Ah, the hike I'll never forget...
Out of North Bend in the Iron Horse park, follow the old railroad to the start of Cedar Butte, which will be to the right just after you cross a bridge. Switchbacks galore! It was a moderately difficult hike, made slightly miserable from the rain. Who goes hiking in the rain? Me.
Towards the top, the switchbacks bring you to a cliff lookout, and you turn to the right to continue up to the real lookout. At this point of elevation, the rain had changed to snow and was coming down quickly. The view at the top was unremarkable, partly due to trees that only allowed a small window of a view, but also because the weather. The wind was intolerable, and we made haste back down, taking a small break at the first mini-lookout in the shelter of the trees.
Reaching the bottom, two things made this hike forever memorable. The first was that the car was dead upon our return, and we walked to the main road and contacted help via the voice-box in front of the gate. Their assistance was unhelpful, as a jump did nothing to revive my Jeep, and with a limited cell battery we were able to request a tow truck who successfully juiced life into my vehicle, and we made our way home with the dash flickering lights and gauges reading on and off.
Once home, V accidentally shut the car off- the plan was to leave it running and take it into my mechanic's shop immediately after dropping the dogs off at home- and we headed inside. There, I received a call, from my ex-step-mom, who informed me my father had passed during a surgery to partially amputate his foot, which is part of the reason why I'll never forget this hike, the date, and the things that happened.
Also, I believe that the reason the car was dead, our cells were near dead, and we didn't have a wholly positive hike was my father, spending his last bit of energy reaching out to me before his death.
