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| Hiking | 1.40 Miles |
178 AEG |
| | Hiking | 1.40 Miles | | | |
| 178 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Last stop on Day 4 for my Columbia River Gorge trip. I inquired about a Marine Reserve to a couple of locals and they had never heard of it. So I asked for a park near the water and they pointed me to Rock Creek Park. It's a private park that allows the public to use it. I think the townspeople use it for a quick walk. And apparently windsurfers. You can drive all the way into the park itself and pay a fee or park just outside the entrance in a paved parking lot and walk in for free. On a trip of this magnitude, I'm all about free.  Walked under the nice iron arch entry, under the railroad tracks and into the park. Ample parking and then a trail to the beach after crossing under I-84. There was a trail leaving the beach and I wondered about it and asked a local who was there with her dog. She stated that it went to an overflow type beach further upriver. I thought about taking it, but wanted to explore the park a bit more, so after some photos of the views from the beach I went back to the parking lot and headed for what appeared to be a bird blind on the east side? It may be have been a blind at one time, but no more really. The view to whatever it was originally, was overgrown.
As I was in the blind, I noticed a dirt trail to the right, going into the woods. Naturally, I took it. It wound through the woods a bit, switched back up a hill and under the highway interchange and then came out at an small inland lake. The trail forked and I took the left fork first. It led to another wannabe bird blind. So I backtracked and went straight. This followed the contour of the lake, known as East Lake according to maps I looked up later. The trail stayed in the woods with glimpses here and there of the lake. I suspect this lake, fed by the Columbia River, was probably at least a partial source of the Mosier's water supply. There was fenced in pumping equipment back at the entrance to the park.
As I neared the east end of the lake, I startled a small deer, but it didn't hang around to pose. I reached the other end and the trail turned towards the north following a small creek, which turned out to be Mosier Creek. I paralleled the creek with the trail back under the freeway and came out to where the creek flowed out into the Columbia River. There was a small beach/sandbar here and the trail I was on, merged with the trail I saw leaving Rock Creek Beach. So this was the overflow "beach". I followed the now groomed and mostly paved trail back to the original beach. My pumpkin port impulsion to just jump on a vague, unmapped trail, turned into a nice little loop. After taking some documentary type photos, I was back at the truck and ready to explore some more.
I forgot to turn on RS until over halfway into the hike, but was able to create the feasible route. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
Some nice stretches of flowers in the grassier areas. |
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| Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming, "Wow What a Ride!" |
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