Oneonta Falls

Many of you know that it is one of our favorite pass-times to go to the falls. The Columbia River Gorge is full of amazing falls. You faithful readers will recall many-a-posts about them.

Well, yesterday we found a new one. We'd heard legends of this waterfall, but never had the nerve to go see it. "Nerve," your asking? Yes, nerve. You see, this particular waterfall involves a 1.7 mile (-ish) trek, up the river itself, midst two sheer enormous cliffs on either side of you, a la Zion's Narrows. This particular season the water is also running high and fast. We had 95 degree weather yesterday but due to the intensely high rock walls the water didn't see an ounce of that sunlight. So the water was a frigid 50 degrees (-ish). At any rate, it was C-O-L-D cold! Once our legs numbed up a bit, it wasn't all that bad. It took a long time for them to numb up, though. We weren't sure just how high the water would be so we didn't take our cameras or phones. It was a good thing. At one point it was up to... well, it was up to my nipples. Yes, nipples. (This is Will writing, by-the-way). So these pictures are from the inter-web.

The beginning was enough to deter many people. You had to scale two enormous boulders with a 3-foot span between them. Either that, or swim through the icy water. Most everyone opted for the boulders. 3 feet may not sound like much, but when you're twelve feet up with nothing but a jaggedy pit of pain below 3 feet seems like a long way to jump.

After successfully scaling the boulders we then had to take on the slippery "Dam-of-Death". Tons of enormous logs smashed together in an eternal entanglement of slivery soreness blocked our way. This too involved some deft. But we made it.

Our path unblocked from this point we slowly trudged up through the rocky river. With an average depth of knee high (on me) it was no easy task. And again, I cannot verbally express enough just how cold that water was. Truly, the only way to describe it is, "Huhuhuhu...chchchchhcchoooooooollllllldedededed". This is where the bottom of the river decided to drop out from under us. This is where it came up to... dare I say it again... my nipples. For some reason, nobody wanted their arms to get wet, so the held them elevated above the water. It reminded me vividly of the scene in Forest Gump of him sludging through the waters in Veitnam with gun overhead. That's how we were. Anyways, there were a ton of people there. We even saw a woman with a baby (couldn't be more than a couple months old) slung over one arm as she worked her way along the river. This was more towards the enterance and I hope she didn't try to go up to the falls.

Well, soon after the near drowning the canyon opened up a little and we caught our first glimpse of the falls. It was amazing. This photo does not do it justice at all because it was running so much more water than what is shown here. Apparently, the river is quite deep just under and near the falls itself, such that you can swim around the falls and dive down in. It was too cold to attempt anything like that, but perhaps at high noon one could do such a thing.

It was an amazing and exhilerating experience to get there. We admired the falls for a moment and then realized we still had to make it back. So, we went.

All was going smoothly for us, until the deep area. Challene thought that scaling the wall was a better alternative than getting incredibly wet with water nearly approaching absolute zero. Many had done it before, so she tried. I opted for the water. As I was slowly making my way, and at about the deepest portion of the trek, I heard a high pitched scream, a "William" followed by the sound of falling rocks and slipping shoes. I turned just in time to see Challene lose her footing, turn, and begin to fall toward the water. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and I turned quickly and caught her. She clung to me tightly as I completed the journey out from the deep end of the river. She was slightly rattled but mostly grateful not to have belly-flopped into liquid ice.

We hiked back through the river, over the dam, and across the boulders back to the car. All in all it was an awesome adventure. I loved it.

If you're wondering about the kids, they stayed home.