2012 Trips
4
Dog Mountain
6.9 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
After reading Jack's TR with epic amounts of snow on Dog Mtn, I decided it would make a cool trip, or at least a nice adventure. Due to some errands, I got to trailhead very late at 2 pm, packed my headlamp and snowshoes, and headed with the crowds. The cars were parked the entire length of the lot, not less than a hundred of people on the mountain that day. Needless to say, the trail was well-trodden already when I started up.
First spots of snow appeared just 2 switchbacks up, and in less than 1 mile up entire trail was covered in well-packed snow and some icy spots. It was probably knee deep at a 1600' viewpoint meadow, but just a few inches under the trees. I put on snowshoes just after easy/hard trail junction, but took them off 1/3 mile later, past the steep spot. Didn't really need snowshoes at all, but needed something for traction on a slippery trail; microspikes or even crampons would be perfect that day.
Up on Puppy Dog there was some vicious wind that scoured snow off to the ground, but towards the summit the wind died off. The tracks headed off straight up to the summit rather than following the trail. Postholing was almost not an issue on the trail, but make one step off trail and you break through hard crust and sink at least 2 feet.
I just missed the sunset on the way to the summit, but had about 1/2 an hour of dusk to take pictures of summit meadow and of mummified trees. Those snowy sculptures made the summit hard to recognize, it was just beautiful!
December 30, 2012
Eagle Creek
11 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain •
Hiked with my grandmother EC trail to the wilderness boundary. The trail was mostly snow-free until about High Bridge (3.3 miles in), then a few inches of slush. Everything was dripping wet - the trees, the mossy walls, the skies a little bit. But waterfalls were in full force & there are dozens of seasonal falls right now. Having the trail almost to ourselves was a special treat, we've seen less than 10 other people all day.
December 24, 2012
Cedar Mtn loop
5.27 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
Cut off trail around the 2nd hill so it came shorter than conventional loop.
December 22, 2012
Ape Cave
6.4 miles of hiking • 750' elevation gain •
Given the crappy weather today, decided to go underground :) I've been in Ape Cave once a few years ago (in lower cave only), so after 0.8 mile on a closed road I took obvious trail in the snow for about 25 more minutes until realizing the cave's lower entrance was back near the parking lot. Guessed the trail will lead me to upper entrance instead, and it was the case. The upper entrance is very narrow, like 2 feet and if not the tracks in the snow I'd not even go in there. The cave was fun, a lot of scrambling over fallen rock, and down 2 frozen vertical "lava falls" - one was ~6 ft tall, the other ~8 feet - the taller one has a rope, otherwise it would be difficult. Upper cave is filled with rock fall for more than 1/2 of the way; pretty slow going. It took me about 1:20 one way for the upper half, and only 20 minutes 1-way for slightly shorter but easy lower half.
When I re-emerged on the surface, the winter wonderland was gone; it was pouring rain and 2 feet of snow have turned into slush. This area is known to get some epic downpours (heard there was once recorded 17 inches of rain near June Lake in just 24 hours), and tonight was a good one, could hardly see in front of my car. Luckily, the road - except for last 1/3 mile - got plowed earlier today.
December 16, 2012
Ecola State park
2.7 miles of hiking • 750' elevation gain •
Rainy day, although the views were unobstructed to the horizon. Even saw some sun by the evening. We came there right at the low tide - I never saw so many sea stars before. Pictures got so-so because my camera got all wet.
December 9, 2012
School Canyon trail
7.32 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
We hiked School Canyon (upper) trail to Helispot and Rock garden just below from there. Had mostly sunny weather, just a trace of snow at the high point and some wicked wind, but we were prepared for the cold and had a great time. The sign on road 43 @ SR26 say the road is closed Dec. 1 - Apr 1 but it was almost snow-free and we (along with other cars) used it with no problem.
Saw 22 deer for the day - no joke - only one on the trail, the rest (on at least 4 or 5 different occasions) were near the road on the way to/from there.
