Read more
Informationen zum Autor Since he was six years old, Jordan Summers has had more fun sleeping on rock, snow, and dirt than any one person should be allowed, spending absurd amounts of time in mountains, forests, canyons, and deserts. Jordan’s newest guidebooks, Pacific Crest Trail: Northern California and Pacific Crest Trail: Oregon and Washington, are the result of Summers’ 4,000-plus miles trekking this national treasure. Jordan’s passion for the outdoors and love for the Sierra Nevada range combined to propel his motivation in writing guidebooks: “to help hikers of all abilities get out there, have a great time out there, leave no trace there, and come home safely from there.” Summers is an alumnus of the National Outdoor Leadership School, a Leave No Trace trainer, and a NOLS-WMI Wilderness First Responder. Jordan lives in the Sierra Nevada foothill town of Pioneer, California, and is a volunteer for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association and the Pacific Crest Trail Association. Klappentext This essential PCT guidebook helps readers plan a day hike, weekend trip, or thru-hike in Oregon and Washington. Leseprobe SECTION H: I-84 at Bridge of the Gods to US 12 near White Pass The Route This section of the PCT begins by exploring hilly hummocks and small lakes that were deposited by a huge landslide hundreds of years ago. This is the same landslide that temporarily dammed the Columbia River, creating the original legendary Bridge of the Gods, a natural bridge. It then climbs a short series of ridges offering scenic vistas. Between these ridges, descend into forests of mossy creeks and occasional old-growth giants. Cross the Columbia River via the Bridge of the Gods (2,146.9–219'), which is toll-free for pedestrians, and enter Washington. From the west end of the Bridge of the Gods toll road (2,147.2–192'), head south on WA 14 past an oversize pond, and just 80 yards beyond it reach the PCT trailhead (2,147.4–155'). You’ll find limited parking nearby, plus access for equestrians. The “trail” at first is along an old power line road that parallels WA 14, just below you. The roadbed is rather overgrown, and in some places the trail sticks to the road’s outer edge, which can leave the trail somewhat exposed, so caution is highly advised here. WATER ACCESS: The short clifftop stretch soon gives way to safer slopes, and presently you reach a spring, which is your first source of reliable water (2,148.1–156'). In 0.2 mile cross a gated, paved road, which climbs from WA 14 to private Wauna Lake. Leaving civilization, you first climb to a ridge (2,148.7–372') from where Tamanous Trail 27 starts southwest, meandering 0.6 mile to a large parking area opposite the Bonneville Lock and Dam. Ahead, the forested, often fern-bordered PCT takes a convoluted, rolling route across a giant landslide. Geology: Large and small landslides have descended from both walls of the Columbia River Gorge. This is due in part to the steepness of the gorge’s walls but is also a result of their composition: the volcanic flows and associated volcanic sediments composing the walls belong to two distinct time periods. The lower layers are about 25 million years old, while the upper ones are about 15 million years old. The surface of the lower layers thus had about 10 million years to deeply weather to clay in this area’s warm, humid, preglacial climate before the clay was buried under a sea of younger deposits. This clay layer is the structurally weak element that causes overlying layers to give way, as in the landslides from Table Mountain and the Red Bluffs. The landslides can temporarily dam the Columbia River, and such temporary dams perhaps provided a basis for the American Indian legend about Bridge of the Gods. After about an hour of meandering through recent timber harvests in various stages of regeneration (the PCT is on easements through private land here),...
