These are some of the hikes I have done in the Pacific NW and would
recommend to others.
Most include pictures, approximate distance and elevation gain stats as well as
rating (5* being highest). Directions to most trailheads can be found in
guidebooks, such as "Pacific Northwest Hiking" by Judd and Nelson.
The 100 hikes series books also have good trail descriptions. These are all highly subjective reviews and as always YMMV.
***** Cooper Spur (Mt.
Hood North side) : Awesome views of the Elliot Glacier with jagged
seracs and deep crevasses. Also panoramic shots of Mt. Adams, Rainier and
St. Helens. You can hike up the lateral moraine of the glacier and descend
onto the dirt-covered glacier to see the glacier up close (be careful
because its still slippery ice underneath the dirt). The creaks and groans
of splintering glacial ice are an additional feature of the hike. Large
switchbacks snake up the spur to tie-in rock -- so-named because climbers
presumably tie-in with rope to climb the 50 degree Cooper Spur route to
summit of Hood. pic of Adams and Rainier from Cooper
Spur .
In Aug. 2003 I revisited this trail and also ventured out onto Elliott Glacier. The wind was blowing extremely hard and made for tough going. At times it was hard to keep my eyes open. I finally turned back well before Tie-in-rock. I ran into nobody for the entire hike. I didn't know it then but my days of midweek hiking and unemployment were about to end soon. Rocky trail switchbacking up Cooper
Spur (8 miles, 2800 ft.) (done 9/13/98, 8/27/03)
**** South climb Route,
Cold Springs trail 183 (Mt. Adams) : Nice hike which gradually
transitions into the mainly non-technical south climb up Suksdorf ridge on
Mt. Adams. The road to Cold Springs Campground and trailhead is one of the
worst I have driven and truly the road-from-hell. Hike has great views of
Hood (which looks remarkably similar to view of Jefferson from Hood) and
Helens. I hiked up to Crescent Glacier but was forced to turn back because
of painfully tight plastic mountaineering boots that I had rented for this
occasion. Moral of the story : feet swell on exertion so rent a larger
size than you usually wear . Second time around I was able to stagger
along with a sprained ankle for a while but turned back. Maybe there is a
jinx on this mountain for me. pic(7 miles, 1500
ft. ?, done 9/26/98 and again 9/20/99)
***** Silver Creek
Falls loop (Silver Creek Falls State park Near Salem) : Lots of
bang for your buck. It costs $3 to park but for once I think its well
worth it (its a state park not a huge federal forest). Several spectacular
waterfalls and lots of huge old-growth fir and cedar trees. Many waterfalls have
trails that go behind the fall which is really cool. Moss covers
everything. The return part of the loop along the Rim Trail is short but rather uneventful.
The back road to the park from Portland is a nice drive with hop fields
and quaint farms as well as Mt. Angel monastery which has great views of
surrounding peaks on a clear day. In 2004 a section of the loop was closed because trail was damged during ice storm in an 2004. Consequenty a detour along Maple trail is required. For some reason I have done this trail twice on DEc 31st. A fitting way to eand a year I guess. pic, pic, pic(10
miles, 700 ft. done 3/99, 12/31/00, 10/01, 12/31/04)
** Lyle Cherry Orchard
(Gorge, near Bingen, WA) : A good hike to get a feel for the dry
east end of the Columbia river gorge. The land was bought by nature
conservancy. The trail starts out in oak trees and dry grass covered hills
and climbs up at a fairly gentle uphill pace with one long exposed steep
slope to get you to the upper hills. The end point is a derelict old
orchard. I didn’t see any cherry trees. Nice views of Hood and the gorge.
The open terrain makes views better. On the return the group took a short detour
to the big sign that says Lyle on the hill side. Ticks and poison oak are
hazards on this hike.( 6 miles , 1400 ft, 3/99)
**** Lower Deschutes River (Gorge, near The Dalles, OR) : A nice hike with river and
gorge views as well as a natural arch. The trail starts at Deschutes park
and ascends steeply to the top of the hills. Nice views for here of the
surrounding terrain and the gorge and Deschutes river. After this the
trail follows the ridgeline for a while. There is a train line running on
the other side of the Deschutes river. The river itself is very scenic.
The trail then gently descends to the river where numerous lunch spots
present themselves. The return is along the side of the river for a while
and then on a dirt road. There is a few places where you have to climb up
and down cattle stiles. ( 8 miles , 900 ft, 4/99)
*** Indian Point and
Nick Eaton Ridge (gorge, Near Cascade Locks, OR) : Long grueling
hike but has nice expansive views of the gorge and Adams. Lots of
switchbacks in the beginning. Then you get a brief respite as the trail levels
out for a while as it follows stretches of an abandoned forest road. Then
it takes off sharply again and continues in this manner until reaching the
top. Elevation gain is considerable. There are several open stretches that
afford good views of the gorge. Indian Point is a rocky pinnacle with a
single tree precariously hanging on to its top. The ledge which leads to
it is a popular lunch-spot for hikers. You can descend via Gorton Creek
trail. pic: Hikers spread out like a bunch of
foraging rock monkeys on Indian Point, pic:
View of the gorge and Mt. Adams from Indian Point,(10 mi., 3000 ft.,
done 3/20/99)
*** Kings Peak
(Tillamook State Forest on your way to the beach) : Its a challenging
3000 ft. climb in 3 miles but the trail is fairly reasonable except for
the last mile where it heads up sharply with relatively few switchbacks.
Coming down, the potential for a few slips and slides is quite bright so
leave the sneakers home for this one. You can see the ocean and Hood and
Adams from the top. The extra-rugged hikers can go back via Elks traverse
(I didn't because of deep snow). pic:
"summit" shot,(6 miles roundtrip, 3000 ft., done 4/17/99).
** Ape Cave (Mt. St.
Helens) : Nice spring hike in a 1+ mile long lava tube. In summer
they have a rip-off racket which charges $8 to enter the cave but it was
free this time of the year. A lot of the local teenagers appear to
gravitate to this cave in summer evenings after the visitor center
racketeers close down for the day. Had to hike a short distance on snow to
get to the mouth of the cave. Floor is rocky in places but is mostly
level. Turning off the light makes one experience total
"blacker-than-black" darkness. I was mistakenly under the
impression that the cave would be dry even though it was raining outside.
However, the rock appears quite porous and seems to soak up the rain water
like a sponge and then release it in steady drip. Consequently I was
soaked through by the end. Bring good flashlight, hiking boots and
remember to watch your head as roof height varies. Also caves like this
are pretty cold irrespective of the time of year so dress warmly ( 2
miles, 0 ft. elev. gain, done 4/99)
*** Angel's Rest
(gorge, near Bridal Veil falls, exit 28 off I-84) : Short hike
leads to nice views of the gorge. It is a quintessential gorge hike with
the ferns, firs, rockslide traverses and waterfalls that typify gorge
hikes. You cross a respectable waterfall called Coopey Fall soon after
starting the hike. Lots of switchbacks with good gorge views. The
destination is a flat brush-covered piece of cliff top that juts out and
provides expansive views of the gorge. It was so windy up there that we
had to literally hang onto bushes and rocks sometimes to prevent from
being bowled over. There is some evidence of a forest fire that ravaged
trees towards the end of the trail -- perhaps this explains the lack of
trees at the top of Angel's rest. ( 4 miles, 1600 ft. elev. gain, done
5/23/99 and 2/21/00)
** Devil's Rest
(gorge, near Bridal Veil falls, exit 28 off I-84) : This is a hike near Angel's Rest named
Devil's Rest by somebody who liked symmetry. It is longer and about a 1000 ft. higher but has no nice
view at the end of it -- just a bunch of moss-covered boulders. Hence I
don't recommend this hike very highly. It starts off along the Wahkeena falls trail and branches off of it once you reach the top of Wahkeena Falls. There is a short side trail to a spring alnog this hike.( 7 miles, 2600 ft. elev. gain, done 6/99 )
*** Dry Creek Falls
(gorge, ) : Hike leads to nice views of the fall. Got a really
nice pic of the fall with sunlight streaming through narrow cleft from
which the water fall descends. A small old dam that supplied water to
Cascade Locks stands dismantled nearby. Continue towards Herman Creek and
some weird looking rock formations that are crumbling away and piling the
debris around their base. Beware of poison oak, which was growing
profusely along many stretches of the trail. ( 8 miles one way with car
shuttle, 800 ft. elev. gain, done 6/19/99) pic,
pic
**** Ramona Falls (Mt.
Hood, Zigzag area): An excellent hike near Mt. Hood. The trail
starts along the Sandy river and then crosses Sandy river on a little
bridge that is removed in winter. Trail later parallels Ramona Creek for
considerable distance. The bubbling creek and the carpet of moss that
covers everything around the trail are attractive enough in their own
right but the highpoint of the hike is Ramona Falls which is a breathtakingly
beautiful, wide terraced waterfall. The return can be via a shorter route
instead of the Ramona creek but there is a lot of horse-shit on this trail
because of the horses. I would recommend returning the same way via the
scenic creek-side route even though it will add an extra mile to the trip.
The shitty trailhead fee signs are posted here as well.(9 miles, 900 ft. ,
done 7/3/99, 5/20/00 and 5/27/03) pic,
pic, pic
***** South Climb (Mt.
Hood South side) : This is not strictly a hike per se, so not
advisable if you don't know anything about ice-axe and crampon usage. My
objective in this case was not the summit but the area near the crater
known as "Devils kitchen". It has volcanic fumaroles that emit
noxious gases (including sulphur dioxide, smells like rotten eggs). Started
at timberline Lodge (elevation 6000 ft.). Started hiking at 5 am with a
balmy breeze blowing from the east and no sign of the blustery winter-like
weather of last weekend. Beginning part is along the ski slope with lots
of snow and a few exposed outcroppings of rock. Most of the going was in
mushy snow because of balmy weather which prevented the snow from freezing
overnight. The first marker is Silcox hut at the 1 mile, 1000 ft.
elevation gain. Another long 1.5 mile slog gets you to the 8500 ft. level
where Palmer ski lift ends. After that things get more interesting as you
leave the noisy skier dudes behind. The climb along the ski-lift is rather
boring but does afford some nice views. Mt. Jefferson and the three
Sisters became increasingly visible as well as the drier land east of the
Cascades. It was a long slog but not really dangerous because there were
already a lot of people who had kicked steps in the snow. Basically it was
like walking up a huge staircase with no hand railings :-) . It was really
crowded on hogsback ( a ridge leading to summit) all morning with hundreds
of climbers strung like ants all along the ridge as they waited to come off
or go up to the summit. There was one crevasse
at the 9000 ft. level that I had to gingerly cross on a little 1-2 foot
wide shoulder on the side and a sheer drop-off to White River glacier on
the other side. This area is usually pretty devoid of snow because I don't
remember this stuff during my hikes in late summer last year. After the
crevasse there is a long fairly steep slog up to crater rock. Looking down
is quite dizzying at this point. The crater is a weird but fascinating
looking place with a lot of steaming sulfur-coated rocks (steam was really
rising off the inner side of crater rock). There is almost a constant hail
of rocks falling down the Steel Cliffs as well as Crater Rock. Some of
these were quite sizable and zinged off the boulders like bullets while
others skittered down more slowly. Extremely crumbly rock. All this rock
fall made me quite nervous because it felt like being in a minefield. I
had hiked up to Crater rock a couple of times last summer and remember seeing
several large rocks sporadically roll down the snowfield with no apparent
trigger event, as well as a thundering rock avalanche from the crumbling
Steel Cliff area. Now I know why these guys like to climb when there is
still snow there to lock the rocks in place. A helmet is a good thing to
have handy in this kind of situation. Warm weather made snow really mushy
so I did not dare to go above the widely yawning bergschrund. Since I was
pretty late in getting up there I had the whole place to myself except for
a couple of skier dudes who languished lazily on the hogsback ridge and
smoked as they took in the scenery. It had taken me a good 8-9 hours to
climb up to the bergschrund but took only 2 fun hours to glissade (sliding
on your butt) down. On my descent I lost a crampon which was strapped to
my backpack while I glissaded down :-( I spent 45-50 minutes climbing back
up several hundred feet and backtracking on my footsteps to find the damn
thing but to no avail. Really pissed at myself for losing it since it was
a rental. I will be sure to pack a wide-brim hat next time to avoid the
overwhelming sunlight as well as the glare from snow reflection. Towards
the end I was desperate for any scrap of shade I could get from a large
boulder or a stunted tree. It was so hot I probably didn't need to carry
all the warm stuff up all that distance but warnings about the fickle
weather as well as my own wariness of the mountain contributed to my
packing several clothing layers. Oh well, better be safe than sorry. All
in all a pretty awesome experience. (9-10 miles, 4500 ft. elev. gain, done
7/10/99) pic, steaming side of crater rock, pic, Bergschrund, pic, fumaroles , devils kitchen,
pearly gates - cliffs surrounding path to summit
**** Cedar Flats (Mt.
St. Helens): This is a small 1 mile loop but I really like it
because of the total sense of rain forest immersion it provides. You
encounter huge old-growth cedar trees, fallen nursing logs, ferns and all
the other goodies that typify rain forest in this part of the world. It is
as moss-encrusted as anything you will see in Hoh Rain Forest of the
Olympic National Park. The trail head is rather easy to miss and there
isn't a lot of parking by the highway either so it was only serendipity
that led me to stop and check out this trail but I am very glad I did. Gives
you the felling of being in a mossy cathedral. (1 mile, 0 ft. elev. gain,
done 7/17/99)
**** Ape Canyon (Mt.
St. Helens) : Nice well-graded trail climbs on a forested ridge
next to the mudflow devastation of the 1980 eruption . The Lahar (Mud
Flow) is a real desolate looking reminder of the power of these volcanoes
to change the landscape. The trail climbs along a ridge with brush on the east (right) side and mature old-growth on the other side. There is one particularly massive Douglas Fir tree perched on the egde of a slope along this ridge. Great views of Mt. Adams and Rainier and stunning close-ups of St. Helens along the way. Eventually the trail comes to Ape Canyon which is a deep notch in the ridge. The trail skirts the canyon and leads to the wide open ash-covered slopes of St. Helens. This area has the somewhat fanciful name "Plains of Abraham". Only downside to this hike is the hordes of
mountain-bikers hurtling down the trail and the hordes of mosquitoes that
descend for a juicy snack at your expense once you stop moving.(11 miles,
1700 ft. elev. gain, done 7/17/99 and 6/8/03) pic, pic, pic, pic, pic, pic,
pic, view of Adams, pic, pic, pic,
pic
**** Hurricane Ridge
(Olympic National Park) : Lots of bang for your buck. Alpine views
among lush green meadows. Trail starts from visitor center and hugs the
ridge-line with great views of snow-capped Olympic mountains on one side
and Canada across the Straits of Juan de Fuca on the other side. Lots of
wildlife including marmots and deer . Most tourist hordes fall behind
within the first mile. You can potentially take this trail 16 miles down
to the park entrance but I turned around much before then (8/7/99)
***** Siouxon Creek (
Near Chelatchie , WA) : A great summer or winter hike. Go east on
Forest road 54 from Chelatchie and then left on road 57 and 5701. Road is
paved but has some rough spots that require careful
circumnavigation. The trail descends 400 ft quickly , crosses a log bridge and
runs parallel to and 50 ft. above Siouxon creek for 4 miles. Nice
waterfalls and lots of clear inviting pools of water with tints of green and opal.
At the 2 mile point you come to Siouxon fall which is probably the
highlight of this trail. A couple of nice backpacking campsites are
nearby. There is a little side trail 50 yards from the Siouxon fall
viewpoint which goes to the creek above the waterfall where you can wade
and cool off. Its a lot safer than the very steep scramble trail leading to
the inviting pool below the falls. The clarity of the water is pretty
phenomenal allowing you to see right to the bottom of the pools. Submerged
rocks are clearly visible in the deep aquamarine water. In summer the
temptation to take a dip or wade is overpowering. The forest is mixed fir
and cedar with several large cedars and many fallen giants serving as
nursing logs. Forest floor is lush moss and sword ferns. The trail fords a
small creek and then crosses a bridge over Siouxon Creek after 4 miles and
then gradually veers away from the creek towards a smaller waterfall (Chinook Falls). This is a good turn back point. If you continue straight up the trail for 1 mile (instead of crossing the bridge) you will hit a less-visited big waterfall emptying into a limpid pool. This waterfall easily equals the more popular Siouxon Falls and is worth checking out.
(8-10 miles roundtrip, 700 ft.). The much maligned trail park pass sign is
posted at trailhead. pic : Siouxon fall cascades
into a clear pool.(done 8/14/99, as a backpack 7/29-30/2000, to 2nd water fall 6/20/03, 5/16/04)
***** Eagle Creek (
gorge, Near Cascade Locks, OR) : A "classic" gorge hike.
I found it to be over-hyped and over-crowded. The trail climbs rapidly and
hugs the rocky ledges blasted out to make the trail. Steel cables ensure
safety where ledge is narrow and exposed. Trail runs well above the creek
for 3.5 miles to high bridge. High bridge is a nice place with tar-black
water going through a narrow slot canyon several hundred feet below you.
High bridge is a good place to turnaround, or you an go another 2 miles to
tunnel falls -- I didn't. 3 nice waterfalls along the way. Upper and lower
punch bowl falls are accessible and you can take scramble down side trails
to them. Metlako falls is the tallest but can only be viewed from afar. I
liked upper punchbowl falls best. The water is not as clear as Siouxon
creek and has a yellowish algae-tainted tinge in the shallow spots. I
think Silver Falls SP or Siouxon creek are more scenic hikes. (7 miles
roundtrip, 400 ft.). The much maligned trail park pass sign is posted here
as well, as a matter of fact the trailhead was jam-packed with cars and I
had to park about 1/2 mile away from the trailhead and still pay $3 for
that "privilege"
Captain's log supplemental: I redid this hike in Dec 2001 after it had
been raining for 32 consecutive days in Portland. The scenery was vastly
improved this time. There were numerous side waterfalls in operation that had
been dry the first time I did it. Also the water in Eagle Creek was a clear
glacier blue in color and the waterfalls were much more impressive with heavy
flow. Consequently I have upgraded the ranking of this trail to 5*. To catch
the full impact of this hike it should be done in spring or winter.(done
8/15/99, 12.19.01, 7 mi, 450 ft, also done in 12/01 and 12/02,11/14/04) pic : Upper punch-bowl falls , pic
**** Elk Cove (On Mt.
Hood's North Side): A great Hood hike but hard to reach this year
('99). The access from Cloud Cap along Timberline trail was not possible
because USFS has not placed the seasonal bridges on the steep and
treacherous Elliott and Coe rivers that gush forth from similarly named
glaciers. Instead we had to use an alternate route (Trail 631) but here
the USFS in its infinite wisdom had dug up the road to the trailhead with
30 ditches thus adding a dusty 2.5 miles to length of hike. The trailhead
marker has also been removed to further inconvenience and confuse hikers.
Trail climbs through a humdrum fir forest with bear grass and many
blood-thirsty bugs and bees. Lots of fallen trees obstructed the trail and
made things difficult for us. There was a wide stream crossing that got my
boots wet both times I crossed it. There is one great view of Mt. Hood
with Coe glacier descending steeply down the face and feeding a river that
runs far below you. Elk Cove itself is a delightful flower-strewn alpine
meadow with a small stream running through it. Avalanche lilies, Indian
paintbrush, "Old man of the mountain" are some of the flowers
visible along the hike. A little side trail near the stream takes you
closer to the Coe glacier and some snow fields. The glacier has a really
cool looking icefall. A smaller glacier to the right (Junaid glacier??) is
hanging precipitously off a rock face. Mt. Adams is clearly visible to the
North. (10 miles roundtrip, 2000 ft.). The much maligned trail park pass
sign is posted as well but there is precious little trail maintenance in
evidence. I noticed that a lot of hikers are getting pretty pissed at the
obstacles USFS is creating for them. I was also impressed by the hike leader's dedication -- she had already done the whole hike the day before just to scout it for the group hike. (done 8/23/99) pic,
pic, pic, pic, pic, pic
** Short Horn Trail
(Mt. Adams) : Nice hike which crosses a small stream and runs
along the creek for some distance before reaching timber line and
intersecting with "around-the-mountain trail". The trail starts
from the Morrison Creek campground which is reached after a bumpy ride up
a 5 mile dirt road. This same road climbs another 3 heavily rutted miles
to the South Climb trailhead. Hike has a few nice views of Adams when the
trees start thinning out near timber line. There is supposed to be a large
recent landslide at the end of this trail but I turned back before then. pic(7 miles, 1500 ft. ?, done 9/26/98 and again
9/20/99)
***** McNeil Point (On
Mt. Hood's West Side) : One of the best Mt. Hood hikes with flowers, mountain views and everything in-between. The access
is from Top Spur/Lolo Pass Road. I have done this hike in July, Aug. and Oct.
and it was good all times of the year. Summer brings wildflowers but
murderous flies and bugs pester you in the lower parts of the trail.
Autumn is cooler and bug-free but has no wildflowers and there is rotting
vegetation in meadows. Top Spur trail is short with lots of roots across
the trail and several majestic fir and hemlock trees with lichen-encrusted trunks. It quickly leads to Timberline
trail in about 0.5 miles. This place is quite a nexus of trails and can
get confusing (see end of this account to see how confusing) . If you head right at the fork towards the viewpoint you
will be able to take in some great views and then take a shortcut over to
the main trail. The Mt. Hood view from this point is one of my favorites because the precipitous drop to the river valley below accentuates the height of the mountain and gives one the feeling of being perched in the air. There are quite a few wildflowers along the exposed ridge during this section of the trail including white bunchberry, red columbines and yellow tiger lilies. A few rhodie bushes also put out a good display of pink blooms in early summer . You need to watch out for the short side trail in the second clump of
trees about 0.5 mile after the fork. This will cross you over to the main
trail to McNeil Pt. There is long slog on this main trail before you
get to the ridge where you get some more views -- bugs (mostly flies) are particularly
bothersome in this stretch in summer. The ridge line offers gorgeous views
of Sandy and Reid Glaciers with high tall thin ribbons of several waterfalls cascading down from the glacier into the Muddy Fork valley. One seemed a
lot taller than Multnomah falls to me. Don't know why it isn't mentioned
as the highest in OR -- maybe its seasonal or something. Autumn colors
were also in evidence along the trail in Oct. as vines on exposed faces
had turned to shades of bright red and orange. The trail dips in and out
of trees as it climbs up a ridge, each opening in the trees reveals great
views and delightful close-ups of the mountain. The Muddy Fork river runs
far below you in the valley that contains Ramona Falls. Yocum ridge rises
up on the other side of the valley towards Sandy glacier headwall. The
sheer headwall is awesome with yellow and orange volcanic rock stripped bare by the glacier. Then the trail dips back into the forest and
climbs back up to emerge below McNeil Pt. At this point There are some
goat trails to Mc Neil point shelter which are quite steep and muddy and
pass through some swampy meadow-like terrain with abundant flowers in
summer and fleshy plants that had a ripe rotting vegetation smell in Oct.
