25 miles of hiking • 5750' elevation gain •
Found an interesting way to loop Larch while the Benson Bridge is closed down at Multnomah Falls. Started out at Horsetail Falls, wandered up past Ponytail Falls, then up Oneonta Creek to Triple Falls. Where the trail bridges across Oneonta, a bypass on the east side of the creek took me up to Horsetail Creek Trail, which I followed up to Bell Creek Trail. Bell Creek is a damn mess - but fun! Counted 60 logs that required climbing or crawling over or under or around in less than three miles! Probably a dozen were more than 3-feet in diameter. Oh, and then there's the irony of a creek pretty much occupying much of the trail. Anyway, after getting back to the Oneonta Trail, I headed up to Larch on the backside (south crater rim). There's still a couple feet of snow on the road, and the last mile was postholing to my knees. 30° and rainy sleet on top, so I only stayed a short while before finding a place out of the rain to reorganize for the descent. Just took the normal path back towards Multnomah Falls, but then diverted along the 400 back to Horsetail Falls trailhead. Really great day in the woods!
Comments
Karl
April 7, 2014
Bell Creek is in serious need of some TLC! It really is a great loop, which I was happy to finally see. Last time I was up there, it snowed 18" during my journey. :-)
JM
April 7, 2014
I've never done Bell Creek, but have always wanted to. It's probably going to fade into oblivion as I don't think it gets much maintenance (obviously). Those forest shots w/ the sun behind the trees are fantastic!