5 miles of hiking • 2250' elevation gain •
I ventured up Kings Mtn Junior trail in the evening after work. Really quite a beautiful route, if a little sketchy - I was not expecting such an unmaintained trail when I set out. It follows a rough old jeep road that is grown over with ferns and flowers, complete with rockslides, constant blowdown, and washouts for your hiking pleasure. I managed to successfully lose the trail twice, which in retrospect I see now I was over-thinking things. After all the brush and bramble and many super confusing junctions (I wonder where all those unmaintained trails go?) for the first two miles, the trail meets up with the Wilson River trail, followed that for 100 yards, then turned up another super faint (totally missed it the first time past) and sketchy trail that steeply switchbacks up the Kings Jr ridge. This is marked overkill-style with orange tape AND blue paint on the trees…but I can see why, since I really had to use my imagination to see a trail at all. Great views of the area and of Kings with a bright setting sun. Unfortunately, I left my camera and gaitors at home, so my only proof of the adventure are scratched up legs and arms!
I was following Lorain’s Afoot/Afield 2008 – pretty confusing, but I’m sure he did his best. :) Portlandhikers.org describes a different loop – returning on King’s Mtn trail rather than Wilson River trail; a little longer of a hike, but the Wilson is a gentler, and probably prettier, descent down (I was able to comfortably run the whole way, and I don’t think that’s feasible on Kings trail). I was just glad to be out of there before nightfall – hiking time was 6:00pm-7:50pm. The late sunlight was nice, actually - the lay of the ridges and contours of the canyon allowed for direct golden sunlight for much of the time, whereas I wonder if on other trails the sun would be hindered by Kings Mtn and other ridges. Not many flowers out there, but some patches of monkeyface and irises on the Wilson, and tiny white flowers glittered the entire route - especially scenic on the jeep path. Great evening, but I'll stick to clearer trails when the threat of a setting sun is imminent...
