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countessofbiscuit · 4 years ago

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all this devotion

Shaak Ti/Rancor Squad, Mature, 2600 words, 1/2 chapters . . .

Three things are certain in life: death, the Force, and the insistence of a togruta’s heat. Stationed on Kamino, Shaak Ti can now add rain and the dedication of ARC troopers to that list.

View all tags/warnings and read on Ao3 or find chapter 1 below the cut.

“Are you alright, General?”

The map on the viewscreen expanded. Shaak Ti stared at the dispersal of the Second Army, pointedly, more bothered than she cared to admit by how closely Blitz had chosen to stand. “Yes, Commander, quite,” she lied.

Blitz was one of the more solicitous Alphas, all of whom married intuition with professional pride in a way that said they wouldn’t want the Force even were it offered. He did not accept this untruth. “Lama Su called you mistress three times. You didn’t correct him.”

“There are battles enough, some days,” Shaak Ti said. Tackling the Prime Minister’s insistence on outdated titles was not one for today.

“And you never shy from any.” Blitz hadn’t moved, but somehow his presence grew with his confidence in being right. “You’re very hot.”

The bottom of Shaak Ti’s stomach puddled into her groin. Her stripes flushed. It was the worst thing he could have said. “Excuse me?” she demanded, finally turning to face him.

“Infrared doesn’t lie, sir.”

Shaak Ti felt incredibly exposed. Unfairly observed. She swallowed the impulse to tell him not to flag her with his senors, just as Commander Colt had firmly requested her not to flag them with the Force. Blitz was trying to be helpful. Kamino was their home, their area of responsibility. And although she was trying to be helpful, too, she was an interloper, a stranger whose character and peculiarities needed to be roundly understood in order for them to do their jobs.

And her body was candid.

It was determined to make an honest togruta out of Shaak Ti. She was more than warm. The burn was beginning. The kindling was there, dry and licked into flame by pheromones. The best air-scrubbers in the galaxy couldn’t hide some things from a predatory plains species. She’d smelt the lust on them for weeks, here in this bleached city where sterility was an art form, where nature was scoured clean. But where virility could not be controlled. Her arrival had caused a flurry of activity among the clone staff that had nothing to do with the presence of a Jedi or an outsider in their midst. It was in the unreserved awe of their deep eyes. In the damp patches on their training blacks. In the lingering ache in their wrists. Shaak Ti’s many senses had discerned it all.

Her heat was upon her, and it was inflamed. And she wasn’t in the Temple, anymore.

“Alright. I will own it.” She lowered her voice. “I’m not well, and I'll be even worse for the next day or two.”

Blitz’s helmet canted slightly to the left. He stepped even closer. “What’s wrong?”

How much I want to bite you. “That’s personal, Commander.”

“With respect, sir, we’re in a heightened state of readiness, and anything that may compromise your health — ”

“Command devolves the same.”

“If you expect to be incapacitated in any way, Commander Colt should be informed.”

Oh, please don’t name him, too. An idea was germinating in Shaak Ti’s mind, rooted in biology and matriarchal instincts — and in the kindness the command cadre had shown her when she’d stepped off that shuttle, Geonosian dust still clinging to her robes. Commanders Colt, Blitz, and Havoc had removed their helmets unbidden, in unison. They were the first fresh clone faces she’d seen, not bloodied or twisted in agony. And they were very handsome.

On Shili, she would’ve had a harem to protect and cherish and serve. And who would have served her in turn —

She banished the thought before she flared whiter in Blitz’s HUD.

The Council had sent her here that she might grow confident in her ability to teach and nurture success once again. To oversee a programme she feared rife with ethical abuse. To counsel the Kaminoans on sapient integrity and encourage them to regard the clones as something more than product. She was not here to satisfy herself with her subordinates, singly or otherwise.

She was a Jedi Master. If she couldn’t master herself in this, after all these years, how could she claim mastery of the Force that flowed through her? A Jedi had to rise above base needs — and be humble enough to admit problems and devise solutions with peers. Historically, the solution to this issue involved much meditation and a temporary relocation to a sealed chamber at the distant end of the itinerants’ hall.

Shaak Ti returned her attention to the commander still lingering with unnerving focus. “Fine. I will inform him.”

“Fine,” clipped Blitz. “Thank you, Mistress Ti.” He turned heel and left her gaping at his nerve.

And at the sway of his patterned kama below his belt. And the subtle smell of rain-damp wood he left behind him.

Later, when the ache between her legs gnawed at her brain, Shaak Ti hurried to the medbay to beg soporifics from a droid. A familiar lightness had set into her limbs, as her inguinal organs sponged up blood. Her awareness tunnelled. It became harder to hold onto the serenity of the Force — it was sensitive and slippery like that, like trying to grip a current of water. Existing in the moment, too, demanded great effort. She had to concentrate on exchanging a cold nod with Hina Me, on acknowledging the waist-high salutes of a cadet company, their backs straight against the bowed walls.

Shaak Ti finally reached her room. Tipoca City wasn’t warm, and still she blasted the air cooler in the colorless, compact space, made larger by the transparisteel wall that overlooked the ocean; a meditation stool, Fe’s beads, some cacti from the Temple Gardens — a reminder of rain’s blessing, not its ubiquity — formed the sum of its personal effects. She began to strip with trembling hands.

Maturation brought much relief. Her biannual cycles weren’t as long, nor dangerous; she’d been in the habit of meditating her way through them, though she always crashed afterwards, bandwidth of mind and body maxed out. When that failed, downers, a device, and some do-not-disturb instructions could set her right after a day or three. That would be her method here, where the Force flowed thinly and the air was thick with androgens.

Commander Colt was not told. Not explicitly. As her tool warmed in the nanowave, Shaak Ti fired off a simple message to him: she was seriously unwell, and he was to consider himself in temporary command of the Grand Army stationed on Kamino, along with its reserves and training facilities. She was on comms for emergencies, but was not to be physically disturbed for love or credits.

Alphas were headstrong. They were never satisfied when they’d found the end of a problem; they had to pull it up by the roots with both hands and ask the grass why it grew. She had come to appreciate this about them. Her respect had been earned three, four, five times over by their blistering competence that ran circles around her own sluggish climb up the learning curve.

But when they knocked on her door just as the nanowave dinged, Shaak Ti wished she’d never met them at all.

There were two of them. They had moved in step down the quiet hall, but her montrals weren’t fooled, picking up the mass of their footfalls. The Force practically shouted their signatures. Blitz she knew best: cool and supple, yet columnar, like the limb of some great, unseen god; and Havoc, gritty and shifting, the scree slope of a mountain. Shaak Ti had the disconcerting feeling that they could smell her — not in any conscious way, like she could smell them. Just enough that it reinforced a need to roam in pairs, which they never did. It was Havoc’s shift now. But it wasn’t her place to question their duty rostering, just as it wasn’t his place to come here as shift commander and order her from her quarters. Only the Prime Minister could do that.

“Sir, Commander Colt insists we escort you to the medbay.” Blitz’s voice was full and clear, without the canniness of a helmet.

Shaak Ti frowned. “My compliments to the Commander, but that’s not necessary,” she said, affecting an authority she didn’t feel. She felt drunk. It was a heavy intoxication that sagged in her lekku, not the giddiness that bubbled in her tips after one too many passes at the punchbowl.

The silence was mighty. If they were discussing next steps, it was in handsign.

“We know,” Blitz finally replied. “We’re here to help.”

Shaak Ti stood stunned, keeping her distance from the door. She would not open it. But she called her shimmersilk robe to hand, all the same.

Jango Fett, the Clone Template, their progenitor, had ordered the Alphas to obey and serve the Jedi. That was their prime directive. Shaak Ti wasn’t even sure what oath they’d taken, if any. But she was bound by many things; she’d spent nights committing the Republic Code of Military Justice to memory. Ill-treatment of subordinates and misapplication of service property came presently to mind. If she accepted their help, they would ask all manner of questions and seek her direction and would be bound to comply. It would not be right.

She gathered herself against the want clamoring in her body. “I’ve made myself clear, gentlemen. No assistance is needed. Medical or otherwise. Goodnight.”

Blitz spoke up again. “With respect, sir, we know about your condition — ”

“We may be Alpha planks, sir,” Havoc cut in, “but we can read. And you’re a textbook example of a togruta in estrus.”

Shaak Ti stifled a mewl in her fist. She hadn’t made a noise like that since her feral teenage years. She sagged against the wall. How did they ... ? It wasn’t a secret phenomenon, true — as mundane as any bodily function, really. But they had conspired! They had bored a peephole into her life. For the second time that day, she felt rudely observed.

It was, however, rather rich to be affronted by that, when she’d come here to oversee, monitor, inspect and otherwise snoop.

“Let us help you, sir. Isn’t it better that way?” Blitz offered.

So much better: gorged on pleasure, in throbbing harmony with all life, magnified by her own gifts. She’d done it once, with a clan on Shili during her maturation rites. It’d been almost enough to sway her from a different kind of service, as she’d lain there, an open vessel for every feeling, carnal and uncomplicated.

These men were under no duress, not in this moment. They were consenting, volunteering freely. Outside of Shili, no one had done that for her before, not even fellow knights; certainly no masters, even when she’d reached their ranks. Was it not a honor to the Force, to offer a kindness unbidden to someone in need? It would be over sooner, too: just a standard day, if they kept up the pace. She was well-matured and no longer in the prime of reproductive life. And there was more of them, in every sense ...

Shaak Ti’s hand had slithered between her legs, fingering into her wetness. She didn’t have to imagine how big they’d be. With the height of scientific pride and the depths of indelicacy, Hina Me had paraded four naked clones before her, one of each patented Fett type, bemoaning that she had no sample from their first test batch, for though deranged, the viable half had been remarkable specimens of human physicality. Their statures differed subtly, but Shaak Ti couldn’t help noticing that they were uniformly well-endowed. All eyes front, but only the Alpha clone had met hers, deliberate and defiant. Asking his name seemed inappropriate, and her embarrassment had only compounded with time, to still not know which officer had been made to endure that humiliation.

Had it been one of hers who thickened before her, until he hung heavy in her peripheral — ?

Shaak Ti squeezed her eyes shut. She skirted around her bed to the far corner of her room, under the cooling air duct, and stared out at the roiling deep. The silk glued to her, dampening with her heat. It would be fouled. So much the better, perhaps: it was a strange and shameful gift from Halle Burtoni.

“You cannot help,” she said, more to her reflection than to the men in the hall. What would her peers say? The opinion of the Kaminoans didn’t concern her, but they would surely go red in the fin and sniff at her. “I am responsible for you. As a — ” She didn’t want to say Jedi. It seemed unfair. A brevetship of chance, when they were more capable in many respects. “A representative of the Republic.”

“An administrative detail,” Blitz countered. “We were no one’s responsibility until you came along.”

Heat surged down her lekku. The primal excitement of a threat. “You question my authority?” Her white brow scowled back at her in the pane. Fett might have ordered them to obey, but had clearly said nothing about holding their tongues; they took grumbling and constructive criticism as an act of religion.

“No, sir. We respect it,” said Blitz. “Just as we respect your ability to act responsibly towards us when this is all over. Do you think we can’t do the same?”

Surely this constituted some form of entrapment. But Shaak Ti couldn’t find the logic to argue. Not when she felt like a besh with a body attached. “I cannot ask this of you,” she said. When the silence stretched, she realized she’d whispered it to the waves. She repeated herself, louder. “I cannot ask this of you.”

“You aren’t,” Blitz clarified for the record. “We’re offering.”

Havoc spoke up. “Honestly, sir, you’d be doing Blitz a favor. He’s been rutting into his cod ever since you got here.”

Shaak Ti wheeled round, lekku spinning, feeling the pressure wave of something imminent.

Then came the thunderclap of armor against the door. A scuffling ensued. They were fighting. Something absolutely unheard of in togruta males, and it was not attractive. At the same time, it was also potentially embarrassing for everyone involved in this bizarre negotiation.

If only her door had been locked from without, too. It was altogether too easy for Shaak Ti to slide it open with a flick of her wrist, allowing two clone officers to stumble into her room and out of sight.

Blitz and Havoc clipped halfway to attention in their confusion, shuffling their helmets under their arms. Their pauldrons kissing, their eyes not diverted. They looked surprised — youthful, like two Padawans whose Force antics had granted them access to the larder.

Or maybe that was her.

The room was suddenly so much smaller. Suffused with their scent, too: musky, undisguised, and mouthwatering.

Shaak Ti's loneliness burst its buried dam. She worked in separation, she lived in isolation. Nala Se was courteous, as welcoming as any Kaminoan could be, but she was not a fellow master. There was no community here that she might join. There were the troops and there were the natives with their rigid caste system. She understood a cadre of off-world trainers had lived here alongside the Prime Clone, but his death and the outbreak of the war apparently ended their contracts; a handful remained in the Special Operations wing, but they were Mandalorians — they made the Kaminoans look friendly.

These persistent men had changed everything. They’d just shifted the center of gravity. Shaak Ti’s every thought rolled down into her besh, hungrily. She needed to consume and be consumed.

She let her robe slip, giving in, only if for a night.

#shaak ti #rancor squad #alpha arcs #commander blitz #arc troopers

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vivianbates · 7 years ago

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Hamilton Mountain Loop in Beacon Rock State Park

Only hike Hamilton Mountain Trail if you like charming forests, bold waterfalls, and awesome cliff-top views. Hamilton Mountain Trail passes a viewpoint for the Pool of Winds, where Rodney Falls plunges into a rock-wrapped punchbowl. The trail rises to a summit along the Columbia River Gorge, ascending 2,025 feet on a 7.75-mile lollipop loop.

Some of Hamilton Mountain’s best views come from a perch below the summit and a saddle after the summit. Although you could hike 6 miles up and back to the mountaintop, it is a more rewarding experience to hike the full 7.75-mile loop. Turning around at Rodney Falls is also an option, for a family-friendly 2.3-mile effort. As an intermediate outing, turn around at a gorge-facing perch below the summit of Hamilton Mountain for a 3.8-mile up-and-back hike that still delivers a complete experience.

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Hamilton Mountain Trail is part of Beacon Rock State Park and the trailhead is just up a road from Beacon Rock itself. Find the start of Hamilton Mountain Trail off the right side of the road to the park’s main campground.

Walk past bathrooms toward a picnic area and bear right up Hamilton Mountain Trail. The moderate ascent across a wooded hillside is more colorful in the spring, thanks to yellow violets, fairy slipper orchids, bleeding hearts, oaks toothwort bloom, red thimbleberries, and trillium that bloom amongst the greenery. After a third of a mile, the trail exits the forest into an area cut away for high power lines that run up from Booneville Dam, which is visible below up the Columbia River. The trail crosses beneath the power lines to a junction with Hardley Trail, which goes to the left toward the campground. A bench here provides an early place to take a break. Bear right to continue up Hamilton Mountain Trail.

Hamilton Mountain Trail

Past the junction, Hamilton Mountain Trail returns to the forest and continues a moderate ascent through lush greenery. Douglas firs dominate the second growth forest. Bracken ferns and state-line-ignoring Oregon grapes hug the shoulders of the trail. Hike around a draw in the mountainside where a footbridge crosses a small stream. Enjoy a nice perspective through the forest as you approach even more impressive water.

A tenth of a mile after one bridge and 0.95 miles from the trailhead, come to a junction just in front of another bridge. Two paths to the right lead down to Hardy Falls Viewpoint. Bear right on the first path, which goes out to a bench and a railing on the side of the canyon facing Hardy Falls. Brush can obscure the waterfall, requiring you to step up on the railing to get a clear look at the falling water.

Hardy Falls

To see the lower lookout, take the path to the left of the railing, following wooden steps down to a merger with the other path from Hamilton Mountain Trail. Proceed down the path to a wooden viewing platform on a landing along Hardy Creek just above the brink of the falls. While you can hear the waterfall below the viewpoint, the falling water is actually hard to see. Look up the creek from the viewing platform for a nice perspective of Rodney Falls and the cascades in between. Admire the surroundings and hike back up to Hamilton Mountain Trail. Turn right, cross the footbridge, and continue along the trail.

Hamilton Mountain Trail crosses the side of the canyon above tumbling Hardy Creek. Before you know it, you’ll come to another trail split. To the right, Hamilton Mountain Trail drops to a bridge spanning Hardy Creek in front of Rodney Falls. The awesome attraction known as the Pool of Winds is up a short spur to the left.

Follow the fork to the left toward the Pool of Winds, easing across the steep side of the canyon up to a big drop at the top of the waterfall.

Hiking to the Pool of Winds

Find a railing at the end of the trail where you can step up and watch the creek drop through the cliffs into an alcove that is nearly comletely enclosed in rock to create a raucous punchbowl. Look inside the Pool of Winds‘ rock-wrapped plunge to see water and wind mix and whip up gusts of mist. After a snowy winter, the water coming through the Pool of Winds will spray you from this vantage, which is quite invigorating!

Pool of Winds

Make your way back down to Hamilton Mountain Trail. Having hiked 1.2 miles, you could turn right and walk a mile back to the trailhead for an easier 2.2-mile outing with 450 feet of elevation change. If you’re forging ahead, bear left on Hamilton Mountain Trail and descend a switchback to a big wooden bridge across the creek in front of Rodney Falls. Look up this waterfall toward the Pool of Winds. The water rushing down to the mountainside in front of the bridge is quite lovely.

Rodney Falls from the bridge over Hardy Creek

The bridge below Rodney Falls

Across the bridge, the trail rises through switchbacks, going over a crest and around a bend that offers a window out from the forest and across Columbia River Gorge. While the gorge views get better as you climb, this framing of Beacon Rock is quite nice.

Rise through the trees for another tenth of a mile to a junction with Hardy Creek Trail, 1.5 miles into the hike. This junction marks the start of the loop on Hamilton Mountain. Bear right to stay on Hamilton Mountain Trail.

Ascend toward tall cliffs that lord over the mountainside. A switchback brings you across the base of this sheer basalt ridge on the southwest side of Hamilton Mountain. While this might appear like an impasse, Hamilton Mountain Trail finds a route up alongside the steep cliffs. Switchbacks lead up a sheep slope behind the even steeper cliffs.

As you rise to the top of these lovely cliffs, be prepared to put as pause on the ascent. At 2 miles from the start of the hike, Hamilton Mountain Trail makes a horseshoe bend to the left in front of an exposed outcropping on cliffs extending into the gorge. This natural overlook begs for some off-trail exploration.

The viewpoint off Hamilton Mountain Trail

Take paths out on the point just off the trail and admire the outstanding views. Look west toward Beacon Rock and down the Columbia River Gorge where Angel’s Rest and the Vista House can be seen in the distance on the Oregon side of the river.

Beacon Rock from a viewpoint off Hamilton Mountain Trail

The Columbia River Gorge view from the perch off Hamilton Mountain Trail is broad and beautiful. If you don’t intend to hike the loop on Hamilton Mountain, you could certainly turn around here without being too shortchanged by the views at the summit. Skipping the two side trails on the hike down results in a 3.8-mile round trip hike with 1,150 feet of elevation change.

Above the overlook, Hamilton Mountain Trail heads inland (avoid the footpath going straight up the ridge). Hike along the backside of the ridge, trading in views across the gorge to gaze up the wooded valley framing Hardy Creek. You’ll be able to hear and occasionally glimpse the water below.

Cliffs above Hamilton Mountain Trail

As it ascends toward the summit, Hamilton Mountain Trail returns to the ridge spine. Steep cliffs in front of the trail are decorated with yellow-green lichens. Grab a few glimpses across the gorge before the trail passes behind the cliffs and launches into a string of tight switchbacks. The short and steep twists and turns ascend exposed slopes with over-the-shoulder views down the Columbia River Gorge. As you get higher up the mountain, the switchbacks stretch out and slip into a forest above the cliffs.

Eventually, Hamilton Mountain Trail stops climbing and comes to a T-junction. Turn right and walk 100 feet to the summit of Hamilton Mountain. Forest prevents the 2,420-foot mountaintop from having 360-degree views, but you will find a clear perspective east up the Columbia River toward Bonneville Dam. Table Mountain rises to the northeast, looking quite imposing. Ridges on Mount Hood pop up over the south side of the gorge.

Bonneville Dam from the top of Hamilton Mountain

Hamilton Mountain Trail on the summit of Hamilton Mountain

Having struck the summit after around 3.1 miles of hiking, you could turn around and get back to the trailhead in just 2.9 miles. However, Hamilton Mountain Trail offers more to see, so you owe it to yourself to hike farther. An exposed saddle on the north side of Hamilton Mountain has bi-directional gorge views as well as a daunting perspective of Table Mountain. Hamilton Mountain Saddle is well worth hiking over to see.

To reach “The Saddle” Viewpoint, take the only other trail leaving the summit and hike north along the ridge, which is mostly wooded with some rock outcroppings. The trail drops 375 feet in 0.8 miles to come to a treeless area atop a runway of basalt. The basalt drops off sharply on both sides of the ridge for open views to the east and west. The eastward views best those from the summit, looking up the gorge and across a pine valley toward Table Mountain, which rises like a rock throne to the northeast.

Columbia River Gorge from Hamilton Mountain Saddle

Table Mountain from Hamilton Mountain Saddle

Proceed across the saddle to a multi-point trail junction, 4.05 miles from the trailhead. Follow the sign with the arrow pointing toward “Campground & Picnic Trailhead via Hardy Creek Trail” and turn left down Equestrian Trail. This road-width trail leads down to Hardy Creek Trail, which reconnects with Hamilton Mountain Trail to form the loop.

Hamilton Mountain Saddle

Gaze back across Hamilton Mountain Saddle before the Equestrian Trail eases into the forest. Pass Don’s Cutoff, a single-track parting to the right, as Equestrian Trail curves to the left. (For a 0.4-mile longer variation on this loop, hikers can take Don’s Cutoff over to Upper Hardy Creek Trail.) Around the curve, Equestrian Trail descends along the base of the basalt cliffs on the west side of the saddle, passing interesting cubist steps covered in lichens.

Proceed down the trail into forest along the east side of Hamilton Mountain. The views on Equestrian Trail become limited to the forest right around you. Descend south for about half a mile to a pronounced bend to the right. Continue descending toward a sharp bend to the left and a junction with Upper Hardy Creek Trail, 5 miles from the start of the hike. Bear left to hike down along Hardy Creek.

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After a short distance, notice a picnic table and a bridge over Hardy Creek to the right. Leave the wide trail here and turn left onto Hardy Creek Trail, a single-track through lovely forest above the creek.

You will be on Hardy Creek Trail for 1.3 miles. Enjoy the creek views at the start. As you proceed, Hardy Creek gradually slips farther and farther down into the canyon below the trail. Cross a couple footbridges as Hardy Creek Trail wraps around creases in the mountainside. Eventually this hike through the forest leads you back to Hamilton Mountain Trail.

Hardy Creek Trail

After 6.45 miles of hiking, return to the junction that you passed at the 1.5-mile mark. Assuming you skip the spurs to Hardy Falls View and the Pool of Winds on the descent, you can get back to the trailhead in 1.3 miles to complete the 7.75-mile hike. Bear right down Hamilton Mountain Trail and follow it all the way back to the trailhead. The waterfalls and cascades will be a welcome déjà vu on the hike down.

The basic directions for this loop are:

Begin up Hamilton Mountain Trail (0 miles)

Stay to the right past Hardley Trail (0.45 miles)

Reach a spur to Hardy Falls Viewpoint and turn right (0.95 miles)

Admire waterfalls and cascades from a viewing platform below the trail (1 mile)

Return to Hamilton Mountain Trail and turn right to proceed across a footbridge (1.05 miles)

Turn left up a spur to the Pool of Winds on Rodney Falls (1.1 miles)

Stand in front of the Pool of Winds (1.15 miles)

Return to Hamilton Mountain Trail and proceed down toward a bridge over Hardy Creek (1.2 miles)

Stay to the right through a junction with Hardy Creek Trail where the loop begins (1.5 miles)

Pass a cliff-top perch with dramatic views of Columbia River Gorge (2 miles)

Come to a T-junction on the top of Hamilton Mountain and stroll to the right on a short spur with views up Columbia River Gorge before proceeding on the trail to the left to Hamilton Mountain Saddle (3.1 miles)

Cross an exposed basalt saddle with views dominated by Table Mountain (3.9 miles)

Reach the end of Hamilton Mountain Trail and turn left down Equestrian Trail (4.05 miles)

Stay to the left past Don’s Cutoff (4.1 miles)

Make a sharp left to descend past Upper Hardy Creek Trail (5 miles)

Turn left onto Hardy Creek Trail (5.15 miles)

Come back to Hamilton Mountain Trail, closing the loop, and turn right (6.45 miles)

Return to the trailhead, bypassing the two spurs on the descent (7.75 miles)

Major junctions are marked with signs and trail maps. Dogs are welcome on leashes for this hike, but bikes are not allowed. A Washington State Parks Discover Pass should be displayed in any vehicle parking at the trailhead. The cost for the pass is $10 per day or $30 per year (unless you visit on one of the park’s free days). No other permit is needed to hike to Rodney Falls and Hamilton Mountain, so get out and enjoy!

A fairy slipper orchid on Hamilton Mountain Trail

To get to the trailhead: From Portland, follow Interstate 205 north into the state of Washington. Take exit 27 toward Camas, merge onto Route 14, and travel east for 28 miles (34.5 miles up Route 14 from Interstate 5 in Vancouver).

After Beacon Rock comes into view, drive up a hill past the park headquarters for Beacon Rock State Park on the left. Roadside parking for Beacon Rock Trail begins on the right. Make the next left up a road toward Hamilton Mountain Trailhead and the state park’s main campground.

Drive 0.3 miles up this road and bear right into the trailhead parking area (a gate at the bottom of this road is closed in the winter). A bathroom is located at the far end of the parking area near the start of Hamilton Trail. A picnic area is set just within the forest.

Trailhead address: Washington 14, Stevenson, WA 98648 Trailhead coordinates: 45.6326, -122.0198 (45° 37′ 57.4″N 122° 01′ 11.3″W)

from hikespeak.com https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/hamilton-mountain-trail-rodney-falls-hike-columbia-river-gorge-washington/

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