a walk in the woods

 Larch Mountain Road branches off the Columbia River Highway just past the Women’s Forum Overlook and runs about 16 miles through the woods to Larch Mountain.  The last six or eight miles of that road are closed in winter months because of snow – no one lives that far out.  The road itself is a two lane paved blacktop road in good condition that has several 20 and 15 mile an hour curves ahead of or behind long straight stretches that can prove deceptive and dangerous.

It’s best not to fly too fast on this road, especially these days, as it has been discovered by bicycle speed demons, who park their cars at the top of the road and fly downhill on their bikes, scaring the poor drivers toiling uphill, maybe listening to their boom-box car stereo louder than maybe they should.

(my car has a trip computer that shows "instant average" MPG.  On the hot day up, A/C on, my Caliber was showing 21.4 mpg when I got up there, but 78.6 mpg on the way down, foot off the gas)

(and if the car stereo is a 458 watt eight speaker + sub-woofer system with a CD of 80’s hits from the good old days on, how can you not turn it up?)

When you get to Larch Mountain State Park, there is a big parking area there and a well-laid out picnic and camping area above that, with a nice outhouse for the area.  The park looks like an old WPA/CCC – built facility, but camping is no longer allowed here and some of those parts of the park have been allowed to degrade. The path to Sherrad Point, at the top of larch Mountain, runs from the parking area past the Park and up to the highest point of Larch Mountain, which itself is the highest point between the coast and Mt. Hood, a dozen or so miles east.

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Looking back to the parking area:

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The trails here are well built and maintained and easy to walk on.

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Another look back:

(in the woods, it’s not a bad idea to look back and see what things look like from the other way)

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This is a well-made trail.

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Portions of the trail remind me of temples in the mountains in Japan:

Looking back the way I came.

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Steps to make you think of each step:

Firm steps set just so far apart that you have to pay attention to each step, in a Zen sort of way, and more especially on the downhill walk.

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Larch Mountain is not as busy as Multnomah Falls, nine miles north of here in the Columbia Gorge, but I’ve almost never been here alone.

Here near the top of the mountain, the wind blew incessantly, rustling through the trees and ferns and blowing away any other thoughts than being Here Now.

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More steps lead you closer to the top:

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The trail opens out near the top of Larch Mountain:

Some views east and southwards are to be had here, but the real views are ahead of us, on Sherrad Point.

Stay tuned, we’re almost there.

 

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