Destination: Angel's Rest

Last Saturday, we finally had the opportunity to go for our first hike with Kabir. We chose to go to Angel's Rest in the Columbia river gorge. I hadn't hiked in more than a year, and had been looking forward to this day for a very long time. I had hiked up to Angel's Rest before, and remembered it to be a beautiful and easy hike, gaining about 1500 ft in elevation over 2.4 miles (4.8 miles round trip) with breathtaking views of the gorge from the top. The summit is like a balcony on top of the Columbia river offering 270 degree view of the gorge. In my experience, the view from the summit is unlike any other in the gorge.

This time though, our goal was not to reach the top. It was to have a good time with Kabir and make sure we only go as far as he would be comfortable with. We recruited our dear friend and hiking buddy nicknamed Chandu Chacha, who was a great companion as well as a patient photographer through out the hike!

We started from home around noon, and first got to NW Portland to pick up Chandu Chacha. Took a short break there since K had got fussy in the car and needed to be fed. We were all back in the car at about 1:30pm for a short (~40 mins) drive to the Angel's Rest trail head. Things weren't looking very good at this time as K seemed to be quite unhappy already. To add to it, it was a hot hot day with the temperature around 100 F. Yes, I know it sounds stupid to be doing this on such a hot day. But we have no air conditioning, and our home gets so uncomfortable that this seemed like a great idea in comparison.

We hit the trail around 2:30pm with Saurabh holding K comfortably in our baby carrier. The trail starts with a steady climb and (did I say this already?) offers beautiful views of the Columbia river from the very beginning. K seemed to be engrossed in the scenery around him and kept looking around inquisitively.

About 10 minutes into the hike

Passing Coopey Falls We took a short break on the way up. Since it was so hot, I wanted to keep K hydrated and took the time to feed him and sponged him with some cool water.

Mama-beta both in smiles after the break

After this break, which was at about a third on our way to the top, Saurabh decided to try holding K on his back instead of holding him on the front. This turned out to be more comfortable for both of them, and within a few minutes we found K to be soundly asleep!

K enjoying the ride on papa's back

The last 0.5 miles or so has patches of tree cover and there are some areas with barren rock. When we got to that point, we wondered if it would be wise to continue going up with the sun beating down on us. We decided to ask for advice from some hikers coming down the trail. They encouraged us by suggesting that we should keep going. And we were glad that we did so! We reached the summit around 4:15pm and found a spot with some shade to rest, eat our sandwiches and pose for pictures.

some well deserved rest

K snacking on sweet potato

Time for posing

"are koi meri photo bhi to lo"- Chandu chacha

After spending about half an hour on the top, we headed back down. K promptly went back to sleep in his carrier and so the way down was mostly uneventful. Except that we decided to stop at Coopey falls. We woke K up so he could experience this as well. He saw the falls with wonder in his eyes, but wasn't very happy when I tried to make him touch the water.

We were back to our car around 5:30pm, thrilled with the experience. Full points to Kabir for being such a good sport and making this such a memorable trip!