Locks, crossed the Columbia over the Bridge of the Gods and parked at the trailhead at Bonneville Hot Springs Resort.

The weather started off warm and beautiful, and refused to change throughout the day. We charged through the woods, linked up with the Pacific Crest Trail and were soon at the start of the "Heartbreak Ridge" Trail. Every time I see the kiosk at the base of the trail I think of the Clint Eastwood movie about Grenada. At this point the route went into overdrive, launching up the wooded hillside without much in the way of switchbacks.

Looking down the rock scramble.

After several hundred feet of pain, the trail thankfully levels off. But it soon reengages with more pain, and then there is a scramble up a steep rockslide. We all moved at a decent clip and were soon looking down on the rocks. The views on this stretch were spectacular. From there we quickly reached the summit.

A surprisingly cool wind for such a hot day blew over the top of the summit ridge. It felt like opening the freezer door with a hot oven open at your back. We dined on red licorice, energy bars and Jameson - not a bad combo. All of the Cascade volcanoes were out - from Rainier, Adams and St. Helens in the north to Hood in the south. Following a traverse of the flat summit area we looped down the backside of the Hearbreak Ridge Trail and carefully descended. A few spots are usually a bit sketchy, but on this day the trail was mostly fine.

Once we were back in the woods and rejoined the PCT we walked and jogged to the parking lot. The hike ended up taking six hours. Highlight of the day: seeing a bald eagle soaring on a thermal updraft.