A light breeze and 65 degree weather made this 9-mile loop trip a delight compared to what one can sometimes experience on this trail. The scotch broom during the first 300' of trail provides a gauntlet of allergic aroma to deal with as you leave the cars at the Columbia River slough trailhead near N. Bonneville. The broom is heavy stuff until you enter the woods; then, the stretch to the next road/trail is muddier than normal. We opted to follow the PCT as it contours up and around to the base of the SW Ridge of Table Mtn. Blowdowns were nonexistent. The 1,000 feet up the ridge is rocky, snow-free, and straight-forward until you reach the summit plateau. The snow there exceeds 5 feet still in places as one traverses eastward on the summit to the rocky outcropping above the cleavage point which dropped the mass of earth now called Bridge of the Gods. The normally gosh-awful descent by trail down the east side of the south-facing bowl to the Heartbreak Trail was a pussycat. The brush has not had time to spread out for the summer and the tread has little in the way of ball-bearing rocks and pebbles usually encountered. Descending this way must save at least 30-40 minutes over retracing the ridge. Only 2 other hikers besides our party of four.

From the North Bonneville slough, we headed up the transmission line road through all the scotch broom into the real start of the trail at the edge of the forest. The new PCT connection is not appealing in the least. It was partly cloudy down low next to the Columbia R, but the last 1,000' to the summit was a solid misting and cool cloud bank. One-third the way merged into the PCT, passed by the Heartbreak trail section, and over to the SW ridge route. Once on the ridge progress is straight forward on the scree. Some trail maintenance appears to have occured. Not certain whether it was some generous private hikers or an organization, state or otherwise. Nowadays, we descend via the ridge again, rather than follow the aggravating east side route and ruin some perfectly human toenails. No snow on summit, or other hikers encountered, of course. Where in the USA can you find a great trail like Table, 35 miles from a metro area, and no other bodies' (Rhetorical question: pls no responses)