Category: Willamette Valley

Canemah Bluff and Newell Creek Canyon – 04/29/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 1, 2023
No Comments on Canemah Bluff and Newell Creek Canyon – 04/29/2023

A brief streak of 80+ degree temperatures arrived for the final weekend of April, and we celebrated with a pair of short hikes in Oregon City. We had our sights on two small parks managed by Metro, a regional council covering Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties which includes two dozen cities. The largest of which is Portland.

Our first stop of the day wasn’t at either of the parks though, it was at the Willamette Falls Scenic Viewpoint along McLoughlin Boulevard. The viewpoint was on our way to Canemah Bluff and neither of us had ever actually seen this waterfall in person.

After reading up on some Oregon history we drove on to Canemah Children’s Park which doubles as the trailhead.

We reviewed the map and decided on the following route: From the children’s park we would take the Camas Springs Trail to Cemetery Road and turn right to the Spur Trail. We’d then take the Spur Trail to the Licorice Fern Trail and then turn right on the Old Slide Trail. The Old Slide Trail would bring us back to the Licorice Fern Trail which we would follow to the park boundary before turning around and hiking back to Cemetery Road via the Licorice Fern Trail. Then turning right on the road, we would follow it to the Frog Pond trail where a left would bring us back to the Childrens Park. This whole route was just barely over 2 miles with a little under 190′ of elevation gain.

The delayed Spring was showing here as the wildflower show was just getting underway.
Most of the camas was still working on blooming but a few were open.

Buttercups

Dark eyed junco

Possibly a female yellow-rumped warbler.

Plectritis

Willamette River

Robin

Giant blue-eyed Mary

Camas catching a little sunlight.

This first part of the hike reminded us very much of another nearby hike we’d taken at Camassia Natural Area (post) which is located on the opposite side of the Willamette from Canemah Bluff.

The Camas Springs Trail eventually entered the trees before arriving at the Cemetery Road.

Red flowering currant

Metro’s signage has been top notch in the parks we’ve visited so far.

We followed the Cemetery Road to its end at the privately owned Canemah Pioneer Cemetery where we turned onto the Spur Trail.
Hooker’s fairy bells

Hummingbird

Fawn lilies

The cemetery behind the fence.

The Spur Trail.

It was a trillium show along the Spur Trail.

At the junction with the Licorice Fern Trail we spotted a couple of largeleaf sandworts in bloom.

After just 100′ on the Licorice Fern Trail we turned onto the Old Slide Trail which climbed 150′ along a hillside before descending to rejoin the Licorice Fern Trail which we followed to the park boundary near a neighborhod.

The boundary marker. The trail continues a short distance to 5th Place.

We dropped a bit and now had to regain that elevation as we headed back along the Licorice Fern Trail.

We spotted a few more flowers at varying stages of blooming as we made our way back to Cemetery Road.
Youth-on-age

Salmonberry

Violets

Back on the road.

We turned onto the Frog Pond Trail which was only about 100 yards long. The trees around the pond were full of little birds that we watched flit about for quite a while before continuing to our car.

The frog pond.

Bewick’s wren

Nashville warbler?

House finches

Spotted towhee

Bleeding heart near the pond.

Arriving back at the trailhead.

From Canemah Bluff it was only a 2.6-mile drive to Newell Creek Canyon Nature Park. The park opened in December 2021, so it is a relatively new addition to the parks Metro manages. There were just a couple of other cars in the good-sized parking area when we arrived just after 8am.
View from the trailhead.

Trailhead signboard.

There are three types of trails at Newell Creek Canyon: Shared use (bicycle & hiker), hiker only, and bicycle only. Our plan here was to start with the shared use trails and finish with the hiker only Canyon Spring Loop. This way we would finish the shared use trails nice and early in hopes of avoid too much traffic. We made our way around the outside of the grassy picnic area to the start of the trails at a gate.
Please note that pets are not allowed at most Metro parks.