In July/August however the meadows are ablaze with wildflowers and it looks
like a piece of heaven. Everything from delicate avalanche lilies to
bright red Indian paintbrush. The trail crosses several cool and refreshing
snowmelt creeks and skirts the edges of two snowmelt-fed shallow ponds
before coming to a branch shortly after its intersection with the Mazama
trail. At this point the McNeil point trail splits to the right and goes
up an extremely pretty flower strewn valley with a little brook running
along the trail. There are several nice rocks to stretch out and luxuriate
in the nice breeze among this meadow. A fairly steep but short stretch
takes you up on a ridge with nice views of Helens, Rainier and Adams. The
trail then crosses a couple of small snowfields and angles up at a more
tolerably graded trail to McNeil Point shelter. The views down the valley,
up towards Mt. Hood and north to Washington cascades are quite
spectacular. The energetic hiker can continue up the ridge to tie-in-rock
where it becomes a climbing route to summit. All in all this is probably
one of the nicest hikes on Mt. Hood and a definite repeater in all
seasons. (8-9 miles, 3000 ft., done 10/2/99, 8/6/00,7/25/02 and 7/12/03)
Captain's log supplemental: I redid this hike in July 2002. Its almost becoming an annual rite of passage now. There was plenty of snow so I kick-stepped up a snowfield to get to the pleateau that leads to McNeil Pt. Then, unencumbered by any whiny companions, I continued up the trail to where it peters out and becomes a climbing route. The views in this segment were stupendous with open windswept tundra, sun-bleached krummholz and close-up views of Sandy and Glisan Glaciers (I am not sure if it was just snowfields or a glacier on the left side of Sandy Glacier). On the way back I took the steep shortcut down to the main trail from McNeil point. There was a party of three women setting up camp near the shelter and they were very nice and hospitably offered me to use the sleeping bag somebody had left hanging in the shelter and spend the night there instead of going down in the dark. They also generously offered to share some food but given the rapidly ending daylight, I declined. One of the women had taken the shortcut before and she made it sound really hairy. It was indeed pretty rough but quite manageable. I guess I have become hardened after negotiating Monitor ridge on Helens a couple of times. I turned back pretty late at 7 pm and paid the price for it on the way back. I wasted even more time filtering water and taking pictures of Mt. Hood in Alpenglow. By the time I reached the view point it had gotten pretty dark so I broke out the flashlight. At the confusing junction I took the Top Spur trail but I noticed that it was quite overgrown and also seemed to be climbing quite a bit more that I remembered. After about half an hour on this trail I became very uneasy and decided to turn back. At this point my flashlight decided to give out and its light faded to a dim glow. This put an entirely different complexion on the matter since I couldn't see a damn thing in the dark. I usually carry an extra flashligh but I had moved things around to my bigger backpack for the Wallowa trip and consequently I was SOL. It was supposed to be a full moon night but the thunder clouds took care of that. Finally I resorted to switching on the flashlight briefly to catch a glimpse of the trail and then stumble along for a few feet before repeating the process. The breaks seemed to give a little bit of time for batteries to recuperate and produce an anemic beam of light for a few seconds. There were times I was really scared becaue I thought I had lost the trail in the dense flowers and shrubs that were covering the trail. Luckily I always managed to backtrack a little and find the trail. Checking clean cut ends of fallen logs by feel also reassured me that I was on the trail. When the flashlight became almost totally depleted, I followed my dog whose white fur made him appear like a dim ghost leading the way. I managed to creep along in this manner to the 6 way trail junction and realized that I had missed Top Spur and had gone on towards Ramona Falls or something. After a little more cursing and groping about in the dark I was able to locate the right trail which was strewn with roots and quite broad just like I remembered it to be. I finally emerged from the forest at 11 pm. The trailhead was empty apart from a VW van with some hippy types camping in it. Thankfully drove home resolving to always carry an extra flashlight and batteries in future. This episode brought back very vividly the experience I had in the Kachina Peaks wilderness in Arizona in 1996 when my buddy Daljeet and I had barely made it down Humphery's Peak on a small flashlight with faltering batteries. (done 7/25/02, 10 mi, 3200 ft)
First Viewpoint,
McNeil point and Sandy glacier, Close-up of Sandy glacier,
Relaxing among the wildflowers Tundra above shelter and Mt. Hood with a lenticular cloud Alpenglow on Mt. Hood
***** Elliot Glacier
(On Mt. Hood's North Side): Another great Hood hike. The access is
from Cloud Cap. Trail quickly leads up an ashy slope to the lateral
moraine. Gorgeous views of Elliot glacier (largest glacier on Mt. Hood).
Rocky/ashy stuff makes for tough going . Trail is above timberline so
bring a wide-brimmed hat or cap. A river springs from glacier. Lots of
dust and dirt covers lower portions of the glacier. HUGE crevasses and
other glacial features can be seen up close. The successive layers of dirt
and snow in crevasse walls tell the story of passing seasons. At the end
of the moraine a steep and exposed trail continues up to Cooper Spur. The
sheer scale of things is overwhelming and can mislead hikers. What looks
like an entirely reachable destination turns out to be several miles and
thousands of feet away. For the location of many of these Mt. Hood hikes
refer to Topographic
Map of Mt. Hood (done 10/3/99) looking down at
the crevasses, Lateral moraine -- Mt. Adams and
Helens on right and left edges of the picture, Elliot
glacier's icefall, A crevasse, Rainier and Adams
in background
***** Skyline trail (On
Mt. Rainier's South Side): Rainier has always been a distant
blobbish looking mountain I have seen from I-5 during my travels
elsewhere, and from high elevation hikes on Hood and Adams etc. (it looks
nicer when viewed from the south). This October I decided to utilize the
nice weekend weather and go check out the highest mountain in the
Cascades. Rainier is a National park and therefore very crowded. The
Paradise parking lot resembles a mall lot during Christmas with people
circling around looking for space and cars parked as far as a mile along
the narrow one-way road leading out of the lot. Camping opportunities are
also very limited and larger campgrounds had already closed for the season
or were full. Consequently I had to hunt for car-camping outside the park
in surrounding National forest (Tatoosh wilderness). Since it was Oct. and
hunting season, hordes of orange-jacketed hunters had descended upon the
forest and were busy driving around in monster trucks late into the wee
hours of the night on forest roads. As I huddled in my truck-bed under the
open sky to spend the night, I couldn't help but think of all bullet-hole
riddled road signs I had encountered on sundry forest roads. Next morning
after a short side-trip to Narada falls (looks similar to Ramona falls) I
arrived at the Paradise visitor center. The Skyline trail starts at
Paradise visitor center and continues up with glorious views of the
humongous Nisqually glacier. Its a very well-marked trail, more of a
highway actually, with asphalt pavement and big stone steps most of the
way. Consequently, throngs of tourists were plaguing the trail even this
late in the season, with much use being made of the few patches of fresh
snow lying atop old snow along the trail. I went up to Pebble Creek via
Skyline and came back via Dead Horse trail. The trail up to Camp Muir
looked mighty tempting but fading daylight and a recently sprained
ankle-on-the-mend dissuaded me from proceeding further. Nice views of
Adams, Helens and Hood (you could see Sandy glacier with the binoculars)
as well as the towering south side of Rainier -- which looks much
shapelier than the profile viewed from the freeway. Awesome icefalls
cascade down the mountain, and 100 ft. thick hanging walls of ice balance
precariously atop precipitous cliffs. Again you feel totally dwarfed by
the scale of things. Ice creaks and cracks as the glacier grinds its way
down the mountain. Very nice fall colors graced the meadows at lower
elevations. For some reason there is a characteristic rotting vegetation
kind of smell in the meadows at this elevation, as well as some fleshy
looking plants that seemed in advanced stages of decay. In my summer visit
the place looked magnificent with wildflower meadows. Countless signs tell
people to stay off the meadow. Also I noticed some masochists who were
carrying heavy skis and snowboards up to this small 100x100 ft. patch of
snow below Pebble creek to get their fix.
Rainier is much taller and more massive than Hood but very crowded (at least
the Paradise side). To get away from the crowds would require backpacking or
trails away from Skyline. I still prefer the graceful outline and easy
accessibility of Hood compared to the broad hump of Rainier. However in one
department Rainier has Hood beat -- big glaciers. The Nisqually glacier on Rainier,
closest to the Paradise visitor center, dwarfs Elliot glacier on Hood and its
not even the biggest on Rainier! (Emmons glacier takes that honor). Also the
rock seems less rotten than the loose ashy scree that graces Mt. Hood's higher
elevations. In a way it is nice that National park status has prevented the
prostitution of this mountain like the Timberline ski lift on Hood. All in all
it was a nice trip, Rainier has the potential for much future exploration next
summer, particularly a trail that leads to 300 ft.. Comet Falls and the snout
of Kautz glacier. Also the moraine trail along Nisqually glacier The pictures
here fail to convey the gargantuan scale of things but for what its worth, here
they are : Making friends with the snow man. Tatoosh wilderness and distant Mt. Adams. pic of trail leading to Camp Muir. pic : Nisqually glacier as seen from glacier vista point
( 5 mi., 2000 ft., Done 10/17/99 and 8/13/2000)
**** Grove of the
Patriarchs (Ohanapecosh side of Rainier NP, WA) : An interesting
short hike which starts out along a nice clear stream (Ohanapecosh river),
crosses over a narrow suspension bridge and then wanders among some truly
gigantic firs and cedars. Many fallen giants lie beside the trail serving
as nurse logs for younger trees. Reminded me of the Cedar Flats trail near
St. Helens. Its sad to think that once most of the Northwest was covered
with such majestic forest and how quickly it was destroyed. Massive( 1-2
mi , 0 ft., done 7/4/98 and 8/14/00)
**** Silver Star
Mountain (Near Yacolt, WA): An interesting hike because its on
mostly on open tree-less hills where the trees were eliminated by old
forest fires. The terrain resembles some of the hikes at the eastern edge
of Columbia gorge (Lyle Orchard, Rowena plateau, Deschutes et al) . The
access is from Route 503 from Battleground or Yacolt. Trailhead is reached
after a rough 6 miles of driving up steep gravel roads. Trail quickly
leads up an old (now closed to traffic) 4-wheel road onto tawny hills and
to a series of rocky outcroppings. All these rocky cliffs are excellent
vantage points to get 360 views. The nice thing about this trail is the
view it affords of all the "big boys" of the Cascades in this
neighborhood -- namely Helens, Adams, Hood and Rainier. They were all
covered with the fresh snow that has fallen over the last couple of weeks.
Usually you don't get to see all 4 peaks from a single vantage point because
you are actually on one of the big mountains and the bulk of the mountain
blocks off some of the view (unless you are on the summit of course). Also
the open slopes covered with vines have the potential of affording
excellent fall colors display. Unfortunately it was too late in the year
for that. , On the Silver Star trail with Mt.
St. Helens in the background(5 miles round-trip, 1000 ft., done
11/6/99)
**** Ptarmigan trail
and Monitor Ridge (Mt. St. Helens, WA) : This is the highest trail
on St. Helens. Trail starts at 3700 ft. elevation at Climbers' Bivouac
which is a primitive campground for climbers. After 1.5 miles of
meandering through level forest it does a couple of switchbacks over .5
miles and then breaks out of the trees at 4800 ft . A couple of nice views
of Mt. Adams and Hood on the switchback. After 4800 ft. permits are
required to go any higher . Permits cost $15 per person in summer
but are free after Nov. 1st. (I will refrain from fulminating against this
fee but suffice it to say that my views on this permit mirror my views on
the shitty trailhead fees). Anyway, after this the trail ascends Monitor
Ridge by climbing a steep section of boulders with large wooden poles
marking the trail. After the first bouldery section it eases off a little
as you enter a small valley, then there is a final steep section and after
that you are on the open slopes of ash. The Monitor ridge part of the hike
is quite uninspiring since you cant see St. Helens at all -- its blocked
out by this huge piles of rubble that is Monitor ridge. However you can
look south to Mt. Hood, Jefferson and even the Three Sisters. Like all
other Cascade volcanoes, the terrain above timberline is sandy, crumbly
ash/scree with loose rocks that make walking treacherous and tiring. The
best of view of St. Helens was from the Climbers' Bivouac trailhead. Of
course if I had made it above Monitor Ridge the views might have improved
but a late start and a hurting ankle thwarted me from any such ambitions.
The second time the final hump near 7000 ft again thwarted me since the
rocks on the steep slope were covered by a thin and treacherous layer of
snow. I will keep trying though. The summit climb involves 10 miles
roundtrip and 4500 ft. elevation gain. (7-8 miles round-trip, 2000-2500
ft. ?, done 11/14/99 and 11/3/2001)
**** June Lake (Mt. St.
Helens, WA): This was a nice snowshoe and I plan to do it as a
hike, come summer. The trail began at the Marble Mountain parking area
which was jam-packed with snowmobilers and their trailers. Fumes were so
thick it was hard to breathe. I had no idea there were this many
snowmobilers in OR/WA. The early part of the trail has a 1/2 mile section
that was infested with snow-mobilers and their noxious fumes. After that,
the angry buzzing of the snow-mobiles diminished and the only sounds were
the crunch and squeak of snowshoes on fresh snow. The June lake trail part
of the snowshoe is 1.25 miles long and ascends along June Creek but you
never get really close to the creek until you come close to the lake. June
lake was reached after a total of 2.5 miles and a crossing of a
snow-covered bridge. It is a very pretty lake with a steep cliff face
behind it and a tall waterfall cascading from the cliff into the lake. The
lake was partially frozen. It started snowing heavily as we reached this
lunch point. I plopped down into the soft snow and absorbed this scene
while consuming some oranges and luxuriating in the pristine whiteness
surrounding us. The whole scene had a magical winter wonderland kind of
look that made the trip well worth running the gauntlet of the
snowmobiles. Afterward we continued upwards on a fairly steep uphill slog
to a viewpoint that is purported to have great views of Hood and Adams.
Unfortunately clouds and fog had not burned off as the weather forecast
predicted, so we didn't get that view.On return we took a shorter and
more direct route back to the trailhead along "Worm Flow" trail.
Supplemental Note: I redid this snowshoe in Mar 2001 and noticed that they
have modified the connector trail( Pine Marten trail) which parallels the
snowmobile trail so you don’t have to deal with snowmobiles most of the
way. The angry buzzing still mars the peace and quiet. On my return I got
turned around somehow and ended up going up the Rock Pit trail and then
coming down the Swift Creek trail. They have a very nice shelter with a
huge stove in the parking lot which makes for a welcome stop on the way
back .
Supplemental Note : In 2002 the snow pack was much better. However
visibility was pathetic and it was snowing heavily. However the hike leader kept going up regardless of poor visibility and I had little choice but to follow. We finally ended up having lunch in near whiteout conditions, trying to huddle among some trees to stay out of the wind. So despite doing this
snowshoe 3 times I have yet to see the views of Helens, Adams etc. that
are touted as the best feature of this snowshoe. Peaceful
scene at June lake On the trail ( 6 miles
round-trip, 800 ft. , done 1/22/00 and 3/4/01 and 1/19/02)
** Mirror Lake (Mt.
Hood, OR) : I have done this hike as a winter snowshoe as well as
a summer hike. The trail begins at a parking area right off of highway 26
above Yocum Falls -- right after the highway comes out of the curves above
Zigzag but before Gov't Camp. You cross over a narrow bridge to start the
hike. The trail switchbacks up and involves crossing one more bridge and
traversing a rockslide. The latter requires some careful stepping when
snow is hard-packed to avoid sliding down. Some people actually like to
slide on the snow-covered rockslide area instead of walking down the
switchback (its a lot of fun). Mirror lake is a shallow circular lake
(frozen in winter). Its banks have a lot of bushes with little clearings
here and there to get to the shore. Tom-Dick-Harry ridge looms on one side
and Hood is visible on the other side in clear weather. There are
backpacking campsites on west side of the lake. Numerous lunch spots dot
the lakeside. This is a very popular summer or winter trail. Consequently
snow is so well packed that snowshoes are not really required and may
actually be a hindrance on the way down since the ice under the packed
snow can be slippery. (3 mi., 600 ft., done 3/5/00 and 7/16/00 and
2/11/01 and 12/20/01).
*** Salmon River I
(Near ZigZag, OR) : This was a pleasant hike on one of the first
nice weekends of Spring 2000. Time to dust off the old hiking boots and hit
the trail kind of days. The trail starts off along Salmon river and
continues to run along the river among old-growth Cedar and Fir forest.
Most trees are heavily encrusted with moss. Several nice backpacking
campsites exist along the river bank. This trail is somewhat similar to
Siouxon creek. Water is clean and inviting but freezing cold and the
current is swift. Presumably, it must have contained salmon at some time
but I didn't see anything. An old angler was hanging out at one place, so
I guess its not totally devoid of fish. Strictly catch & release only.
The road parallels the trail and spoils the atmosphere as you can see the
occasional car go by in the distance. Also the trail comes out on the road
for a couple of times for short distances. (5 mi., 0 ft., done 4/29/00).
*** Salmon River II
(Near ZigZag, OR) : This trail starts where the lower Salmon River
trail (#742A) ends. Just before the afore-mentioned road crosses a bridge
over the river. This is a little more strenuous hike. Trail starts level
along the river for the first 2 miles to the wilderness boundary. There
are several side trails leading to idyllic campsites by the river. Trail
stays close to the rives except from some small twists to get cross stream
beds. Shortly after crossing the wilderness boundary, it climbs a fairly
steep section onto a ridge to a nice lunch spot. There are nice views of
heavily forested Salmon-Huckleberry wilderness and the river running far
below. For once, no clear cuts mar the landscape. This makes a nice turn-around
spot but if you are the energetic sort of hiker (if you are reading this
drivel, you probably are), you can continue up to a junction, left branch
loops back to the lunch spot and the right branch continues up for a short
distance and then levels off. Then it goes downhill, crosses a small
stream and heads up to another nice view point. There is a FS sign asking
people to camp under tress and not in the meadow. The day was cloudy
initially but clouds broke up in late afternoon offering delightful views.
I turned back at this point. The trail continues on for several miles
after this. (7.5 mi., 1000 ft., done 5/99 and 7/21/01).
* Salmonberry River
(Tillamook State Forest, OR) : This trail is quite mediocre. I got
hoodwinked into going on this hike because it was touted as a steelhead
count survey by the Sierra Club. I had visions of a river teeming with
fish and steelhead jumping up waterfalls just like they show in nature
shows. Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed. The road to this
trailhead branches off of highway 26 near mile marker 21. Take the scenic
Spruce County Park road 13 miles to where Nehalem and Salmonberry rivers
meet. Trail is flat and runs along a railroad track which is used to
transport logged timber from the coast to Home Depots in Portland. There
are numerous points to scramble down to the river bank. The forest is
mixed alder and fir and presents very nice contrast of bright and dark
green. We did see a couple of steelheads mating. The female just stood in
one place and fluttered, periodically it would turn on its side and use
its fin to turn over gravel/stones in the river bed in preparation for
laying eggs. The male, meanwhile, was going bonkers trying to keep other
males away and patrolling his "territory". We basically walked
along the river and marked "redds". Redds are patches of lighter
colored gravel where the fish have turned the rocks over, so that they
stand out against the algae-tinted rocks of the river bed. We marked
several of these "redds" with pink ribbons tied to stones and
thrown into the river. I guess I did learn one thing, steelhead is not
salmon but a species of trout. Also steelhead swims back to the sea after
mating whereas salmon screw themselves to death and litter the river with
their carcasses (6 mi., 0 ft., done 5/6/00).
** Little Crater Lake to Timothy Lake
(Near Mt. Hood, OR) : This hike starts at the Little Crater Lake
campground and passes through some marshy meadow-like terrain before
hopping a turnstile to reach the lake. The lake is more accurately a 50 ft
deep artesian well with deep aquamarine blue water which is clear enough
that you can see the bottom. The trail continue past this lake and enters
a forest of fairly mature fir trees, with a few big ones still surviving.
A couple of bridges later you come to Timothy lake. This was the
destination and turnaround point for me. The trail can be taken all the
way around the lake but its pretty long 12 miles or so. Lake is quite
popular with fishermen and horses. (Done 5/21/00 4 mile, 0 ft)
**** Blue Cliffs
Overlook Trail (John Day Nat. Monument, Sheep Rock Unit, OR) :
This hike starts out from a trailhead along highway 19. The trail travels
along ancient blue cliffs made up of dried clay with stones embedded in
it. Various strata of the cliff face have different colors. The dry and
dusty trail winds along the Juniper pines and high-desert shrubbery as it
ascends up to the top of a neighboring hill with the overlook. Numerous
expansive views of the Picture Gorge carved out by the John Day river and
the badly eroded blue cliffs which harbor a plethora of fossils. There are
great views of stark volcanic cliffs with columns of volcanic basalt as
well as rolling hills dotted with juniper. The whole thing reminded me a
lot of the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest area in northern Arizona. (Done
5/29/00 3.5 mile, 600 ft)
I also checked out the Painted hills unit of John Day Nat. Mon. which has a
couple of 1 milers with excellent views of the namesake hills with vividly
colored red/black/yellow stripes. The Clarno unit is much smaller and 40 miles
up the windy road from Sheep Rock. It had some reddish rock spires (palisades)
that look like something out of Arches Nat. Park(Utah), except these are not
red sandstone but volcanic ash with a lot of stones embedded in it.
***** Dog Mountain
(Columbia River Gorge near Carson, WA) : This hike is one of the
tougher cookies in the gorge. There is a sign at the trailhead warning
hikers of "plague and pestilence" in the form of ticks,
rattlesnakes and poison oak that lurk on this trail. I can confirm the
abundance of poison oak but fortunately didn't see any ticks. I did see a
pretty long tail that slithered away into bushes as I approached. Whether
it belonged to a rattlesnake or not is up to conjecture. After liberally
slathering bug-juice on all exposed body parts I started out. The trail
starts out from a trailhead along highway 14 (trail park pass crap posted
here as well). It is a dry and dusty trail and starts switchbacking up
relentlessly right from the get go. At 0.5 mi. trail forks and you get the
choice of "more hard" or "most hard" legs. I took the
scenic "more hard" leg which is 0.2 mi. longer but less steep
and has a nice open patch with views of the gorge and a hint of the
flowers to come. The first 1-2 miles are in mixed bushes and trees but
then the trail enters a cool mature forest and keeps climbing steadily up
in it for most of the remainder of the trip until it bursts out into open
meadows about 0.5 miles from the summit. Here I came across an incredible
flower-strewn hill side. The sunflower-type yellow flowers are called
balsam root and they cover the entire hillside in great profusion along
with some purplish lupine, larkspur and Indian paintbrush . I had developed some skepticism after
going on gorge group-hikes billed as "wildflower hikes" before which
usually had a couple of flowers growing by the trail and the entire group
would ooh and ah over the measly display. This, however, fully lived up to
its billing as a flower hike. The whole place was literally carpeted with
flowers. The trail winds its way among the flowers with gorgeous views of
the Gorge, Mt. Hood , Helens and Adams to the summit at 3000 ft. Across
the river is Mt. Defiance which is the biggest, baddest, meanest hike in
the Gorge at 5000 ft. Best time to go on the Dog Mountain hike is late May
/ early June. Its very popular hike and trailhead parking is hard
sometimes. I must have run into at least a 100 people on this hike.
Carrying plenty of water, insect repellent and a shady hat would be
advisable. Flowers
***** Saddle Mountain
(Coast Range 10 miles from Seaside, OR) : This hike is the
prettiest one I have done in the Coast range. It begins at the parking
lot/campground of Saddle Mountain State Park. The trail starts
switchbacking pretty steadily right from the beginning and doesn't ease up
much after that until it descends to the saddle. First 1 mile has quaint
little 0.25 mile markers. Also large stumps of logged old-growth trees.