December 2, 2012
Gray Butte trails with Smith Rocks
13.5 miles of hiking • 2250' elevation gain •
We started near Gray Butte, did a loop around Smith Rocks, and back long way uphill. The trail on the back side of Smith Rocks have been completely rebuilt some time in the summer, with wide, gentle switchbacks replacing former rocky & steep path (the reason we made it CW direction is to come up that part; used to be too steep to come down safely).
We also visited Trillium Lake on the way there - the road to the lake is VERY icy but our car - and several others - handled it okay.
Edit - actual length of all segments of the track is 13.48 mi, don't know why GPS total of the trip is 15.2 but I corrected it according to actual track.
November 25, 2012
Catherine Creek/Labyrinth area
3.5 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain •
(pics hosted for another hike)
November 22, 2012
1
Deschutes River
13 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain •
Spent 2 great days at the Deschutes with my grandmother, hardly had any rain (10 minutes on Sat.) and there was even some sun! Quite a change after driving through downpour in the Gorge. There's some neat trails in the first 3 miles along the river; allows skipping some of the road and see better river views. We also found (on my 3rd try) a trail to Ferry Springs. Where my pointer is on the map, there's an old homestead with a couple of old pear trees (the pears are long gone of course) and lots of walnut trees (the nuts are still good, loads of them:).
Map track shows our hikes on both days; I still have to figure out how to show road vs trail, change track color, etc.
November 16, 2012
2
Huckleberry Mountain
6 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
That area is a whole unmapped labyrinth, with many trails on the map nonexistent on the ground, and vice versa. Even 2/3 of the road I hiked back is not on the map. Some trails are good, others are hard to follow, even with the flagging.
I didn't go to the actual top of Huckleberry Mtn. but the ridge top is very nice, with a lot of rhododendrons and beargrass.
November 9, 2012
White River
4 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain •
Wanted to do sort of loop - White River up, PCT down, then cut off-trail. However, when I got to Timberline/PCT junction (per my GPS), PCT was no where to be found in snow, so I returned back into the canyon. There's still little snow and snowshoes aren't needed yet (though gaiters would be helpful). Saw no one all day long, hard to believe this place will be like Saturday Market in a few weeks!
October 21, 2012
East Zigzag Mtn (plus some road hiking)
12 miles of hiking • 2250' elevation gain •
Actual elev. gain 2195 ft, length 12.15 miles. Good hike with great view of Mt. Hood from E Zigzag summit, though the approach road is a pain... I had to park a couple of miles below the trailhead and hike the road (lots of hunters there, some ATV-ers, not so many hikers), in hindsight I could've driven all the way up. The trail was quiet and pretty good; there are still some late thimbleberries near Devils Meadows.
October 6, 2012
1
Goat Ridge to Heart Lake +night goats photo-hunt
18 miles of hiking • 5000' elevation gain • 1 night
Wow it was quite a trip. Camped below Hawkeye summit - one of 2 goat "hot spots" in GR - and one goat came close to my tent shortly after sunset, but my first attempt to take a picture scared it away. After the dinner I found a group of about 20 goats and being slow and patient was able to get to within 10-15 yards of them; they're not nearly as fearful as during the day. About 20 minutes later, they were playing in close proximity of me and hardly even paid attention of me or Pepper. Didn't use a headlamp as it was full moon night. Also got to watch a fire of Mt Adams that night. Hiked to Heart Lake and back on Sunday before packing camp & heading out.
Jordan Basin is something - I was there once in cloudy weather and missed most of the views. Overall, much better experience with Goat Ridge trail this time and it indeed looks more scenic approach than Snowgrass trail.
September 29 – September 30, 2012
Bare Mtn
1.5 miles of hiking • 750' elevation gain •
A short off-trail scramble/bushwhack. I didn't realize there was a crater at first, looking at tiny GPS map thought it would be a bare, rounded summit - tried to follow gps to the summit (actually - the crater:) and wondered why it said me go down, not up. The rocky summit was pretty cool and the view is wide open (only partially blocked by the trees to the North but still easy to see in that direction); I guess that without the smoke I'd see all the surrounding volcanoes.