Don’t forget to brush off your shoes when brushes are available.

With the word canyon in the name, it’s not surprising that the Tumble Falls Trail begins by descending into Newell Creek Canyon.

We passed the biker only Shady Lane Trail on our right and further along a second biker only connector to the Shady Lane Trail.
The Shady Lane Trail.

Oregon grape, red flowering currant and Indian plum

One of several benches located throughout the park.

The connector trail.

Candy flower

Trillium with a tiny insect.

Carpet of green.

A rare bluebird day for us this year.

Near the 0.4-mile mark we passed the Canyon Springs Loop which forked off to the left.

We continued on the Tumble Falls Trail which was now somewhat level.

Salmonberry blossoms

Fringecup and pacific waterleaf that had yet to start blooming.

The Shady Lane Trail joined from the right just before reaching the Tumble Falls Bridge.

The Tumble Falls Bridge.

Tumble Falls

On the far side of the bridge the trail became the shared use Cedar Grove Trail from which the biker only Red Soil Roller Trail quickly split off.

The Red Soil Roller Trail to the right.

We followed the aptly named Cedar Grove Trail downhill to its end at a bench overlooking Newell Creek Canyon. While we couldn’t see the creek itself the sound of flowing water let us know that it was down there.
A small pond along the trail.

Song sparrow

Western red cedars

Nearing the end of the trail.

Map at the end of the Cedar Grove Trail.

Newell Creek is down there somewhere.

We headed back the way we’d come. It was warming up nicely and we spotted our first butterflies of the year as we climbed back toward Tumble Falls.

Male margined white?

Female margined white?

When we reached the Canyon Spring Loop we turned onto it and followed it for 500′ to a junction on the ridge where the actual loop began. We chose to go right and followed the ridge east.
Slender toothwort

The Canyon Spring Trail below in the trees.

The trail lost approximately 100′ before completing a 180 degree turn and leveling out as we headed back West.
Spotted towhee

Chipmunk

Heading back beneath the ridge.

Shortly after starting back beneath the ridge, and not long after the subject of owls had come up, we spotted a great horned owl sitting in the undergrowth just off the trail near a tree.

We stopped a ways back to see if it would fly off but aside from some slight head movement and slight eye opening it didn’t move. We made note of where it was and slowly passed giving it as much space as possible. Our plan was to report it when we got back to the car in case it was injured or sick. We finished up the loop and had started up the Tumble Falls Trail when we passed two Metro parks staff. We let them know about the owl, showed them a photo, and pointed out on the map where we’d seen it and they were going to check on it and report it to the appropriate entity if necessary. We hope the owl turned out to be okay. As much fun as it is to see the wild animals it is sad when we come across an injured one.

Trillium and mushrooms

Squirrel

Woodpecker

Stellar’s jay

Back at the Tumble Falls Trail.

We felt better knowing that we’d let someone know about the owl and made our way back to the picnic area which we passed through to return to the car.

Our hike here came in at just under 3.5 miles with 570′ of elevation gain giving us approximately 5.5 miles and 760′ of elevation gain on the day. Both parks were nice and really well maintained, kudos again to Metro for the job they do with the public spaces. One thing that became clear as the morning heated up was that we are not at all prepared for warm weather hiking. It’s been so cool (cold) and overcast for so long our bodies aren’t ready for temps in the 70 or 80s. Hopefully there is still time for a reasonable transition to the heat of Summer but that window grows shorter every day and more cool, wet weather appears to be on the way for the coming week. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Canemah Bluff and Newell Creek Canyon

Tags Camas Springs Trail, Canemah Bluff, Canemah Bluff Nature Park, Canemah Children's Park, Canyon Spring Loop, Cedar Grove Trail, Frog Pond Trail, hiking, Licorice Fern Trail. Old Slide Trail, Metro, Metro Parks, Newell Creek Canyon, Newell Creek Canyon Nature Park, Oregon, Oregon City, Tumble Falls Trail, Willamette Falls

Corvallis Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Trip report Willamette Valley

Albany Parks and Snag Boat Bend – 04/22/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 24, 2023
3 Comments on Albany Parks and Snag Boat Bend – 04/22/2023

The delayed arrival of Spring weather has begun affecting the timing of the hikes that I’d planned for us this year. We had originally planned a wildflower hike for this weekend, but they are running at least two weeks behind so we turned to a pair of wildlife hikes instead. Our first stop was at the Snag Boat Bend unit of the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge.

