a night hike

Last Saturday night I went with a group of people for a night hike in the Gorge. I have never gone hiking in the evening before but Aaron has done it before and had explained how much fun it had been. So I agreed to join him and friends on their 3rd annual night hike. About four cars full of people met close to 10pm near the head of the trail of Wahkeena Falls. Once we were all set we took off for our hike, which ended rather quickly, at least this portion. You see, it's dark and even though we have headlamps and flashlights, it's hard to fully make out what paths to take. We ended taking another path that leads to the main trail instead of heading on the trail and ended up near Multnomah Falls. Now if you have been to or live in the Pacific Northwest, you know Multnomah Falls is beautiful and can be a bit of a hike for someone whose not in fair shape. We took a vote and decided to head up Multnomah Falls, I was indifferent to the idea but honestly deep down I was dreading it because I knew the hike up would set off my asthma (no worries, I had my inhaler). Sure enough not even half way up I was sucking on my inhaler and taking a breather break. Astonishingly though, I took very few breaks than I have had in the past and this made me giddy.

There were many other unexpected events that happened that night as well, things I had not anticipated. In the cover of darkness with just our individual lights, we got an opportunity to witness the wilderness come to life after-hours. We saw a baby owl yelling out to mom, or dad, from a tree up high. We came across a scorpion on the edge of the path minding his (or her) own business, we oohed and awed. In one of our breather breaks back down we turned off our lights to gaze at the stars and were lucky enough to see a shooting star and a couple of satellites coasting on by. But by far the most amazing thing that I had a chance to witness with my own eyes was seeing the Milky Way. I have seen it a billion times in photographs and video footage but never up in the sky right above me. It wasn't the clearest of nights as we weren't far out enough from the city to get a decent clear look at it but it was a noticeable presence. What an experience!

I am thankful that I managed through this hike unscathed and only had a minor asthma attack. I'm grateful that all my hours I have put into CrossFit is paying off as the hike up Multnomah Falls did not kill me as it has in the past. And I enjoyed speaking to new people and getting to know some of them on our trek back down. I will most certainly join this group again and perhaps even create my own group with friends to share this amazing experience!

Milky Way, not my photograph or one taken on my trip.