September 23, 2012
Soda Peaks Lake
4.8 miles of hiking • 1500' elevation gain • 1 night
With just Sunday free, still wanted to get an overnighter. Hiked in Sat. night and camped at the lake. Explored around on Sunday and ate a lot of huckleberries (all berries seem to be on the back side of the lake), then did another short hike in the area.
September 22 – September 23, 2012
Timberline trail to Zigzag Canyon
4.5 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain •
Small late afternoon hike to Zigzag Canyon overlook
September 15, 2012
High Camp (Mt Adams north side)
9.5 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain • 1 night
We actually camped 2/3 mile below High Camp because of T-storms (little did I know that the forecast of 20% chance of T-storm meant that more than half dozen of lightning storms will roll through between 4pm on Sat and 4am on Sun, good we erred on a safe side and didn't go higher). Got plenty of lightning and some downpour and hail at night. Visited High Camp on Sunday - it's a small tundra plateau at the very foot of Mt. Adams with 360 degree views. I'll definitely come back and camp there on a quiet night, that area is spectacular.
September 7 – September 8, 2012
1
Jefferson Park/Park Ridge via S Breitenbrush
17.5 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain • 2 nights
September 1 – September 3, 2012
1
Goat Rocks - Shoe Lake and Hogsback Ridge
19 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain • 1 night
We did the hike as per attached nwhiker.com link; added a side trip to Twin Peaks (trail #1144) and to a butte just west of Shoe Lake. In short, going to Shoe Lake, from mile 5 on, the country is incredible - with open alpine views, fields of flowers, and probably the nicest lake in the Goat Rocks. The color of Shoe Lake is preternatural blue, the bottom is mostly white sand, the shores packed with flowers, and its water is not cold at all. Too bad they don't allow any camping in the lake basin (or maybe it's good thing, since horses would graze upon lupine meadows and trample the shore). The first 5 miles are through dense trees on dusty and sometimes rutted trail, trampled with horses. There are some nice small lakes/ponds in the forest, but otherwise the first part is that, the "approach" to a great alpine area around Hogsback. If you never done this hike I highly recommend it.
August 25 – August 26, 2012
2
McNeil Point
9 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
Started late, and only hiked to the shelter. Flowers are very nice higher on the trail, just notch past their peak.
Watched helicopter circling west side of Mt. Hood for over 1.5 hours, then almost landing on Yocum Ridge (there wasn't flat place to land but it spent good 10 minutes hanging just above the ground at one spot). Some hikers mentioned somebody have been lost since Aug 12 so helicopter could've searching for missing person.
August 19, 2012
Paradise Park
12.5 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain • 1 night
Sleeping under the sky without a tent & watching Perseid Meteor Shower was awesome! Sorry no night pictures.
August 11 – August 12, 2012
3
Goat Rocks early season backpack
15 miles of hiking • 3750' elevation gain • 2 nights
Hiked to Old Snowy Mountain with my mom this weekend. We bailed on Hawkeye Point (planned both summits) because of steep snow and mosquitoes, but still had a great trip. GR is definitely open for business, but if you want to see the best of the flowers (and much fewer flying buggers) my guess is about last weekend of August would be best.
August 4 – August 6, 2012
July 29, 2012
3
Lookout Mtn loop - Ochocos
13.5 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain • 1 night
Did a short overnight trip with my mom - we did Lookout loop clockwise and camped near the summit. Perfect weather, near-perfect timing. Being the first time there, we did mess out a few things - took a wrong trail from wrong trailhead at first, then missed a turn to South Point we planned to visit, then not being sure where North Point is (no signs of it) we overshot it by more than a mile downhill. But overall it worked out good & the area turned out even nicer than expected.
July 21 – July 22, 2012
Frustration Falls fail (Triple F)
9 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain •
Due to T-storm forecast I thought a canyon trip is in order. Salmon River hike to canyon overlook was beautiful as always, but this time I came with a good topo map to try and find a good viewpoint(s) of the three waterfalls directly below the overlook. Only one of them is visible from the trail if you watch for it, far below and far away.
Anyway, I forgot that the bushwhack begins 1/3 mile south of canyon overlook, but after trying several routes we were able to descend straight from the overlook (there's kind of side trail but it ends on the top of a cliff so we went our own way). Cutting off-trail down then south, we found a faint deer trail and followed it on a narrow strip of land between upper and middle cliff band (there seem to be 3 cliff bands) until we dead-ended with no further way. Then backtracked a little and found a passage in the 2-nd rock band, and descended directly above what I think Frustration Falls - could barely see a brink of the falls through dense tree foliage. Spotted a rock fin that would give a good and close view of the falls, but with 2+ hours shwacking in the canyon my dog and myself were getting too tired. We got back up out on barely visible flagged path (saw only 2 flags; with the network of deer trails it needs many more flags to be follow-able); at least I now know where it connects to the main trail.
May give it another try to find the waterfalls viewpoint and hang some flagging along, maybe later in the fall.
July 14, 2012
1
Grassy Knoll and Grassy Pass
7 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
Hiked with my parents to Grassy Pass - beautiful easy hike!
July 7, 2012
1
Elkhorn Crest Trail: north 1/3 plus 3 lakes
24.5 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain • 2 nights
With some areas in Central Oregon melting so early this year (like 7,000' Lookout Mtn which has been snow-free for a month) I hoped that Elkhorn Crest Trail, barely over 8,000' in places, would be all snow-free by now. Original plan was to arrive at Anthony Lake a day early and camp there, camp 2nd night at Summit Lake, night 3 at Twin Lakes, 4th night at Summit again, then get back at Anthony on the last day.
However, I had to skip Saturday because T-storm forecast has been extended into Sunday noon. I drove in on Sunday (only 5:15 from west Vancouver, and that with 2 breaks!), briefly visited Anthony Lake, and then tried to push it to Summit Lake, but snow in a half mile before and mile after Angell Pass seriously slowed me down, so I had to settle for Lost Lake. That made reaching Twin Lakes by the next night unrealistic, but Lost Lake turned out to be quite nice (for a forest lake) and large, and I had a campsite with the view of the lake, the top of Mt. Ruth, lakeside meadows, and a small waterfall not 50 yards away. Pepper had some fun with porcupine before I managed to stop her - luckily she didn't get any needles in her nose!
On the second day I still hoped to cover the distance to Twin Lakes, but going past Meadow Lake proved more difficult than expected due to steep ups and downs (+ hot sun and elevation) and once at Cracker Saddle I decided it would be too ambitious to push 12 more miles to Twins... Instead I ditched my pack and went about 1.5 miles south on ECT to the next saddle, just to see more scenery, then returned to Cracker jct where I saw the second and last person on my trip - a USFS employee who searched for mountain goats and placed salt for them. He said he've just been to Summit Lake via off-trail route and seen 8 mountain goats! I should have asked however why he didn't take the actual trail to the lake - it turned out that the first 1/4 mile of that trail had some of the steepest snowdrifts on my trip; they weren't very wide so I just cut steps to come across, but it took a lot of time! It probably cost me more time to pass through these snowdrifts than if I took a detour. Summit Lake however was well worth the effort - it's just incredibly beautiful and reminded me of the best Wallowa Lakes. There have been some mosquitoes in the evening, but cold morning wind blew them off. Like on Lost Lake the night before, I had all Summit Lake to myself and took time to locate the best campsite. Judging by the number of campsites, though, this place gets quite popular later in the season, and also receives a fair amount of horse traffic - this time it was just my early season gamble that paid off.
With only one extra day I decided to return home by 4th of July, so took 10 miles down to Anthony Lake via ECT (12 miles by USFS trail signs, 10 by Sullivan). The trail climbs to within 400-500 feet of the summit of 8,600' Mt. Ruth, but with planned drive home I didn't look for the climb route - next time. That snowy section near Angell Pass has melted a bit, but if you don't want to deal with snow give it 2 weeks or so. I wished I brought my crampons but it certainly wasn't too hard with just the boots. Elkhorn Crest Trail is certainly one of the most scenic trails I've ever been to, I will be back to do it whole next year.
July 1 – July 3, 2012
Ar-Rock
4.5 miles of hiking • 1750' elevation gain •
It's been wonderful afternoon hike with plenty of scrambling and views. Due to time constraints I didn't do the whole loop, just explored the west side of Ar-Rock Complex. "Hanging meadows" there are gorgeous, flowers are going great, and there are some wild strawberries as well!
June 24, 2012
East Badger Creek Wilderness loop
18.5 miles of hiking • 5250' elevation gain • 2 nights
Did a fun trip over the weekend in little-traveled NE side of Badger Creek Wilderness.
Started Friday pm off School Canyon TH and camped first night near Helispot viewpoint, 3.5 miles in. Next morning, met the only other hiker I'd see in a whole weekend. Broke my camp and continued up School Canyon trail (despite the name, it's 100% ridge top trail) to Flag Point. School Canyon trail was partly cleared of a few blowdown it had last year, up to Helispot. Up from there, where blowdown gets really bad, it wasn't cleared yet - and it was slow going! Visited lookout tower on Flag Pt (this lookout structure is one of the tallest in Oregon) - the cabin was locked but I got up the stairs for a better view of Hood, Adams, and Jeff with Sisters. Then off to Divide Trail, to check if Oval Lake had any good campsites.
I never found the junction to trail that goes to Oval Lake, either because of still-lingering snowdrifts (it was near 6000 feet at this point), or because I didn't hike far enough. The lake was outside my map range, so I hand-drew a continuation of trail that looked as I had to go about 1/2 mile to the lake; in fact it was closer to 2 miles. Divide Trail was pretty interesting though, with lots of views south and east. I'd take it to Lookout Mtn if I had another day.
Not thrilled to camp near the road to Flag Point (there's well-established campsite), I decided to start down Tygh Trail until 7pm or so and find a better camping spot. The trail starts fairly steep down, past Sunset Spring (which should be good for quite a while) and some open ridge meadows, but it was too windy there so I kept on. Later on, the trail leveled in blowdown-filled forest, and I finally stopped shortly after 8pm on a small meadow. The second night was pretty restless, since the wind came in strong gusts and there were so many dead trees around. I only heard 2 or 3 big branches crashing in the distance, but wished I'd stayed in a more open area - maybe somewhere a lot windier but where nothing can fall on us. On Sunday, I discovered I camped 10 minutes short of really gorgeous meadows with spare ponderosa pines (and no dead snags). Oh well - next time...
The furhter I went down Tygh trail, the more open terrain became - the lower half of that trail is really nice. Also, I came in a good time for the flowers, there weren't many but they were everywhere, all the different kinds blooming at the same time. The trail goes a few miles to Pen Point on a relatively flat terrain, slowly changing from forest to savanna, and then just plunges down - for a mile or so it's extremely steep, but the views were great. The trail levels off for the last 1/2 mile and comes close to Tygh Creek. Then I got to Rd 27 (one car at Tygh trailhead, probably of hiker I met a day before, since he said he was going to come down this way) and hiked pretty scenic road mile back to my car.
June 15 – June 17, 2012
Cedar Mtn - PCT loop again
6 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain •
Easy hike on a less-traveled trail to summit meadows on Cedar Mtn, this time with my Mom. We skipped a steep side trip to Cedar Falls but otherwise did the same loop clockwise that I did in back in April.
June 10, 2012
5
Coldwater Peak - did it!
12.5 miles of hiking • 3000' elevation gain •
The report is at: http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11966 Edit: edited elevation and miles to the numbers measured by a hiker who did it with a GPS http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13269
June 6, 2012
1
Hamilton Mtn
7 miles of hiking • 2250' elevation gain •
http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Hamilton[underscore]Mountain[underscore]Loop[underscore]Hike
June 2, 2012
May 26 – May 27, 2012
2
Falls Creek Falls
6.5 miles of hiking • 1000' elevation gain •
This thing is more impressive than Multnomah - I don't know why I didn't visit it until this Saturday!