This 341-acre unit is located a across the Willamette River to the East of the 5,325-acre refuge. The unit has several miles of trails although the amount accessible fluctuates due to flooding.
Not sure how “official” the writing is on the map, but it wasn’t wrong about the Turtle Loop being “closed” (high water).

The Snag Boat Bend Loop Trail begins as a boardwalk that passes over the North Beaver Pond. Oddly there wasn’t much, if any, water in this pond despite other areas later being flooded.

After the short boardwalk section the trail became a combination of grass/mud as it followed a swollen Lake Creek toward the Willamtte River.

A swollen Lake Creek

A third of a mile from the trailhead is a picnic table overlooking a former channel of the Willamette River that is now an oxbow lake filled by Lake Creek.

The oxbow lake.

The trail makes a hard left at the picnic table passing along the water.
Lots of water in the lake.

Woodpecker hiding in the trees.

Just under 0.2 miles from the picnic table, during low water, is said to be a path that makes it possible to connect the Snag Boat Band and Turtle Loop Trails.
Note the sign on the far side vs the closer sign barely sticking up out of the water.

A quarter mile from the picnic table the Snag Boat Bend Loop turns left at a junction. We stayed straight and visited the Observation Blind before setting off on the Blue Heron Trail.
Oregon grape

Red flowering currant

Slug

Signs at the junction.

The observation blind.

There wasn’t a whole lot to observe from the blind since the morning fog limited visibility.

Goose

Spotted towhee

Mallard drake

The Blue Heron Trail followed the boarder of the refuge and some private farmland.

It was approximately another quarter mile from the blind to a 4-way junction. Here the Blue Heron Trail began and finished a theoretical loop using the left most forks and the Turtle Trail split off to the right along a dike.
Blue Heron Trail to the left and Turtle Trail on the right.

We turned right onto the Turtle Trail and as we got onto the dike we could see that the area below, where a loop shown on the Oregonhikers page joined back up, was likely flooded. We followed the dike a quarter of a mile to another junction where the Turtle Trail made a hard right and descended from the dike into an open area where several rabbits were busy having their breakfast.

American widgeon

We followed this grassy track for a third of a mile back to the swollen Lake Creek where, during low water, the Turtle Loop would turn right along the creek and loop back around.

Another sign out in the middle of the water.

We turned back and returned to the junction with the Blue Heron Trail.
The start of a possible loop using the Blue Heron Trail. The fainter track on the right heading downhill was flooded just 100 feet or so away.

The flooded area where the loop would end.

I had gone down to the flooded section to see if there was possibly a way across without having to wade but there wasn’t. The good news was that my heading down to this spot had caused a great horned owl to move trees which allowed both Heather (on the other section of the Blue Heron Trail) and myself to spot it.

Since we knew that we would be able to make the Blue Heron Trail into a loop we followed it a half mile from the junction, making a sharp right near the 0.4-mile mark and decided to turn around. The trail had gone from gravel to wet grass and our feet were getting pretty damp which helped make the decision to turn around.
Cottonwood with red flowering currant, Oregon grape, and Indian plum blooming in front.

We were able to keep our feet dry on the gravel surfaces.

Mushroom

Rufous Hummingbird

Hawk preparing for takeoff.

We had started to go past the turn for the Blue Heron Trail so this photo is as we headed back toward the turn. We came from the right-hand side so the path straight ahead would have been the “sharp right”.

Killdeer

Our turn around spot. The trail was beginning to bend back to the East here.