The forest is initially a mix of alder and evergreens but changes to fir
as you ascend. About midway you come out on some rocky outcrops with nice
views of Saddle mountain itself. The rock is volcanic and has some shiny
obsidian/quartz type glints in it. Now the trail climbs even more sharply
and there are segments with fence wire embedded into the trail to provide
better traction. Also you start seeing a lot of wildflowers. Its nothing
quite so profuse as Dog Mountain but there is a lot more variety. I am no
flower expert but I identified iris, daisy, succulents, phlox, and Indian
paint brush. There is also a small pink flower that I suspect was the rare
"Saddle Mountain Bittercress" that only grows in this area in
the world. Anyway, the trail goes up and around one hump of the saddle and
then descends about 200 ft to the saddle of saddle mountain on a series of
wooden ladders. Then there is a final steep climb to the summit on the
other hump of the mountain. The sweeping views from the top are
mind-blowing. The 360 deg. view of the ocean beaches, Astoria bridge,
Columbia River, River's sand bar and all the 5 big boys of the Cascades
(Rainier, Helens, Adams, Hood, Jefferson) is the best I have seen in the
NW. You also see the ugly scars of clear-cut hillsides all around. Totally
ravaged and very depressing. I had earlier doubted the advisability of my
decision to haul my heavy binoculars up there but it was well worth it. I
slipped on the trail on the way down. Scraped my hands and knees pretty
badly on the jagged rocks and gravel that they use for trail maintenance.
The gravel is ok if its spread on soil but very tricky on rocky surfaces
because it rolls on the underlying hard rock like little ball bearings.
However I made it down in one piece. Don't expect solitude on this hike.
All in all a very nice hike. (6 miles, 1900 ft, done 6/18/00, 5/03).
**** Elk Meadows (Mt.
Hood, SE side) : This hike is another pretty one. Trailhead is
located near Clark Sno-park. Trail started out flat among abundant
huckleberry bushes. There was a large number of ripe berries on these in
late August so I munched on the juicy tangy berries as I hiked. The trail
crossed a bridge over Clark Creek and then soon thereafter came to a
fairly fast flowing stream (newton creek) which was crossed in a fairly
adventurous manner on a couple of rickety logs. After this the trail
ramped up a fairly steep series of 8 switchbacks and then leveled out the
rest of the way to Elk Meadows. The meadows are a delightful place with
great views of the flowery meadows and up at the Newton-Clark glacier on
Mt. Hood. We lunched at the rustic shelter where camp-robber jays did
their best to steal our food. They were so bold that several of them
landed on my hand to feed on the sunflower seeds in my palm. The whole group spread out in the meadow and we spent a delightful hour just sprawled out and drowisly taking in the beautiful scenery. Mt. Hood loomed over the meadow with the crevassed Newton & Clark glaciers visible from this side. This could be
a great backpacking destination as well. The trail circles the meadows and
then heads back down. All in all a very nice hike. Late July / Early
August may provide good wildflower displays here. (8 miles, 1200 ft, done
8/27/00).
*** Pamelia Lake (Mt.
Jefferson wilderness, near Detroit, OR) : This hike is highly ranked
in various books but I found it somewhat mediocre. No doubt the foul
weather had something to do with it. Hike starts out in the lush forest
along Pamelia creek. Creek is pretty with mossy rocks and whatnot. Moss
covered forest floor is somewhat reminiscent of Ramona creek near Hood.
After 2 miles you come out of the forest on to the lake which has lots of
dead logs piled on the shore and several tree skeletons sticking out of
the water. Grizzly peak looms nearby. You actually need a permit from Detroit
ranger station just to hike this trail, of course they want the trail park
pass here as well.
The second time I did this hike the weather was much nicer. Along the trail I
met a ranger who checked the special permit and also warned about two
"wild" dogs who had bitten a camper and messed with other dogs.
Pamelia lake had shriveled down to a small pond size. Vast stretches of cracked
and muddy lake bed lay exposed. Mt. Jefferson was visible from the shore of the
lake and it looked pretty bare as well. I tried to find the trail to Grizzly
Peak but instead wandered on to the Hunts Creek trail. This was not too bad
since this section of the trail is quite pretty. It circles to the far side of
the lake, crossing several streams and a couple of waterfalls in the process.
On the way back I ran into the afore-mentioned wild dogs and their owner -- a
backpacking woman headed back to the trailhead. The dogs looked like a pair of
tough thugs and I was somewhat concerned about a dog fight erupting between my
dog and them. Diamir (my dog) lost no time in checking them out and then
proceeded to butt-fuck them before they knew what had hit them. The backpacking
woman who owned the dogs was not amused, but was somewhat mollified because she
liked my dogs looks. I could scarcely hide my mirth since I had built a fearful
image of these pooches from the ranger's description. Again nice hike but
somewhat overrated in various hiking books. (4 miles, 200 ft, done 9/2/00; 6
miles, 300 ft, done 9/23/01). View of Jefferson from
Pamelia Lake
**** Tam McArthur Rim
(Sisters Wilderness, 17 miles from Sisters, OR) This hike is quite
pretty. The views would have been stunning in clear weather but
unfortunately no such luck was to be had on Labor day weekend 2000. It
snowed and hailed intermittently in the Driftwood campground which is the
starting point for this hike. The trail starts out at the 6000 ft.
elevation and is mostly a gentle climb. It only climbs steeply for short
distances a couple of times and then levels out on a plateau with nice
views down to the deep emerald Driftwood and 3 creek lakes. Broken Top's
jagged rim is visible to the left. Horseshit liberally litters the trail
all the way to the top. The rim is pretty sheer 500 ft drop-off with snowfields
at its base. The trail continues along the rim towards Broken Top. Weather
was pretty miserable and clouds totally engulfed the rim just as I got
there. It felt like snow was falling around me rather than coming from
above. Found the tent sagging under 1/4 inch of snow on my return. (8
miles, 1200 ft, done 9/3/00).
Finally redid this hike in the summer of 04. It is a very scenic hike and lives up to its high rating in the guidebook. The panoramic view from the rim was pretty nice. Marci, Nick and I did this hike as part of a weekend trip. Afterwards we continued along the rim towards Broken Top. The trail was full of views of volcanic features like cinder cones and lava bombs. It seemed to follow an old jeep road to the first view point and then meandered along an open plateau before going beside a snowfield to get to a second view point below what appeared to be a red cinder cone. We went up the side of this cinder cone which turned out be not a cinder cone at all but the edge of a ridge. The trail continued along this ridge until coming to a cliff where it degenerated into a climbers path. Very nice expansive views of the entire 3 sisters area. It was getting pretty dark by this time anyway so we turned back. It was considerably easier going down. I took a short-cut down from the "cinder cone" on what appeared to be a permanent snowfield.The campgrounds by the lake were full so we had to go back to a horse camp a few miles down the road and camp in miserable conditions. (8 miles, 1200
ft, done 9/3/00, done 8/7/04).
***** Paradise Park
(Mt. Hood South side) One of the last hikes which doesn't require
a trail park pass. Start out at Timberline lodge and go left at the sign
for Pacific Crest/timberline trail 600. The trail quickly passes under the
lifts and heads on out of the tourist madhouse. The views of Jefferson and
Sisters and up towards Zigzag glacier are very pretty. Trail dips in and
out of trees and goes up and down a few small valleys which contain
seasonal snowmelt streams. On the whole you are losing elevation so going
is pretty easy. Little Zigzag canyon is the biggest one of these little
valleys. Near this you cross the wilderness boundary. The trail comes out
on a magnificent view of the zigzag canyon at about 2 miles and then
plunges along the side of the canyon in a series of switchbacks about 800
ft down to the river. This section can be pretty muddy. The river can be
easily crossed on rocks when water is low but could be tough early in the
season. There is a nice waterfall visible from the river crossing and a
few helpful cairns point out possible crossing points. Then the trail
climbs up on the other side of the canyon until it comes to the junction
with Paradise park loop. At this point you head right up this loop trail
to get to the grassy meadows with views of Zigzag glacier and
surroundings. I decided to head back at this point but you can make this
hike much longer by doing the entire loop. The way back is pretty tough
because you have to negotiate the canyon again and then labor uphill all
the way to Timberline lodge.
Second time around I decided to do this as a backpack. Being a habitual
procrastinator I started out late and hit the trail at 6 pm. The initial part
of the trail is described above. After the Paradise Loop/PCT junction, the loop
trail ascends steadily up a forested ridge and then comes to an open spot
overlooking the ZigZag canyon. Then it prescribes a couple of long switchbacks
and clears the trees to enter the meadows. At this point, I reached a trail
junction with Paradise Park trail which somewhat confused me since this was
supposed to be a loop but appeared to be a 3-way junction. I had made it to the
Paradise Park area by 8:30 pm, it was getting dark and I didn't know how far I
was from the designated campsite area. It was only later that I realized that
the Paradise Park trail is a 3rd connector between PCT and the Loop trail. The
flowers really hit saturation density around this junction. The air was thick and
heady with their scent. I decided to take the Paradise Park trail up for a
while then found a clump of trees off to the side and pitched my tent. After I
finished setting up the tent, I looked around for the dog since he was carrying
all my cooking and food supplies in his doggie pack. At this point I had a rude
and unpleasant surprise. My dog was cavorting around the meadow without his
pack. Obviously he had managed to squeeze out of it, however I couldn't
remember the last time I had noticed it on him. Whether it was near the tent or
along the trail. I spent a futile 30 minutes with a flashlight looking around
in knee high flowers for the pack and then gave up. Needless to say I was
royally pissed. I was seriously entertaining thoughts of returning this
irresponsible hound to the animal shelter. I had heard the Perseus meteor
shower was going to happen that night. I no longer had any cooking to do and
was in an ideal location to watch the skies free from light pollution. So I
plopped down on the meadow under the stars and watched the meteors zip across
the sky for an hour. It was a very rewarding and liberating experience. I also
noticed quite a few satellites criss-crossing across the skies. Finally I hit
the sack around midnight and spent an uncomfortable night tossing and turning
on the lumpy ground. The dog didn't seem to mind the lack of food and I could
hear him messing around in the meadow all night.
Next morning I got up bright and early at 6 am and looked around for the dog
pack. Much to my surprise I found it very quickly. It was only 50 ft away from
the tent. Reinvigorated from this discovery, I decided to hike up the Paradise
Park trail. The trail ascends a steep section to reach an upper meadow. The
flowers quickly petered out and a brushy juniper ground cover took over. I
looked over at the next ridge and saw several occupied campsites there. I had
been very close to the designated camping area last night and might have made
it there before dark if I had stayed on the loop trail instead of heading up.
Oh well, live and learn. Towards the left Mt. St. Helens became visible for a
short while before disappearing behind the ridge. On the right side was a
pretty waterfall and V-shaped canyon. The cliff of Mississippi Head were very
close and didn't look quite so formidable from this point. I kept going up till
the trail disappeared and the surface changed to the ashy crumbly mix of stones
and big boulders that characterize upper slopes of Cascade volcanoes. Finally I
sat on a big boulder and watched the sunrise on Mt. Hood. Wisps of volcanic
gasses were emanating from the fumaroles behind Crater Rock and catching the
first rays of sun as they wafted off. I also noticed 4 deer silhouetted on the
next ridge looking at me and the dog. On all my years of hiking on the
mountain, this is the first time I have seen any large animal. Looking down the
mountain I could see the Mirror Lake basin and Tom/Dick/Harry ridge directly
across from me. On the way down I noticed some hoof prints in the ash so
apparently this area has some deer population. I packed up my tent after coming
down from this morning walk and headed towards the camping area. The trail
meandered through some meadows, crossed a nice stream and came to the campsites
in short order. I found several nice campsites and repitched my tent and set
about cooking up some food. This was mixed success since my rice were still
crunchy after an hour in the boiling water. I am pretty sure it was the rice's
fault and not the elevation. I rested up till 2 p.m. and then continued on the
loop trail. The path is more or less level as it goes through some more meadows
and crosses a couple of streams. Delightful views of Hood with flowered meadows
abound. The trail heads down to PCT in about 1 mile. The 2.4 miles of PCT back
to the original junction with loop trail are not as pretty as the upper trail
but certainly not lacking in interest. There is an exposed section through a
very dramatic canyon with a waterfall. Also several scenic stream crossings and
some flowers. Also millions of flies. Obstreperous, obnoxious motherfucking
flies. They sit on your legs and arms the second you stop moving. 100% deet
does not repel them and they do sting. I strongly suspect a connection between
the flies and the horses that frequent this trail. On the way back on PCT there
is some elevation gain and then after the lower Paradise Park trail junction,
the trail loses it all in switchbacks that quickly brought me down to ZigZag
canyon. The climb up on the other side was tough but doable. A thunderstorm
came up just as I reached the rim of the canyon. The mountain was creating its
own weather since all the ridges nearby were in bright sunlight. The last 2
miles back to Timberline lodge were pretty miserable. I was all out of water
and all I could think of was how nice an ice-cold can of Pepsi would taste once
I got back to the lodge. The trail just kept going up monotonously without any
sign of ending. Its only 400 ft elev. gain in this last section but it seemed
like a heck of a lot more than that. Finally the ski lifts came into view and
it was over. It is certainly one of the better hikes on Mt. Hood, the flowers
are outstanding and so are the views. ( 6 miles, 1600 ft, done 9/17/2000; 15
mi, 3000 ft, 8/10-11/2001). Zigzag canyon viewpoint, South
side of Mt. Hood, ZigZag Canyon and Mississippi Head cliffs. , Bottom of Zigzag canyon
**** Burnt Lake and East ZigZag Mountain (Mt.
Hood South side) This hike can be considered a bigger(and less
crowded) brother of Mirror Lake. The trailhead is a small parking lot at
the end of a forest road that goes past Lost Creek and McNeil CG. The
trail starts out level and parallels a creek. There were plentiful
huckleberry bushes along the way although the berries had become somewhat
tart by this time of the year. At 2 miles the trail crosses a small stream (lost creek)
and starts climbing up the side of a mountain. There are some nice views
of Mt. Hood if you look back occasionally. Also many huge burnt out trees
are encountered along the trail (hence the name Burnt Lake). After 1.5
miles you come to scenic Burnt lake which has nice views of Mt. Hood with
full frontal shots of Reid Glacier. There were fish in the lake which
would periodically make a splash as they lunged up for some hapless bug hovering
above. I personally observed two lobster-like critters called crawdads
skittering around on the lake bed near where I ate my lunch. There is a
short, and sometimes muddy, loop trail around the lake. Several nice
backpacking campsites are located around the lake. The USFS is at its anal best numbering campsites with numbers and day use sites with letters. The best lunch spot is a fallen log at site "D" and best reflection shots can be had from "C". Personally I can think of a lot better places to backpack to than this lake. The backpacking sites have no views and are just flat spots hacked out in the brush and trees. Some people had lugged floating tubes up here and were lazing in the middle of the lake.
The second time I did this hike I continued to East Zig Zag mountain after eating lunch at the lake. It was a hot and muggy day with thunderheads building on the eastern slopes of the mountain. The trail climbed among bear grass and rhodies and then switchbacked steeply to a junction. It then climbed straight up the ridge at a fairly steep angle before toppping out in open slopes of ZigZag Mountain. The panoramic views of Mt. Hood and Burnt Lake nestled far below are great. Even though the day was hazy I could still see Mt. Adams in the distance. Yocum Ridge and Bald Mountain are clearly visible and you can even see the trail that goes to McNeil Point. Lupine, penstemons and other wildflowers were plentiful on the open slopes of zig zag. ( 7-8 miles, 1700 ft to lake, 10 miles 2400 ft to East ZigZag
done 9/24/2000 and 7/17/04). At the lake , Mt. Hood from the trail, Reid Glacier is visible
**** Table Mountain
(Columbia River Gorge near Stevenson) This hike can be considered
a bigger (and less crowded) brother of Dog Mountain. The trailhead is
rather tricky but look for a railway trestle 2 2-3 miles west of Bridge of
the Gods on Hwy 14. Go under it, Right at the Grid Station and park on the
side of the road next to a roped off dirt road under a big power line.
Follow the dirt road to a big transmission line tower and go left into the
obvious dip. Coming out of the dip you will see the trail entering the
trees on your right side. This trail will junction with an old logging road
in 0.5 mile. Then this road/trail will lead to the PCT in a couple of
miles. Just keep going uphill all the way. The full hike involves 3500 ft
elevation gain. ( 7-8 miles, 1700 ft, done 12/9/2000).
*** University Falls
Loop (Tillamook State Forest) This hike has its nice features but
is marred by the fact that the trail crosses many dirt bike and ATV
trails. It starts out on south side of highway 6 mile marker 33. The trail
is called Nel Rogers trail (some signs proclaim it as the Old Historic
Hiking trail)). It is well marked with signs warning dirt bikers to stay
off it. It initially winds among the young forest with occasional massive
stumps giving silent testimony to the rapaciousness of logging. There is
even new timber sale signs for fresh logging that will further scar the
landscape. The trail is extremely muddy during rain because of mountain
bikers who also use the trail. I suspect many dirt bikers also don’t
respect the signs warning motorized vehicles to stay off this sole hiking
trail in the area. The trail parallels Wilson river for a while then
crosses over an open ridge and winds its way towards Elliot creek. This is
probably the quietest section of the trail with some nice Sitka spruce
trees and huge fallen logs. University Falls is a very pretty waterfall
with the terraced kind of look that I associate with Ramona falls. The
return is along Gravel Trail which follows Elliot creek. Towards the end
you cross over the creek and follow a slippery and muddy trail which is
shared with dirt bikes. This trail will deposit you on the Highway a
quarter of a mile below mile marker 33 so you walk back along the highway.
This trail has a lot of pretty coastal rainforest features but you do have
to deal with the angry buzzing of dirt bikes that seldom go out of
earshot. On the plus side I didn’t encounter a single hiker on the
trail.(Hmm, maybe the two things are connected) View
of Univ. falls ( 8.5 miles, 700 ft, done 1/22/2001).
***** White River Moraine
(Snowshoe, SE side of Mt. Hood):This is a great winter
snowshoe. It begins at the White River sno-park on the west side of the
river. Trail takes off along the side of the river and continues to ascend
at a gradual pace among the trees. The river is never really close to the
trail. After about 2 miles you come to a point where you can either
cross over the river on a snow bridge and continue on the medial moraine
of White River glacier, or go to the left and climb a steep 200-300 ft
slope to get on to the lateral moraine. Since this was a low snow pack
year(2001) , the bridge was not safe and the hike leader opted for the
latter choice. The ascent up this was indubitably the hardest snowshoeing
I have done yet. To avoid avalanche danger we avoided the exposed obvious
slope and headed a little bit to the left of it among the trees. It was
steep going, and even though we were creating little switchbacks it was
still pretty tough. Towards the end my legs felt like jelly and I couldn’t
kick with enough force to get a perch in the snow. Finally resorted to
some "vegetable belays" by holding on to trees to haul myself up
the last bit. After a brief rest we continued up a more moderate slope to
the lunch point. Timberline lodge looked pretty close from where we
stopped for lunch. The return was along the top of the moraine so we were
mercifully spared the steep descent down the way we came. This is the fun
part where you take big strides and let the snow absorb the impact. The
leader was not sure of the route so we had to backtrack a bit a couple of
times. All in all a very nice snowshoe with nice views of the mountain and
the river winding its way through deep snow. We also came across a couple
of snow campers who had dug deep pits in the snow to get a campfire going.
When we started there was hardly a car in the lot , on our return it had a
circus atmosphere with hordes of revelers tubing and sledding down the
slopes by the parking lot. ; Captain's log
Supplemental; Redid this in Jan 2001 when the snow pack was much
better. We crossed onto the medial moraine without any difficulty this
time. The snow on top of the moraine is firmly packed, windswept and icy
in places. The trail continues ascending at a fairly steep rate with a few
relatively level stretches giving some breathing respite. There were a few
exposed patches with some groundcover still trying to grow in these harsh
winter conditions. We were lucky enough to do this on a clear and calm day
with great visibility and the views of the Mt. Hood and the White
River canyon (on both sides of the moraine) were excellent. One could even
see Mt. Jefferson and 3 Sisters from near the top. The moraine
curves to the right as you go up and finally comes to a big dip. This was
the lunch and turn-around point. I sat too close to the edge and lost the
lid to my Tupperware lunchbox. It slid off on the packed ice like a rocket
and was lost from view immediately. Definitely a slope you don't
want to venture on except with an ice-axe. Chastised, I moved away from
the edge. Return was rapid and a delight. This was a much better snowshoe
than last year. There was even a Home Depot sponsored snowshoe run going
on and we passed numerous runners on our way up.
***** Ghost Ridge
(Snowshoe, SE side of Mt. Hood) This is an excellent winter
snowshoe and a nice summer hike . It begins at the Barlow Pass Sno-park on
highway 35 , 2 miles north of the 35/26 junction. Trail takes off along
the same route as the summer Barlow pass trail that leads to Twin lakes
and Frog Lake sno-park. I have done this trail in summer, in August there
is a profusion of huckleberries. However at this time of the year the only
evidence of huckleberry bushes is a few naked sticks poking out of the
snow. The Ghost ridge trail branches to the right off the main trail after
about a mile of moderate uphill hiking. Then the trail heads up the ridge
at a somewhat steeper angle. It levels off a bit and then there is a
second steep section where excellent views of Mt. Hood make for a nice
lunch spot. We continued up the ridge after lunch. The trail ascends at an
erratic pace, interspersing level stretches with modestly steep sections.
Final turn around point was an open area with rocks a few sun-bleached
tree trunks. Great close-up view of Mt. Hood's SE face is ample reward for
this hike. Nice powdery snow made for an easy descent. The steep downhill sections can be tricky and I took a few falls which didn't hurt much but dislodged the lenses from frame of my glasses. (6 miles. 800 ft, Done 3/3/01 and 12/7/03).
**** Catherine Creek
(West) (East end of Gorge near Bingen) This is a nice spring hike
for wildflower viewing . It begins at the Catherine creek trail head and
heads up into the rolling hills on the west side of the creek (the creek
itself is not in sight for most of the hike). There were purple grass
widows, desert parsley and a few buttercups as well as some other flowers.
The pungent aroma of wild onions is very noticeable. The forest is a
mixture of oak and pine with an occasional fir. Te trail winds along the
hills at a steady uphill climb with a few somewhat steep sections. Views
of gorge and Mt. Hood are pretty good. The top of this hill is where trail
ends. It makes for a nice lunch stop and turnaround point. There are
several ways to return. This area at the top was recently acquired by the
Forest Service. On return, you can follow the gently rolling hills under
the power line or take an old and rocky road (Attwater road). The road
does have the advantage of a view of the creek and a natural bridge.
Another interesting feature of this hike is globular growths called
"gauls" that are found on numerous oak trees and bushes. Wasps
sting the bark which causes the oak to secrete some fluid which solidifies
into a gaul. Wasps build these on oak trees and lay their eggs in it. The
larva hatch and leave it. This is tick and poison oak country so be
careful. (7 miles. 1500 ft, Done 3/26/01).
*** Wahkeena Falls
(Gorge, near Exit 28 on I-84) This is an excellent hike with lots
of bang for your buck. Trail starts out steeply and switchbacks to the top
of the waterfall. Then parallels the gushing stream past numerous
pseudo-waterfalls. After a while you come to a junction. Going
right will take you towards Angels Rest and going left takes you towards
Larch crater and upper Multnomah falls. I headed left and went towards the
upper Mult. falls. Trail was really muddy and slick because of rain. The rain transitioned into slushy snow as I climbed higher. The trail comes to a junction and then starts heading down towards Multnomah Falls. This was my first hike with my newly adopted dog and I was quite encouraged by his stamina and trail ettiquette. This trail has occasional views of the gorge but mostly its a forest and water kind of
hike. (6 miles. 1500 ft, Done 4/14/01).Wahkeena Falls
*** Bennet Ridge
(Snowshoe, SE side of Mt. Hood) This is a good snowshoe with nice
views of Mt. Hood, Jefferson and the neighboring river valleys. Trail
started off at a small sno-park on Bennet Pass right past a bridge over
Hwy 35. There is a very gradual ascent along a snow-covered forest road
with good views back towards Hood. Take a right at the blue arrow and keep
going as trail loses a little bit of elevation and comes to an opening in
the forest with nice views. This was my dogs first snow shoe and he was
somewhat aggressive towards the first cross-country skiers he encountered,
but he rapidly came to regard them as non-threatening after a couple more
encounters. The trail angled sharply up to the right and came to a saddle
with nice views of Mt Jefferson. I stopped at this point for a lunch
break. Shortly after this I came to the "Terrible Traverse".
