5 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain •
Two different short hikes off Hillockburn Road.
1) Hillockburn Spring is a clear little springfed pond that sits in the middle of a reprod unit of 10 year old trees about a mile up gated "Resort Road". As with many roadsides in the Clackamas forest, at the gate, rednecks have turned the area into their personal shooting gallery/dumping ground. But lucklily these folks don't venture far from their trucks and have no lung capacity, so after a short distance up the road their evidence has dissappeared. Today I visited the spring, but I'd like to come back another time to scout out an alternative route to the S Fork Falls and tunnels. There were actually two small adjacent ponds. The larger is edged with concrete, perhaps the remnants of an effort to make it more swimmable?
2) Hillockburn Trail begins another mile or so up the road at another unmarked pulloff marred by trash and shotgun shells. It descends along the western slope of the S Fork Canyon to a gorgeous riverside flat of deep moss and giant trees. The river was going full bore today with a nice slide falls to view on the opposite slope. Supposedly you can cross the South Fork and find an old flagged/unmaintained trail into a pristine section of forest on the ridge separating the S Fork from Memaloose Creek, but that will have to wait for lower water another day.
On the way back up, I collected a big bounty of hedgehog mushrooms!
Kyle Meyer
January 29, 2012
Interesting look at an area most don't venture to. Thanks for posting this!