We headed back along the Blue Heron Trail following it to the Snag Boat Bend Loop where we turned right in order to finish that loop.
A chipping sparrow among the golden-crowned sparrows.

On the Snag Boat Bend Loop

The trail turned left to follow this gravel roadbed for the final third of a mile.

The gate in the distance is at the trailhead.

Our hike at Snag Boat Bend came in at 3.9 miles with maybe 50′ of elevation gain. Had some of the loops not been flooded it might have been a bit shorter.

It was a nice first visit though and we are now interested in returning in late Summer/early Fall when some of the flooded trails might be accessible. While the fog made it a bit hard to see we still managed to see a few ducks, a goose, several rabbits, the owl, a hawk, lots of smaller birds, and one bald eagle that flew overhead. From the trailhead we drove North to the city of Albany where we’d plan to visit a series of the city’s parks. The idea was to start at Monteith Riverpark and hike East along the Willamette River to Simpson Park and then continue along the river there past First and Second Lakes if the trail wasn’t flooded. If it was flooded, we could turn inland at Simpson Park and re-visit the Talking Water Gardens (post).

I had two reasons for putting this urban hike on our schedule. First it was close to home and secondly Monteith Riverfront Park sits at the confluence of the Calapooia and Willamette Rivers, and the Calapooia is one of Oregon’s rivers that we had yet to see on a hike. This 80-mile long tributary of the Willamette begins in the Willamette National Forest near Tidbits Mountain (post) and flows Northwest through Brownsville, OR before turning North to the East of Interstate 5. It was disappointing to arrive and find that the entire park was closed for a large waterfront project by the City of Albany. (Normally I would check the status of our destination prior to heading out, but I didn’t expect an entire city park to be closed, and after looking online when I got home, I’m not sure I would have found the information anyway.)
We wound up parking East of the Riverfront Community Center and hoping on the Dave Clark Trail there.

Less than 100 yards from where we’d parked we came to an observation platform that led out over the Willamette River. From this platform we could at least see the mouth of the Calapooia emptying into the Willamette.

The confluence ahead to the left.

Highway 20 passing over the Willamette to the left. Fun fact about U.S. Highway 20 – It runs from Newport, OR to Boston, MA and is the longest road in the USA according to the Federal Highway Administration. Click here for more information and an interesting write up of the drive from Boston to Newport by Boots on the Trail.

We followed the Dave Clark Trail East passing under both bridges of the highway and then later under the Union Pacific Railroad.

Orange crowned warbler. One of many small birds we saw along this trail.

We thought it was a little odd to see two occupied nests atop the railroad so close together until we realized that the occupants weren’t both birds of prey.

Canada geese were using one of the nests.

Might be the mate looking acting as lookout from the bridge.

Osprey occupied the other and appeared to be in the process of renovations.

We also encountered a beautiful male Anna’s hummingbird but for the life of me I couldn’t get either one of the cameras I was carrying to focus on the little guy so the only picture we wound up with was a cropped shot from Heather’s phone.
His bright pink head was more impressive in person.

After ducking under the railroad and passing some apartments the trail passed the Willamette Community Garden and climbed to NE Oak Street.
The community garden (not pictured) was on our right.

Pretty tulips at the sign.

Here the trail follows several blocks of sidewalk before reaching its end at Bowman Park. The official route of the trail turned right on Oak St for a block then left for 5 blocks NE Water Ave to Geary St where it turned left and descended 3 blocks to Bowman Park. We stayed straight on Front Ave NE though and followed it 3 blocks to Harrison St. NE where we turned right for a block to NE Water Ave to rejoin the Dave Clark Trail.
Not a lot to see in the residential neighborhoods but we did cross Pettyjohn Creek along the way.

Sign for Bowman Park at Geary St.

Bowman Park on the left and the paved path we took on the right.

A paved path led East from Bowman Park behind a new apartment complex where it turned to a wood chip surface.

