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| Hiking | 0.50 Miles |
50 AEG |
| | Hiking | 0.50 Miles | | | |
| 50 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This Day was a fun day. I had a reservation to go Ziplining at the Skamania Lodge late morning and then another reservation to return to the Lodge to do the Aerial Adventure Park in the late afternoon. I filled in the time in-between with a Walk/Tour of the Bonneville Lock and Dam on the Washington side and watching and photographing Kite and Wind Surfers at the Stevenson Waterfront. Wasn't sure how to categorize this triplog, so I just made it about the walk to the Zipline and the Aerial Park. I thought about the category of flying, but I don't think being attached to a cable qualifies. 
Slept in a bit and then got ready to go out for the day. The Ziplining was pretty fun, I had never done that before. There were 7 Ziplines, with increasing distance as you went along. The last Zipline was 1/4 of a mile long and it was by far the fastest. I decided to run video of that one, the link is at the bottom.
After that, I went into Stevenson proper for lunch and checked out their waterfront park. It was a nice windy day and there were dozens of Windsurfers and at least a dozen Kite Surfers out on the water. There was one Kite Surfer who really got my attention. He was not only good, but must have some serious stamina for all the time he was out there. I watched him for over an hour and he never took a break. One of the reasons that the Gorge is such a top destination for Surfers, is that the way the wind blows, the Surfer can literally surf a straight line all the way across the river and then return the same way. They never get blown in a certain direction and are unable to return via their sail to their starting point. Here at the Gorge they can go back and forth across the river all day and end where they start. So this guy would Kite Surf all the way across the river and then turn around and on the way back he would somehow pick up some more speed and then literally jump into the air and the soar with the help of the Kite. And he wasn't just jumping a few feet into the air, there were times he was 30 or more feet above the water and would be airborne for like 10 seconds or more. It was pretty fun to watch and of course I took photos.
I finally decided that I had burned up enough camera battery at the park, so I decided to check out the Washington side's Visitor's Center of the Bonneville Lock and Dam. It was quite different than the Oregon side and as I drove in along the river, there were dozens of people fishing along the river below the dam. The Visitor's Center was a bit different as well, but you could still tour some of the inner workings of the dam and they had fish ladders and an underwater viewing area for those as well. It was a nice little stop before going back to do the Adventure Park.
The Aerial Adventure Park. Yeah...  I had never done one of these either, but I thought I'd try it. It's basically an obstacle course 30 or so feet in the air. You wear a chest harness and you're safety hooked to a cable in case you fall off the obstacle. This course had about 30 obstacles and you have a time limit to complete the course. Some of the obstacles were fairly easy, some were moderately difficult and some were very difficult, at least for me. I only got about half the course done in the time limit and that was more than enough. Some of the obstacles took a lot out of my upper body and fatigue had me skipping some of the obstacles completely. I'm glad I tried it, but I think something like this might be a one and done for me at this point. Maybe if I was in better shape, but even the "Guide" for the course stated that the course was really designed for older kids and young adults. There was one other couple there doing it and they were probably in their mid 30's. They looked to be in pretty great shape, but they admitted that even they "cheated" on a few of the obstacles, even though they completed the whole course. I have zero photos from this experience and that's ok.
After the Adventure Park, there was still a couple of hours of daylight left, so I went and checked out a waterfall just off the highway and then went back to camp and relaxed on my little beach until the sun disappeared.
It was another good day at the Columbia River Gorge. A couple of the photos of me, I purchased from the lodge and I have permission to post here.
And here's a couple of videos.
A couple of Chinook Salmon swimming upstream through the Fish Ladder.
[ youtube video ]
How fast can you Zipline a quarter mile? Pretty damn fast.
[ youtube video ] |
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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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