Hiking time: 5 hours, 15 minutes. It took me 97 minutes and 11.02 seconds to hike from where I parked at elevation of 500 feet to the summit of McCall Point at 1,722 feet elevation. Then I spent 24 minutes and 22.51 seconds on the summit for a lunch break. It took me 71 minutes and 28.06 seconds to return from the summit back to car. I immediately embarked on my exploration of the Rowena Plateau. Spent 121 minutes and 30.31 seconds doing that. High point on plateau is 500 feet elevation, low point 250 feet elevation. I spent half the distance on trails, including a trek along the edge of the cliffs bordering the Columbia River Gorge. The other half was spent traversing along the edge of the Rowena Canyon, for spectacular views.

It was in the upper 30's when I arrived and never got much above 40 during the whole hike. My hands were frozen the whole time I spent climbing McCall Point, even though I wore winter gloves. On top I wore two thick long sleeve polypropylene shirts and a heavy collared silk shirt. No coat, and my hands were the only parts of my body that got cold. My hands finally warmed up when I started walking around the plateau. It was completely fogged in on the summit and was cloudy all day, and very hazy in the morning. There was hardly a breath of wind all day, thank heavens.

The last (and only previous) time I was on this hike (July 17, 2014) took 5 hours and 46 minutes. But the weather was completely different from today. On that July day, there were 40 to 50 mph wind gusts, and the temperature ranged from 68° to 84°. And today in Portland, the sky was perfectly clear and the wind was so strong it practically blew the city away. And in the Columbia Gorge west of Hood River, there was white water all over the river from the wind. The wind was blow from west to east and the westward-flowing river had waves running east!

Today I took my trekking poles and all photos were taken hand-held. Took 212 photos of which 129 made the cut. The first time I was here last July I only took 112 photos of which 68 made the cut, so this time around I took roughly twice as many photos and had twice as many keepers. Also, this time around, I took a lot more photos out on the plateau and did a lot of off-trail hiking along the Rowena Canyon rim. #136 and #150 are just about the most scenic suicidal drops I've ever seen: 400 feet straight down from glorious cliffs to an unmemorable and smashing termination on Interstate I-84. No place for wild, out of control, youngsters. A wonderful spot if you're done with life.

The Pbase link to the original July 17, 2014 hike I took in the Tom McCall Preserve: https://pbase.com/fjparis/mnp_2014_07_17. I actually like the pastel colors in this current January gallery better than the harshly realistic colors of the original hike on that crystal clear, sunny and windy July day. What I'd like to do is come back here with overcast high enough to present clear views of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams, so brilliantly revealed in the original hike and completely obscured in today's hike.