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fjparis | profile | all galleries >> Galleries >> Horsetail Falls to Oneonta Trail in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon Side 2014 04 (Apr) 08 tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Horsetail Falls to Oneonta Trail in the Columbia Gorge, Oregon Side 2014 04 (Apr) 08

Hiking time: 370 minutes and 57.81 seconds, or 6 hours and 11 minutes! First time I hiked this route since May 22, 2005, almost 9 years ago!

Hike started at Horsetail Falls along the Columbia River Scenic Highway. The creeks were really roaring after a month of heavy rain. Proceeded up Horsetail Falls Trail, descending steeply and treacherously down into Oneonta Gorge and a bridge across Oneonta Creek at the bottom of the gorge that is falling apart and is labeled safe for only one person at a time. Climbed steeply up to the Oneonta Creek Trail, then left up many treacherously steep spots along Oneonta Creek Trail to the overlook of Triple Falls. Descended to a bridge across Oneonta Creek for a spectacular overlook of the rambunctious creek. Then climbed relentlessly up Oneonta Creek Trail which is mostly routed close to the creek. After hiking for 4 hours, I turned around and descended Oneonta Creek Trail directly to the Columbia River Scenic Highway, turned right, and walked to the car under towering and gorgeous moss-covered cliffs, but I couldn't take photographs of them because I'd run out of film, as explained below.

From the start of the hike, I climbed relentlessly for 4 hours on the dot, often on a steep, treacherous, loose, rocky, and wet trail that was also populated by a lot of hikers. I can imagine what the weekend must be like: a dangerous nightmare with people passing you from the rear and from the front. It was the most strenuous hike I went on in years. I'd made up my mind to turn around at 4 hours no matter where I was because it was getting late and I was getting tired. And it turned out that at precisely 4 hours, I ran into a creek with a picturesque cascade that looked too difficult for my tired limbs to negotiate, so it was a good turnaround point anyway. Spent 7 minutes at the turnaround point taking pictures.

On the way back, my 8 GB SD card mysteriously ran out of space just before I got back to Triple Falls and so I was only able to take 195 photos for this six hour+ hike, of which 95 made the cut. When I got home, I saw why I ran out of space and it was for an utterly stupid reason: I forgot to erase my SD card from my last hike! That would have given me 102 more photos!

07:12 PM First pass at triaging revealed disappointing results. The sun seemed to be ruining too many images. The forecast said partly cloudy and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. But in post-processing in Lightroom, I was amazed at how much detail I could bring out in the apparently overexposed waterfalls and cascades. Still, there were a lot of hot spots in some choice images and I felt I had kept some of them anyhow.
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