2011 Trips
1
Munra Point to Nesmith Point
16 miles of hiking • 5500' elevation gain •
Hit the trail at 6am under headlamps with Eric Peterson. Up to Munra, then back along the ridge into the forest, bushwacking up to reach the Moffet Cr. trail and followed that over some snow up to Nesmith Point. See EP's report for more info and pics.
December 24, 2011
Table Mountain and Aldrich Butte
11 miles of hiking • 4250' elevation gain •
Hot Springs TH
Dick Thomas trail is a mud pit as always
descent via NW Ridge, some snow
tagged Aldrich Butte cause I'd never been up there before
Cold and misty, no views.
December 18, 2011
2
Defiance
11.5 miles of hiking • 5000' elevation gain •
Starvation>Defiance. Crazy frost spikes in the trees on Starvation around 2000ft. Partial snow on the trail when the ridge dead ends into the headwall. Warren Lake frozen solid. Continuous snow from there to the top. The trail is pretty well beaten in, though we did follow a dead end path and end up getting a little lost on the talus field and improvising up to the road. Some snow on the Defiance trail on the way down, a thin layer around 2000 ft or so, long after the real snow from the summit had disappeared. Intricate ice formations on the waterfalls on the way back to the car.
December 10, 2011
1
Dog, Augspurger, and some back roads from the CCT
17.5 miles of hiking • 6250' elevation gain •
Went into the Gorge to do the Dog and Augspurger figure-8 that includes portions of the old Cascade Crest Trail along some forest roads. Followed the same route as the linked TR except we cut across a different forest road that crosses the SW flank of Augspurger so we could stay in the sunshine. (Surprisingly the distance and elevation is the same.) Augspurger is always a fun adventure, and there's still plenty of foliage up there, thorns and all. There was also quite a bit of frost around the summit - it's getting cold up there. Pretty fall colors and a beautiful day.
November 1, 2011
3
Whitter Ridge mega loop
25.5 miles of hiking • 6500' elevation gain •
This turned out to be kind of a monster. Left Portland around 6:15am and drove 2.5 hrs to the Norway Pass trailhead. Hiked up towards Mt. Margaret, then turned onto the Whittier trail (which is apparently open for business now, complete with new signage). We crossed the Whittier ridge and met up with the Lakes trail, then descended towards Coldwater Lake, losing all our elevation. At the lake we turned onto the Coldwater trail and climbed back up towards the peak, then traversed past Coldwater, the Dome, and Mt. Margaret, completing the loop and heading back down to the car.
Weather was mostly cloudy (probably a good thing to keep us from melting). Huckleberries are very ripe right now. There's still some snow up there, and you sometimes have to walk across patches of it, but it's no biggie.
I'd used the WH mapping tool to check this route out and it spat out 15 miles. Turns out it's more like 25-26 miles. D'oh. We started at 9am and went for 11 hrs and finished by headlamp in the dark. Then the 2.5 hr drive home...
September 22, 2011
1
Eagle Cap: Ice Lake > Matterhorn > Sacajawea
20 miles of hiking • 7000' elevation gain • 2 nights
Drove from Portland out to Eagle Cap in the morning. Left Wallowa Lake TH around 1pm and went up to Ice Lake. Next morning went up the use trail (marked with cairns) to the summit of the Matterhorn (9826 ft), then scrambled across the ridges and gendarmes to the summit of Sacajawea Peak (9838 ft), the tallest in Eagle Cap. Retraced my steps back to the summit of unnamed peak 9775', then headed down the steep scree slope (like running down a huge rocky sand dune) and back down to the lake. Packed up this morning and hiked out, then drove back to Portland.
The Matterhorn > Sacajawea scramble is super super fun, though potentially not for the faint of heart where climbing is concerned - there are definitely some spots where you're going along a narrow ridge where it's serious injury or death on either side (ie, sliding down into oblivion), and the ridge between peak 9775 and Sacajawea has some rock gendarmes that need to be navigated. My distance/elevation stats are taken from another trip up there, though I'm somewhat dubious about 1.5 miles from Matterhorn to Sacajawea because I did it in about half an hour (!!). All told it was about 1.25 hrs up to Matterhorn, .5 hrs to Sacajawea, and then 1 hr back down to the lake (not including stoppage time).
