Opening pic
Like lots of other folks here we were out playing in the new snow this past weekend. Chizuru, Chiyoko & I decided on a Multnomah to Larch & back leg stretcher. Arrived at the falls at 8:30 & the wind was howling, we could barely stand up in the I84 parking lot, it was a little better over by the Lodge. Lots of folks were already at the lower viewing platform.
The gate to the Benson Bridge was closed but there was no trail closed sign so we deftly stepped around it in our micro spikes & set off up the trail.
The trail to the top of the falls was solid ice the whole way, in some places there was no wind in other placed it was hard to stand up! Once we stepped over the ridge though to the other side there was an instant change, no wind at all & the ice was replaced by about 4" of powdery snow.
We began the slow slog up to Larch.
We didn't break any speed records as we hiked up, it took us about 4:20 to reach the final steps to the the top.
We had followed tracks all the way from Multnomah but these stopped on the actual Summit of Larch & did not continue on to Sherrard Point. It seemed that after hiking all that way some folks may have missed the main event because the snow on Sherrard point had not been disturbed since it fell.
We had the summit to ourselves for about 10 minutes then a couple of other groups arrived one from multnomah like us & another group who came up the road.
The wind wasn't bad on top but we decided to retreat to the warmer & more sheltered sunny parking lot for our hot lunch!
We set off from the summit at 2:00 for the trip back making much better time than we did going up!
We were back at the top of the falls in less than 2 hours & crunched our way back down the icy trail. Lots of folks were braving the ice to get to the Benson Bridge & lots of them were falling over but everyone seemed to be having a good time! We were back just in time to get a hot drink from the snack bar before it closed.
The hike came in at 14.8 miles with about 4300' of EG.
A good winter leg stretcher!