Cormant in the middle of the Willamette.

At the far end of the apartment complex the trail suddenly turned into a slick, muddy single track.

Squirrel

Things got started getting interesting here, and not in the good way. We quickly started passing vacant and/or abandoned homeless camps and the trail surface was just a mess. At this point we were only about a half mile from the Simpson Park Trailhead though so we pressed on.
Seen near a homeless camp which sort of captures the situation. A combination of unaffordable house, drug abuse, and mental illness has created a crisis up and down the West Coast with no simple (or quick) answer.

We initially mistook all the footprints and bike tracks as a sign that the trail saw good recreational use.

According to the Oregonhikers.org Field Guide entry for the Albany Riverfront Hike there is a concrete bridge over Cox Creek near Simpson Park. We never made it that far though as after a quarter mile we came to small pond over the trail. There was no foreseeable way around and we didn’t want to do to much searching for an alternate route for fear of stumbling upon an occupied camp so we turned around.

Prior to reaching the impassible puddle we had already decided to forgo trying to hike further along the Willamtte from Simpson Park and had planned instead of visit Talking Water Gardens and return via roads instead of the muddy trail. Now that we’d been stymied though we trudged back through the mud and past the homeless camps to the apartments where we turned left on a path that led a short distance uphill into Eads Park.

We turned left and passed through this small park then turned right onto Burkhart St NE and began our second stint of neighborhood hiking. After a block on Burkhart we made a left on Willamette Ave NE and followed it 0.2-miles to its end at the Albany/Millersburg Water Reclamation Facility where we turned right onto Davidson St. NE. A block on Davidson brought us back to Front AVE NE and a sign for the Talking Water Gardens.

Front Ave became Waverly Dr NE and we followed it until we finally crossed Cox Creek three tenths of a mile later.

We made our way to the gated entrance to the Talking Water Gardens happy to see that the man-made waterfall in the Beaver Marsh was flowing this time.

Buffleheads

We turned right and headed for the main sign board to get a picture of the map and decide on our route.
We decided to loop around the West Beaver Marsh and Central Oak areas before heading back.

There was obviously a lot more water present now then there had been in November and while there were less ducks present there was a larger variety of birds and best of all a bunch of western pond turtles.

View from above the waterfall.

The first set of turtles we spotted.

Western pond turtles.

Female red-winged blackbird

Green-winged teal

Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s)

More turtles

Mallard drake

Turkey vulture

Another bale of turtles. (I had to look up “bale” because I had no idea what a group of turtles was called.)

Another man-made waterfall.

This had been full of ducks on our previous visit.

Yet another turtle.

Black phoebe

Acorn woodpecker

Sparrow

Northern shoveler

Hummingbird

Red-winged blackbird

Bench along the Central Oak area.

The first goslings we’ve spotted this year.

Very zoomed in shot of a hawk seen in the distance.

Bullfrog

Marsh wren

Final set of turtles.

Mallard pair

Chickadee

Yellow-rumped warbler (Myrtle)

We took about an hour to hike a little over 1.25-miles through the gardens. There was a lot of stopping to watch the wildlife and attempt to get photos. After exiting the gardens we made our way back to Front Ave via Waverly Drive and this time followed signs for the Dave Clark Trail back to it.

We followed the Dave Clark Trail back to our car, but not before spotting a bit more wildlife.
A couple ahead of us on the trail spotted this guy for us.

Squirrel

Our Albany Parks hike wound up being just 6.3 miles with under 100′ of elevation gain bringing our total for the day to 10.2 miles and maybe 100 total feet of elevation gain. All the hiking on paved surfaces in Albany combined with having wet shoes and socks made it feel like more though.