This is a steep 60+ Degree slope that offers ample opportunity to slip and
tumble down a ways. I crossed very carefully kicking steps into the slope
and testing the foothold before stepping forward. There was a layer of
packed ice under the top layer of snow thus making it a fairly dicey
venture that made the heart go pitter-patter. Looking down was somewhat
unnerving but there was no room to turn around so I pushed across. The dog
apparently had no problem crossing because of his 4 limb advantage. After
crossing the traverse the trail rounded a bend and continued on towards
Bonney Junction. I decided to call it a day here. Recrossing the traverse
was a little less harrowing since I was more confident of my ability to
negotiate it. Return trip was uneventful. (6 miles. 600 ft, Done 4/7/01).
**** Trapper Creek (10 miles north of Carson, WA) I almost missed this hike because I
showed up a minute late and the hiking group had already left. However I was fortunate enough to run into another hiker that had been turned away because group had already reached the 12 person wilderness limit. We decided to carpool and do the hike anyway. If you like
Siouxon creek you will like this one. It is moderately paced and has nice
old growth and a few stream views. Creek is audible most of the time but
you get close to it only a few times. There is ample evidence of wild
life, we saw coyote, elk and deer droppings on the trail. Trail is fairly
level initially then crosses a river and heads right (don’t go left on the
soda peak trail). After a steep climb you come to another trail junction.
Go straight and then take a left at the Deer Cutoff trail for a steep
descent on a trail punctuated with roots to the creek level. Trail crosses
over the stream on a log and then ascends back to the deer cutoff trail
where you go back.(7 mi., 1000 ft, Done 4/22/01).
** Mazama Trail 625 (10
miles north Zig Zag, OR) A pretty steep trail with very little
bang for the buck. To get to the trailhead you need to go North on Lolo
Pass Road. The road peters out at a yellow gate and there are 3 choices at
this point. The first left takes you towards Top Spur and McNeil Point
trailhead. The 2nd left is the best option. I however chose to go straight
and took the rough forest road that passes through some clear cuts and
under some high tension power lines. It is supposed to be the
"scenic" route. Anyway once you reach pavement, take a right and
follow signs for Mazama trailhead along Road 1810. The trail starts out at
a dramatic note with great view of Mt. Hood from trail head and McGee
creek rushing far below you in a steep canyon. The trail soon crosses the
wilderness boundary and in about 1/2 hr you come to a series of
switchbacks across a talus slope. After that the trail continues to
switchback steeply with each turn revealing increasing portions of Adams,
Rainier and Helens. The path then straightens and continues up the ridge
at a steep angle, coming tantalizingly close to the edge of the ridge but
never going all the way to the edge. No expansive views. Some nice
displays of avalanche lilies and bear grass though. The trail continues
its relentless uphill pace, slacking off only in a couple of places. Bugs
and roots and the occasional fallen tree make it a pretty miserable
experience. Finally towards the end the trail comes to some nice views of
Hood as it goes up the side of a boulder field. It soon thereafter
intersects Timberline trail and the good stuff begins. However it was
getting late so this became the snack and turnaround point. In conclusion,
if you want a good workout as an end in itself then do this trail. If you
want quick access to the high country use the Vista Ridge trail.(7.5 mi.,
1500 ft, Done 7/7/01).
***** Vista Ridge Trail
626 to Wy'East Basin and Eden Park (15 miles north Zig Zag, OR) This
is the kinder gentler cousin of the Mazama Trail. It started out at the
end of FS Road 1650. Initial part was somewhat rocky but the trail became
smooth near the wilderness boundary. A couple of switchbacks and then a
long gentle uphill trudge to Timberline trail. Purple-tinged avalanche
lilies abounded in this section and unfortunately so did the bugs. At 2.5
miles Vista ridge intersected Timberline 600 trail. Going left for 0.3 mi
brings one to Wy'East basin. A pretty place with streams and views of Coe
Glacier. There was considerable snow when I went there and the trail
traversed a few snow slopes but nothing dangerous. After Wy'East basin the
trail climbed another steep snow slope (with steps kicked in) and
continued on to Elk Cove. Another set of footprints in the snow indicated
the loop trail to Cairn Basin. However, I backtracked towards Eden Park
instead of trying for a loop. The trail to Eden Park descended rapidly and
crosses a couple of streams to reach Eden Park. There were some flowers
beginning to show up but nothing like the full display that happens in
late July/Aug. Lots of mushy meadows were beginning to appear here and
there with a few Indian Paintbrush, Avalanche Lilies and "Old Man of
the Mountain" flowers. On both this and the Mazama trailheads I
noticed Forest Rangers but little effort was being made to enforce the
Forest Pass. Maybe the demise of Clinton/Babbit spells the death of this
shitty system. (7 mi., 1500 ft, Done 7/8/01).
Redid this hike in Sep 2002 with a group. It was a dog hike so we had 4 dogs rough housing and humping each other throughout the hike. It was one of those perfect fall days with not a cloud in the sky. All the snow was gone and the glaciers lay exposed waiting for winter snows to replenish them. The meadows of the loop were ablaze with huckleberry bushes and vine maple turning red, yellow and orange. Surprisingly we found a few huckleberries bushes still loaded with berries in shady spots. Also some last remnants of lupine were still hanging on to life along streams. We lunched in WyEast Basin with nice views off to the 3 volcanoes in Washington. The bugs were mostly gone but a few pesky flies persisted. After WyEast, the trail climbed over a ridge and then dropped into Cairn Basin after crossing Ladd Creek. Then it wound past a stone shelter and dropped further into Eden Park. Nice views of Hood presented themselves periodically through breaks in the trees. The trail then crossed Ladd Creek once again before climbing up to the junction with Vista Ridge. The creek crossings were fairly easy despite the lack of bridges. I was quite pleased with my new Casio Pathfinder altimeter wrist watch which closely matched the elevations given in the trail description. (8 mi., 1700 ft, Done 9/22/02).
***** Lava Canyon (Mt.
St. Helens, WA) If you like cheap thrills, this is the hike. The
parking lot was dauntingly crowded and Forest Service goons were circling
the parking lot checking for trial park passes. The initial part is
extremely crowded and paved with little wooden platforms and interpretive
signs. I noticed several people wearing ghastly pink wristbands and asked
one of them if they were part of a tour group. Turns out the Forest
Service is making them wear these as "proof" of their having
purchased a pass. Jeez, what’s next, tattooed serial numbers on your arm
to prove you are entitled to hike on public land ? Anyway my initial
peevishness quickly wore off as I left the paved trail and descended along
a fairly steep trail to a suspension bridge across the roaring river. The
bridge is fun to cross so I did this a couple of times for kicks, it did
freak out the dog a little bit though. After getting cheap thrill #1 , I
proceeded down the trail along the true left side of river. The crowds really
thinned out on this portion. Apparently most of the people seem to stick
to the paved trail and suspension bridge area. The trail comes out beside
the river briefly above a thundering two-tiered waterfall. It then
continues to descend at a rapid rate above the river. The river is going
down even more rapidly via a series of scenic waterfalls and slot canyons
so it always stays considerably below trail. The trail stays in trees most
of the way but has a few exposed stretches with nice views that may be scary
for people who don't like heights. A tourist did die on this trail in
2000. The other side of the river is heavily forested with stately fir
trees at higher elevation and mixed maple and fir/cedar lower down. There
are also skinny plants with little yellow flowers and spiky leaves and
little thorns. Many of these plants have little spitball like stuff,
probably some insects doing. The exposed stretches are somewhat dangerous
and can be really tricky where its muddy or slick. At one point there is
some rope secured to cliff to facilitate a stream crossing. Numerous side
streams are coming out of the side of the cliff and crossing trail.
Finally the trail emerged from the growth to a nice spot above the river
with a 3 strand waterfall. At this point the trail went away from river,
crossed a small side stream and abruptly came to a vertical steel ladder.
The rungs felt somewhat slippery and there is no way I was going to haul a
100lb dog down that thing. So I decided to explore the last view point
close to this point and got a scary lesson about how dangerous this trail
can be. My dog ventured out here with me and was ambling around the way
dogs do. He slipped on some slimy rocks with a stream trickling across. I
watched in sickened horror as he got up and then slipped again down to
within a couple of feet of the steep 200 ft drop-off to the river below.
Luckily he managed to find surer footing and rapidly scrabbled away from
the edge. Whew. The return was heavy going with the steep uphill. However
at least the danger of slipping is less since you are not going as fast as
downhill. The return to suspension bridge took me an hour. Ran into a
badly sun burnt biker who had hauled his bicycle up that ladder. On the
way back I crossed over the bridge one more time with the now chastised
pooch in tow. The trail goes up along the river for a brief distance then
crosses back to the paved trail side. A very pretty hike and not as
crowded as the trail head seemed to suggest. (5-6 mi., ~800 ft, Done
7/23/01).
** Mt. Defiance (South)
(10 miles north Dee, OR) An easy backdoor way to get to the
highest point in the gorge. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so I didn't
get to see much but the unsightly transmission tower at the top. The
trailhead is reached after a long drive, the last 10 miles on a good
gravel road. The trail starts out in huckleberry bushes and soon enters a
medium age forest. There are very few views except for a couple of places
where the trail crosses exposed rock slide areas. The elevation gain is
1500 ft for trail but it feels less because of the moderate and steady
grade. It steepens a little bit as it approaches the summit. The trail
pops out on a rocky area and then suddenly you are at the top. There is a
depressing looking micro-wave tower and a dirt road leading to it. Made me
glad I hadn't done the 5000 ft climb to get to this depressing viewpoint.
The fact that it was raining buckets and a freezing wind was howling
through the trees didn’t help improve my impression of the summit. The
members of the hiking group scattered into the trees to get some shelter
and munch somberly on soggy sandwiches. We left as soon as we could, glad
to get out of the chilling wind. On the way back we hit the Bear Lake
which is accessed by a mile long side trail. The lake view wasn't much
better than the summit view as the whole surface was hidden by fog/clouds.
Towards the end the clouds did lift off the lake in a pretty manner
revealing a medium sized lake. (5 mi., 1500 ft, Done 7/28/01).
****** Obsidian Trail
(22 miles south of Sisters, OR) A gem of a hike -- this trail is
easily among my top 5 favorites in the Northwest. It is so popular that
the forest service limits the number of people who can hike it. Luckily I
was able to get a pass for it from the Detroit Ranger Office. The
trailhead is very weird with little pull-outs that look like a campground.
There is a friendly old forest service volunteer who mans the trail head
all day on weekends. The trail starts out in dense forest right from the
get-go. It angles up at a moderate slope and is wide and well-graded. Its
a long monotonous 2 hours (3 miles) before any views are to be had. The
trail suddenly breaks out of forest and ascends into a vast lava field
with Middle Sister looming in the distance. The contrast between the black
lava chunks and the green trees trying to establish a foothold in this
barren waste is very striking. The trail winds among the lava for a short
distance and in 15 minutes comes to a delightful meadow with a stream
running through it. Wildflowers bloom profusely and camping is prohibited.
The trail forks shortly after crossing this meadow and reentering the
trees. I took the right fork towards Linton Meadows. The pace is a steady
uphill. Soon the trail again comes out into a breathtakingly beautiful
meadow with a burbling stream running through it. All the usual alpine
meadow suspects were in full bloom here. Little blue and yellow
butterflies flitted around completing the impression that I had entered a
little slice of paradise. The ground had glints of obsidian chips which
are little glassy black volcanic stones. As I was reaching the edge of the
meadow , the dog suddenly darted off trail to a boulder and I could hear
loud and furious hissing emanating from behind the rocks. I resisted the
temptation to look behind the boulder for the fear that whatever was
behind that rock might lunge at me. It sounded like a feline hiss so it
might have been a cougar or a Manx. After this the trail comes into yet
another beautiful meadow. The profusion of obsidian chips increases with
each meadow and the combination of the flowers and glinting obsidian is
breathtakingly beautiful. The trail reenters the forest, the trees become
more massive during this stretch. Soon the trail crossed Obsidian Creek
and junctioned with PCT. To make this a loop I headed left on PCT. Within
a short distance beautiful Obsidian Falls came into view. The temptation
to go stand under it was high but time was running short. Shortly
thereafter the trail emerged above timberline at a spot near the top of
the waterfall. Camping is strictly prohibited in this spot. At this point
the trail enters a heavenly section of small lakes shimmering among
glittering expanses of obsidian and an abundance of wildflowers. High
sheer cliffs flank the trail on the right side and Middle sister summit
towers above it. The glittering ground makes you feel like you are walking
in a field of jewels. The little lakes are shallow, clear and beckon the
weary hiker for a dip. This section of the PCT will be etched in my mind
forever. At the end of this section is a great viewpoint with Mt.
Washington, Three Finger Jack and Mt. Jefferson all lined up. This trail
kept surprising me with one stupendous view after another just when I
began thinking it couldn't get any better. After the viewpoint the trail
quickly descended to Sunshine meadow with pretty Glacier Creek running
through a profusion of flowers. The banks of the creek were so inviting
that I stretched out there and munched on some snacks while absorbing the
pretty scenery around me. At this point the Glacier Creek trail headed
down from PCT back to the Obsidian trail. It took me only 20 minutes to
reach the lower meadow and lava fields. The final stretch to the trailhead
through the trees was a tiring and monotonous slog. Its a long trail but
the payoff in views more than justifies this section (12 miles, 2000 ft,
Done 8/5/01).
Captain's log supplemental: I redid this hike as a backpack in Aug 2002. This time
the weather was much cooler and a forest fire in Black Butte area provided additional protection
from the heat. The old ranger was here again just like last year. He let me park along the road since the lot was full. He also informed me that it was dipping below freezing at night in the parking area. Consequently we decided to take the heavier sleeping bag. The flowers and trail were spectacular as usual. Blooming beargrass on the lower trail made it more bearable as well (no pun intended). We set up camp in White Branch Creek meadow and did the loop the first day. Flowers and obsidian were as beautiful as ever though some of the colors lacked the vibrance they possess in bright sunshine. We also came across a bunch of naked women frolicking in one of the tarns. A couple of them scrambled out and clothed themsleves while the third continued to languish in the tarn. The crowds seemed pretty thin for a summer weekend but our late afternoon start may have had something to do with that. At night the stove refused to work so we had to make do by cooking on a small campfire. The second day I went up Glacier Creek to the Arrowhead lake area. The trail wanders up through the beautiful meadow to a stream crossing at a point where the stream is fairly wide. Then it ascends some rocky talus slopes to reach a plateau above the PCT. The climbers trail continue upward after reaching the upper plateau but there was a very faint side-trail to the lake. Its easy to miss it in the rocks and rubble. Arrowhead lake is shaped like a chevron or arrowhead which is probably how it got its name. I originally thought it might have had something to do with the obsidian arrowheads the indians used to craft from the obsidian found here. The views from here were quite good despite the fact that the mountains were socked in. The whole lower plateau with the tarns and obsidian cliffs was spread out like a map from my aerial vantage point. It was pretty chilly up here and I was glad I had camped in the lower meadow. After absorbing the scenery I headed on down. Wound up the camp and was out in a couple of hours. (done 8/3-4/02, 16 mi, 2500 ft)
View of PCT and obsidian plateau from Arrowhead Lake. Glittering obsidian along PCT.
**** Sheep Canyon (Mt.
St. Helens NM, 17 miles north of Cougar, WA) A great hike on the
western flank of the mountain with good views of the havoc wreaked by 1980
eruption. The trail starts at the end of Forest Road 8123. There are many
huckleberry bushes in this area and were loaded with berries when I did
the hike. After about half a mile the trail came to a pretty 2 tier
waterfall and crossed a bridge over Sheep Canyon. It then descended
through mature fir and hemlock forest to the Toutle River. Trail crosses a
nice stream with backpacking possibilities just before reaching Toutle
River. Here it intersected the Loowit Trail. I headed left right down
Loowit a while to the bank of the river, as the O'Sullivan book
recommends, and got a good view of the blast zone. Fallen tree trunks were
scattered like match sticks on the hills across the Toutle River. Some
were still rooted in the ground ,strikingly bent at 30 degree angle to the
ground away from direction of the blast. The Loowit trail was visible
snaking its way across the ashen slopes towards the maw of the volcano. It
looked tempting but I decided to stick to the agenda. The right fork of Loowit
trail ascends at a fairly rapid pace up and away from the river. Initial
portion was hot and brushy but things cooled off somewhat as the trail
gained altitude and entered mature forest of big trees. Finally after what
seemed like a long climb, the trail broke out on top of the ridge amongst
a scattered forest of spruce and what appeared to be bristle-cone pine.
Some meadows with a few wildflowers but nothing majorly flowery. The
barren and snow-less bulk of St. Helens looms over the trail in this section.
After meandering through this timberline stuff for a while the trail hit
Sheep Canyon trail. Sheep Canyon Trail leads quickly in a mile and a half
to the bridge mentioned above to complete the loop. A good hike with a
little bit of everything. (7 mi., 1700 ft, Done 8/25/01).
***** Moraine Lake/
South Sister (25 miles from Bend OR) This was a 3 day backpack
over Labor day weekend. The trailhead at Devil's Lake campground looked like
a zoo. It seemed like everybody was headed off in the same direction as
me. My suspicion was soon confirmed on reaching the wilderness boundary
with a sign proclaiming that the Moraine lake campsites were full. Very
frustrating when even backpacking doesn't ensure you a campsite. I pressed
ahead anyway. The trail was steep from the get go, and with a heavy pack
it was tough going. After about an hour and a half of trudging up this
trail through a fir forest, I came to a trail junction at the edge of Wickiup
Plains. The trail to Moraine Lake branched off to the right and I headed
down this. As usual I had gotten off to a late start and it was getting
pretty dark at this point. There was no point in going on to Moraine lake
since the place was full anyway. I quickly located a campsite in some
trees and pitched tent. Made sure the dog didn't lose his pack this time
like he did on my last backpack in Paradise Park. It was a beautiful night
with full moon. Both South Sister and Broken Top were clearly visible in
the moonlight. After a quick dinner of chili and chips, I lounged around
the campfire for a while and then hit the sack.
Next morning I packed up and quickly left for Moraine lake in the hope of
snagging a spot that might have fallen vacant. I met a couple of backpacking
parties who had left Moraine lake in the morning so chances were bright that I
might actually find something. The trail is broad and sandy in this area, it
passed though a couple of depressions that look like dry lake beds. Trees are sparse
and scattered around in clumps. I soon reached Moraine Lake and found an empty
site. The designated sites have a little wooden post with a triangle cut into
it. I filtered some water and cooked lunch of rice and turkey. Then I saddled
up the pooch and we headed out towards the South Sister summit. The trail
continues up a flat expanse on the far side of the lake and then ascends
steeply up a loose ashy slope. The last bit of this trail was somewhat tricky
and required clambering over some rocks to get to the main trail to South
Sister summit. After this the trail meandered through dwindling trees and then
entered the upper slopes of South Sister. There were literally hundreds of
people thronging this trail. The dust being kicked up by their passage was
phenomenal. Views downhill clearly showed the passage of the trail across the
Wickiup Plain and up the mountain. Various Cascade lakes shimmered in the
distance and Mt. Bachelor and Broken Top loomed nearby. The trail kept getting
progressively steeper and dustier. The ash trail surface made for hard uphill.
The wind was very strong at higher elevations and kept kicking grit into my
face. Finally after an interminable slog I came to the foot of Lewis Glacier at
the 9000 ft level. There was little lake full of silty gray glacial melt at the
foot of the glacier. This seemed like a good turning point for several reasons.
Firstly, both the dog and I were pushing our physical limits. Secondly, the red
cinder cone surface in the final stretch was going to be very hard on the dog's
feet. Finally , the late morning start had done me in as usual. After a quick
lunch and a lingering look at the summit I turned back. The way back was much
easier going. The feet just sank into the ash and it provided a natural brake and
cushion. I rapidly plunge-stepped my way down to timberline. This is where I
first encountered "Ranger John". I never did learn his name but I
just dubbed him that. He was way too intrusive and chatty, sermonizing about
all kinds of basic trail etiquette and proclaiming that all soiled toilet paper
be packed out. Apparently burning a little bit of TP was too much pollution in
his book. After tersely declining his offer of "baggies" for toilet
paper I carried on and made it back to camp by sundown. Needless to say I was
exhausted after this long day. After a quick dinner of Tuna helper I zonked out
and slept soundly.
Next morning I woke up considerably refreshed. People were packing up and
leaving around me and I finally felt like I had some privacy. However soon that
illusion vanished as "Ranger John" reappeared. Apparently the zealous
sonofabitch was camped out in the area and was "patrolling" the
campsites to make sure everything was OK. He again launched into his
"leave-no-trace" spiel and asked me to leash my dog. I was quite
pissed at this officious asshole's intrusion into my campsite and rebuffed his
efforts at chit-chat with frosty silence and terse one syllable replies. He
soon left and I saw him scurrying around with a garbage bag, checking for god-knows-what.
After cooking a leisurely lunch and napping for a while I packed up and left.
On my way out I again saw "Ranger John" of the sphincter police. He
was haranguing a couple of backpackers by the lake with his standard sermon. By
this time I had had enough of this repulsive fellow so I decided not to tarry
by the lake and left immediately. The trail back went quickly. There was a
worrying interlude where the dog encountered 3 horses on the trail and freaked
them out. Since horses are forbidden on this trail I can only imagine what the
anal ranger had to say when he saw those horses. He would probably shit a brick
and then "bag" it. I was down at the parking lot in about 1.5 hours.
The usual Forest Service postcards in the windshield were accompanied by a
strictly worded "warning notice" about being present on federal land
without approval. Oh well, time for another letter to the congress people about
the trail park pass. (9 mi., 3500 ft, Done 9/01/01-9/03/01).
**** Tamanawas Falls
(Mt. Hood SE side) : A very nice short hike. The trail started
next to Hwy 35 and crossed a bridge across Hood River. Then it climbed
parallel to the highway for a short distance before veering away from the
noisy highway. Soon I entered a quiet forest with a noisy creek rushing
along the trail. The creek is very scenic as it rushes down in a series
of small waterfalls and pools. The water in this creek looked very clean
and formed clear blue pools periodically that would be great for wading
and playing around. In the last stretch the trail crosses a rock slide
that obviously wiped out the earlier trail. The fall itself is an
impressive affair. The valley dead ends here and the water cascades over a
lip of volcanic rock and thunders down. ( 4 miles, 100 ft, done 9/15/01)
***** Killen Creek and
High Camp (Mt. Adams, North Side): An excellent hike with mountain
panoramas and meadows. The trailhead is 4 miles up the road from Takhlakh
lake. I did a little portion of the hike on Sat up to the first meadow and
Adams view. Based on the excellent view from the meadow I decided to
repeat the hike on Sunday and camped in the nearby Killen Creek
campground. The trail started out in thick forest of medium sized trees
(mostly Pacific Silver Fir). There were many flat sections interspersed
with some relatively steeper areas where trail steps up a series of
psuedo-stairs. After steepening perceptibly the trail broke out in a nice
meadow with stunning views of Adams Glacier icefall. It took me about 1
1/2 hour of fairly slow trudging to get to this point. The east branch of
Adams Creek runs through the meadow here and there were some nice
backpacking possibilities in the trees bordering the meadow. After
reaching this meadow the trail kept going up at a fairly gentle pace and
soon intersected PCT. I initially headed left but the trail seemed
uninteresting so I turned back after a lunch break and took the High Camp trail which branches
off to the right side at the intersection. This section was somewhat rough
and rocky. However the views of Rainier and Adams got better with each
step. There was one fairly steep section that required a little bit of
scrambling. After climbing this section I came to a really interesting
snowfield whose bottom was almost a geometrically precise straight line.
