First Hike of 2007

I climbed Smith Rock in Central Oregon yesterday...the first real work out since knee surgery. I went alone with just my back pack, lunch, water, and ofcourse my camera. It was a pretty challenging trek. You gain about 900 feet in altitude and do that very quickly by taking switch-backs at up to 60 degree angles, but once up there it's fantastic. The main attraction is a 400 foot spire known as Monkey Face. At the hightes point of the hike I stepped out on a huge rock and had some people I met on the way snap some shots of me .

It wasn't a long hike, only about four miles or so but the terraine was tough. I couldn't tell you which was worse going up or coming down because the trail is very narrow in some spost with alot of loose volcanic pebbles which make it like walking on ball-bearings, but it was very exciting.