Yesterday we decided to try a new hiking spot from the book we’ve been referencing. We decided to check out a spot near the Clackamas River, East of Estacada. It was a gorgeous drive. The river cut a canyon through the Cascades and there were lava cliffs along side the highway. We finally found our turnoff, according to our directions in the book, and crossed a bridge over the river onto a one lane road that we were to follow for 11 miles. hmmm. The road was kind of sketchy. It was icy, one lane, and bordered by a cliff that went straight down into the Clackamas river. I didn’t like this. So we turned around and looked for a different hike in the book, a little closer to home. As I was looking at the book I noticed an huge error. The numbering on the map was off. I originally chose the hike on the map because of it’s close proximity to the river. I wanted a nice, easy-to-get-to hike and, clearly, the directions weren’t giving me that. So strike one. We’ll try the Memaloose Lake hike in Spring when the roads aren’t icy, though. Sounds fun.

We found one hidden in the appendix called Eagle Creek. It was closer to where we live so we drove back down the highway to the turnoff (which we passed the first time). We drove and drove and turned down a road, and drove another 6 miles, passing farms and houses. By this time we had been driving for awhile and were getting antsy to get out of the car and walk. Then we were supposed to turn left, and turn left again. We kept doing this until we ended up on a dirt, rut-ridden road in the middle of fucking no-where. We turned left one last time and I read the instructions. We were to drive an additional 2 or 3 miles on this shitty road (thank god we have 4 wheel drive). That’s when we stopped the car (after yelling at each other for a moment out of frustration), turned around and went back the way we came. As we were heading to the main road a dog came running, full speed, out of nowhere, from the only house in the area. Right straight toward our car. We seriously thought we hit it! I looked in the mirror and it was standing in the middle of the road, perfectly fine. Our nerves, on the other hand, were shot. No barking to warn us. Just ran right out to our car. I seriously just wanted to get the hell out of there and get back to civilization.

So we found our way back to a more populated area and to a really pretty county park called Eagle Fern Park. Which is where I took the above picture.

I need to find a better hiking book.