Even if you don't do the scramble, Ice Lake is totally beautiful and secluded, especially if there aren't a lot of people there. Hopefully pictures to follow.
September 6 – September 8, 2011
Rock of Ages - Larch Mountain
19 miles of hiking • 4750' elevation gain •
Started at Multnomah Falls. Took Gorge Trail 400 to Ponytail Falls, then up Rock of Ages to the Horsetail Falls trail. Turned left onto the Bell Creek trail, followed it through a bunch of brush and blowdowns to where it meets the Oneonta trail again, then up to Larch Mountain. Down the normal Larch Mountain trail to Multnomah Falls and the car.
September 2, 2011
1
McNeil Point and more
11 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
This was originally supposed to be a McNeil Point > Cairn Basin > Barrett Spur hike, but we improvised. Got to Top Spur at 9:30am and the parking lot was totally packed. Went out to McNeil Point shelter, and then up the ridge to the rocky summit at around 6900 ft (NWHiker calls this McNeil Peak). The plan was to backtrack back to the Timberline Trail, follow it to Cairn Basin, and then on to Barrett Spur, but the PH Field Guide map showed a "trail" going from partway down the McNeil trail and cutting across onto the side of Barrett Spur. We veered off on the obvious side trail at the sign back on the lower part of the McNeil trail's lower ridge and crossed the Glisan Glacier's river onto a meadowy area where we started going cross country. After that, it seemed we were going to have to cross another large ravine and river that looked kinda sketchy, and then head uphill off trail, without knowing quite what lay ahead of us, and with our retreat options reduced. At this point it was past 2pm and it seemed kinda foolish to go off adventuring quite so late in the day, so we deduced that we were above Cairn Basin and headed that way. En route I trotted down a large snow bank, and around the moment I realized I was hearing running water below me, my left foot punched through a thin snow bridge, the left side gave way, and I thought I was going to fall through, but somehow didn't (probably would have sprained/broken something!). After that excitement, we relaxed in Cairn Basin and then took the Timberline trail back to the car. I don't have a GPS, so trip stats are estimated.
August 28, 2011
Mt. St. Helens
9 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain •
Scored a free permit from someone who couldn't go, so I did some last minute planning and ran up there. I was dismayed by the rain last night, and the forecast called for clouds in the morning but burning off by afternoon, so I skipped the alpine start and left Portland 9ish - after gas and permits and such, I hit the trail at 11am. It was totally misty for about 1/2-2/3 of Monitor Ridge, but about when I passed the "monitor" station the clouds opened up and I was out in the sunshine with great views. By the time I headed down, it had turned into a beautiful day. Totally a blast for all the rocky scrambling. 2.5 hrs going up, about a half on top, and 2 going down, so 5 hrs total.
August 23, 2011
2
The TNT
39 miles of hiking • 12250' elevation gain •
The next installment of the Acronymic Gorge Triple Crown (AGTC?) series of combo hikes: Tanner Butte - Nesmith Point - Table Mountain.
I got up at 3:15am on maybe 3 1/2 hrs of sleep and hit the trail to Tanner Butte under headlamp at a touch before 5am. Got to the top in a little under 3 1/2 hrs, back to the car around 11:30am, for about 6 1/2 hrs hike time, including the 20 or so minutes I spent up top. It was totally beautiful - for my money, I think Tanner Butte is still the best viewpoint in the Gorge. The Tanner Butte trail also wins as the most cobweb-iest trail ever.
Next, I backtracked to the Yeon trailhead and went up Nesmith Point. I hadn't been up there in a couple of years and where Tanner was a well graded slog, Nesmith was overgrown, steep, and rugged. Since Tanner Butte was half the total day's mileage in one go, I was starting to get tired going up Nesmith, and the last part (from the shoulder up to the old road) took forever. I passed a bunch of people who were descending from the summit as I went up, and managed to overtake three of those parties on the way down. No rest for the wicked, and I'd calculated there wouldn't be enough daylight for the total amount of hiking time I'd be doing. I left the parking lot for Nesmith at 12:15pm, took about two hours to get up, and was back at the car a tad before 4pm.
After Nesmith, I crossed the Bridge of the Gods and went to the Aldrich Butte trailhead, first stopping at the Hot Springs Resort to refill my water (it was a hot day!) and wasting some precious daylight in the process. I set out for Table at 5pm. 30 miles in, I still had enough for a decent pace on the old roadbed, but the Heartbreak Ridge bit from the kiosk up to the ridge was brutal. Strangely, the talus field was not - something about its step-like-ness? I got to the summit at 7-something and wasted quite a bit of time trying to find a tree that I could put my camera in for a self-portrait, then realizing that the sun was dropping fast, I headed back to the NW ridge for the descent - figuring this would be easier on the knees than either of the other two options. The sun started to go down as I was on the ridge, and by the time I made it back to the PCT it was pretty dark. I put on my headlamp again (a fitting bookend to the day) and proceeded to slog down the rocky trail, being attacked by moths who liked the light (one flew into my nostril??), and basically going as fast as I possibly could (which actually was pretty fast - West Ridge kiosk to the car in a little over 45 minutes) while my feet screamed at me and I couldn't see anything and my side started cramping - definitely time to end the day. Got back to the car a hair before 10pm, making it pretty much 17 hrs total for the day, including driving between trailheads.
August 20, 2011
Angel's Rest - Wahkeena - Multnomah - Devil's Rest
15 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain •
Contrived loop to break in some new shoes. Started at Angel's Rest TH at 4:15pm (!), up to Angel's Rest by 5, then traversed to Wahkeena Springs and went down the falls trail (which is actually kind of cool until it becomes paved) back to the Old Columbia Highway, then took the connector trail to Multnomah Falls Lodge, went up to the top of the falls and up the Larch Mtn trail until it meets the Wahkeena trail, then back on the Wahkeena trail until the junction with the #420C trail to Devil's Rest. I've never been up there before, and I reached the summit at 8pm (!) to some nice orange light filtering through the trees onto the summit rocks. I ran down the continuation of the trail, racing the setting sun, to reach Angel's Rest in a half hour and caught some wonderful sunset colors on the northern horizon (note to self: there are no people on Angel's Rest at 8:30pm! solitude!), then mostly ran back down to the car in darkness holding a headlamp (lower light angle = more definition of rocks in the trail), and finished slightly past 9pm, a little under 5 hours total. Kind of a speed evening hike. No camera = no pictures.
Funniest thing was running into this bizarre guy going up the Wahkeena Falls trail as I was going down - he asks me if the Multnomah Falls Lodge is at the top of the trail (???), and I tell him no, it's back down at the river and a little to the east, and he's very confused - he says the signs at the bottom said the Lodge was up this trail! So we both jog back down to Wahkeena Falls and he looks at the sign on the connector trail and tells me he doesn't want to go to Multnomah Falls, he wants to go to the Lodge, and I'm like, dude, the Lodge is at the bottom of the falls. He took off and I never saw him again. Apparently he was supposed to meet his wife at the Lodge, but he didn't have a car at Wahkeena and I have no idea how he got on that trail. Raaaaaandom.
August 18, 2011
Ruckel Ridge - Wahtum Lake - Eagle Creek
25 miles of hiking • 5500' elevation gain •
Started at Eagle Creek TH and went up Ruckel Ridge to the Benson Plateau, then across Benson Way to the PCT and on to Wahtum Lake. We sidetracked to tag Chinidere and spent some time eating and napping in the sun. Then down the Wahtum cutoff to the lake, and finally a 13 mile slog down Eagle Creek and back to the car.
August 5, 2011
Rock of Ages
10 miles of hiking • 3250' elevation gain •
Scrambly ridge fun. Loop down Horsetrail Cr./Oneonta trails.
The Rock Arch is so quick to get to (~ 1/2 mi) that you could easily run up there to catch the sunset after doing another Gorge hike.
August 2, 2011
1
Mt. Adams
12 miles of hiking • 6750' elevation gain •
Drove up to Cold Springs Campground on Tuesday night - the road is snow-free. Hit the trail at 4:40am Wednesday morning. Clear skies, though a little hazy in the distance towards Hood. The snow up to the Lunch Counter was firm and had a well-beaten track to follow. Crampons at Lunch Counter and then up to Pikers Peak - super windy up to. Across the saddle and then to the summit around 10:50am. Very very windy on the north side towards Rainier, but it was calm about 20 ft back to the south and a good lunch spot. Bunch of other people, some with skis and snowboards. We hung out for a bit, then headed back down to the saddle with a partial glissade. However, the glissade down to the Lunch Counter from the false summit was phenomenal - they need chair lifts so you can do it over and over. It was around noon and the snow was starting to get slushy, and you got some real speed in the well worn chutes! Back at Lunch Counter we stowed our axes and slogged back down the slushfest, getting back to the car around 2:30pm. Beautiful day!
