It is amazing how much ice gathers around a single blade of grass:
The little drops near the old Tanner Ridge TH off 777 were looking good with a border of frozen leaves and moss:
This one looked sort of mini Ramona Falls-ish:
Alder, Maple Leaves, nothing was spared from the freeze if it was in spitting distance of the creek:
Heavily distracted by the incredible ice show down below I didn't take any more pictures until I reached the large meadow on the way to the butte's spur trail:
There was only an inch or two of crusty snow on the ridge trail and the spur trail was mostly covered with the same. It was a bit slippery getting up the steeper sections but was more than worth it:
The big three were out in Washington:
A nice look over to Larch Mountain framed through the tree tops. Is Karl over there somewhere?
Crummy zoom on Defiance and Tomlike:
Ok, what gives?! I am used to blocking out a tff or two(or three) with my melon head. But an entire Mountain?
After a great lunch up top I dropped back to the ridge trail and hiked over to the Tanner Cutoff junction. I saw a few friendly backpackers on the way down where I continued to drop eg until I hit the 777 again. Instead of returning the way I had hiked in I used the gorge trail to head back to Eagle Creek. On the way, I made the short climb up to Wauna Viewpoint under the powerlines. A massive landslide has taken some of the last few switchbacks near the top and launched them down the hillside in a cluttered mass of rock and debris. Looking online after getting back home and it looks like they have closed the trail. Here are a few pics, approaching the bottom of the slide:
Nice look over the dam to Table and Greenleaf Peak across the Columbia:
Another short scramble over the slide was required to reach the viewpoint:
The view from the top was amazing and with some extra time left in the day I just sat up there and enjoyed the views for a while. Here are the rearing ponds at the hatchery down below:
Adams peeks out with the river snaking across the landscape:
Ruckel Ridge was looking "shady" in the afternoon
i know 
Maybe more amazing than all the wonderful views throughout the day was watching the fish make their fall (and for many their final)visit to Eagle Creek. Notice the teeth marks in this one:
Not a happy camper at this point:
The stream was just chalked full of them splashing and jumping about:
I spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around the Eagle Creek Overlook near the mouth of the creek. It was a fitting end to another great adventure in the Columbia River Gorge:
