The gravity of the situation

We drove east this time, to the Columbia River Gorge, the scenic stretch of river against mountain that separates Oregon and Washington states. It is a gorgeous landscape of forested hillsides against the wide expanse of the river.

And there are waterfalls, which was our goal of the day. We ended up at Multnomah Falls, the biggest one, a gushing drop of 602 feet.

My son was first captured by the train tracks and the occasional Union Pacific that passed by. Railroad tracks must make this a new cool place. That's what his face seemed to say.

As we approached the waterfall, he quickly became excited by the rushing water. He looked up and saw the pedestrian bridge. "Are we going there?" "Yes, darling."
"THEN LET'S GO!!!"

I pointed to where the trail started and he pulled my hand as hard as he could. His eagerness helped him through some of the first round of zigzags on this mountain trail, but he soon puckered out and I was trudging up the mountain, carrying an extra 30-pound load.

He found joy again at the bridge, where we could feel the waterspray. It made him giggle.

He wanted to continue the climb and so we walked up to the next great vantage point where the waterspray was even stronger.

Then he wanted to go on, wanting to run around the mountain. Then he wanted to walk along the constructed edge, grabbing onto the metal gates. Then he wanted to run again.

I kept imploring him to stop, to slow down, with the narrow path. I kept trying to hold his hand, but he fought that. I kept trying to carry him again, but he fought that too. As he started to walk away from me at one point, I yelled at him, "Come back here. I'm not losing you in this gorge."
The passing crowd of teenagers laughed. I'm sure I ended up on their blog.

My sister tried to quell the daredevil too. I think she was more scared than I was.

I kept trying again to grab him again but my little one was getting defiant. He looked at the edge of the narrow trail (as I kept my arms hovering around his waist and one hand on his pants).
"Don't look down," I said.
"Why?"
"Because you might fall"
"Why"?"
"Because there's this thing called gravity that wants to pull you down."
"Oh"

Thankfully, he got tired again and allowed me to carry him.

Then on the way down, he found his second wind. He was good for a while, holding my hand. Then he tried to make a break for it, laughing his way around the turn. We panicked again and caught up before he got too far.

A little further along, we found a large fallen tree, with a small incline behind it. A little Russian girl was playing there. We sent the boys there, hoping they would get their climbing fix that way.

It was just way too much adventure for one afternoon.