At the end of the day we were glad that we wound up in Talking Water Gardens given how much fun wildlife we spotted there but I probably would not do the rest of this hike over. The Dave Clark Trail along the Willamette was nice enough and if I was in Albany for another reason and had some time it would be a fine place for a stroll but necessary neighborhood walk to reach Simpson Park/Talking Water is not nearly as nice as either simply starting at the Simpson Park Trailhead or hiking along Cox Creek from Waverly Lake as we had done in November. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Snag Boat Bend and Albany Parks

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Willamette Valley

Minto-Brown Island Park Outings Spring 2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 18, 2023
1 Comment on Minto-Brown Island Park Outings Spring 2023

For several years Heather has volunteered with our local running store, Gallagher Fitness Resources, Princess Steps, a Women’s Beginning Walking Running Clinic. They meet on Tuesday nights but have “homework” walks throughout the week which she and I have been doing together. The longer walks are set for Saturdays and for three of the last four weeks we’ve taken those walks at Minto-Brown Island Park. The park has also been part of a couple of urban hikes that we’ve taken in previous years (2017 & 2020).

Despite the numerous visits there were still sections of trails that I hadn’t been on. I decided to use my second day off of work to check a few of those off my to-visit list. Minto-Brown is even closer to our house than Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge which I’d visited the day before (post). In fact, it’s less than a mile away as the crow flies, but it is on the other side of the Willamette River so I had to drive a little over 3.5-miles to Riverfront Park where we’d been starting all of our walks.

Heather’s plan from the walking group had us increasing distance each week starting with 5.3 miles on 3/19 then 6.6 on 3/25 and 9 miles on 4/8. (Heather wanted more hill practice before the hiking season and since Minto-Brown is mostly flat we did a 7.5 mile “hilly” hike through the West Salem neighborhoods on 4/1.) For this visit I was planning on going a little further again by visiting Eola Bend County Park which borders Minto-Brown to the NW along the Willamette River. I wasn’t sure what my actual route would be though. Minto-Brown is full of both pave and dirt trails, some of which parallel one another just feet apart. Numerous loop options are possible, but closure due to flooding or nesting birds can block access to certain trails at times. All of the visits this year started the same as we first passed the Gerry Frank Salem Rotary Amphitheater in Riverfront Park and took the Peter Courtney Minto Island Bridge over the Willamette Slough and into Minto-Brown Island Park on the Minto-Island Conservation Trail.
The amphitheater and bridge on 3/19 23.

The amphitheater and bridge on 4/14/23.

On the first three visits we took the first paved right (one mile from Riverfront Park) and stayed right at the next junction to walk along the Willamette River and eventually arrive at the Lot 3 Trailhead. On this final visit I was unable to access the path along the river due to high water from recent rains so I forked left on a gravel that is often closed during bald eagle nesting season.
Wetland near the bridge on 4/8.

The wetland on 4/14.

Signs at the 2nd junction – 3/19.

The path to the Willamette River on 3/19.

The path on 4/14.

April 8th along the Willamette.

April 14th on the inland gravel path.

Beyond Lot 3 is where our visits began to differ. On our first (shortest) visit we continued South from the lot and took the second left (Brown Squirrel & Yellow Duck Loop) looped around the South and East ends of the Dog Park to Lot 2 where we crossed the entrance road and followed the 10k path back to the junction where we had taken our first right that morning. From there we retraced our steps back to Riverfront Park.

For the second hike we continued South from Lot 3 then forked right and crossed Oxbow Slough on a footbridge before turning back after another 0.75-miles at a “T” junction with the Blue Heron, Purple Rabbit, and 10k Trails. We retraced our steps, passing the shared Squirrel & Duck Loop section that we’d taken the previous week turning instead at the next right (We were coming from the opposite direction as the previous week. This was also part of the Yellow Duck Loop and took led us along the North side of the dog park to Lot 2 where we turned left and again followed the 10k path back as we had the week before.

On our third outing we followed our route from the week before to the “T” junction but turned left and continued on the shared Purple Rabbit/10k Loop to return to the junction near the bridge over the slough. This time we returned through Lot 3 taking the right fork of the Red Osprey Loop at the North end of the lot. This loop brought us through an open field with an old cherry orchard to the 10k Loop where we took a left and followed the familiar route back to Riverfront.