May 19, 2012
4
Mill Creek Wilderness Loop
27.5 miles of hiking • 3750' elevation gain • 2 nights
Did 3 day 2-night loop in Mill Creek Wilderness. The trail has been repaired in its entirety last year, and even though there's some new blowdown from this winter, it's much easier to follow now. Unlike my 2011 trip there, got lost zero times! This time got there before the best of the flowers, but beat mosquitoes in parts of the hike. Met Water (Matt) at the end of first day past Twin Pillars - he was doing the loop with his wife. I didn't catch up with them on the second day since I didn't break camp until 10:30 am - went past the ridge section and camped about a mile before Belknap junction, found a pond and a beautiful ponderosa grove just east of the trail. On day 3 I stashed a pack at Belknap jct, went to White Rock campground to the end of the trail, back to Belknap and took it down to S Twin Pillars TH where I began. It's great conditioning hike with a lot of camping opportunities. It was hot down the canyon today!
May 12 – May 14, 2012
1
Hamilton Mtn loop
7.5 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
Nice day on the mountain. Trailhead parking lot was 100% full and we took the last spot - quite a difference with the last year when Discover Pass was just started.
May 6, 2012
1
McCord and Elowah Falls
4 miles of hiking • 750' elevation gain •
Thought about doing Munra Pt from Yeon trailhead - the falls were on the way which is nice... Turned out the construction completely razed at least 1/2 mile of Gorge Trail #400 soon after Elowah (they are making some road that parallels the freeway) and I couldn't find the trail on the other end. Didn't feel like going on the freeway shoulder to Moffett Creek either, so turned around. It was cool to walk besides Elowah Falls though - it's so powerful right now that I got ear-full with water just going on the bridge at the falls. Liked the trail to McCord Falls too - it's blasted into sheer walls at one spot, much like Eagle Creek but higher and with railings. Decided to add another hike after this and headed to Hood River Mtn.
April 29, 2012
1
HOOD RIVER MOUNTAIN HIKE
4 miles of hiking • 750' elevation gain •
Another short hike for the day. This hike is all about flowers and views, and it was about the time. Balsamroot (aka sunflowers) start nicely but still a week or two before the peak. It was sunny, cool, and very breezy; nice day to be there. Unlike the falls trail, this one is not published (it's on private land but open to hikers) so it had much less crowds.
April 29, 2012
Rock of Ages loop hike
10 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
Did a trip as described in Portland Hikers Field Guide, other than Oneonta ford was too high to cross safely - had to bushwhack along E side to where trail crossed back to our side. The arch was fun, as well as Devils Backbone. Saw the first Indian Paintbrush there. There was snow in places between upper Horsetail and Bell Creek junctions, but even there it was mostly gone.
Can't seem to upload trip photos - you can see them here: https://picasaweb.google.com/103800903529830096354/RockOfAgesArchLoop
April 21, 2012
Dog Mtn with the WTA
3 miles of hiking • 1500' elevation gain •
Joined the WTA to repair Dog Mtn trail.
April 15, 2012
Hardy Ridge loop
8 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
Good thing about long days is that you can start a hike at 3 pm, hang out on the summit for an hour, and be back at your car before dark.
April 14, 2012
2
Cedar Falls - Cedar Mtn - PCT little loop
6.5 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain •
Finally did this little loop - started from Aldrich Butte TH and went clockwise. There is a trail/use path for maybe 95% of the way and where obscure it was well flagged so its not a bushwhack per se. However, it turned out to be a lot more elevation gain than I expected - I'd rate it harder than nearby Hamilton Mtn. I didn't have to deal with brush or snow at all, just several steep ups and downs and minimal route finding.
