Eagle Creek, Columbia River Gorge July 25, 2015

[taatmk]

It took just about a month to post this since our trip (work has been very busy of late), but I finally sliced a GoPro video together. Myself, two sons and a brother and his 4 sons, completed our second descent of Eagle Creek last month. We planned this as a side trip to a more prolonged visit to the Oregon coast. Eagle Creek does not disappoint! It is an awesome adventure!

Saturday morning, July 25, 2015 found a slight misty rain falling as we parked the two vehicles at the trailhead at precisely 6:00am. For a Saturday, we were the first cars at the parking lot. We parked up the lot, right at the trailhead. (Later, after the hike, the lot would be jam packed).

It would drizzle all day long. Total overcast skies, no sun. However, with us being in the water so much all day, no one really noticed the weather. About the only effect noticeable was the tiny misty raindrops hitting the GoPro lens at times in the video.

Everyone in the group, eight of us altogether, donned wetsuits. My three had full, my brother's brood had shorties. The outside air temps were in the high 90's, so the cool water was quite refreshing. No one got cold.
We carried a 220 foot rope for the final rappel. It would be exactly enough, as doubled over, the ropes ends would be 12 inches into the water on the last rap, Metlako Falls

NO HELMET ALERT: For those noticing such things, only 2 of us out of 8 had helmets. They were only used down the rappels.

This being our second time down Eagle Creek, and since we had others in our overall vacation party waiting for our return before continuing on to the coast, we decided to shorten up the adventure by entering the canyon a little bit above Punch Bowl Falls, the first rap, of two total, for us this day. We hiked up the river paralleling trail for about one and a half miles to the Punch Bowl spur. Then, continuing on up canyon for another 1/4 mile, we found a way down into the canyon. We entered right at a "little" 25 foot jump. It was a fun way to get things going.

Once in the river, it was swimming all the way to the brink of Punch Bowl Falls, the first rappel of the morning. Water levels looked a little higher than the trip we did here two years ago. Don't know if the falling misty rain impacted that much. The water flow itself going over Punch Bowl appeared smaller however. It was not as powerful of flow as two years ago when we did it. We rigged up left of the falls, LDC. The drop here is about twice the height of the falls, so I would estimate about a 60 foot rappel.

As the video will show, there is a wedged log on shore to the left of the falls, LDC, that can used to sit on to watch the others come down. My older son did an upside down commando style descent at Punch Bowl. We all enjoyed the fun of this beautiful place. Two years ago, there was a small island where the upright fallen log is resting. This time, that island was totally submerged. (Our evidence for the higher water level conjecture).

After Punch Bowl Falls, we continued down canyon to another small falls, called Lower Punch Bowl Falls appropriately. It is here that we saw the first hikers of the day. It was also here we saw the last hikers of the day, until back up on the formal trail at the end of the day. The jump here is also at about 20-25 feet. The water is so clear. Underwater, everything is crystal clear and viewable.

Next comes up some wedged logs across the canyon. Its our "signal" that 110 foot Metlako Falls is just around the corner. A couple of our group used discretion and jumped in here at a little 5 foot falls, whereas the others jumped the 20 high wedged in log. One had to swim for the rope pack as it started drifting ever so closer to Metlako...

Metlako Falls is such a gem. So beautiful and scenic. Its in a super gorgeous grotto of greenery. That would be GGG for short. Again, with the misty yet warm rain and then the spray from this beautiful waterfall, the descent was full of moisture. My older son swam around the plunge pool area and took views of the falls, and descents, from several difference angles.

Lots of various "stuff" was discovered at the bottom of Metlako. Besides tons of driftwood, we found old metal water bottles, an old tennis ball, and other assorted refuse. Lots of hiker traffic up canyon. The beauty of the canyon the rest of the way is hard to describe. With the rain, there were many intermittent falls on either side of the canyon. The canyon walls all covered with various flora. Fantastic.

After another couple of 30 foot jumps, we decided to head up the right canyon wall back to the trail. It was a "wall." The climb had at least 45 degree angles. Some was over loose scree and dirt. All made it up ok, to the stares of the hikers wondering what we were doing down in the canyon in wet suits. One asked if we were scientists taking some kind of measurements... Just measuring how much fun canyoneering can be ma'am.

Here are a couple of Youtube links to our adventure, if interested. The first one is a descent of Metlako Falls only. The second one is of most of the rest of the whole trip. The first vid is less than 2 minutes long. The second one is about 35 minutes long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Njc...ature=youtu.be



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78rw8ZaECp8