Opening pic
Pouring down with rain Sunday morning, we figured our only hope of a semi dry hike was to Go East! So we decided to checkout the Klickitat trail. We thought we would take a methodical approach to our exploration of the Klickitat Trail & begin at the beginning
.. At 9:00am we were the only car in the Lyle TH parking lot, it had rained heavily all the way to Hood River but now out least it was only a light drizzle.
The first 2 miles up to the bridge crossing were very pedestrian! It reminded me a lot of the Spring Water trail between Boring & Portland.
We soon arrived at the fancy trail bridge over the Klickitat, it seemed to have unreasonably high railings! You certainly wouldn't be able to fall over them by accident! Though you might when you find that you have to climb up the railing to be able to take a photo
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The next half mile from the Bridge to the Lyle Falls Yakima Nation fish research facility had many Fishing Platforms on both sides of the river some positioned quite precariously on the cliffs.
I've absolutely no problem with these fishing platforms but I was disappointed to see all the trash that was left around some of them, I'm sure that's not part of traditional Native American Heritage. It looked like this food bank box had been commandeered from it's original purpose!
There were clean & open toilets in the parking lot in front of the Research Facility.
About half a mile North of the Facility we saw this in the River. Does anyone know what it is? I was wondering if it was some kind of modern Fish Wheel?
Onwards we hiked some nice board walks around the 5 mile mark.
I thought these folks had done a pretty good job of blending their Fifth Wheel Trailer into the landscape!
Around MP 6 we came across a collapsed river side cabin, the garden Yucca was still defiantly growing though..
Now you just can't leave stuff like this lying around & not expect a guy to climb it
Just up the trail from the Collapsed cabin was another house that we could not decide if it was abandoned or not. Lots of outbuildings but no signs of life.
The access suspension bridge had been taken out though.
By the time we tagged MP 7 we had closer to 8 on the clock with all the little side trips & so decided it would be a good turn around point. We had just past a hill at a bend in the river, it seemed a crime to come out on such a long hike & not climb anything so we decided to have lunch on top & enjoy the view.
We had been pretty lucky with the weather on the hike in but got a bit wetter on the hike out! We took the road bridge instead of the trail bridge back over the Klickitat just for a change! From here we could see a few more "loony" fishing platforms below the bridge!
Back at the trailhead by 2:45pm we were still the only car in the parking lot! 15 miles & a whopping 615' of EG. (Mostly from climbing the tower & the hill for lunch)
Hiking the Klickitat this way I think it will take us another three 15 mile out & backs to get the whole trail hiked! Next time we'll do the section between MP 7 & the washed out trestle just outside Klickitat.
A few more pics here & a map below.
