Total distance: 5.4 miles. Total climb: 1,550 feet. Hiking time: 5 hours, 37 minutes, and 30 seconds.

Took the Wahkeena Falls Trail to the Vista Point Trail, which I'd never done before, usually taking the Wahkeena Falls Trail to the Wahkeena Trail to the Larch Mt. Trail and then down to Multnomah Falls. The Vista Point Trail is one mile long and goes from the Wahkeena Falls Trail to the Wahkeena Trail. Not sure where Vista Point actually is, although there is a narrow, extremely steep trail that does head towards the Columbia River. However, it starts to get insanely steep and so I stopped before it got suicidal. I only found one small opening to a narrow vista across the Columbia Gorge over to the Washington mountains on the other side.

Once reaching the Larch Mountain Trail I turned left down the trail which passes one waterfalls after another until it reaches a side trail that works its way down to a view from the top of Multnomah Falls, which is 620 feet high. There's two ways to get get back to the main trail, one for the masses, and another (which has been closed for years, but I found it open today) along a very rough trail that comes to an extremely narrow spot with a hundred foot cliff to the right. But moving slowly and clinging to the rock wall on the left, it isn't suicidal. It leads to the paved trail which descends 800 feet to the base of Multnomah Falls.

On March 18, 2015, in hiking back on the Larch Mountain Trail from the junction with the Franklin Ridge Trail at 1,700 feet elevation, by the time I got to this paved section, I was completely spent and literally crawled back to the base of Multnomah Falls and the car. My problem then was I didn't rest enough and just got completely exhausted. My experience today was just the opposite. I took a couple of rest stops and never got tired. I just whipped down the pavement in triumphant joy back to the base of Multnomah Falls.

At a fast food stop attached to the Multnomah Falls Lodge, I bought a soft ice cream cone. This was the first ice cream cone I'd eaten in over a year and I didn't even enjoy it that much. I regretted buying it and wished I'd just sprung for a hot dog instead. Once I started licking the ice cream, I just wanted to get it out of the way.

The last half mile was the connector trail to Wahkeena Falls (and my car) that runs above the the Columbia River Scenic Highway.

Started my hike at 6:25 AM (!) or 0:00:00 hike o'clock. The temperature was 48° and warmed up to about 60° by the time I got back to the car. Milestones: At 0:38:11.18 o'clock (38 minutes and 11.18 seconds into the hike), I reached the end of the pavement from Wahkeena Falls at an elevation of 600 feet. At 1:22:21 o'clock (44 minutes, 10.0 seconds later), I reached the uninviting junction with the Vista Point Trail. At 2:11:23 o'clock (49 minutes, 2.54 seconds later), reached the end of the Vista Point Trail and the junction with the Wahkeena Trail at 1,500 feet. At 2:43:32 (32 minutes and 9.23 seconds later), reached the Larch Mountain Trail where I rested and had a brunch at 1,200 feet. At 3:02:26 o'clock (18 minutes and 53,47 later) I resumed hiking down the Larch Mt. Trail. At 5:04:12 o'clock (2 hours, 1 minute, and 45 seconds later), I came to the end of the Larch Mt. Trail at the Multnomah Lodge and felt so strong I gave myself a bad reward and bought an ice cream cone (for the first time in over a year). At 5:16:28 o'clock (12 minutes and 16.4 seconds eating ice cream and resting), I resumed hiking up the Connector Trail to the beginning of my hike. At 5:37:30 (21 minutes and 0.5 seconds later), I arrived back at Wahkeena Falls and my car.

It started out sunny, but contrary to expectations, it soon became overcast, which was a boon to color correction: I needed very little of it in post-processing. All photos were hand-held, so I was able to take my trekking poles, which always makes negotiating my way down steep, loose, rocky trails easier.