We spent the last two days
hiking pillars in the Ochoco National Forest near Prineville Oregon. Monday we arrived and hit the Stein’s Pillar
trailhead on the way to our campground. It was a pretty east 3.5 mile hike with
a big rock at the end. Athena got some off-lead time which makes her very
happy.
We got back to the RV just in time for the rain to start in earnest. So much for the dash north to better weather. We drove another 6 miles or so further in to Wildcat campground where we spent the night. It takes about 15 minutes to get the water heated up for showers so when we arrived at about 1 PM I fired up the heater and headed to the fire pit to start a big blazing fire. We were cold from sweating on our hike, but the fire and showers took care of that. We had plenty of wood to keep the fire going until 5 PM.
We could have instituted “Naked wine by the fire night” as
we were the only people at the campground. You’ll be glad to know that we
thought better of it.
We were on the trail to Twin Pillars at 8 AM. I am a fan of
hikes being named after the main thing you remember about it. That being said,
Twin Pillars should be named Cross Creek trail as you cross the same creek 10
times or more out and another 10 or more back. We read the description in our
Oregon hike book so we started out in water shoes and brought real hikers as
well.
I never got around to swapping my shoes as the trouble
necessary for the little bit of time you could wear the others didn’t seem
worth it. Pam swapped at the turnaround point because her feet were not happy
and chose to drown her low top hikers instead. The balls of my feet and heels
are not pleased with me even a little. The total hike was just under 8.5 miles.
High winds in Prineville chased us up north to Hood River
where it is raining pretty good, but there is promise of better tomorrow. We
sourced some organic ingredient for a red chicken chili and are planning to
watch a movie tonight.
More soon….
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