Sabbath morning we swung by the residence where Tralina and Kristen roomed together during the college year of 2009-2010, then we headed over to the Rockwood SDA Church to hear our friend, Manlio, preach. He is an excellent preacher! We then ate lunch at another friend’s house and enjoyed catching up with her and her family. Afterwards, we headed up the Columbia River Gorge for an exploration of Oneonta Gorge. It was refreshing to hike up a river, yet exciting to hike up a very narrow gorge that lies directly on a fault line. Things are always shifting in there and a rock even fell from the top of the gorge right in front of one of the other hikers! We marveled at the huge waterfall at the end of the gorge before turning back to wade through the chilly water. We spent the evening at Ryan’s mom’s new home and made homemade vegan ice cream.

On Sunday the guys played basketball at a men’s church basketball meet-up. Steve especially loved this since we don’t have an organized group like that at our church here in Reno. After the guys were pooped, we started out on our actual plan for the day-- kayaking at Lake Merwin.
This was a fun adventure because we ventured into an inlet and at the end of the inlet discovered cascade waterfalls! Ryan and Kristen did not even know this waterfall existed because the lake bottom usually is a little too shallow for motor boats to propel through. There was a little beach on the side right before the waterfalls, so we beached our kayaks and hiked up some boulders only to discover even MORE waterfalls further up! If we would have had time, I think we all would have liked to do a little exploring and hike up to the upper waterfalls in an attempt to see if there were more waterfalls even further up. It was quite unexpected to see the waterfalls, and it made the trip all the more memorable.

Monday was a bit more relaxing as we made a big breakfast at Ryan’s apartment, then toured the Vancouver Library, showed Steve my old campus, Clark College, popped in to say hello to Kristen’s mom, then went into Portland to taste some Salt & Straw ice cream. Their ice cream is made from all local ingredients and some of the flavors can get pretty intimidating! For example, Strawberry Honey Balsamic w/ Black Pepper, or Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero. Here’s a link for the full description of their outlandish flavors. We then headed back into the Columbia River Gorge to take a vertical hike up Beacon Rock. It’s only 0.9 miles long, but it’s straight up the remaining cinder cone of an old volcano, so one definitely gets their sweat on! Steve had never hiked Beacon Rock before, so it was a must for this trip.

There were many other details of this trip that we enjoyed, but for lack of time (and your attention), we have shared only the highlights. It was so good to spend some time with my (Tralina) old roomie and take a little time to walk down memory lane and show Steve some of my old places. We had a blast with both Ryan and Kristen and wish we lived closer so we could hang out more often! The temptation to move to Washington State is strong! But for now, we must hang up our gear until the next Oxley Adventure.