Climbing Mount (Butte) Talbert!

I recently bought an I-phone this past month and I have patiently been learning how to use it.

So yesterday when us three senior ladies decided to climb Mt. Talbert I made a special point to be sure I had it along. I sincerely believe if not for my I-phone we might still be on top of Mt. Talbert. Wait...I'm getting ahead of myself. I enjoy stories...telling stories...writing stories...and just hearing stories. To me everything that happens in my life is just a story waiting to be told. But as I sit here at my computer I am finding it especially hard to put into words everything that happened on our second time to scale this mountain...OK its really a Butte.  But it is the largest undeveloped Butte in Northern Clackamas County. The park offers miles of hiking trails and four different trail heads. Four different trail heads? Good to know!!

We met at the church at 9:30 AM anticipating our hike and our time together. We were all looking forward to the exercise...enjoying God's creation...and chatting and catching up on each other's life.
Mistake #1...Chatting and catching up on each other's life.  We chatted all the way there...we chatted while driving...we listened..we chatted...we drove....we chatted. We arrived at the trail head thirty minutes later, strapped on our fanny packs, grabbed our water, and I grabbed my recently charged I-phone and we were off.

I love my I-phone!! It has this amazing built in GPS that navigates and helps you get anywhere you need to go. You can down load a map and it will pin point exactly where you are at any point on your hike. It's an amazing indispensable device to be in your pack before starting a mountain climb...OK a Butte climb.

We had zero time to warm up. The start of the hike was pretty steep right off the bat and we had to shift into two heel drive immediately. But soon we got in the right gear and were trudging up the mountain...OK the Butte..at a firm fast clip of about 1.1 miles per hour, taking time out every so often to take pictures of the beautiful rain forest filled with ferns and wild flowers. The trail was always very well marked with arrows marking the route. Two hours later...with full bladders...we started looking to see just how far yet to our parked car at the trail head.

There are four different trail heads? Good to know!! Did anyone note the name of ours?? We continued on with much discussion of the correct route to take and after another hour of wandering through the wilderness I realized I was miss-placed. YES...miss-placed. We exited at yet another trail head to find a hugh beautiful retirement village...you know the place where they put old people that get lost all the time. We used their restrooms and after another discussion time decided we needed to stay out of the jungle and hit the roads and maybe something will look familiar.

At the intersection of two busy highways here sits three directionally challenged..totally wiped out...ready for the retirement village...senior ladies. Our short hike was now a lesson in survival. Then I remembered my I-phone in my pack. My amazing I-phone that can direct us out. Another half hour passes while I am trying to locate where we are on this munchkin size map and me without my reading glasses. But it did tell us the name of the two streets intersecting...smart phone...we figured that out by sitting on the bench reading the road signs. I was again patting myself on the back because I had the foresight to remember to bring my oh so very smart I-phone. I picked it up and dialed my son to come and get us. I told him the sad story of how someone had stole my car while we were hiking.
Thank you God for my son.....and for my I-phone!!