Ruckel Ridge
On this hike I learned a valuable lesson: READ THE DESCRIPTION BEFORE YOU GO. This hike was described as the most treacherous, unrelenting, never has a moment that it isn’t going straight up and will make you so frustrated you’ll hurl yourself and anyone near you off the side of the ridge… hike. Ok, I added to the official description a bit but honestly, it’s known as the most difficult day hike in the Columbia River Gorge. Even that much I didn’t manage to read until afterward.
I picked this hike because of its elevation gain as I’m slowly building my legs to handle mountains but found that while the gain was only around 3,000 feet, it all happened in the span of a couple of miles. Also, the trail followed a ridge that I could only describe as never ending.
So here’s the easy part of the ridge
which progressed into
That’s pretty much how the entire trail looked. I admit, it was a lot of fun for the first couple of miles. After that it was a lot of cussing and sweating but still worth it.
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