Hiking time: 510 minutes and 33.31 seconds, or 8 1/2 hours. Total round trip distance: 8.2 miles. Total climbing: 2,600 feet. I had a poor night's sleep so took a nap before heading out today and the late start (9:00 AM) led me to choose this wimpy but spectacular hike.

Angel's Rest Trailhead is on the far west end of the Columbia Gorge on the Oregon side, only 26 miles from our house. It rises steadily for 2.3 miles and climbs 1,600 feet for a spectacular view up and down the Columbia Gorge and River. Most people just turn around and go back to the Columbia Scenic Highway. But I need to keep my conditioning going. So I went on to Wahkeena Spring, 1.8 miles further. It first climbs to from 1,700 feet to 1,800 feet, then descends relentlessly to 1,200 feet before climbing back to 1,400 feet at Wahkeena Spring.

Wahkeena Spring is unusual in that the full flow of Wahkeena Creek springs out of the ground all at once, gushing out in a torrent this time of year.

Took a measly 198 photos of which 88 made the cut. Trekking poles and Spider Black Widow Holster Kit with the Spider Holster Black Widow Thin Plate, no tripod. The Thin Plate is advertised to work with "most quick release plates," but strangely, it's not compatible with the only camera body quick release plate that serious photographers with a serious camera body are likely to have who have invested in a Spider Holster Black Widow, namely the Really Right Stuff L-bracket, in my case for the Olympus E-M1 camera body. I like the Thin Plate for how it lets the camera hang on your hip (upside-down with the lens facing backwards) but its design is incompatible with the design of the RRS plate. Really stupid. Spider should at least offer a version of their thin plate that is compatible with the only camera body quick release plate that their customers are likely to have. Fortunately the thin plate doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Anyhow, because of this incompatibility, I can't have dual access to my tripod and trekking poles, which was the very idea of buying the $16 Spider Holster Black Widow Thin Plate. I have to unscrew one thing and screw on the other, each time I make a switch. Nasty.