August 2010 – Hiking Table Mountain
Table Mountain is a beautiful and rewarding hike that can be done as a rigorous day hike or a more leisurely backpacking trip. As you’ll see by the size of our packs, we decided to go with the ‘leisurely’ option; however, this hike is not exactly easy, even when you break it up into two segments. It has some pretty steep climbing, some exciting rock-scrambles, and some vertigo-inspiring views, if you’re willing to get close to the edge.
We started our hike on the Oregon side, from the Bonneville trailhead. It begins in a rather enigmatically marked parking lot, and we initially thought we were lost until we ran into the pacific crest trail and were able to get our bearings. Once there, it’s easy to find your way up the mountain, minus the rock scrambles and switchbacks and stuff. If you plan on doing it in a day, get there in the morning. It is about 16 miles and will take most of the day.
Here are some pictures of our experience:
Here’s a shot of Table Mountain, which we were about to climb.
The puppy we had to leave behind.
Packing our last minute essentials before starting the hike.
A picture of all of us, taken on the back of our car.
We tried and failed multiple times to capture the altitude we had gained since the start of the hike.
A pretty flower we found.
Additional aesthetic foliage.
Adie sporting her trendy camping gear.
We followed Adie’s lead and posed in our trendy camping outfits as well.
Jesse even taught us the art of throwing a knife at a tree… or at least he threw his knife at a tree and the rest of us started doing the same thing.
Here’s a picture of the rock scramble we encountered along the way. Our dog, Louie, handled pretty well.
A shot from the top.
Tried to get close enough to the edge to get a good vertical shot but failed.
Categories: Pedals and Packs