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Devilishly Difficult

Lisa Eirene

About Lisa Eirene Lisa lost 110 pounds through calorie counting and exercise. She swims, bikes, runs, hikes and is enjoying life in Portland, Oregon. Her weight loss story has been featured in First Magazine, Yahoo Health, Woman's Day and Glamour.com.

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18 Comments

  1. Marie

    Beautiful! I love the big pictures when it is something scenic or detailed, the goofy ones are good at that smaller size. So jealous it was only in the 70s there this week. It’s gonna be 103 here today. :/

    There’s a trail in Albuquerque called the La Luz that goes up to Sandia’s crest, something like a 4000 ft elevation gain, and about 8 miles. I have hiked both up it and down it, but never both on the same day! There’s a tram to the top, so we usually will ride up and then hike back down. (There is a trail race every year where people RUN up it. Eff that.)

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Thanks for weighing in on the photos, I agree with what you said.

      I love that your hike has a tram to take you back down! What a great idea. There’s a tram here that goes from the waterfront to the top of the hill where OHSU is so we could in theory hike up there and take the tram back.

      You should totally run that next year. 😀

  2. Roz@weightingfor50

    Hi Lisa. SUCH beautiful hik photos. Thank you for sharing them with us! The neighborhood gathering sounds great. LOVE the look on Michael’s face in the last photo. Have a wonderful Friday.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Thank you Roz!

      Michael is a goofball. That photo captures his personality well. 😀

  3. Eleonora

    I love the big pic of the waterfall! Agreed, large pictures are best for scenery.
    Longest hike. That’s a hard one! If you don’t count multiple-day hikes I’d say 9 or 10 hours, with 4500ft elevation gain.
    I have no clue about the mileage, since here in Italy trail distances are expressed in hours, not miles or kilometres. That actually makes sense, because sometimes they are so steep that one mile takes one hour!
    Plus, some trails are very long (called “high ways”) and it takes you several days to walk on a trail start to finish.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      4500 ft is amazing! I think the Italian method is smart–I would like to know trails in hours. I can usually guess it based on the mileage and elevation but it makes more sense to just post hours.

      1. Eleonora

        It’s really helpful if you’re planning a long hike and don’t want to be out when it’s dark.
        Times are usually quite accurate for a medium hiker, so I usually end up getting to my destination earlier than what is posted, but it gives you a nice buffer for taking photos and stopping if you need to.
        I think you’d love the Dolomites!

        1. Lisa Eirene

          When I go to Italy I will definitely have to try your hikes after eating all the amazing food and wine there. 😀

          Hiking safety is so important (lots of people die here when they get lost, or fall, etc) and the big one is not being out there when it gets dark. We try and get our hikes started earlier in the day so we have enough time. There’s only been one occasion where the sun was starting to set a little bit before we got back.

  4. Sharon

    My longest day hike is around 14 miles. That was a few years ago when I was at goal weight. Now that I’m back within 5 pounds of goal (getting there slowly), I’m hoping to pass my record with a 15-miler before the end of this year!!

    The hike you wrote about looks beautiful. Hope to hike in your area one of these days.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      14 miles is AWESOME! Way to go. How sore were you the next day?

      You should definitely visit the Northwest. There is gorgeous hiking all over here. We just end up in the Gorge so much because the hikes are good and it’s less than an hour’s drive.

  5. Jess

    I agree that the big pictures are good for the really spectacular views, but the smaller pictures are good for everything else.

    WOW a 9 mile hike! You must have slept like a log that night; I know I would have!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Honestly, neither of us slept well that night! I have no idea why. I was expecting to be zonked out and was bummed when I tossed and turned. I blame the fireworks, over-exhaustion and my allergies are awful right now.

      1. Jess

        Awww, bummer! That is always my favourite part of long walks; The awesome nights sleep. I took my class to the zoo last month, and after 4 hours of walking around, making sure I still had 22 children with me, I was asleep by 9 that night and slept for 12 hours.

        1. Lisa Eirene

          I was thoroughly bummed I did not sleep like the dead that night!

  6. Erin

    I agree with the other posters, I like the large pictures for things that need the detail, but otherwise the small ones are good 🙂

    Good job on finishing this hike! I have a love/hate relationship with the Gorge. The vistas are amazingly breath taking but the elevation change is HARD. But whenever so go somewhere flat, I miss views. I just finished up my first backpacking trip. We were out for 3 days and covered nearly 30 miles (the longest day was 11 miles) and 6,000 feet elevation. It was one of the most amazing, challenging things I have ever done! We did the Tanner Butte- Eagle Creek, it was great (in a painful, miserable way 🙂 ) I didn’t know someone died at Eagle Creek, how scary! But I could totally see it being easy to fall off. I know I was clutching the hand rail with dear life!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Great job on your hiking! 11 miles us crazy and you should be really proud of yourself. I say the same thing about hiking in the Gorge–we try to branch out and try other hikes but in the end, they really are just better. More bang for our buck, so to say.

  7. Eleah

    How funny… I am doing this hike today and was looking at trip reviews on portlandhikersfieldguide.com and found yours!

    Did they not have the chains up at Eagle Creek when you posted this? I did it for the first time last weekend and there were chains at some of the dangerous spots.

    We’re not leaving Portland until 12:45.. I’m usually a morning hiker so this should be interesting!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      That’s great that you tried those hikes! Where are you visiting from?

      The Eagle Creek trail does have steel rope attached to the side of the rock wall on parts of the trail but I wouldn’t call that a safety feature. The trail is narrow, steep, crowded, and there are parts of the trail that could really use a rope or fence on the side of the cliff!

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