The trail continued up the rocky ridge at a gentler pace above this
snowfield. The last vestiges of trees and krummholz quickly fell away and
finally I was in the tundra above timberline. Views were sublime with Goat
Rocks, Rainier and St. Helens vying for attention. Mt. Adams loomed overhead
and provided a stunning backdrop to the meadow scenery. In early summer
these meadows would probably be even prettier with a profusion of
wildflowers. The North Cleaver route was quite obvious but looked pretty
daunting. Several stream beds meandered through the high meadow but most
were dry. Then I noticed one stream was actually in the process of
starting up as the snow melt rate increased in the midday sun. Kinda
fascinating to see a stream beginning. I filtered some water and soaked in
the scenery for an hour. This place would make for a bitchin' backpack.
Earlier hikers had also mentioned a pretty lake at the base of a
snowfield/glacier a little further up from high camp. However the route to
it is very rocky and since it was pretty late I decided against it. On the
return there was a slight hitch as I had senilely dropped my camera case
in the meadow somewhere as I was taking pictures and forgot to pick it up.
Since it contained film from my Sisters trip and other hikes, I was very
reluctant to leave it behind but daylight was running out fast. Finally
after doing a grid search for about 20 minutes I found the camera case. I
descended rapidly down the trail in the waning daylight. It got really
dark by the time I reached the lower meadows. Fortunately I had a small
flashlight and was able to make it down the last stretch in its feeble
light. The total trip down to the trailhead from high camp took about 2
hours. (9 miles, 2400 ft. Done 9/30/01)
***** Twin Pillars (Mill Creek Wilderness near Prineville, OR): A good
Fall or Spring
hike when the mountains are shut out by snow. I decided to do one last
backpack before winter arrived in earnest. Since the John Day area was
supposed to be relatively dry I headed in that general direction. Originally I was hoping to hit Black Canyon or Strawberry Mountain Wilderness but because of a late puttering start I found myself rapidly running out of daylight. Mill Creek rapidly became the only practicable choice. The
trail started from Wildcat campground which is reached after 10 miles on
Mill Creek Rd. Hunting season had begun and there were several hunters and
horses in evidence at the campground. One guy was camped out with a huge
RV and what appeared to be a smoke house. A severed elk head adorned his
campsite. The trail started just before the campground on the side of the
stream that is away from the campground. It was nice and flat as it
paralleled Mill Creek through a very picturesque valley with pine and fir
trees. There are numerous creek crossings which have no bridges and
require some rock-hopping. A hiking couple I ran encountered told me that
hunters had warned them to make themselves scarce around dusk to avoid
getting shot. In light of this info I decided to pitch camp before it got
dark. I found a nice spot by the stream at the base of a big Ponderosa
pine. Starting a campfire was pretty easy since things were still pretty
dry. I didn't hear any major shooting that night. It sprinkled a little
bit now and then but nothing compared to the rain I had driven though to
get here.
Next morning the weather was even nicer with a few patches of blue puncturing
the overcast sky. I followed the trail for about 2 miles along the valley
beside the stream. The trail basically stayed in the valley but did climb up on
the true left bank periodically. There was an abundance of streamside campsites
all along this section of the trail. There were 3 bridgeless stream crossings
as well which were fairly easy rock hopping affairs since water level was
pretty low. Soon I came to a junction with Belknap trail. The twin pillars are
2 miles from this junction. At about this point I noticed signs of a pretty
recent fire which greatly marred the beauty of this part of the trail. I later
found out that this was the biggest fire in Oregon in 2000. The trail soon left
the stream and started climbing in earnest up a hill with badly burnt pine
trees. At this point I decide to break for lunch before leaving the stream. I
spent an hour trying to warm water on the stove for my mac&cheese lunch but
for some reason it was slow as molasses. Finally I gave up and just built a
little fire to heat the water. Wasted a good hour of sunlight in this effort.
Trail dipped to cross a stream and then switchbacked up to the ridgetop and the
base of the twin pillars. There are nice views from here of the entire Mill
Creek wilderness including the charred hilltops ravaged by last year's fire.
The pillars were interesting 200 ft volcanic plugs that stuck out from the
forest. There was no maintained trail to the base as far as I could see but I
scrambled up the hill side to the saddle at the base of the pillars. There was
quite a bit of crumbly rock at the base. The rock of the pillars has a green
tint because of algae growing on it. Some bright orange algae adds interesting
highlights to the sheer face. I had to be very careful going down to the trail
since it is somewhat treacherous footing. The way back went very quickly. I had
foolishly left my flashlight at the campsite so I was hurrying to get back by
dark. There were a few anxious moments towards the end when it got really dark
and I had to make the last stream crossing in the dark and then find my tent. I
had to abandon my original plan of packing out that evening and spend another
night here. Not an altogether unwelcome turn of events, since the sky cleared
and a bright moon lit up the entire valley.
Next morning it started raining at 7:30 am and it was still raining at noon
when I finally steeled myself to emerge from the warmth of my sleeping bag,
pack up my belongings and the soggy tent, and leave. It was really nice hike
both for views and solitude. Too bad I didn't do it before last year's fire. On
the way back I went up a side road and followed the trail to Stein's Pillar ( a
striking rock formation) for a while along the ridge top. Its a nice leg
stretcher in a fragrant pine and juniper forest with expansive views of the
valley. (12 miles, 1000 ft. Done 10/27-10/29/01)
*** Triple Falls
(Columbia Gorge, 3 miles east of Multnomah Falls): Did this hike
as an opening celebration of the company shutdown over the next 2 weeks.
The Ainsworth exit off of 84 was blocked off so had to drive all the way
along old Columbia River Highway to get to the trailhead. The trail
quickly left the road and came to a junction. I headed left towards
Oneonata Gorge. The pace was a steady uphill. There was a side loop
overlooking the gorge a short distance thereafter. Then the trail curved
into the scenic side gorge cut by Oneonata creek. The trees are heavily
festooned with moss in this area and look almost a bright neon green in
the winter light. The trail stayed considerably above the stream and
switchbacked up the side of a hill before finally leveling off a little
near the viewpoint for Triple falls. The falls are an impressive 3-pronged
affair. The three channels have dug deep grooves in the volcanic rock and
the separating prows of rock between the waterfall branches look very
striking. I had my snack and admired the view. A couple of possible gay
guys passed by with their two dogs. Diamir lost no time in making "friends"
with one of the dogs and then humping him -- much to the amusement of the
gay duo. Later I wandered a little way up to where trail crossed above the
falls on a bridge. This was the only place where the trail came close to
the stream. I lost my nice pen knife at this point. Probably left
carelessly on a log after peeling an orange. Return went a lot faster than
expected. Decided against doing the loop to horsetail falls since it was
too dark to see anything anyway. Did the last part of the hike with a
flashlight. (5 mile, 1500 ft, Done 12/22/01)
View of Triple Falls .
***** Harris Ranch (10
miles inland from Waldport) : A great winter backpack. I was
hankering for the outdoors after avoiding hiking during Ramadan. It had
been a very wet December with Portland tying its all-time record of 34
consecutive days of rain. As usual it took me much longer than anticipated
to get to the trailhead. There were a couple of hippies camped out at the
trailhead in the obligatory VW van. They did not seem too happy to see me
and I speculated if they were tending to their secret marijuana plantation
in the forest. Brushing these idle musings aside, I quickly packed up and
started out at 4:30 p.m.. It soon got dark but I decided to continue in the
twilight without breaking out the flashlight. The trail kept heading
downhill at a steady angle. Soon the first obstacle presented itself. A
huge cedar tree had fallen across a switchback in the trail. Climbing over
the trunk and negotiating the obstacle course of radiating limbs with a
heavy pack was quite a feat for me since it was getting pretty dark. The
trail had abundant windfall and was even washed out in one place. It did
not look as if anybody had hiked it recently. After steady hiking for
about a couple of hours I noticed that the trail leveled off and the trees
changed to alder. The noisy sounds of Drift creek soon became audible and
the trail faded off into multiple branches in a meadow choked with
blackberry bushes. I made an uncannily accurate beeline for a nice camp
spot by the river. After congratulating myself on this accomplishment , I
pitched the tent and cooked up a cup of noodles. The night was clear after
32 days of continuous rain. The river waters looked ethereally beautiful
in the light of an almost full moon. It was too wet to even consider a
camp fire so I hit the sack early. The pooch also seemed tired and slept
at night. Apart from him growling at some animal around 1 am, the night
was uneventful.
Next morning was bright, cold and clear. The weather finally seemed to be
cooperating after a long time. I stood by the stream and warmed myself in the
light of the weak winter sun. A walk along the banks revealed many other nice
camp sites. It was nice to have the entire place to myself. The stream was
quite swollen from recent rains and there was no question of fording it for the
loop hike mentioned in the hiking book. I lost my coffee mug lid in the fast
flowing current and it vanished so quickly that I could not even wade in and
grab it. After coffee and a lunch of tuna helper, I packed up and headed out.
The hike up was surprisingly easy since the trail was very well graded with no
serious steep sections. Negotiating the tree fall and washout also proved much
easier in the daylight. The forest floor is thickly covered with ferns and
there were some thorny deciduous bushes along the way as well. Some of these
had fallen across the trail as well and I again patted myself on the back for
having negotiated all this mess in the dark of the night. The forest is prime
old-growth with massive trees dotted throughout the length of the trail. There
are occasional openings that provide nice views of the Drift Creek valley. I
made it out in a couple of hours. The truck seemed unviolated and the hippies
were gone. I had gotten my camping fix even in the dead of winter. ( 5.6 miles,
1200 ft, done 12/23-24/01)
View of Campsite by Drift Creek .
** Twin Lakes Snowshoe
(Near Mt Hood) : A mediocre short snowshoe. The trail started next
to Hwy26 at Frog Lake sno-park. The parking lot was a zoo with
snow-mobilers and dog sledders hogging almost all the lot. The trail
started out in fairly mature second-growth forest. The crowds soon fell
behind. Trail climbed steadily up the side of a ridge. About 1.5 miles
into the hike the side-trail for twin lakes branched off to the right.
Soon it crested at 4230 ft (a small marker on a tree) and started heading
downhill. Shortly thereafter it reached the frozen lower twin lake. I
walked out onto the lake with some trepidation about breaking through. At
the time I thought it was only 4 feet deep but it later turned out that it
was 18 feet deep and the other twin was the shallow one. The ice was
covered by about 6 inches of snow. The trees around it were laden with
fresh snow presenting a very pretty sight. I headed back after a quick
snack and a couple of pics since daylight was fading fast. Last part of
the trip was in the dark with the help of my headlamp. The parking lot was
just as crowded on my return with all the snowmobilers running noisy
generators to make up for any lack of noise that had escaped the buzz of
their snowmoblies. No good seems to come from the recreators who use
2-stroke engine based monstrosities on public land. ( 5 miles, 800 ft,
done 12/29/01) Diamir and I sit on thin ice.
***Elk Mountain (Coast
Range along Hwy 6) : A shorter cousin of King Mountain but equally
sadistic in its uphill tendencies. Did this hike mid-week on what was
supposed to be a partly sunny day. However when I crossed over the range
the weather turned completely rainy. Since I was not about to turn back
after driving 40 miles so I pressed ahead. The trailhead was a short walk
up the access road to Elk Creek campground (gated off during winter). The
sign at the trail head says 1.6 miles to summit, what it conveniently
omits to mention is the 1900 ft elevation gain. The elk mtn. trail
branched off to the right soon after the start of the hike. The next
section is quite steep. The forest floor is thickly covered with ferns and
a small evergreen broad-leafed shrub. They even crowd the trail so at
points it felt as if I was wading in a sea of greenery. The trail
continued up at a relentless pace. Every so often it would come out on a
rocky overlook with nice views of the Wilson river and the highway as well
as cloud-shrouded coast range. Rest of the way was in a young forest with
dead trees left standing here and there from forest fires of 60 years ago.
The trail does a few ups and downs towards the end as it angles up to the
summit. However it is no doubt one of the steepest trails I have hiked. I
turned back a short way before the summit since it was getting dark early.
The nonstop rain and clouds had obscured the view anyway. Had to hike out
the last part of the rail with a flash light. It seems to have become a
regular pattern over the last few weeks. It took me about the same time to
go down as it took me to go up since the steepness of the trail and muddy
conditions required some careful stepping on descent ( 3 miles, 1900 ft,
done 1/4/2002) A tired Diamir contemplates the trail.
*** Trillium Lake Loop
(Gov’t Camp, Mt. Hood) :A very popular snowshoe trail
near Mt. Hood. The parking lot and trailhead area was crowded with people
engaged in snow-play. However the crowds dropped off quickly once I got on
the trail. I ran into a ranger at the very beginning who informed me with
glum satisfaction that dogs are not allowed on the trail without leash. I temporarily
leashed the dog to please this sourpuss. However I saw no other dogs on
this trail who were leashed. I unleashed the dog soon thereafter. The trail descended a little bit
and came to a big widely traveled area. Evidence suggested that snow-mobilers
might be using this area. I took the left and followed the loop towards
the old airstrip and beyond. The trail was pretty enough but power lines
marred the view and reminded that civilization was not too far away. I was
further disappointed to find cabins inhabited by boisterous revelers along
the way. Not exactly a wilderness experience. On return I cut across a
wide open space that might have been a meadow or a covered lake. It was
probably the best part of this hike which was otherwise a pretty
lackluster experience. ( 4
miles, 500 ft, done 3/2002)
***** Tom McCall Point and beyond (Gorge near Mosier, OR) : A great spring wildflower
hike. The Friends of the Gorge organized this jaunt as a shuttle hike. We
started cross-country from the shoulder along Dell Road. The
"trail" descended sharply into a ravine and then climbed up to a
meadow on the other side. This meadow was quite pretty with the sunflower-like
Balsam Root, lupine and white and purple vetches in bloom. Mt. Adams also
became visible at this point. More and more of its snow-covered bulk
became visible as the trail ascended in oak forest. After a fairly
strenuous climb we came out on a saddle behind McCall point. We continued
along the top of the ridge to a couple of meadows. Had lunch in the first
flower-strewn meadow with glorious view of Mt. Hood. The trail leaders
were extremely knowledgeable about plants and identified things like
desert parsley, wild onion, chocolate lilies, glacier lilies (flowers were
gone), locoweed, grandma’s pincushion etc. They also related the story
about how every lupine flower hides a wolf's claw. Its amazing to notice
the amount of plant diversity that exists even in a few square feet of
forest floor. After lunch we meandered along the ridge top until the trail
petered out at private property. There was one particularly pretty
viewpoint along the way of Mt. Adams. The only thing marring this
viewpoint was the rotting hulk of a mattress thrown nearby. Wire fences
confined the trail to a small portion of the ridge top bringing home the
patchwork nature of public land in this area. Even the land we were
walking on was saved from development by the Nature Conservancy. After the
viewpoint we turned back and went down via McCall point. Glorious views of
the river, Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood from McCall point. The path down from
McCall point is a long series of switchbacks in oak forest. Definitely an
excellent flower and view hike. I developed a blister on my left toe on
the way down. This was the first hike since I got my trusty Tecnica Ranger
boots resoled. I am beginning to suspect the resoling may have altered the
boot's fit. Maybe its time to get a new pair. Poison Oak was abundant
throughout this hike. (7 miles, 1200 ft, done 5/12/2002)
***** Multnomah Falls to Nesika Lodge (Columbia River Gorge) : This was a group hike sponsored by the Trails club and Friends of the Gorge. The hike started at the crowded Mutlnomah Falls parking lot. The number of people on trail dropped in proportion to the inverse of the square of the distance from the trailhead. After the top of the fall viewpoint the trail lost its touristy nature and became a real hike as it gradually climbed along the scenic Multnomah Creek. Numerous smaller waterfalls exist along the trail and are hikeworthy in their own right even though the big Multnomah Falls steals all the glory. The trail crossed back and forth across the stream a couple of times on sturdy bridges. After about 3 miles of hiking a couple of nice campsites also showed up along the stream. Vegetation is luxurious rainforest with several different ferns, columbines, canadian dogwood and devils club. Large old growth fir and cedar trees also dot the forest. The Forest Service planned to clear cut all the way to Multnomah Falls in 1933 but the Trails Club and other environmentalists managed to dissuade them. The Nesika Lodge is tucked away towards the end of the trail near the junction with the Larch Mountain trail. It is built on an old homestead site and is owned by the Trails Club of Oregon who had graciously opened it for the group. They had even prepared coffee and cookies and had a nice fire burning. The cloudy day and the chill in the air made the warm lodge even more welcoming as the lunch spot. There is also a great viewpoint of the Gorge a short walk from the lodge. The rustic outhouse near the lodge had no doors so the user can look out at the gorge. Definitely a shit with a view. (Maybe somebody should compile "The best 100 places to shit in the NW" book). A good gorge hike. (8 miles, 2000 ft, done 6/16/2002)
***** Lakes Basin (Eagle Cap Wilderness near
Joseph, OR) : This was a July 4th weekend backpack.
Day1 :We traveled all day Wed (July 3rd) to get to the Wallowa
Mountains. Originally I was planning to hit the trail that day but a
characteristically late start dashed any hopes of that
happening. Pitched camp in darkness at Boundary CG near Wallowa in a
psuedo campsite. All the real sites were already taken.
Day2 : Got up early in the morning and took a short walk along Bear Creek in
my new Motrail Vercors hiking boots to see if they were ready to be
used for the backpack. Decided against using them since they were a
little tight against my little toe and the last thing I wanted on this
trip were blisters. We packed up and left for the trailhead. Our
progress was somewhat slowed by the 4th of July parades in the small
towns. Wallowa Lake trailhead was absolutely packed and I was
beginning to get worried about finding any good campsites. We packed
up and hit the trail around 1:30 pm. The trail started out along the
Wallowa river and stayed parallel and above it for most of the first 3
miles. It was quite hot and dusty on the trail until it crossed a
stream after about a mile and after this point water was easily
available as various snowmelt streams crossed the trail at regular
intervals. Lots of fly-covered horse shit and the pungent odor of
horse urine was a constant reminder that horses were using this
trail. The forest was mostly fir and offered a few shady patches that
provided welcome relief against the heat. After about 3 miles we
reached the junction of the West Fork and Ice Lake trails. We
discovered a really nice campsite close to this junction with a fire
ring and make-shift log benches and decided to call it a day. As I was
puttering about filtering water from a nearby brook, a male deer with
newly sprouted antlers appeared from the forest. It seemed remarkably
unafraid and curious. We looked at each other for a couple of minutes
and then my dog broke the trance by chasing it off.
Day3: We had breakfast and packed up by noon. The trail continued to Six Mile
Meadow at a much gentler pace. We stopped briefly for lunch along the
way and filter water. I noticed that the time being taken to filter had
become inordinately large and the filter was spraying more water on my
clothes than was going into the bottle. Apparently it was clogging up
up but I had forgotten to bring the cleaner brush. The flies were very
bothersome on this segment of the trail. They congregated in large
numbers on the horsehsit and would rise in clouds as we passed. They
could inflict painful bites and were strongly attracted to anything
remotely resembling food. We reached 6 Mile Meadow in about 3
hours. As the name implies, its a large meadow about six miles from
the trailhead. Sheer granite mountains formed a dramatic backdrop to
the meadow and a clear river flowed next to it. We decided that
hauling heavy packs up to the Lakes Basin was above and beyond the
call of duty. So we decided to camp there and do the lakes next day as
a day hike. We found a nice secluded campsite in the trees close to
the river and pitched camp. There were a couple of parties camped out
in the meadow when we arrived and soon three more showed up. Although
camping in the meadow is forbidden, this did not dissuade some of
these people from plopping their tents right in the meadow close by
the river. The mosquitoes had gotten progressively worse on the trail
from Ice Lake junction to Six Mile Meadow and they pestered us
mercilessly throughout the evening. I also tried fishing in the calmer
portion of the river and caught a small trout. Later I cooked some
fairly convincing rice pilaf and potato curry using the little packets
of spices we had brought with us. The stove acted really weird and
caught fire when I started cooking. We were afraid it was gonna blow
up but it mercifully died out on its own after I cut off the fuel
supply. It fired up just fine after I let it cool down and I cooked
the rest of the dinner on it uneventfully. Day4: Did the Lakes
Basin as a day hike. All of the other parties packed up and left by
mid-morning. We salvaged some of the neatly stacked firewood from one
of the empty campsites. By the time we left for the lakes, we were
the only ones left camping. The trail to the lakes was a little
steeper than the previous portions of this hike and we were gald we
weren't hauling heavy packs on this part of the hike. It was hot going
and it didn't help that the horses had taken perverse pleasure in
shitting in all the cool, shady and breezy spots along the trail --
thereby making them a haven for the flies. The views opened up as we
climber higher. It was quite impressive with sheer mountains covered
with thick forest and capped with snow. The trail switchbacked up past
a rushing waterfall and finally levelled off a bit near Horseshoe
Lake. Horseshoe lake was probably the prettiest of the lot with a
small island and expansive views. I recognized a couple of the parties
camped there from their tents which had been set up in six-mile meadow last
night. Evidence of horse traffic vanished from the trail as it climbed
above Horseshoe Lake. We had to negotiate a tricky stream crossing by
rock hopping. There was ample evidence of bygone glaciers in the shape of huge slabs of rock that had been ground to a smooth surface. We passed a couple more lakes and lily ponds before
turning back at Douglas Lake. The trail appeared almost snowbound at
Douglas Lake. We descended back to our camp by 7 pm and found a whole
new bunch of tents had sprouted up in the middle of the meadow. A gaggle
of teenagers was perched on the rocks by the river. Apparently they
were part of some kind of club or social organization. I quickly tried
to cook some shells and cheese in the remaining daylight but was
defeated in this effort whn the stove ran out of gas. Finished cooking
over the campfire and then hit the sack. We decided we had
had enough of the wilderness and the murderous mosquitoes and resovled
to pack out the next day. Day5: We were woken up at 5:30 am by
loud thunderclaps and bright flashes of lightning. Rain soon pleted
the tent. The dog was quite bothered by the noise and whined
piteously. Mercifully the storm had abated by 8 when we emerged from
the tent. Talked to a guy camped nearby who had just done the lakes
basin and looped around from Frazier Lake. He said all the lakes above
Lake Douglas were snow bound and Glacier Lake was frozen. Quickly
boiled some water on the campfire to make some cup'o noodle and then
packed up and hit the trail. The six miles out went considerably
faster that the hike in. We would have made it out in about 4 hours
except that the dog started acting really weird near the end of the
hike when we were within a qurter of a mile from the traihead. He
seemed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and repeated tossed his
pack off. On closer observation I found that his pack was literally
soaked with sweat. So I carried the dogs pack and we gave him the last
of our water. We managed to stumble along and were out by 3:30. Then
we quickly cleaned up a little at the restroom near the trailhead,
changed into clean clothes and drove 350 miles back to Portland. On the way back we stopped at a KFC in Baker City and gorged ourselves on the buffet. Ah the decadent delights of civilization! All
in all it was a very memorable trip. Although many hiking books
suggest this trail is very crowded, we did not encounter more than 3-4
parties on the trail each day. Its the longest backpack I have done to
date and I learnt a few new tips (pack extra fuel and water filter
cleaning brush). The only parts of it I would like to forget were the
pesky mosquitoes and flies.
(20 miles, 2800 ft, done 7/4-7/2002)
View of the sheer mountains On the trail View from the trail View of mountains across the valley on the trail to Lakes Basin Horseshoe Lake nice view of snow capped mountains from Lakes basin Six Mile Meadow
***** Cascade Head (Coast near Neskowin, OR) : This was a group hike sponsored by the Sierra Club. The trailhead parking is about 0.25 miles away from trailhead and no dogs are allowed on trail. The inital part is quite steep but mercifully it was in shade in a mature Sitka spruce forest. This part is on national forest land but the scenic latter half of the trail is Nature Conservancy land. . Then it entered a brushy section where somebody had done an excellent job of clearing the thorny brushes away from the trail. The brush was thick enough that it formed a canopy overhead and made me feel like I was going through a tunnel. Finally the trail broke out onto a grass-covered headland with excellent views of the ocean and the sandy beach below stretching away to the horizon. The trail continues to switchback up the grassy meadow which was punctuated by pink foxgloves (source of the heart disease medicine Digitalis). I developed painful heel blisters here since this was the first real hike with my new boots. I hope this situation will resolve itslef after a few hike or else I am stuch with a pair of fairly expensive and uncomfortable boots. I stopped at the survey marker at the top and we returned the way we came after lunch. Stopped at Kiwanada beach for a stroll on the way back. (5 miles, 1200 ft, done 7/21/2002)
View from my lunch spot, the rock outcropping on extreme right has an arch being carved into it by the sea. View inland from Cascade Head. View of the beach below.
***** Jefferson Park (Mt. Jefferson) : A classic hike that easily ranks among the best I have done in Oregon. The dirt road to the trailhead seemed easy enough but I discovered I had a flat tire about 2 miles into the 7.5 mile Whitewater Road. After fixing the flat I made my way gingerly up the road, hoping and praying that I wouldn't pop a second tire. At the trailhead I encountered a guy who helped me put my tire troubles in perspective.He wanted a ride down to fetch a towtruck because a teenage driver in his party had rolled his SUV down a 70 degree slope off the parking lot. While my heart bled profusely for this unfortunate person, I was unwilling to risk a second flat by going down to the trailhead again. Secondly it was getting late and I wanted to be on the trail. A couple that had arrived a few minutes before me also seemed to feel the same way. Fortunately at this moment a returning group of backpackers emerged at the trailhead and gladly offered to take the standed driver down to fetch a tow truck. The hike started out in mature fir and hemlock forest. It was a really hot day and the shade provided welcome relief. The trail executed a sereies of long switchbacks. The trees transitioned to scraggly looking Pacific Fir. After about a couple of miles the trail started to break out of the trees into glaring sunlight. This portion of the trail was really hot and dusty and both me and the dog took frequent stops in the shade. After a little more slogging the views opened up nicely towards Jefferson and river valley. The trail also eased off a little bit after reaching a saddle and then started heading down at a gentle angle. This section had some great views of Jefferson with the sizeable Jefferson Park Glacier tumbling down its slopes. We reached Whitewater creek after about 3 hours and took a breather there. The dog loaded up on water and I filtered some as well. The hiking book (Judd and Nelson) had seemed to suggest that the initial portion of this trail would run along Sentinel Creek so I had imagined an abundant supply of water for self and dog. The reality is that the first 4 miles of this trail are virtually waterless except for one brief moment when trail comes close to Sentinel Creek during the inital switchbacks.
After the creek crossing the trail ambled up to meet PCT. Meadows started appearing and the trail follwed a pretty stream for a sort distance before reaching Jefferson Park. The Park, as advertised, was a very beautiful plateau studded with lakes and shallow tarns and profusely covered with flowers. I dropped my pack and explored a little to find a nice camp site with lake and mountain views if possible. Russel Lake seemed to be a nice one but all the designated sites were taken. After circling Russel Lake and finding nothing, I headed back towards Scout Lake and found a great spot between Scout and Bays Lakes with an awesome view of the mountain. The mosquitoes were particulary brutal here and I got bitten numerous times as I frantically tried to filter water and swat at the pesky buggers at the same time. Finally it got so bad that I hastily set up my tent and retreated into its sanctum to avoid the blood-thirsty hordes. About a dozen mosquitoes followed me into the tent and I spent about 15 minutes hunting them down and executing them. At this point I was just about ready to call it a day and go to sleep hungry rather then contend with the mosquitoes. However I noticed that the mosuito activity decreased substantially after twilight ended. So I got out, cooked some dinner (Lipton rice and a can of Costco chicken) and admired the brilliant starry skies for a couple of hours. I was hoping to catch the Perseid meteor shower but saw only a few artifcial sattelites arcing across the sky. The new moon made a brief appearance and its reflection in the lake was quite a bewitching sight. Hit the sack around 11 pm.
A strong breeze started blowing in the early hours of the morning. It helped decrease the mosquito activity somewhat. I got up around 8:30 and made myself some breakfast (Farmhouse Pastaroni). Filtered some more water using the faltering sweetwater filter. Reaming it with the brush seems to be becoming ineffectual. On the plus side it sprays enough water that one can get a shower and filter water at the same time. Then I did a second loop of the lakes. The views were particulary stunning in a meadow by Russel Lake. Mt. Jefferson twered above the lake with Whitewater, Jeff Park and Russel Glaciers (Left to Right) visible. I filtered some water here from a stream that feeds into the lake. Noticed a lot of snail-things were attached to almost every rock in the stream. Also noticed a few small fish darting around in the stream. All the campistes around the lake were vacant today and I had the entire place to myself. I followed a side trail past Russel Lake in the hopes that it might be the climbers trail heading up the mountain. However it petered out at yet another lake. Enroute we startled a family of 4-5 ptarmigans who rocketed out of the grass and startled the bejeezus out of the dog. Returned from my jaunt by 1:30 pm. Broke up camp and hit the trail by 2:20 pm. The trail back went fairly quickly. Made a couple of stops to filter water. The uphill section went a lot easier than I expected and soon I was barrelling down the last section down to trailhead. Reached the parking lot by 5:10 pm. Mercifully the truck made it down without any further mishaps. Topo Map of Jefferson Park Russel Lake and Mt. Jefferson. Scout Lake and Park Butte. Along the trail.
(14 miles, 2000 ft, done 8/12-13/2002)
***** Elk cove via Timberline Trail (Mt. Hood) : I have been trying to do this hike for a couple of years now but something or the other always seemed to thwart my plans. Last year the first attempt in July failed because weather was shitty (it snowed in July). On the second attempt some neurotic females in the hiking group revolted and refused to cross Elliot Creek. This year I resolved to finally do this hike even if it meant fording the creek. I started out from Tilly Jane campground where I had spent Saturday night. There is a short connector trail from here to Cloud Cap. The Forest Service had put up signs all over the place advising that bridge on Elliott Creek is out. This pissed me off quite a bit and I was about to scribble something on the sign to the effect "Why don't you stop charging the fucking trailhead fees until you improve the fucking trail" but then realized the futility of this endeavour and continued up to the moraine and then down to the raging creek. I was fuming all the way about the perfidy of the USFS who weasel their way out of putting a bridge there every year. I was somewhat mollified when I observed two punky-looking youths actually engaged in building a bridge across the creek. They had created a couple of platforms and layed out two planks across the creek. Presumably they would add some wood slats afterwards. I continued up to where the water gushed out of the dirt-covered glacier and managed to cross the creek after some fairly dicey boulder-hopping. My dog, Diamir, demonstrated commendable agility and resourcefulness in choosing his own path in boulder-hopping across the creek. This dog is a born hiker if ever there was one and I was damn lucky to pick him out at the shelter. After the crossing the trail crossed over to the true left morine and dropped sharply to meet the Timberline trail. From here on the trail descended at a gentle rate, crossing several streams and providing nice views of Hood River valley as well as many wildflower covered hillsides. Most stream banks had very nice pink and yellow monkeyflowers. The lupine flowers seemed to have shot their load and gone into the pod phase. Just as I was thinking that I was going to cruise to Elk Cove in record time, the trail suddenly abandoned its mild manner and plunged down the ridge in a series of switchbacks. The reason for this abrupt change in character was the raging torrent coming out of Coe Glacier. The trail finally met the creek after losing several hundred feet. There was a makeshift bridge made out of three shaky looking logs. I managed to cross on them and the dog impressed me even more in fording the stream just above the logs. After this the trail switchbacked up regain the lost elevation. There were a few huckleberry bushes along this section with some berries beginning to ripen. I had noticed several people picking berries along the highway on my way to the hike but at this higher elevation the berries take longer to ripen. Soon after this I reached the enchanting meadow of Elk Cove. The palce was as beautiful as I remembered it from last time. After a brief snack on a granola bar I decided to explore a little bit and headed up towards an obvious opening that seemed to lead towards Coe Glacier. The trail soon petered out and I did a little cross-country jaunt to the base of the huge talus slopes ringing Elk Cove. From here on it got really rocky and I chose the relatively smooth surface of 3 remaining snowfields to ascend. This was relatively risky since the snowpack was thinning out and there were holes with water rushing underneath. Just how risky was brought home to me when the dog ventured too close to one of these holes. He suddenly broke through the snow and fell into the water. For a few seconds all I could see was the tip of his tail poking out above the hole he had created. Before I could rush to the rescue, he vanished and emerged a few moments later from the tunnel opening where water was entering the snowfield. He looked a little sheepish and chastised but none the worse for wear! After this we progressed, albeit more cautiously, to the top of the last snowfield and then scrambled up the bouders to the top of the moraine of Coe Glacier. The view from here was quite stunning and I felt positively drunk with all the beauty and solitude surrounding me. After a brief snack and the obligatory photos I headed back the way I came. The return was uneventful except that both Coe and Elliott Creeks were more swollen now than they were earlier in the day. However we manged to cross them without incident. Clouds had been building up all day but seemed to be lined up as if an invisble wall was stopping them near Cascade Locks. On my way back they suddenly surged forward like an army that had been waiting for the generals order to advance. This worried me since I did not want to get caught in a thunderstorm. However the clouds stayed well below us and channelled through the gorge. It took about the same time to go back as it did to reach Elk Cove (about 3 and a half hours each way). The last section where trail detours up the true left moraine of Elliott Glacier was a real killer, coming at the end of the long hike. This was an awesome hike and I was glad I had finally done it. The last section down from the other moraine is a piece of cake in gaiters as one can just take huge strides in the soft ash and practically run down to Cloud Cap. I quickly packed up at the now deserted Tilly Jane campground and then drove very carefully down the dirt road. This road is quite smooth in places but heavily washboarded in others. Also in an effort to "improve" the road every switchback has been liberally sprinkled with jagged rocks the size of tennis balls. After the recent flat on the Jeff Park hike, I was wincing at each one of these switchbacks and hoping I wouldn't have to get out and change a flat in the dark. Mercifully I made it down without any problems. (13 miles, 2000 ft, done 8/25/2002)
Topo Map of Elk Cove
***** Old Snowy (Goat Rocks Wilderness, WA) : A nice hike but shadowed by bad luck all the way. Got an unfair speeding ticket along the way to trailhead. The trailhead was at the end to a 20 mile dirt road and was packedwith cars. Saw some bow hunters leave about the same time as I did so I guess hunting season has started. The 2 miles to Goat Creek went pretty fast as the trail angled more or less down at a gentle grade. The creek had a very sturdy bridge with big log railings. Here I met the hunters again, chit-chatted for a awhile and discovered they were out looking for elk. After the creek the trail started to ascend at a moderate angle. I was hoping to reach Boundary Camp but the rapidly declining daylight forced me to stop earlier. I discovered a hidden side trail that led to a delightful campsite by a stream and pitched camp. The only thing that made me check out this place was a small pink marker ribbon tied to a log. There was a fire ring and a nice bench fashioned out of a fallen log and even a marshmallow toasting stick was sitting propped against the bench. I availed myself of these amenities and pretty soon had a nice fire going and finished almost an entire bag of marshmallows by myself. Hit the sack around 9:30 pm.
Up early to discover fog and clouds. The fog was rolling in and seemed in no mood to lift anytime soon. I packed up after cooking breakfast and bid farewell to my campsite. Saw a couple of hunters come up the side trail as I was about to leave. Apparently they were the ones who had marked this place since the pink ribbon was gone when I left. The trail kept going up and the weather kept getting fouler. I soon passed a trail junction (bypass trail which angles up to meet PCT towards Cispus Basin). I kept following the Snowgrass trail and soon came to a meadow with another trail junction with the Lily Basin trail. This place was occuped by several camping partied and I was glad I had camped below since this place seemed totally full. The weather had become steadily nastier as I ascended and the wind was becoming quite strong. The trail switchbacked up a few times and then entered Snowgrass Flat. There were numerous campsites in the trees right next to the trail and I picked one of the vacant ones and dumped my pack to claim my occupancy. It was about this point that I discovered I had lost my wristwatch somewhere along the trail. This distressed me considerably since I rely on it heavily to figure out time I have been hiking and ETA of return to trailhead. I had taken off the pack a little ways down to don gloves, windshell and hat. I suspected that my watch might have fallen off when I put my pack on. This has happened a few times before when I backpacked but I ususally detected it immediately. I went down quite a ways in pretty shitty weather but saw no signs of the watch. Came back and went up to the PCT junction which was just a few hundred yards from where I had decided to setup camp. It was much more exposed and wretched above the junction so I decided to stick with my original campsite choice. Set up camp and crawled in just as rain started coming down in earnest. The wind also whipped up and I huddled in my tent and wished I hadn't come on this trip. Cooked up some chicken/rice stuff in the tent vestibule area and whiled away the time the best I could. Being in the tent without a watch made the time seem to pass interminably slowly. I managed to set the clock on my digital camera and used it occasionally to monitor time. Around 6 pm the wind died down and rain stopped. I emerged from the tent and decided to take advantage of the weather to mount yet another search for the watch. This time I went all the way down to Boundary Camp and even poked through the bushes on the side of the trail but to no avail. There wer a few glimpses of Old Snowy, Ives Peak etc in the evening as the clouds lifted. At night I looked out the tent to see starry skies. Finally went to sleep after resolving to pack out immediately if weather did not improve the next morning.
Woke next morning to clear skies and bright sunshine. Came out of the tent and was stunned by the view of Adams, it looked HUGE with a lenticular cloud hanging on its summit. Quickly cooked some more chicken and Lipton Rice. Fed the dog and hit the trail to Old Snowy by 10 am. The views back to Adams, Helens and surrounding ridges were very impressive and the remaining vestiges of summer flowers added a lot of color to the meadows. Marmots sat on boulders and called out to each other in piercing whistles that drove my dog nuts. I headed left towards Old Snowy on the PCT. The trail climbed up gently past a delapidated stone shelter and crossed a large snowfield to reach a saddle where the PCT headed across a glacier. There were great views of Goat Lake as well but no sign of Rainier. Apparently it was still shrouded in clouds. The clouds also began to thicken and the wind picked up as I reached the saddle. The summit of Adams was also quickly obscured by clouds. The trail up to Old Snowy summit headed right at the junction. I lost the trail in a maze of confusing cairn and had to do some boulder hopping before I rediscovered the trail. The dog did a good job of route finding after some initial trouble. I stopped to put on my wind shell and hat and discovered a hard object wrapped in my wool cap. Much to my surprise and delight, it was the wristwatch. Suddenly I felt a lot better about everything. The trail was quite clear after this point except for a small scramble up some rocks in the final stretch. I made it to the summit fairly quickly from the saddle. The weather was quite foul near the end and the wind was kicking up so hard that it would blow my hiking poles askew before I could place them. A couple of guys from Portland who had camped in Cispus Basin were also trying to do this hike and we managed to reach the summit about the same time. After some desultory conversation, I headed down after taking the obligatory photos and snacking on a granola bar. It had taken me about 2.5 hours to climb Old Snowy and I was back at the camp by 1:30 pm. After quickly breaking camp, I headed down and was out at the trailhead by 5 pm. Here I was distressed to find a $30 fine awaiting me in the windshield. In all the years of hiking this was the first time the USFS pigs had actually left a fine. Needless to say it just put the icing on my run of bad luck. I thought Clinton et al were ruining the National Forests but Bush the imbecile has made them pale by comparison. I guess the days of free access to public land are over. (Done 8/31-9/01, 2002, 14 miles, 3300 ft)
Topo Map of Goat Rocks
*** Junction/Clear Lake Loop (Indian Heaven Wilderness, WA) : This was a group hike arranged by ONC. Dogs were allowed on this hike but I left mine at home to improve my chances of carpooling. The drive to trailhead was pretty long. The road turns to washboarded gravel 2 miles before Goose Lake. The trail was absolutely packed with huckleberry bushes and all the hikers couldn't resisit the lure of occasionally picking a handful as we hiked along. The first couple of miles to Junction Lake were fairly flat and unremarkable. A few small meadows and couple of ponds are the only thing that break the monotony of the trail. Junction lake was a pretty longish lake with some nice camp sites. The loop started at the far end of Junction Lake. We did it in the counterclockwise direction. A short moderately steep section led to some more level walking among nice meadows with vegetation that was turning all shades of red and yellow. Soon we reached Lemei Lake and decided to break for lunch. I took some time after lunch to pick some huckleberries and fill my lunch box. The trail continued to meander among meadows and past lakes of varying sizes (Clear Lake, Elk Lake) before returning to Junction Lake. Elk and Junction Lakes are probably the more sizable lakes. From here it was a quick and straight shot down to trailhead. Nice hike and all the more enjoyable in huckleberry season. (10 miles, 900 ft, Done 9/15/2002).
**** Lewis River (Near Mt. St. Helens, WA) : This was a group hike arranged by Sierra Club. Long drive to trailhead. The trail started at Lower Falls which is a pretty impressive affair with a tiered waterfall on the right side and a simple waterfall on the right. The trail was pretty level with a few small ups and downs. The river remained within view for most of the length of the trail. In about 1.25 miles we came to Middle Falls which was also impressive but not as good as Upper and Lower falls. The trail was washed out at Middle Falls and we had to go up a side trail and then scramble a little bit to get back on the trail. After that the trail ran into a large number of freshly toppled trees that made it feel like an obstacle course. This section also had some mature old growth trees. After clearing these hurdles we reached the Upper Falls which was a spectacular affair with a big pool at its bottom. We stopped for a leisurely lunch here before progressing to the top of Upper Falls which is very pretty in its own right. Finally we came to a relatively smaller waterfall called Taitnapum Falls. Here the trail came to the road and we turned back and returned the way we came. Saw some mushroom gatherers and maountain bikers along the way. Fall colors were beginning to show here and there. Guess another summer of high-country hiking is over. This is one of the better waterfall hikes I have done in the NW. On the way back there were a short side trails to another couple of falls. We stopped and checked out Big Falls which was a fairly nice sized waterfall. (7 miles, 700 ft, Done 10/6/2002, 4/2004).
*** Wahclella Falls (Columbia Gorge): This is a short leg-stretcher in the gorge. Trail started out level and soon passed a dam. Then it passed a nice side fall that seemed like a slide in a wter park. After climbing up a little bit the trail came to a fork. There used to be a loop here but the bridge was washed out so keep to the left. The falls are an impressive two-tiered affair with a big pool underneath. The spray from the fall made this portion of the trail a little slick. The trail crossed over the creek and there was a very pretty wispy little waterfall on the other side that kinda dribbled down the mossy rock face. The lower bridge was being rebuilt when I redid this hike in June 2003, the wispy waterfall had dried up by then. (3 miles, 200 ft, Done 12/2002, 6/10/2003).
*** Chenoweth-Table (Columbia Gorge): This was an offering on the 2003 spring hiking schedule of the Friends of the Gorge. I decided to go on it since it was something I had never heard of before. Apparently it is a land parcel recently acquired by the forest service. The trailhead lies at the back of Chenoweth High School in the Dalles. We started off in oak forest which tranistioned into mixed pine and oak forest which is very typical of this area. The hike leader was a walking encyclopedia on the local flora. She identified everything from orange fiddlenecks to mariposa lilies. Other flowers were small white prairie stars, yellow senecio, larkspur, lupine, balsam root, yaro, desert parsley aka indian celery and large pink pentesmons. Also tons of poison oak. After a couple of miles we went off-trail and climbed a hillside. We passed close to a red-tail hawk's nest. The hawk was understandably quite pissed at the herd of about 50 people tromping so close to its nest. It emitted shrill warning cries as it circled over its nest in a pine tree. After a while we reached a small waterfall trickling over a large rocky overhang. After a pleasant lunch at the falls, we continued our climb to the top of the chenoweth table. The top is flat grassland except for mysterious bumps called "biscuit swells". These are large dirt mounds about 20 feet across which were covered with balsam root. The balsam root favors these mounds for the deep soil they provide for its roots. The origin of these biscuit swells is still unexplained and many theories try to explain their existence including volcanic ash depsoits to earthquakes. However none of these explanantions are totally convincing. Evidence of ancient Missoula Flood was also visible on the nearby 7-mile Hill. The area below 700 ft. elevation was scabbed with rock as the top soil had been scoured away by the flood. The hills above this line were smooth. We circled the top of the table to a rocky overlook with a great view of the entire city of The Dalles as well as an S-shaped bend in the Columbia River.The usually drab brown hills on both sides of the Gorge were a verdant green due to the spring rains. We then descended back to the high school using a well-worn trail. The rains that were drenching Portland held off all day at The Dalles, thereby enabling us to have a very pleasant hike(6 miles, 500 ft, Done 4/26/2003).
** Opal Creek (Between Salem and Detroit): This was an offering on the 2003 spring hiking schedule of the Trails Club. I had heard a lot about this one since it was a major environemntal fight in the 80s. Unfortunately the weather was miserable during the hike and it rained heavily and incessantly throughout. The hike started at a closed gate. There are people who live in Jawbone Flats (a small mining encampment) and their vehicles still travel the road. The creek was visible for most of the walk, and the drudgery of the road was mitigated by some nice side stream waterfalls and a dank-looking mine shaft. After a while the trail reached the remains of old mining equipment and the first major waterfall on Opal Creek. From there we crossed a bridge and started hiking on the trail proper. The trail went through some pretty stately Douglas Fir and Cedar forest. It also climbed up and down a little but but there was no major elevation gain or loss. There are a couple of nice campsites along the creek that might be nice for a weekend backpack. After a while we reached a lunch spot but the rain dampened everybody's spirits. It was raining so hard that I could only manage to eat half my sandwich before it dissolved into a soggy mess. Soon after lunch we came to a nicespectacular slot canyon with a waterfall plunging into Opal Pool. This is the 3.4 mile mark on the hike. Here the group revolted against going to the Cedar Grove and instead took the bridge and road loop back to trail head. I have to say that this hike could have been very pretty but the weather and the long road portion of the hike made it a pretty mediocre experience for me.(7 miles, 300 ft, Done 5/4/2003).
**** Elowah Falls / McCord Creek (Gorge): Another nice gorge hike . Trail had a lot of poison oak. After a short distance there is a fork. The lower trail was closed with pink tape but we went down anyway. There was a small wash-out further down which was the cause of this shutdown. Elowah Fall is a nice 300 ft tall waterfall with realtively large overhang and low waterflow so the water was being blown sideways by the time it hit the bottom. After retracing our steps to the junction we continued on the upper trail to McCord Falls. The trail passed some corroded old iron pipes and then went through an exposed section with railings. There are nice views of the gorge and an overlook of Elowah Falls in this section. McCord Falls is a small two pronged terraced waterfall. The trail bypassed a huge fallen log and ended at a small waterfall with a pool. I had lunch here and then we turned back.(3 miles, 500 ft, Done 6/10/2003).
***** Chambers Lakes (Three Sisters Wilderness, OR) : An excellent backpack with great weather and good timing. Since getting laid off I had been itching for a mid-week backpack and this seemed like a good option. My friend Mark and I left Portland and reached the Pole Creek Trail Head by 2 pm. There were only 4 cars parked at the trailhead boding well for our prospects of snagging a premium camping site. We quickly ate some lunch and then hit the trail. It was really hot in the mid-day sun and we found ourselves struggling with the heavy packs. The trail was very dusty as it started out in scraggly looking pine forest with a few mature ponderosa pines. I realized 10 minutes into the hike that I had forgotten the water bag in the truck but decided against going back just to fetch it. After 1.5 hours we came to the first creek crossing. There was a guy camping there and it was the trail junction for Green Lakes. We took the right fork here for Camp Lake. After about another 1.5 hours we reached a second creek. At this point we decided we had had enough and set up camp next to this creek. The mosquiotes here were pretty bad and I soon had to don the headnet and gloves to protect myself from their merciless attack. Even though I wasn't feeling particularly hungry I cooked up some ramen noodles. We then lit a camp fire in the hope that the smoke from it would keep the mosquitoes at bay. Surprisingly this strategy worked pretty well and we spent a couple of hours keeping the fire going before putting it out thoroughly. Spent 15 minutes inflating my air mattress but the damn thing deflated in the middle of the night. Good thing I had brought my trusty sleeping pad instead of relying exclusively on the air mattress.
Woken at 8:30 by Mark who was itching to get going. Quickly cooked up some Lipton rice before breaking camp and continuing on the trail. This next stretch went pretty quickly but the mosquitoes kept pestering us. Finally I had to put on my net again. We soon came to a silt-laden glacial stream. Here we encountered a climbing party with many of them wearing head nets as well. They told us the mosquitoes were pretty bad at Camp Lake as well. The views improved considerably as the trail forked once again with a small side-trail going off to the left to DeMaris Lake. As the trail climbed a series of switchbacks we got increasingly better views of North and Middle sisters. Soon we came to a high plateau with great views of the afore-mentioned sisters as well as Broken Top. At this point I decided to go down to a small lake and filter some water while Mark pressed on. The dog followed Mark. I continued ata leisurely pace after filtering a couple of litres of water. The views were stupendous with beautiful blue skies and North and Middle Sisters towering above the trail. There was an awesome hanging glacier on Middle Sister. The trail was confusing here with frequent snowfields obscuring it in places. I lost the trail once and had to backtrack a little to find it again. The most difficult part was a big snow field with a very steep 10 foot drop on the other side of it. I tried to skirt it and descend on some rocks but lost my footing and fell in the snow. Luckily I was able to right myself before I slid down the steep slope. Then I carefully went down on the rocks and quickly reached Camp Lake. The lake was extremely scenic with almost turqoise waters and snow calving icebregs into it at the far end. South Sister dominated the back ground and seemed close enough to touch. There was nobody else there when we showed up and we had the entire palce to oursleves. Mark was already there and had scouted out a camp site a little bit above the lake in a clump of trees. We quickly set up camp and then just chilled in our respective tents for an hour or so. After that we circled the lake. I ventured out on the snow and took some close up shots of the snow that was breaking off in huge chunks and falling into the shallow lake. We saw some more camp sites one of which was particularly nice but it was too late to move there plus we had access to running water whereas this site would have had to rely on the lake for water supply. On the far end of the lake was an outlet where water gushed out and tunneled under a snowfield on its way down the mountain. You could see middle sister from the other side of the lake. We spent the rest of the evening cooking, filtering water and taking it easy. I cooked up some lentils that I had brought with me but the experiment was not very successful because they took a long time to cook and also burnt and stuck to the bottom of my cooking pot. I also spilled some as I was ladling it out but the dog helpfully licked up all the spill. Another party showed up in the evening and quickly grabbed the spot I had liked so much on my walk around the lake. Hit the sack after washing the dishes and washing up the lake. Throughout the evening I could hear large splashes as more snow calved into the lake. Frequent rockfall avalanches could be heard rumbling on South Sister.
Woke next morning around 7:30 to clear skies and bright sunshine. Cooked up some Lipton rice with canned chicken for breakfast. Left half of it in the snowpatch near our camp. We were ready to explore the Chambers Lakes by 9 am. The trail to Chambers Lakes was visible in the scree slope behind the lake and we scrambled up the loose rock to get to it. It was tough going and I was glad we wereto be carrying a light daypack instead of the full pack. The trail was little more than a goat trail and we came across a huge pile of shit on it that seemed like bear or cougar and it was very fresh. At first I suspected it was my dog's doing but Mark assured me that the dog had nothing to do with it. The rocky trail petered out soon and we hike cross-country across a boulder field to get to the steep snowfield that led to the ridgetop. The ridge was covered with stunted pine trees that blocked most of the access to the ridge and we had to bush whack a little to get through. We rested a bit and I got some of the small rocks that had worked their way into my boots. Then we proceeded up the ridge by kick-stepping up some snowfields as well as wending our way through thickets of krummholz. Soon we could see the first Chambers lake nestled in a basin below us. Its blue waters made it look like a jewel. The setting was magnificent with South and Middle Sisters standing over the lake like guardians. I felt the pleasant waves of alpine nirvana sweep over me as I soaked up the vista. The rocky volcanic cliffs surrounding the lake were also very striking and seemed scoured by ancient glaciers. There was plenty of snow lingering in the basin and many snowmelt streams fed this lake which had no outlet. The whole place was totally deserted and it was easy to imagine that we were the first people to set eyes upon it. We gradually walked around the lake and onto the steep snowfield that led to the ridge on the far side of the lake. Once we reached the ridge we discovered a muddy lake being fed from some glacial stream coming from South Sister. The contrast between the two lakes was amazing and we were stunned by all the beauty surrounding us. No pictures can do this place justice. After lingering here for a while we returned the way we had come. On the way back I decided to try descending the snow field to Camp Lake instead of wearing my ankles out on the scree slope. Mark was a little hesitant about it but when he saw me rapidly plunge stepping down the snow he followed suit. It tooks us all of 5 minutes to get down to Camp Lake while it had taken us 45 minutes to climb up on the talus slope. We were back in camp by 1:15 and debated packing up and going home but I suggested that we go check out the two remaining Chambers Lakes that were on the map. Mark had never been to those lakes either and readily agreed. We rested ni camp for an hour while my boots dried. Then we set out cross country to the remaniing Chambers Lakes. Mark did a good job of navigating and we climbed up one of the valleys that surrounded Camp Lake. It was tough going and I felt pretty tired after the morning hike but managed to drag my ass up several snow fields. Then suddenly we were at the lake. I thought the other Chambers Lakes were pretty but this place just blew me away. The lake was absollutely flush with the ground instead of nestling in a basin. A couple of ice bergs lazily floated near the outlet where a stream gushed down the mountain. A curving shelf of ice arced across the lake and almost reached the shore near to us. South Sister was so close that it nearly blocked out the entire sky on one side of the lake. The waters were an icy blue and the lake was much deeper than the other lakes we had seen so far. When we circled over to the right our jaws dropped open with amazement. There was the last Chambers Lake deep below us in a hollow. This lake was almost entirely frozen except for a few cracks where the icy blue water was visible. A few big icebregs floated in one corner that had melted out. North and Middle Sister provided the backdrop on one side and South Sister on the other. We were extremely glad and congratulated ourselves for coming up here tp explore instead of packing out in the afternoon. We circled around the frozen lake and discovered yet another albeit smaller lake behind this frozen lake. This last lake was an unexpected bonus and the phrase "my cup runneth over" felt very apt. This lake's waters were greenish in color and ice had a brownish tinge because the stream that fed this lake was coming a glacier on South Sister and had high silt content. I crossed over on some dicey looking snow to the far side of this lake and took some shots of the lake with North and Middle Sister behind it. It truly felt like I was in the throne room of Oregon's mountain gods (or rather godesses). I don't think I have done a prettier hike in Oregon in a long time. No doubt the time of the year and the solitude made this place even more impressive but whatever the reason this hike suddenly shot up to my top 3 hikes in Oregon list. On the way back I tested the ice shelf on lake 3 with my pole and it felt pretty sturdy. However when I put my foot on the ice, it gave way and fairly large size chunk of ice broke off and formed an iceberg that lazily drifted in the lake. I managed to jump back with thorughly wetting my boot. We lingered in this hallowed place for as long as we could before returning to camp. This day was our reward for hauling thos heavy packs 7 miles in to Camp Lake. It didn't feel like a lot of peopl came up to these lakes and that made it all the more special. Mark found a nice digital camera just lying on the ground near camp lake and went to find its owner while I made my way back to camp. The snow around camp lake was melting at a prodigious rate and the place where we had crossed yesterday on our lake circuit was now badly crevassed and ready to slide into the lake. I still managed to make it across on the snow but stayed as far away from the water as possible. Made some past alfredo for dinner. Mark had complained that the dog kept him up last night so I tied him up with a rope to keep him away from Mark's tent. I also realized that I was missing my neoprene knee brace. I went looking for it and found it near the place where the trail came to Camp Lake. We both retired to our tents around 10 but for some reason I couldn't go to sleep till midnight. I also heard rocks falling as some animal came down the same rocky trail we had gone up in the morning. I thought about that large animal shit I had seen on the trail and hoped this animal would stay away from our camp.
Woke up next morning around 8a am. Didn't feel like cooking anything. Backpacking fatigue has set in and I just wanted to get home and take a shower. Quickly packed up and left camp lake by 9:45 am. It was Saturday and hordes of people were laready streaming towards Camp Lake. I was really glad that we had done this trip mid-week. I guess unemployment does have its advantages. The return trip was going well and we were in the last mile when disaster struck. I was racing ahead in my hurry to get out when Mark hollered at me to wait up. He said my dog was limping and refusing to continue down the trail. I rushed back and found the dog was indeed limping and seemed to be suffering from heat exhaustion. We had passed 3 creeks along the way that were reasonably spaced apart and I thought the dog would be adequately hydrated but I had not realized that the past few days hiking over lava rock had hurt the pooch's paws. Now the hot dusty trail was burning his feet and he hobbled pitifully. My heart sank at this sight. I quickly got his pack off and Mark and I squeezed most of the contents from his pack into our packs. Diamir felt better after his pack was off but he still limped and would stop frequently in shady spots to rest. I gave him the rest of my water which he consumed gratefully. I gave Mark the car keys and told him to go down while I slowly made my way down the trail. I recalled how I had seen many people hiking with their dogs who had booties on the paws and bitterly regretted not getting booties for Diamir. Then I got the idea to put a pair of my socks on his front paws that seemed to be hurting the most. They looked copical but they did help him walk better on the hot ash that formed the trail surface here. But the socks slipped off in just a few steps. I was despairing t this point. The mid-day heat was sapping my energy and the dog seemed even worse off than I was. I gave him the rest of my water and also took a strap off my pack to tie the socks in place on his legs. I told the dog to stay put and rushed off down the trail to see how far I was from the trailhead. Soon Inrealized that it was too far away and turned back. I felt like Abraham's wife Hajira who had to run back and forth in the Arabian desert looking for water for her infant son Ismail. The situation looked extremely grim and I was wondering how the hell I was going to carry a 110 lb dog out to the car. Fortunately the dog was not as tired as I thought and managed to limp his way down to trailhead. A quick cup of coffee at Sisters Coffee company and then the long drive back home. (20 miles, 7/16/2003-7/19/2003)
*** Elk Meadows via Newton Creek (Mt. Hood Meadows): A variation on the Elk Meadows hike. We started from the Meadows Ski area and proceeded half a mile to the footbridge with a big trail junction. The trail was very dusty and the hot day made it feel even dustier and hotter. The trail was plagues with millions of flies who missed no opportunity to alight on your body and inflict painful stings. After crossing a few small streams we took the Newton Creek trail just before the trail crossed the turbulent glacial torrent. The Newton Creek trail wound its way up a dusty and exposed ridge with a few nice views of Hood -- all too infrequent in my opinion. My Montrail boots started causing blisters within the first two miles as usual. These damned things were a total waste of $110. Fortunately I had brought the trusty old boots along and changed into them. We reached the top of the ridge after two hot and dusty miles and hit the junction with Timberline trail. The views opened up here nicely and from the moraine-like top we could see Newton Creek, Lamberson Butte and Hood. Now we headed down Timberline trail to cross the creek on a dicey looking crossing consisting of two skinny logs and some rock hopping. It would have been very hard to do it without poles. We stopped for lunch here since it was the only place in the entire wilderness where flies seemed to be absent. The trail ascended Gnarl Ridge on the other side and soon reached a junction with the Elk Meadows trail. Here I was somewhat disappointed since I wanted to see some gnarly trees but we were well below timberline. I continues up the trail in the vain hope of reaching timeberline but gave up after 10 minutes. The heat and flies just seemed to sap all my energy. I did come across a couple of nice lupine meadows in this part of the trail. After this it was all downhill and we quickly descended to Elk Meadows and the shelter. Here I polished off th rest of my lunch and we spent some time taking pictures and soaking in the views. The meadow is huge but had very few showy flowers. Mostly it was small white flowers that dominated the vegetation. We cut across the meadow on a faint trail and had to thrash around a bit to find the main trail. The descent down a series of switchbacks went very fast and we were soon back at our nemesis -- the Newton Creek crossing. The creek seemed even more swollen and dangerous here compared to the upper crossing. We had to scout upstream quite a ways before reaching a big fallen log with branches radiating out like spokes. This provided a reasonable crossing point but then we had to bushwahch back to the trail on the other side. All this took more exertion that anything else on the rest of the trail. I was mentally cursing and fuming at the forest service throughout this needless and dangerous detour. It seems like if they would get off their lazy asses and put a bridge on this crossing it would at least make me feel like they are using these fucking trailhead fees for some good purpose. Instead the motherfuckers spend their time policing the trailheads for permits and god knows what happens to the money they are extorting from hikers. The rest of the trail went by pretty quickly and we were soon out. This was definiely one of the less enjoyable hikes I have done on Hood. The weather, flies and bridgeless creek crossings all conspired to make this more of a slog and less of an enjoyable hike. (8 miles, 2000 ft, Done 7/27/2003).
***** Foggy Flat and Adams Meadows (Mt. Adams Wilderness, WA) : An excellent backpack with great weather and good timing. The weather had been iffy for several days with morning clouds burning off by late afternoon. My friend Mark, his wife Denise, my wife Rabia and I left Portland and reached the Killen Creek Trail Head by 2:45 pm. There were several cars parked at the trailhead despite it being mid-week. We quickly assembled our packs and then hit the trail. It was quite hot in the mid-day sun and we found ourselves struggling with the heavy packs. The trail was very dusty and displayed signs of heavy use by horses as evidenced by frequent piles of horse shit and accompanying flies. After about 2 hours we came to the first creek crossing and the lower meadow, 1/2 mile before trail junction with PCT. This seemed to be a good place to stop and set up camp and we did so without further ado. The view of Adams Glacier was just as awesome as I remebered from my last visit to this area and this time there was the additonal bonus of flowers and lush greenery in the meadow. A few camp robber jays were hanging out at this camp spot and they pestered us throughout our stay, stealing dog food and trying to snatch food from our hands. After setting up our tents we took a brief walk up to the PCT junction and then returned to camp. We cooked up some Lipton rice with a can of roast beef and took it over to Mark's camp site and had dinner together while watching the spectacular sunset alpenglow on Adams. Later that night I plopped my sleeping pad in the meadow in the hope of catching the meteor shower but gave up after 20 minutes of futile sky-watching. The bugs had been pretty bad throughout the afternoon and evening but they seemed to go away in the chill of the night. Finally I hit the sack around 10 at night just as the full moon was coming up.
Up early at 7:30 a.m. Was disturbed to see that Rabia had developed a bad case of sunburn with blisters developing on her face overnight. She debated whether to go up with us to High Camp or not but decided to go up part way and return if her sunburn became more acute. After a breakfast of boiled egg and a cup o' noodle, we proceeded up the trail to PCT junction and then on to High Camp. The trail passed through some nice lupine meadows and made the final ascent up the scree slope to the meadows at High Camp. I started feeling a blister develop on my right ankle and applied some pre-emptive band-aids around this point. We saw ample evidence of mountain goats in this area. The meadows were as delightful as ever with dwarf lupine, paint brush and harebells. Hoary marmots whistled in alarm as we approached. We stopped here in a shady spot by a stream and had lunch. Rabia turned back at this point and the rest of us continued up a long snowfield and then some very steep scree to get to a morainal ridge overlooking a half-frozen lake at the toe of Adams Glacier. At this point we realized that we had taken an unnecessarily hard route up here and would have been better off working around to the left side of the ridge onto a pleateau and then wind over to the lake. The ridgetop was littered with goat hair and droppings but I couldn't see any goats whatsoever. The view of the lake and Mt.Adams was pretty spectacular and we spent a lot of time taking pictures of the scenery. Rainier and Goat Rocks provided an attractive view on the other side. A cinder cone (Potato Hill) jutted out dramatically from the unbroken forest covering the slopes at the foot of Mt. Adams. On the way back we took the easy way over the plateau back to High Camp. The descent on the snow was pretty swift and we were soon back in the meadow where we stopped for a brief snack. Mark and Denise departed for camp while I decided to go explore the meadows some more -- particularly an aquamarine spot that was visible on the south side of the meadow. I meandered through the meadows with stupendous views and flowers -- truly alpine nirvana. The blue spot turned out to be a tent and I noticed a couple of guys hanging out by a nearby tarn and concluded that it must have been their tent. I was back in camp by 7. Cooked up some chicken and lipton rice and hit the sack. The night was much warmer than last night and when I got up in the middle of the night it was still very warm. I let the dog off his chain and took him for a drink of water. Rock avalanches were still letting loose on the mountain because of the warm weather.
Up fairly late around 9 am. Was surprised to see a new tent pitched about 20 feet away from Mark's tent. Turns out that a couple and their dog had shown up at 1:00 am and decided to set up camp here by moonlight. They seemed somewhat contrite at this intrusion and said they were leaving for High Camp in the morning. Mark was very unhappy since they had continued to make noise at night despite being aware they were intruding so close to his camp site. Since we were all feeling pretty tired we decided against backpacking to Foggy Flat today and instead did it as a 10 mile day hike. The weather was warm but a cool breeze had started blowing and there were plenty of clouds providing shadow. We took the PCT north and soon fetched up at a meadow with Killen Creek running through it. The creek had one scenic waterfall on each end of the meadow and the lower waterfall had a perfect 10 camp site right next to it. In retrospect it might have been better to camp here than the lower meadow since it would have located us more centrally. The PCT veered off to the north at this point but we headed east on the Highline Trail 114. This 2.2 mile section of the trail was fairly monotonous and made for miserable hiking as the clouds burned off and the flies woke up and started pestering us. Rabia had so much sunscreen on her face that she looked like an aboriginie from Papua New Guinea. The Foggy Flat meadow was pretty enough but every square foot of it seemed to be littered with horse shit. Flies were a major pestilence here and wouldn't leave me alone for a minute. After lunch Mark and I crossed the creek and went up the trail a little ways to get a clear view of Lava Glacier and a secondary volcanic vent called Red Butte. The trail was showing signs of becoming more scenic but we were getting late and tired so we turned back. On the way back we took the side trip to the upper waterfall in Killen Creek meadow. This was a nice tiered affair somewhat reminiscent of Ramona Falls. The empty camp spot was now occupied by a boisterous party with 7 tents. We ran into more backpackers coming up the trail. Since it was Friday this was hardly surprising. The clouds really thickened in the evening as we cooked dinner. The mountain was completely obscured and it seemed like the clouds were coming right down to where we were camped. I made sure the rain fly was secure and then hit the sack. The bugs were totally absent because of the temperature drop.
Up at 8:30 am. It had rained for an hour or so in the morning and the temperature was pretty chilly. Had a leisurely breakfast in a bug-free environment and then packed up. There were considerably more hikers and horses on the trail today. Had to corner the dog a couple of times and talk to a horse to calm it down as it passed us. The dust had been settled by the rain but not by much. The trip down was very quick and we were back at the full parking lot in an hour. Stopped to munch on some ripe huckleberries on the way down. We stopped at Takhlakh Lake Campground on the way back as it had a nice view of lake and mountain. I indulged myself with a huckleberry smoothie in Trout Lake and then it was on to home. (Done 8/13-8/16/03, 20 miles)
***** Cloud Cap to Gnarl Ridge ): Another stupendous section of the Timberline Trail. Made the mistake of hiking to Cloud Cap and then getting on the TimberLine trail instead of just taking the Tilly Jane Connector. Things were pretty dry and dusty till getting to the Cooper Spur shelter but from there onwards it was just a cornucopia of big mountain scenery. The trail is remarkably well-behaved and stays more or less level with numerous stream crossing where a few snow fields were still lingering into late August. The wind was almost calm today in sharp contrast to yesterday. I hiked upto a small plateau when the trail started heading down rapidly towards Gnarl Ridge and Elk Meadow. This plateau had a stupendous close-up view of the entire Newton-Clark glacier and the numerous waterfalls cascading down from it into the immense chasm carved by the Newton and Clark creeks. Hood looks like totally different mountain from this side. It presents a fairly symmetrical and pointy profile from just about every other side but looks broad and unsymmetric from this vantage point. Mt. Jefferson was visible from here but its entire east side was obscured by a huge cloud of smoke. I knew the B&B complex fire burning near Bend was big but this brought home to me the true magnitude of this fire. Sad but still awe-inspiring. This was to be my last hike with my dog and faithful hiking buddy Diamir. He died in October suddenly from what appears to be a case of rodenticide poisoning. In retrospect I have to say that this dog I adopted form the shelter rewarded and enriched my life in more ways that I can count. He was a major pain in the ass in the beginning and still had some annoying traits but he and I had finally learnt to get along. I had toyed with the idea of returning him to the shelter or giving him away many times but never followed through on it. He would soon make up for his latest transgression by his good behaviour, enjoyment of nature and cheerful disposition. He had improved and matured remarkably in the 2.5 years I had him. I was looking forward to many more hikes and backpacks with him but fate had other plans. Diamir, my friend, I will miss you. If you have a soul I hope it finds its way to doggie heaven. (8 miles, 1000 ft, Done 8/28/2003).
***** Silver Star from Washougal side ): A great fall hike. Mark and I drove up to the trailhead bright and early on a crisp and clear Saturday in October. I was expecting a rehash of the Silver Star hike I had done 3 years ago but this was a much steeper trail on an old 4WD road. The initial portion was in dense but scraggly forest which made one feel like being ina tunnel. The trail broke out in the open after a fairly steep and gruelling climb. Here the entire hillside was a blazing expanse of oranges, yellows and reds from the the huckleberry and vine maples. The trail continues at a more humane pace along this hillside with expansive views of the surrounding hills but no sign of the big boys. It renetered an overgron old 4wd road and finally broke out in the open near the summit. The views from the summit were stunning. The Gorge, Rainier, Adams, Hood and Helens were all arrayed before us from this airy perch. Even Jefferson and the Sisters could be made out as well as the Coast Range. After admiring this view for almost an hour, we returned the way we had come. On the way back we took a little loop return on the lower open section of the trail. The return side had some good view of Mt. Hood which we had missed when going up. There were some redneckish folk horsing around on ATVS near the trailhead and their engines could be heard for much of the lower part of the trail. The occasional pop of a gun was a reminder that hunting season had begun in earnest. This was my first hike after Diamir's death and since starting my new job. Its amazing how much attachment I had developed to him and how much I missed hime on this hike. Ramadan starts either tomorrow or on Monday and that means no more hiking for the next month. (8 miles, 1000 ft, Done 10/23/2003).
