Gotchen Creek Trail to Crofton Ridge Trail Mt. Adams Area

9.2 miles of hiking • 1750' elevation gain •

We had the opportunity to drive a bit further than normal, as the dog was being watched for part of the day. We haven't been to the Mt. Adams area this year so we decided to try a new trail. The Gotchen Creek trail is a 3 mile long trail to spans between NF-8020 and NF-8040. There also appeared to be other trails we could investigate that could add to the distance! To begin, this entire area was burned in 2012 and had quite a few snags. It was interesting how a large number of the taller trees had survived despite the severe bark burn at their base and further up the trunk. It was also rather interesting to talk about how the fire spread; in some areas it appeared to be between tree tops and others appeared to be due to the grasses providing a burn path. Of course, were not experts but it was interesting to talk about. The soils in this burned area are loose dirt and sand, and it made hiking uphill a bit more difficult as it absorbed each footstep as we pushed away. We intersected two trails in the 3 mile Gotchen Creek trail length. The trail to Cold Springs looked the most interesting to me as it climbed up into the Wilderness. The Gotchen Creek trail isn't in the Mt. Adams Wilderness.

We came to the end of the Gotchen Creek trail at NF-8040 and that was the best view of Mt. Adams we had seen all day. Looking at our GPS, we saw there was a trail that intersected NF-8040 about 0.5 miles north from the Gotchen Creek trail. Evidently, NF-8040 is a well travelled road as we observed 6-8 cars while hiking between TH's. This road is in great shape with only slight wash-boarding but no potholes. We soon intersected the Crofton Ridge Trail, which is located in the Mt. Adams Wilderness! The burn in this area was much worse than Gotchen Creek and there were no live trees, and no saplings in some areas. The burn must have been very hot to burn up the cones/seeds? We stopped a bit past Shorthorn Creek, which is very small (step across) but with some nice water features and nice flow (like from a hose).

Although this entire area was burned, it had a type of beauty all its own. The endless snags are a bit unnerving, due to our previous brush with a snag almost killing us, and I wouldn't go out here in any significant wind, but it felt fairly safe today for a day hike! I wouldn't pitch a tent out here, though.