Saddle Mountain Hike

TRISTAN AND I spent a night in Astoria last night. It was our monthly weekend get together and a belated celebration of Tristan's birthday last month. We tried then to arrange this trip, but one shouldn't try to secure last minute lodging on the ever popular Oregon Coast at the peak of tourist season and expect any semblance of success. I should know better. But that gave me more time to think about what else we could do during the weekend, and, just returning from a successful hiking vacation, I thought it might be a good idea to hike up Saddle Mountain on the way to Astoria. Tristan likes to hike and agreed to the adventure; neither of us had previously hiked Saddle Mountain though we did hike to Triple Falls one weekend last year.

THE PLAN WAS to get an early 10:00 AM start to Astoria, pick up some lunch en route, hike up the mountain and have lunch at the summit. We would then continue on to Astoria and spend the night, and before returning today, perhaps visit Fort Clatsop and other places of interest. In my research of the Saddle Mountain hike, directions indicated that it is a 70 minute drive from Portland so I figured we would be at the trail head about 11:15 or so. Not so. From Tristan's apartment in SE Portland and stopping to pick up a sandwich in Beaverton, the trip is more like two hours. We arrived at the trail head parking lot about noon and found no spaces so had to park along the road.

AFTER DONNING BOOTS, getting our gear together and a brief pit stop we finally hit the trail about 12:15. Tristan decided to have his sandwich as we hiked and I tried to have a snack of veggies, but by then the trail was getting steeper and I could not chew and breath at the same time. My nose was partially stuffy and I could not get enough oxygen through my nose so tried breathing through my mouth, but chewing carrots and mouth breathing at the same time is fruitless. You either suck in little pieces of carrot getting them stuck in your throat and nearly choking, or blow them out onto the trail ahead of you; I gave up.

FOR THOSE OF YOU who have never hiked Saddle Mountain, the guide books say it is a moderate to strenuous hike at 5.9 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 1600 feet. I vote for strenuous. There were times, as I watched Tristan power up the trail (he walks and rides his bike to commute), that I seriously had doubts I would make it to the summit. As I watched all the kids and gray-haired folks going up and coming down I guess my pride told me I had to keep going. As far as what it's like to hike the trail, I will not repeat the countless testimonials you can find in a myriad of hiking books, but I will say they are all true. The difficulty, the switchbacks, the vistas, the flora, the sweat, the pain, the thirst and the exhilaration are all there to experience.

WHEN WE REACHED the saddle, the wind picked up and felt quite refreshing. I finally set foot on the summit about two hours from when we started. Tristan was there long before I was and would have been there much sooner had he not taken pity on his poor, aging and out-of-shape dad and held back periodically. It was quite breezy and with the combination of sweat and the breeze I was getting chilled so I put on a long-sleeved shirt I had packed. There were about a dozen or more souls already there when I arrived.  The weather was sunny and the view was spectacular though there was a bit of a haze. After I caught my breath I ate the rest of my lunch.


WE HUNG OUT for about twenty minutes or so before we started back down.  TRISTAN, again in the lead, powered his way down. I lost sight of him about ten minutes into our descent. Not far from the summit two teenage couples were, not struggling, but running up the trail! Show-offs. I caught up with Tristan, or should I say he let me catch up to him, about halfway down the mountain where I found him sitting at one of many picnic tables that are strategically placed along the trail. Our descent took us about an hour, and by the time we got to the car, my feet, which had now doubled in size, were screaming, "Get us out of these hot and sweaty boots!"

I HAVE TO CONFESS, though it added extra weight, I was glad I had my camera, not necessarily for the few images I took, but rather, more for my being able to feign that there was actually a shot to take; in reality I just needed a breather. I wouldn't mind doing the hike in the spring to take advantage of the blooming flora indigenous to the mountain. If I'm not in better physical condition by then, I hope I'll have forgotten how difficult the hike really is. If you would like to see the full album of our hike go here.

Postlude

WE CONTINUED ON to Astoria but awoke this morning to strong 20-30 knot winds and rain, not conducive to more sight seeing. We decided to drive back to Portland via highway 30 along the Columbia. Driving east of Astoria the weather improved somewhat, but by the time we hit Portland we ran into heavy showers.