Exploring the American Wilderness and Other Adventures

Spokane South Hill Bluff, Spokane, Washington

100 Hikes in the Inland Northwest lists Spokane South Hill Bluff under their Three City Choice Hikes. I had already written about their first choice, Tubbs Hill, and their second choice, Q’emiln Park. It is described in the text as: An evolving network of trails in Spokane graces the south-facing slope below High Drive and above Qualchan Golf Course and Hangman Creek. For a good introduction, walk south from the informal trailhead near 37th Avenue and High Drive, drop down off the bluff, and turn right on the trail, which contours for a couple of miles through eye-popping spring displays of arrowleaf balsamroot and serviceberries.

I used to never be a big fan of urban hiking or trail systems, so I had not been very interested in this location. I had run and rucked along High Drive plenty of times but had never cared about heading down the bluff. I had actually blocked out having done it until I was trying to gather my photos to write about other trails from 100 Hikes in the Inland Northwest.

I went to Spokane to meet someone I had been talking with from a dating app. We started at Starbucks. He was attractive and interesting enough, and he paid for my coffee. Because I have accidentally built an entire personality around hiking, we talked about that a lot. He asked if I had ever been to South Hill Bluff, and I had not, so he suggested we walk it. We did. I was surprised by how difficult some parts of it could be. I mean, that is dumb. It is on a bluff. Obviously, it is going to be up, or it is going to be down. Ha. During this hike, I learned he is a well-known backcountry hunter who uses a pack of goats to carry his gear and the animals he kills. He was not put off by my vegetarianism, but I was definitely put off by this new information. After a few hours of hiking, we reached the trailhead. He used that time to tell me he was impressed and had just tested me to see if I was “an Instagram hiker” or a real hiker. I still do not know the right answer to his doing that. It felt gross to be told that, but at the same time, I get it. But it got worse. He lived close and invited me to his house to get water before I left to go home. Instead of giving me water, he did incredibly violent things to me. Only when he had left me to go get himself water, and I was laying there bleeding and crying, did I notice that he was recording me.

I have never seen him again, but occasionally I drive by that Starbucks and feel sick. That was not the first time I had taken a risk and made a mistake with a person that ended in an unfavorable way, and I felt really ashamed of myself, so I did not report it, and I had not talked of it until now. I question the wisdom of writing about it, but this blog is supposed to be about me, and violence has been a large part of my life. I had always felt like that is why I prefer to be alone and why I prefer to be in the wilderness – it feels safe. It is difficult to find things to fear when I am alone and in the wilderness when the only bad things that have ever happened to me involved trusting people. It makes me really sad to share a piece of wilderness with such a bad memory.

Somehow I easily recall that Starbucks, but it took an effort to remember the hike. At the end of last year, I made myself a list of the hikes from the book I have already done and then a list of hikes I could do this last winter while waiting for the more impressive hikes to become unburied from the snow. I had put South Hill Bluff on that list of places to go while waiting for other hikes to be available, but each time I had scheduled it, plans went sideways. Only when I was going through my photos did I realize that is where I was with that guy. Now I anxiously rest between letting it go and feeling the need to go there again and make it a positive experience.