***** Teacup Lake XC Ski: My 2nd xcountry ski trip. We started out from the Teacup lake sno-park on a bitterly cold day when temps in Portland were hovering in the low 20s. The snow was the driest and powderiest I have ever seen around Mt. Hood. The trails were being groomed by a snowcat and this made it very easy to glide along in the grooves. There was one rather tame downhill and I was pleasantly surprised when I made it down without falling even once. No doubt I have learnt some snow plowing from last time, also I am finally learning to lean forward instead of leaning backwards and flailing my arms as I fall on downhill. The weather showed some signs of clearing and there were times when blue skies framed the snow-laden trees very prettily. We had lunch at the junction with Rabbit Ears trail. The trail went by pretty quickly and we were done by early afternoon. We stopped at Trillium Lake on the way back and tried going down the hill. This quickly evaporated my confidence as I fell repeatdly on the way down. Oh well (3 miles, 500 ft, Done 1/4/2004).
* Kalama Ski Trail SS: We were planning to go up to Marble Mountain but the road was blocked after Cougar Sno-park due to snow slide. To make the best of a bad situation we decided to snowshoe up the only trail available namel Kalama Sji TRail 231. There isn't much to say in favor of this trail except you get a workout. There are a couple of mediocre views along the way bit the resit is in the trees. The trail never strayed too far from the snowmobiles roaring up the nearby road. We struggled along for 2 to 3 miles but then finally gave up and returned via the road. (4 miles, 500 ft, Done 1/11/2004).
***** Heather Canyon XC: My 3rd xcountry ski trip. We started in rain at the Mt. Hood Meadows parking lot. The trail was uphill all the way for 2 miles until terminating at a chairlift. It seemed to follow a road, crossing a stream several times along the way. The snow was atleast 10-15 ft deep along the stream and made for some scenic pictures. I was using Randonee skis which are heavier but proved pretty stable on the way down. I still fell 5-6 times on the way back but feel like my snowplow experience increased. Hurt my left knee pretty badly on the last fall so I doubt if I will be trying this again any time soon. (4 miles, 500 ft, Done 1/18/2004).
***** Green Lakes (3 Sisters Wilderness): I did this over the July 4th weekend and was expecting to see tons of people but there weren't that many people on the trail. The trail started out along the appropriately named Fall Creek. For the first couple of miles the trail gently climbed along the creek with dozens of small and large waterfalls. There was still plenty of snow on the ground and made for relatively slow going in places as I had to climb up and down the snow banks. The trail finally broke out into a relatively flat area where the creek turned into delightful broad and shallow stream with some early flowers gracing its banks. I took a break here and consumed a luna bar. The trail crossed over the stream in two stages. First crossing was on stepping stones and second on a log bridge. Now the trail started climbing up more rapidly. The snow was thick and covered with tree debris. I tried to folow the boot prints as best I could but did lose the trail a couple of times. Finally the trail corssed a couple of side streams and entered a remarkable V-shaped valley with one side totally barren and littered with obsidian boulders and the other side forested and green. The trail continued over snow on the green side and finally topped out at the basin containing Green Lakes. Broken Top and South Sister loomed over the basin like guardians. The lake was still almost entirely frozen and the basin was mostly covered with snow as well. I had my lunch here and admired the view. My digital camera had been low on batteries ever since I started but I had managed to coax it along by turing the LCD off. However it gave out at this point and I had to dig out the SLR, which was the right thing anyway since it could do better justice to the scene with its wider angle lens. I spent half an hour soaking in the scenery and then returned the way I came. (8-9 miles, 1100 ft elevation gain, left at 10:30 am, returned 6 pm, Done 7/5/04)
***** Hellroaring Overlook (Yakima Indian Reservation, Mt. Adams): We started out pretty late since it had taken us most of the day to drive to Bench Lake, set up camp and splash around in the lake. The Mountain Climber trail 20 branched off to right and climbed relentlessly until it reached the ridge. There were some nice small meadows along the way with plenty of wild flowers. The view of Mt. Adams from the overlook was awesome. Mazama glacier is the relatively flat one to the left and Klickitat Glacier is the one on the right with the icefall. Three big waterfalls cascaded thunderously from Mazama glacier into the valley below us. The valley below also looked pretty inviting with a series of interlocking meadows. We stopped at the overlook for a snack and took plenty of pictures which didn't turn out too good because of haze and cloudy weather. We continued up the trail past the overlook until hitting some snow fields and turning back since it was getting late. The descent was pretty fast and we were down at the trailhead in 45 minutes. (4-5 miles, 1000 ft elevation gain, Done 7/24/04)
***** Hellroaring Meadows (Yakima Indian Reservation, Mt. Adams): We started out early and pulled into the trailhead marked Hellroaring Meadows/Helispot. I didn't see a helicopter landing pad per se but no doubt there was enough of a clearing to land a chopper there if needed. The trail to meadows is a short and gently graded. The meadows were a riot of purple lupines and white meadow parsley. Today was much clearer with blue skies and good visibility. We explored the meadows for a while and then decided to hike cross-country to the waterfalls we had seen yesterday. It had seemed so easy from the overlook but we found ourselves constantly thrashing about in trees and brush. There was no sign of the interlocking meadows that had made it look so easy from the overlook. Finally after an hour of bush-whacking we gave up on the idea of getting to the waterfalls and turned back after eating a snack. The way back was slightly easier. We saw plenty of evidence of bear activity in the form of peeled bark and bear scat. (3-4 miles, 300 ft elevation gain, Done 7/25/04)
***** Bird Creek Meadows (Yakima Indian Reservation, Mt. Adams): We dropped off a couple of our group at the campsite and set out on the Bird Creek Meadows hike. This trail was much easier and nicer the mountaineer trail we had taken yesterday. Lots of classic meadow scenery with abundant flowers and burbling streams. The trail soon came to a junction with big sign proclaiming Bird Creek Picnic area. There were benches, outhouses and even faucets (didn't work). The trail kept climbing through meadows and finally came to a junction for the Overlook. Mt. Hood was visible as was a huge smoke plume that seemed to be coming from a forest fire somewhere in Central Oregon. We later found out that it was the first big wildfire of the season that had started in the Warm Springs area. The overlook was even more impressive today because of less haze. We looked down at the valley and scratched our heads in puzzlement at not being able to find the meadows that beckoned so welcomingly below. Oh well. We returned very quickly back to the trailhed in 45 minutes. (5 miles, 1000 ft elevation gain, Done 7/25/04)
***** Moraine Park/Curtis Ridge ( Mt. Rainier NP, Carbon River side):
It took us a long time to drive up to this place and we had to car camp at Ipsut CG on Friday night. A lot of the camp-sites are closed because of unstable trees but we managed to find a nice one along the creek. Took a short hike to look at a waterfall. My Caon A70 camera distressed me quite a bit by flashing the dreaded E18 error code. However powering up and down a few times and nudging the lens helped to get it going again. This was a relief since the camera warranty had literally expired that day.
Got up very early the next day and were on the trail by 8 am. A record early start for me. The trail to Carbin River camp site was mostly pretty well-graded and ascended gradually along the Carbon River in the forest. After a couple of hours of steady hiking we reached the backpacking campsite and set up our tents in the group camp site. There were nice benches and even a table of sorts fashioned from a large tree stump. I cooked a lunch of Lipton rice and a pouch of salmon. We explored the area and found a pole for hanging food and a pit toilet with zero privacy. On coming I was disturbed to see a brazen squirrel gnawing through my bag of trail-mix. I shooed it away but it was continuously snooping around the food. Consequently I hung up all the food and then we set out for Moraine Park. The trail quickly came to the junction with Seattle Park and then crossed a sturdy suspension bridge that offered great views of the snout of Carbon Glacier. Most of the dayhikers were concentrated in at a viewpoint of the snout. The Carbin Glacier gushed forth vigorously from the snout and rocks were tumbling down the debris-covered glacier frequently. The trail began to steepen as we climbed along the glacier to Dick Creek camp. It was a hot day and I was beginning to feel pretty tired so we took a break at Dick Creek as I filtered some water. I was wearing my trusty old Tecnica boots which seemed to be holding up pretty well after glueing up of the crack in one sole. However there must have been some crud from previous hikes that remained in them so I emptied them out. I had the misguided notion that the total hike from Carbin River to Moraine Park was 7 miles round-trip. This made me expect that we would be popping out in the meadows shortly after Dick Creek camp. This expectation cused great disillusionment as the trail steepened and started switch-backing relentlessly We met several people who basically cured us of any illusions that Moraine Park was at hand. We slogged over these switch-back for what seemed like an eternity until we finally reached a stream and some small meadows at the base of a large talus slope. There were plants with curious tri-lobed buds on them. These "buds" turned out to be the remnants of avalanche lilies that must have bloomed recently. All the usual mountain flowers were making there appearance and we finally entered Moraine Park with Mt. Rainier looming over the scene majestically. Definitely you feel its massive presence more than some of the smaller Cascade peaks. We took a break in the meadow of Moraine Park and I munched on the trail mix I had salvaged from the greedy squirrel earlier in the morning. Mark was thinking about turning back but I managed to convince him to continue up to Curtis Ridge. The rest did both of us good and we pressed on after about 30 minutes. The trail switch-backed steeply but it was mercifully a lot shorter than the death-march from Dick Creek, and we soon came to a trail junction. The main trail continued down to Mystic Lake but we headed to the right towards Carbon Glacier. We son came to a nice reflection pond where I was mercilessly attacked by mosquitoes. This was undoubtedly the most vicious mosquito attack that I expereienced that summer. However I didn't pay too much heed to the pesky critters because the scenery had improved dramatically since reaching Curtis Ridge. We could see Willis Wall on Rainier as well as parts of Carbon and Russle Glaciers as well as Echo Rock and its companion. The flowers were growing profusley here and we stopped frequently to take pictures. Mark finally decided to turn back at the first viewpoint but I wanted to get a full-frontal view of the mountain so I continued down from first-view point. The trail crossed a lush meadow with plenty of elephants head flowers (I think this is the first time I saw these flowers in real life). Also came across a fat marmot who seemed fairly unafraid of me. The second viewpoint was well worth the effort with stupendous views of Mt. Rainier rising from the jumbled mass of Carbin Glacier. I had the place to myself since it was pretty late in the day (around 6 pm). The upper reaches of the glacier were white , free of debris and heavily crevassed. It continued for a long distance before falling off the edge of a cliff and becoming the debris-covered behemoth we had witnessed from the suspension bridge. I could also see Mystic Lake nestled far below and even the North Cascades in the distance. I spent about half an hour soaking in the sight and then started hurrying back down. Got a nice shot of the chunky marmot on the way back. The trip down was long but mostly uneventful except for falling off the trail and hurting my knee (the vegetation on the side looked pretty solid but gave way when I mis-stepped off the trail). Also developed a blister on the switchbacks down to Dick Creek. I applied a band-aid and continued down. Felt dead tired on raching camp. It was almost dark and Mark had hit the sack already. I cooked my dinner in the dark but was extremely disturbed by some mice who had replaced the squirrels and were trying to steal my food. These fuckers were incredibly bold and I had my hands full trying to guard my food. One of them even ran up my arm as I was eating and I had to shake it off. There beady little eyes glinted in the light from my head-lamp giving them a ghoulish look. The last thing I needed after a tough days hike. I wished the Park would allow pets. A dog or even a cat would have provided an effective deterrent against these interlopers. Anyway I finished my meal as quickly as possible and then hung up everything that might cause these critters to gnaw through my pack or tent. This was the toughes hike I have down in a long time with about 14 miles and 4000 ft elevation gain for the day. This on top of hauling a heavy pack for the first 3 miles of the day.
Got up feeling much better. Finished off half of the dinner I had saved overnight. Noticed some rodent turds on the outside of my cooking pot (disgusting). We decided to pack out after debating going up to Seattle Park. We were both pretty tired and Mark's knee was still not fully recovered from an earlier skiing injury. The trip back we pretty uneventful. Stopped at a fruit stand and got some fresh peaches and cherries on the way back. (15 miles, 4100 ft elevation gain, Done 7/31/04-8/1/04)
***** Canyon Creek Meadows (Three Finger Jack): This hike starts out from a lake in the middle of forest devastated by the B&B complex fire that burnt a large swath of forest around TFJ in 2003. In fact I remembered seeing this fire from Gnarl Ridge on Mt. Hood in Aug 2003. The trail climbed to a trail junction. I took the shorter left branch since I was pressed for time having done the Metolius River hike in the morning. Nick and Marci had opted to stay at the lake so I didn't want to waste too much time. There were a few trees that appeared to have survived. Mt. Jefferson soon became visible through the burnt trees as the trail reached a ridge. This appeared to be the place where the fire stopped and soon thereafter the trail started going down in thick and alive forest and finally came out in the lower Canyon Creek meadow where it joined the other arm of the loop. There was a nice stream meandering through lush meadow here. The flowers seemed a little past their prime but very pretty setting nonetheless. The garishly colored face of TFJ loomed over the meadow and beckoned to me so I decided to hike up towards the upper meadow after filtering some soapy-looking water from the stream. There are abundant backpacking possibilities in this area. The trail paralleled the stream for a while and then climbed onto the upper meadow. This meadow had abundant lupine and other flowers. Views of TFJ were outstanding but the reds and oranges in the crags of three finger Jack were muted because of the afternoon light. The trail soon climbed above the meadow with some dramatic cliffs to the left and a large valley below me on the right side. The glacial outwash stream ran through this valley with abundant wildflowers. I continued on towards the obvious notch between two small moraines. The view from this notch was well worth the hike. There was a small green lake at the toe of the solitary glacier that exists on TFJ. The moraines had narrow trails going up with some exposure. I spent some time exploring this area, munching on trail mix and taking pictures. Initially it looked like the moraines fully enclosed the lake but there was a small gap on the right side from which the stream exited the glacial cirque. TFJ looked pretty formidable from this vantage point but people climb it from the other side which is a lot easier. I ran into very few people on this hike, the long drive to trail head no doubt filters out the less dedicated hikers. (7 miles, 1400 ft elevation gain, Done 8/8/04)
***** Burroughs Mountain ( Mt. Rainier NP, Sunrise Side): This was the last hike of summer 2004. We had to drive up Seattle and take care of some business before driving down to Rainier. Consequently we got to sunrise pretty late in the day. Apparently the car campground at White River was closed for the season so we got a back-country permit to camp at Shadow Lake. We hit the trail in the late afternoon and quickly hiked in to the lake in a mile or so. We were surprised to see a fox wandering around the lake totally unafraid of hikers. The campground was empty except for one party. Since this was the first backpack after my return from Pakistan I had no backpacking tent or bag and had to haul my old Coleman car-camping tent and heavy flannel sleeping bag on this hike. Thankfully its a short and flat hike from Sunrise to the lake. We quickly picked a nice spot overlooking the lake and set up camp. Went down a steep trail to the lake to fetch water, the lake water was surprisingly clear. I guess the no dogs, no horses policy does have some advantages. There were a lot of pesky and brazen squirrels trying to mess with our food so we quickly secured everything and hung up the food from the pole provided in the middle of the campground. We weren't feeling too hungry so each of us just had a cup'o noodle then we hit the sack early since we had both gotten up really early in the morning to drive up to Seattle.
Got up fairly early and cooked some Lipton rice and pouch salmon. Filtered water at lake and noticed that it had gotten cold enough last night to freeze small puddles of water. The day was beautiful with the crisp clear fall weather that makes hiking pure joy. There were a bunch of trail maintenance people noisily engaged in doing something or the other near the pit toilet. The trail very quickly climbed out of the bowl containing Shadow Lake to a stupendous viewpoint overlooking the Emmons glacier and the stream emananting from it. After this the trail climbed steadily along the side of 1st Burroughs with aerial views of the valley below as well as Emmons, Inter and Frying pan Glaciers. There were seom nice fall colors along the way. Met a couple of hikers who informed us that St. Helens had emitted a large plume of ash yesterday. Soon we emrged onto the top of a broad flat mountain that looked flat and large enough to land a plane on. This was apparently the first Burroughs. At this point we started encountering heavier numbers of hikers who were coming directly from the parking area. The views were pretty great all around with Mt. Baker visible in the distance. We had a little snack and then continued on to 2nd Burroughs. This appeared to be the place where most dayhikers turned out. However given that we were just returning to camp, we decided to continue to 3rd Burroughs and I was glad that we did. The trail dropped down considerably before climbing up to 3rd Burroughs. The drops looked larger than it really turned out to be, because there are no trees to provide perspective. Anyways we made steady progress and soon reached the top of 3rd Burroughs. The views here were stupendous with Winthrop Glacier sprawled out beneath us and Mystic Lake, Willis Wall, Carbon Gl. et. al visible in the distance. Heavily crevassed and massive Winthrop Glacier in particular presented an awesome spectacle. Everything from the Olympics to Mt. Baker was visible. Rainier's massive presence loomed over the whole place in an almost palpable manner. We absorbed this view for a while and then returned the way we came. The crowds had thinned somewhat on our return. We ran into a whole group of similalry clad Japanese tourists on our way down to Shadow Lake. Later that evening they spent a lot of time hollering near our campground for one of their flock who had apprently gotten lost. We were all out of water when we got back so quickly filtered some and cooked dinner. Chatted with a couple who were camped near us. They had come out from the midwest and were doing the entire 100 mile Wonderland trail. I was impressed to hear they had hiked from Dick Creek to this place in just one day.
Got up fairly early because the inconsiderate thru-hikers made so much damned noise breaking up camp. Broke up camp and packed out quickly. On the drive back we also hiked Grove of the Patriarchs and the AltaVista trail at Paradise. The Fall colors were just wonderful. Also stopped at a St. Helens viewpoint near Morton. The place was packed with people camped out in chairs and RVs with binoculars trained on St. Helens. Disappoiningly the mountain looked totally clear with no ash or steam visible at all.
(Done 10/1/04 - 10/3/04, 8 miles , 1700 ft)
Cooper Spur (Mt. Hood North side) : Awesome views of the Elliot Glacier with jagged seracs and deep crevasses. Also panoramic shots of Mt. Adams, Rainier and St. Helens. You can hike up the lateral moraine of the glacier and descend onto the dirt-covered glacier to see the glacier up close (be careful because its still slippery ice underneath the dirt). The creaks and groans of splintering glacial ice are an additional feature of the hike. Large switchbacks snake up the spur to tie-in rock -- so-named because climbers presumably tie-in with rope to climb the 50 degree Cooper Spur route to summit of Hood. pic of Adams and Rainier from Cooper Spur .
****** Obsidian Trail (22 miles south of Sisters, OR) A gem of a hike -- this trail is easily among my top 5 favorites in the Northwest. It is so popular that the forest service limits the number of people who can hike it. Luckily I was able to get a pass for it from the Detroit Ranger Office. The trailhead is very weird with little pull-outs that look like a campground. There is a friendly old forest service volunteer who mans the trail head all day on weekends. The trail starts out in dense forest right from the get-go. It angles up at a moderate slope and is wide and well-graded. Its a long monotonous 2 hours (3 miles) before any views are to be had. The trail suddenly breaks out of forest and ascends into a vast lava field with Middle Sister looming in the distance. The contrast between the black lava chunks and the green trees trying to establish a foothold in this barren waste is very striking. The trail winds among the lava for a short distance and in 15 minutes comes to a delightful meadow with a stream running through it. Wildflowers bloom profusely and camping is prohibited. The trail forks shortly after crossing this meadow and reentering the trees. I took the right fork towards Linton Meadows. The pace is a steady uphill. Soon the trail again comes out into a breathtakingly beautiful meadow with a burbling stream running through it. All the usual alpine meadow suspects were in full bloom here. Little blue and yellow butterflies flitted around completing the impression that I had entered a little slice of paradise. The ground had glints of obsidian chips which are little glassy black volcanic stones. As I was reaching the edge of the meadow , the dog suddenly darted off trail to a boulder and I could hear loud and furious hissing emanating from behind the rocks. I resisted the temptation to look behind the boulder for the fear that whatever was behind that rock might lunge at me. It sounded like a feline hiss so it might have been a cougar or a Manx. After this the trail comes into yet another beautiful meadow. The profusion of obsidian chips increases with each meadow and the combination of the flowers and glinting obsidian is breathtakingly beautiful. The trail reenters the forest, the trees become more massive during this stretch. Soon the trail crossed Obsidian Creek and junctioned with PCT. To make this a loop I headed left on PCT. Within a short distance beautiful Obsidian Falls came into view. The temptation to go stand under it was high but time was running short. Shortly thereafter the trail emerged above timberline at a spot near the top of the waterfall. Camping is strictly prohibited in this spot. At this point the trail enters a heavenly section of small lakes shimmering among glittering expanses of obsidian and an abundance of wildflowers. High sheer cliffs flank the trail on the right side and Middle sister summit towers above it. The glittering ground makes you feel like you are walking in a field of jewels. The little lakes are shallow, clear and beckon the weary hiker for a dip. This section of the PCT will be etched in my mind forever. At the end of this section is a great viewpoint with Mt. Washington, Three Finger Jack and Mt. Jefferson all lined up. This trail kept surprising me with one stupendous view after another just when I began thinking it couldn't get any better. After the viewpoint the trail quickly descended to Sunshine meadow with pretty Glacier Creek running through a profusion of flowers. The banks of the creek were so inviting that I stretched out there and munched on some snacks while absorbing the pretty scenery around me. At this point the Glacier Creek trail headed down from PCT back to the Obsidian trail. It took me only 20 minutes to reach the lower meadow and lava fields. The final stretch to the trailhead through the trees was a tiring and monotonous slog. Its a long trail but the payoff in views more than justifies this section (12 miles, 2000 ft, Done 8/5/01). Captain's log supplemental: I redid this hike as a backpack in Aug 2002. This time the weather was much cooler and a forest fire in Black Butte area provided additional protection from the heat. The old ranger was here again just like last year. He let me park along the road since the lot was full. He also informed me that it was dipping below freezing at night in the parking area. Consequently we decided to take the heavier sleeping bag. The flowers and trail were spectacular as usual. Blooming beargrass on the lower trail made it more bearable as well (no pun intended). We set up camp in White Branch Creek meadow and did the loop the first day. Flowers and obsidian were as beautiful as ever though some of the colors lacked the vibrance they possess in bright sunshine. We also came across a bunch of naked women frolicking in one of the tarns. A couple of them scrambled out and clothed themsleves while the third continued to languish in the tarn. The crowds seemed pretty thin for a summer weekend but our late afternoon start may have had something to do with that. At night the stove refused to work so we had to make do by cooking on a small campfire. The second day I went up Glacier Creek to the Arrowhead lake area. The trail wanders up through the beautiful meadow to a stream crossing at a point where the stream is fairly wide. Then it ascends some rocky talus slopes to reach a plateau above the PCT. The climbers trail continue upward after reaching the upper plateau but there was a very faint side-trail to the lake. Its easy to miss it in the rocks and rubble. Arrowhead lake is shaped like a chevron or arrowhead which is probably how it got its name. I originally thought it might have had something to do with the obsidian arrowheads the indians used to craft from the obsidian found here. The views from here were quite good despite the fact that the mountains were socked in. The whole lower plateau with the tarns and obsidian cliffs was spread out like a map from my aerial vantage point. It was pretty chilly up here and I was glad I had camped in the lower meadow. After absorbing the scenery I headed on down. Wound up the camp and was out in a couple of hours. (done 8/3-4/02, 16 mi, 2500 ft)
