Multnomah

This past week I got to spend a few days in Portland, OR with some awesome human beings. One of those awesome human beings was kind enough to take me around – although I must say I did him a favor as well in getting him out to these places hahaha. Jkjk Ben. You are awesome.

I landed in Portland with very little idea of what I wanted to do. I vaguely knew I wanted to eat good stuff, explore the city a bit, and soak in the greenery. The night I arrived, we planned to hike Multnomah Falls since that’s the right tourist thing to do. Ben found a 5-mile trail from Wahkeena Falls to Multnomah Falls. Nice. Since we’re both not too out-of-shape, we were pretty down.

Enjoy the pictures. And the story of how I barely got out alive. Let’s just say I had on the worst possible pair of shoes – Nike running shoes with zero traction. The pictures don’t do my struggle justice but at least I can laugh about it now lol. Here we goes!

My model modeling what it looks like to embark on a Lewis and Clark expedition of our own.

Model Ben walking on beautiful asphalt – nothing to slip on.

Water water water! Love this!

And so close. Also, take a good look at the worst shoes ever for this hike.

It’s all good until we start seeing more and more snow. It starts off so innocent.

Like this. Just a little. So harmless. So cute.

And then, more snow. Here’s me almost about to fall over but I held tight to my balance –

So I could take this picture! Okay maybe this wasn’t the best illustration but there was a lot of snow. It blanketed the ground and trees. I promise lol.

Then at some point, it became like this – slushy and more than my Nikes could handle.

This is pretty much what I looked at the rest of the hike – the back of my guide about 40 feet ahead – always. I could not keep up lol. I was constantly slipping. I think it was the combination of wrong gear and my natural clumsiness.

Our “trail”. The damn thing was covered all the way. It got pretty icy on the main part so we had to stick to the edge.

There’s me! Strugggglingggggg loll. You can’t tell here…

But you can tell here hahaha. Omg I think I did this about 5 times. It doesn’t look like it but I’m clinging for dear life. If I slip, I’m slipping off the mountain. And there’s Ben’s finger!

Another beautiful struggle. Mind you, Ben is chillinnnn lolllll. He had several really good laughs.

One… step… at… a… time… At one point, Ben busted out his wrist guards for working out and we pulled them over my shoes to get me from -37% traction to 4% traction. It actually saved me. If you look carefully enough, they’re strapped on in this picture.

I was able to catch my breath and stabilize myself for a minute to take this video. There’s Ben shuffling his feet to give me a less icy path – bless his soul. Also, look at all that blasted beautiful snow.

And then there’s this – this mother of an incline with no way but straight down – down to your death, I tell you. Ben got this precious footage of my survival. Can you hear his disappointment at the end? I laugh now.

The rest of the hike was much better, but only after sliding down the rest of that incline lol. And finally finally finally – we made it to Multnomah. It was quite beautiful, just like the photos I’ve seen on Google and other people’s Facebook posts. Should’ve just stayed at home haha jkjk. Here’s me looking super relieved and proud of myself.

Multnomah in real life.

Here’s another of me and Multnomah!

The aftermath.

All in all – it was a really good time. I definitely felt closer to God. I swear there were moments I thought of the movie, 127 Hours hahahah. I’m not even kidding. But here I am – writing this blog and laughing by myself and shaking my head, half for my dramatism (not a real word) and half for the truth.

And thanks to Ben who held me up by my backpack, let me hold onto his backpack, and created footholds for me. You never gave up on me – not once. You da best!

Happy Saturday!