Cedar Falls is beautiful now in high water. The scramble along Cedar ridge is very interesting with many small meadows and nice drop-offs (be careful though as dropoffs are not solid rock but rather gravel glued with clay/sand - it's not a good idea to stand on the edge). Many grass widow flowers in places. We spooked more than a dozen of elk just north of Cedar Mtn but didn't have time to take a picture. Lots of cougar sign along the route.
April 8, 2012
Whipple Creek park
4 miles of hiking • 500' elevation gain •
Had just a couple of hours and didn't want to spend time driving, and this equestrian park is pretty close to my home. The park now undergoes reconstruction and they are putting gravel on dirt trails, but most trails are still as soggy as they are between October and July ;) Which means I had my share of solitude. Nice day to be out.
April 7, 2012
2
Table Mountain loop
8 miles of hiking • 3250' elevation gain •
Hiked East trail (Heartbreak Ridge) up, then West trail (Windbreak Ridge) down. It was quite a slog because I didn't take my snowshoes - took 3 hours up, half of this in the last mile. Even though Table has barely 3400' elevation it was 3-4 feet of fresh snow on the summit, with upward to 6 feet in drifts! There were even small cornices near east overlook. Snowshoe tracks stopped short of east and north overlooks, but luckily there are good tracks along the summit connecting east and west approach trails.
March 24, 2012
2
Salmon River trail to Goat Cr. camp
10.5 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain •
Nice trail, just a bit of snow in places, just enough to make things beautiful but not enough to use snowshoes. It was snowing lightly most of the time, but we entirely escaped the rain. On the way back found the best (unofficial and unsigned) campsite I could possibly dream of.
March 18, 2012
1
Devil's Rest and Angel's Rest
8 miles of hiking • 2250' elevation gain •
Forgot my SD card so no pics... Fantastic day, first trilliums already bloom along the lower trail. The last 1.5 miles to Devils Rest is still snow-covered and very slippery, though the very top is snow-free. It's always amazing how temperature drops in half mile past Angels Rest - today it was about 60 degrees on A/R, then went down to 45F or so in less than that 20 minutes as we headed to D/R!
March 9, 2012
Dog Mountain loop
6.5 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
Went up steep trail, down scenic trail. Someone did a major trail/chainsaw work there on the scenic trail in the past weeks. The only bad (still untouched) section is 1/2 mile immediately below the lower overlook (one at 1800' elev.). Couple of big blowdowns are above the lower overlook, than all is good to the summit.
The old (steep) trail has no major change since 2 weeks ago, still has some bad spots but OK overall.
March 4, 2012
Hunchback Mountain
4 miles of hiking • 1750' elevation gain •
Went to Rimrock Viewpoint, at 3150'. It snowed a lot on the way up, but once I got to the viewpoint it started to clear - even got some views. The snow increased to 5-6 inches toward the top (under the trees) but at open viewpoint it was more than a knee deep.
February 26, 2012
2
Ar-rock
5.5 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
(changed the name to make it non-searchable via search engine. Of course those of you guys who know this place will recognize it :)
It's an interesting place to explore, the trails have almost no blowdown after the 1st mile and generally better than I expected. Trails range from excellent down below to hard-to-see higher on the mountain, but abundant flagging makes navigation possible. Done some scrambling, saw many views, had lots of height exposure. I'll be back to explore the west half of the complex, and find that loop (today I was just to summit and east viewpoint).
The only bummer was that my dog picked about 15 ticks at those meadows, I'll buy some medicine if I take her there again.
February 19, 2012
Dog Mtn loop
7 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
Went up Augspurger trail, down short trail. Augspurger trail has some blowdowns, one requiring to go off-trail in a pretty steep spot, but overall it's been hit much less than 2 other trails on Dog.
Since I didn't hike alone today, got little time for trail RX, but got help removing a large pile of branches off trail at one spot.
February 12, 2012
Hamilton Mtn
7.5 miles of hiking • 2250' elevation gain •
The trail is in excellent condition. Was windy but no rain - good day outside. Snow was only for the last 50 vertical feet to the summit.
