Eagle Creek

Sun, 01 May 2005 23:59:59 -800

Early one Sunday morning, I met my friend Bonnie and her friend Jennifer for
coffee at the Starbucks on SE 39th and Sandy. There was a gathering for "World
Laughter Day" across the street, oddly enough. We headed east on I-84 towards
the Columbia River Gorge for a quick morning hike at Eagle Creek. Eagle Creek
is somewhere east of Multnomah Falls, stretching north from ... somewhere west
of Mt. Hood ... to the Columbia Gorge. The particular trail that we were on
goes quite far back--a sign marker indicated that the trail went at least 14
miles inland. We were only in the mood for an easy Sunday hike, so we followed
the creek as far as Punchbowl Falls and turned around. Along the way, we saw
a snail, a garden snake, a sappy tree (I tasted the sap; it was at first minty,
then sweet, and finally bitter), and a slug. The pictures looked like the
usual mountainous scenery, though there were parts of this trail where we were
pretty far up, and we could see down the small gorge that the creek had cut
over quite a long period of time. There's not a whole lot to say about this
hike; the pictures are much more interesting. Though the "World
Laughter Day" people were gone by the time we came back. Oh, and we had fried
crepes in the shape of fish for lunch at No Fish! Go Fish! at SE 40th and
Hawthorne.