July 27, 2011
4
The DDT
26.5 miles of hiking • 11250' elevation gain •
My version of the Triple D: the DDT - Defiance, Dog, and Table. Left the Starvation Creek trailhead at 6:30am up the Defiance trail. No snow anywhere! Summit at 8:45, down Starvation and back at the car by 11am. Ate and drank, then drove across the Hood River Bridge to Dog, starting around noon, back to the car a little before 3pm. Drove down to the Aldrich Butte trailhead and met some friends who (understandably) didn't want to join me for the whole thing. We headed up around 4:30, ascending via Heartbreak Ridge. Spent some time on top, then descended via the West Ridge, and got back to the cars in growing darkness around 9:30pm, 15 hours after I started. A little knee pain from all the descending, but otherwise not too bad, though I was definitely tired on Table (especially climbing to Heartbreak Ridge). Legs are tired today, but definitely intact!
July 15, 2011
Tanner Butte
19 miles of hiking • 4750' elevation gain •
Started at Wahclella, up Gorge Trail 400 to Road 777, then to the Tanner trailhead. Up from there all the way to Tanner Butte. Overgrown at times towards the end, but NO SNOW!!! A recent GPS-enabled TR at PH pegged this at around 20 mi and 5000 ft, so I'm splitting the difference with that and the PH/NWH stats. A long dayhike, but not super steep cause it's so drawn out, and it's fairly flat from the Dublin Lake trail junction to the base of Tanner Butte (though the scramble trail to the summit is steep). Views absolutely magnificent - for my money, the best in the Gorge.
July 9, 2011
Augspurger Mountain and Dog (redux)
15.5 miles of hiking • 5750' elevation gain •
Went back up to Augspurger since such a sunny day requires hiking on the Washington side. Last time I didn't quite make the summit and I wanted to go back because I figured the snow was gone. Not only was it gone, but it has been completely replaced by lots and lots of thick brush! This hike is pretty overgrown now, and may not be any fun until fall. The summit itself (which it turned out I was about 1/4 mile away from last time) is nothing but trees - kind of like Devil's Rest - so we continued on the trail as it turned northwest and went downhill and popped out onto a ridge. We followed the ridge through some really bad scratchy brush to a really excellent lunch point. On the way back, I went over the top of Dog again, though going down the front of Dog kind of hurt my knee this time, so I think if I do this hike again and want to include Dog, I'll go up it first so I can do my final descent down the more gradual Augspurger trail. Still, this hike is excellent bang for your buck - lots of changing scenery, some great viewpoints (think Dog but higher), and a little more adventure than you usually get in the Gorge because no one seems to ever go up there.
July 2, 2011
1
Larch Mountain loop via Oneonta Gorge
18 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain •
We started at the Multnomah Falls parking lot and traversed Gorge Trail 400 a couple of miles to connect with the Oneonta Gorge trail 424, then followed that trail up to Franklin Ridge and then south, turning left at the junction with the Horsetail Creek trail (445), continuing on 424 to the junction with the Bell Creek trail, and turning right and following the trail as it swings right and onto the little ridge that leads to the summit. No snow whatsoever until past the junction with trail 444, around 3500 ft. Then just patches until you pop out on the road - there's a lot of meltout, but there are some big snow areas to cross as you go up to the parking lot (which is mostly under snow). The good news is this snow is only a foot or two deep, and will probably all be gone in a couple of weeks. From the parking lot, the best bet is to head uphill past the picnic sites (since the lateral paved path to Sherrard Point is very snowy) and then go down the other side of the bump to the steps to the top, which is totally clear. Basically, any place that doesn't have tree cover still has snow on it, but anywhere where trees reduced the snow accumulation is clear now. Expect Larch Mountain to be snow-free very soon.