February 9, 2012
Table Mountain
8 miles of hiking • 3250' elevation gain •
Went up and down Table Mtn. west ridge. The trail / forest road has only minor blowdown so it was not an issue. It was very windy on the open ridge, but much better at the summit.
February 5, 2012
2
Dog Mountain
6 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
After reading about all the trail damage, I decided to go on less-affected "difficult" trail up and down, then hike up east (scenic) trail from the lower junction to the first bad spot, and do some cutting with my handsaw. However, even the short trail had so much blowdown it required going off-trail in at least 2 spots (and dozens of less bad spots needing clearing), so I just did some work on the short trail while going down. Despite some trees/brush, it is fairly easy to follow and the snow is mostly gone.
Two people I talked to said they went on scenic trail and it has so much trees across, that in many places you can't see or follow that trail.
February 3, 2012
Cape Horn loop - 2
7 miles of hiking • 1500' elevation gain •
Took my mom on same loop I did yesterday. It was gorgeous weather today & almost felt like spring.
January 27, 2012
Cape Horn Loop
7 miles of hiking • 1500' elevation gain •
Did the loop counter-clockwise from the bus transit station off Salmon Falls Rd. No pass is needed. Lower part of the trail will be closed Feb 1 - Jul. 15.
January 26, 2012
4
The quest for Hardy-Hamilton shortcut
4 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
I had a free afternoon, and started off Equestrian trailhead to look for a shortcut path between Hardy trail and lower Hamilton trail. Didn't quite expect everything to be snowed in, but decided to go with original plan. The shortcut should have began at the first major junction, but all I encountered was impenetrable brush... Took the right-hand trail for about 1/3 mile past the junction, then went downhill along a small stream. Got down to Hamilton trail after about 40 minutes bushwhacking and a sketchy creek/gully crossing on the logs, then going around some cliffs, far east from where I planned to go.
Visited Rodney Falls - it was a monster, and a noise was deafening! The water now runs over Windy Pool viewpoint, and at some point it ran over the rocks that wall Windy Pool. After Rodney, went to Hardy Falls "viewpoint", but at some point it was apparently fenced above where it used to be. It was pretty icy so I didn't want to scramble down above precarious drop-off.
On the way back I went much closer to powerlines and found a trail branching off uphill - the one I thought about. I soon lost it because of snow, but the brush was OK and it was generally easy going. About 1/2 mile up found a structure I don't remember reading about on PH - some kind of wooden shelter with 2 rooms, shelf beds, and a stove. One room is missing a wall, another - two walls, the roof in big room looks like ready to cave in, but the space near the stove is so clean it seems someone still uses it. I would at least expect some fall foliage on the floor.
A faint trail re-appeared several times, but for the most part I went off-trail in the general direction "uphill" (forgot my compass). Right before I hit the road, vine maple became almost impenetrable - it took me about 40 minutes for less than 1/4 mile! If not that last part, the shortcut is quite interesting and reasonable easy to follow, but still takes much longer than the same distance on trail.
January 20, 2012
Angels Rest
4.5 miles of hiking • 1500' elevation gain •
Now working 2.5 days a week & today was a 2.5th day so I got time for a short hike. The trail is partly shielded from east wind so it was OK until almost the top. At the very top, wind gusts were crazy - I had to kneel down behind the rock 'cause it was impossible to stand! It was towards 80-90mph since I know can stand at 70mph wind.
January 11, 2012
1
Illumination Saddle
6.5 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
Hiked from Timberline Lodge to the saddle at Illumination Rock. The things were icy between 6-8000+/-, higher up it was mostly well-packed snow. That small gully just before Illumination Rock had minor rock/ice falling almost all the time, but the rock itself seems a safe place to be. Many people were going off the summit and then boarding/skiing down. Illumination Rock seems to be a popular rest/restroom place, which is a shame. Good views of cracks on Reid Glacier, view of Yocum Ridge and St. Helens, as well as lower Columbia / Coast Range.
January 8, 2012
