the post that should have been named after my vacation

After I finished up my stellar morning, I decided to take a nice hike. I had driven all the way to Hood River for a 20 minute interview, so I needed to make it worth my while. I hiked up Eagle Creek (along with every other person in Oregon who was going for a hike). It was about 95 degrees. I should just preface with that. Cause it was dang hot. I also did not bring any food. And I was starting my hike at 11am.

So now that you have the setup, I will demonstrate how irrational I am when it comes to punishing my body. Ever since I was a kid on swim team, I have had this thing about punishing my body when it wants to quit on me by working it even harder. Basically I beat myself into submission, so that I no longer feel the pain in my muscles. Unfortunately, this lack of muscle pain is often simply an occurrence of a greater pain in a joint somewhere that makes me forget about the muscle thing.

My plan had been to hike up to high bridge (formerly the suspension bridge, but it's not that kind of bridge anymore.) Well, when I got to the bridge, I thought, this isn't actually far enough. It had been 4 miles, and I still had to walk back. I am out of shape and it is hot. I am also starting to get hungry. Most people would probably have decided to turn back at this point, follow the original plan, right? Go get lunch for goodness sake! Well not me. I reasoned, well it has already been 4 miles, so what is 2 more? I can make it to the tunnel falls, which I hear is pretty cool. Don't listen to that voice that says, "actually, that's an additional 4 miles, cause you still have to get back, you know." It is now time to prove to myself that I can hike 12 miles in the heat without food. So I convinced myself to go on all the way to the last waterfall, six miles from the trailhead. I came thisclose to heading back like 2/10 of a mile from the falls, but I didn't! So glad I went all the way, or else my future pain would not have been worth it. Here's what I saw when I got to the falls:

Anyway it was really beautiful. But the really nasty part was the walk back. I was starving, but that faded quickly and was replaced by exhaustion from the heat and sunburned shoulders. I was surviving ok at least until about mile 9. At that point, my ankle issue decided to come back. I had this achilles problem that my boots caused me when I was in Yellowstone, and it is now confirmed that I must buy new boots prior to climbing St. Helens. At Mile 10, about punch bowl falls in the northerly direction, my knee when out. So about the last 2 miles I was basically limping. I was awesome. But, hey, I made it! I can indeed survive this crap I put myself through. No reason for this, but I feel good that it's over.

Next hike is Sunday at Silver Falls.