The day was nice and there were good views of Hood, Adams, and Helens. Rainier was partly visible. The Larch Mountain Road gate is apparently still closed, but right after we got to the summit, hordes of people arrived who'd parked at the gate and hiked up. It became very crowded...
We went down the main Larch Mountain trail 441 all the way back down to Multnomah Falls, closing the loop. I don't have exact stats for this hike, but I'm estimating something like 18 miles from maps on NWHiker and PH lists 4400 ft gain for the Oneonta approach - we just added a couple of miles of warmup. If anyone has more specific GPS stats or anything like that, I'm all ears.
June 25, 2011
1
Super mini backpacking to Mt. Defiance - Solstice!
5.5 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain • 1 night
Last Friday I noted how nice it was at Warren Lake on my way to Defiance, and how nice it would probably be to camp up there and just hang out and go in the water and read. Sooo.... my friend had somewhere early to be today, so yesterday we drove up the back way to the Mitchell trailhead, yielding a whopping 3/4 mile stroll down to Warren Lake. We spent the rest of the day wading in the lake and lying in the sun reading. Then, after dinner, we scampered up to the summit (a lot of snow has melted, even from last Friday when I was up there!) for the Solstice sunset. We went to sleep under the trees, and after breakfast were back at the car 20 minutes after leaving camp. If I lived in Hood River, I would go up there that way all the time.
Weirdest thing: around 10pm last night, two runners covered in blinking lights ran through the Warren Lake area and promptly got lost trying to go up the hill immediately after the lake. Once they found the trail, we never saw them again.
June 21 – June 22, 2011
1
Mt. Defiance loop
11.5 miles of hiking • 5000' elevation gain •
Up Starvation and down the Defiance trail. The latter is probably steeper - next time I'm going to try going up it and down Starvation. Totally beautiful bluebird day, wanted to stay at Warren Lake sitting in a chair with a book or something. (I'll have to go back there for an overnight.) Very little snow compared to TRs from a week ago - we didn't hit any at all until just after the Mitchell-Defiance trail junction. Patchy, then we bailed onto the talus field, exited into the woods in a random spot and basically walked on snow thereafter until the very top of the road right below the summit. Once you hit the road, it's probably wisest to follow it to the summit, because the other trail is totally obscured. Otherwise, totally beautiful day, great views, nice summit nap!
June 17, 2011
Ruckel Ridge
9 miles of hiking • 4000' elevation gain •
Fun! Almost no snow on the Benson Plateau at the Ruckel Creek junction, so easy routefinding.
June 10, 2011
Augspurger and Dog Mountains
13.5 miles of hiking • 5250' elevation gain •
Made it within 1/2 mile of the top, but too much snow to continue without snowshoes. Summited Dog on the way back.
May 4, 2011
Table Mountain
10 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
Started at Aldrich Butte to avoid mud on the Dick Thomas trail. Went up West Ridge - a couple of patches of snow, easy to avoid. Heard there was postholing at the top of the talus field on Heartbreak Ridge. No snow up top at the Gorge end, but the back end was totally covered. Went down the usual NW ridge descent - probably not a great idea, since it was totally snowed in and involved postholing down to the ridge and then again for the second half of the distance to the powerlines, which took forever. From the powerline road, the PCT had snow for a while too, though the trail is well defined. My feet were soaked and freezing, so bring snowshoes, boots/gaiters, or save the NW ridge till later in the season.
April 23, 2011
Multnomah Falls-Franklin Ridge loop
12 miles of hiking • 2750' elevation gain •
Patches of snow on Oneonta Gorge Trail #424 switchbacks before reaching the top of Franklin Ridge (though no snow up top). The ridge itself has a neat, seemingly little-used trail that runs along its spine and feels very tucked away. Almost turned left at the junction and continued on to Larch Mountain, but thought better of it and went down.
April 20, 2011
Hamilton Mountain
9 miles of hiking • 2250' elevation gain •
Went up the right branch Hamilton Mtn trail and down the longer Hardy Creek Trail to make a loop. Last minute afternoon hike - went from car (in lower parking at Beacon Rock because it was a weekday and the gate was closed) to summit in 1 hr!
January 27, 2011
Wauna Point
10 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
Started from Wahclella Falls TH. Bad mudslides wiped out large sections of the lower part of Road 777 on the way to the Tanner TH.
January 22, 2011
