Triple D

The "Triple D" is the crazy challenge of hiking Devil's Rest, Mt Defiance, and Dog Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge, all in one day. Apparently it started as a Mazama thing but is also documented on Portland Hikers. Somehow, one of us brought this up and we decided to do it as our November day-off-work run. Ann swears it was me, but how can that be true when I had only heard of it from her?

Construction at Wahkeena trailhead
Ann picked me up with bagels and coffee, and we got an early-ish start. We got to the Wahkeena Falls trailhead to run Devil's Rest, and were at first concerned that the trail was closed. Fortunately, this was the trail going the other way. Phew!

At the start of our Triple D

Wahkeena Falls
Devil's Rest was a great start. At 7 1/2 miles and 2550 feet of elevation gain, it was surprisingly runnable and a great warm-up. Now is when I admit that as we got near the top, I stopped for lots of really cool mushrooms-- a PURPLE ONE!-- and for the views. It was pretty foggy, but I kept trying.


Ann crossing at Fairy Falls

Fairy Falls

It's all uphill

Autumn in the woods

A beautiful purple mushroom-- violet cort

Violet cort from below

Another neat emerging mushroom

Viewpoint near the top

View near the top

Panorama of the view and trail-- Ann is ready to keep going
Although there are views along the way, the top is pretty anticlimactic. It's a sort of rock lump in the middle of the forest. And it was foggy. We ran back down, thankful that it wasn't raining, or cold and windy.

At Devil's Rest

Devil's rest
Next up was Mt Defiance. We drove east to the trailhead. Ann does this hike every year, but I had never done it. Now I know why. You run along the highway for a bit, which isn't very pleasant, and then up. Forever. Up so steep that you can't run. Up so steep you can barely hike or walk. Up so steep, you worry about how you're going to get back down.

Hole in the Wall Falls, near the start of Mt Defiance trail

Hole in the Wall Falls

Ann passing Lancaster Falls

About a 3rd of the way to the top of Mt. Defiance you get an awesome view of the Columbia Gorge, but it is remanence of a false summit. 

Columbia River views on the way up

Mountain views on the way up

Ghostly mushrooms-- haven't ID'd yet

Hatfield Wilderness-- and Ann leading ever onward

Sweeping views as the trail opens up and we hit the ice line

As if any way is "easiest" at this point

Geometric ice in a rock basin

An undulating sea of trees

Follow the leader across the icy rocks

Mt Hood, distant and majetic

SNOW

At the top-- freezing, windy, and rather ugly with those radio towers

View from the top

Warren Lake  on the way down Starvation Creek trail
By the time we reached our car after Mt. Defiance it was close to 4 and it would of taken 20 minutes to drive to Dog Mountain. It was starting to get dark around 5pm, even though we had new awesome headlamps we decided we didn't want to run that long in the dark and cold. So instead of Dog Mountain we finished our Triple D at Double Mountain Brewery with beers. Some days you have to make hard decisions. 

We will complete the real Triple D next summer when we have more day light, but I am sure it will end up being a Quadruple D with Double Mountain at the end.

Third and final D-- Double Mountain



Comments

  1. A great finish for what looks like an even greater day! Loved the pics!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three days in Wonderland

Elk Mountain - Kings Mountain loop