My route was most similar to our third outing. It varied in that I had to stay inland instead of hiking along the river and I turned onto the dirt Blue Heron Loop path shortly after crossing the bridge over the slough.
The Minto-Island Conservation Trail (Used during all four hikes.)

Oxbow Slough is accessible near Lot 3.
Oxbow slough 3/19.

April 14th

Just South of Lot 3 the paved path is shared by the 10k, Purple Rabbit, Blue Heron, Green Deer, Yellow Duck and Brown Squirrel Loops.

The footbridge over Oxbow Slough is part of the 10k, Blue Heron, and Purple Rabbit Loops.

The Blue Heron Loop ran parallel to the paved path and at times nearly touched.
Blue Heron Loop running parallel to the 10k/Purple Rabbit Loops.

Field along the Blue Heron Loop

The biggest difference, and most of the extra mileage came when I continued straight toward the Brown’s Island Demolition Landfill when the Blue Heron Loop turned left. At the landfill I turned right and followed a gravel roadbed around it to the Orange Turtle Loop onto which I turned right following counterclockwise into Eola Bend County Park.
The “T” junction where the 10k/Purple Rabbit Loops turn left from the Blue Heron Loop.

Most of the junctions are well signed with maps which helped keep me on track.

Willamette River from the Orange Turtle Loop.

Orange Turtle Loop

The boarder between Minto-Brown Island Park and Eola Bend County Park.

A bit of the history of Eola Bend County Park.

Nice map of the Willamette River watershed.

Eola Bend County Park

I took advantage of this picnic table to take a short break.

After completing the Orange Turtle Loop I went back along the landfill (Admittedly one of the least exciting things to experience on a hike.) passing the path I’d arrived at the landfill on and continued just over a tenth of a mile on the gravel road which brought me to the end of a paved road at the landfill.
The landfill behind the map.

Arriving at the road.

I turned left here and in less than a tenth of a mile was back on the Purple Rabbit/10k Loop which uses a 0.3-mile section of the road.
The 10k/Purple Rabbit Loop on the left.

I was now back on the route of our third visit and followed the Purple Rabbit/10k Loop just over a half mile to a junction with the Green Deer Loop, with a short detour to a bench along Oxbow Slough.

The Green Deer Loop junction.

I made my one mistake of the day here thinking that I could turn right (we’d gone left the week before) and do this loop. Just over 0.4-miles in though I came upon a small pond in the middle of the trail.

I backtracked to the Purple Rabbit/10k Loop and again followed our third visit route until coming to the Brown Squirrel/Yellow Duck/10k Loop where I turned right. This was the path we’d taken on our first visit to loop around the dog park. I followed the paved path around the South side of the park but then instead of staying on the trail the loops follow I hoped onto a rougher dirt path that paralleled it and followed that to Lot 2 where I hopped back onto the 10k Loop.
The paved 10k/Yellow Duck/Brown Squirrel Loop.

The rougher dirt path.

The dog park (possibly the happiest place in Salem, at least for dogs).

The 10k Loop on the opposite side of the entrance road from Lot 2.

I deviated once more from our earlier visits when I left the 10k Loop just before it joins the Red Osprey Loop. I crossed that paved path and onto a faint dirt path that led past the Old Cherry Orchard. I followed this dirt path just under a half mile to the paved 5k/10k/Red Osprey/Brown Squirrel Loop where I turned right and climbed a small hill to the Minto Island Conservation Trail.
From our 3/19 hike on the 10k Loop. The path running from left to right is the Red Osprey Loop. On this last trip I took the path on the left down to the sign below at the junction and continued straight.

At the sign heading toward the old cherry orchard.

The old cherry orchard.

I turned left onto the Conservation Trail and returned to Riverfront Park to complete my hike.

Cherry blossoms.

One constant throughout all of the hikes was the abundant wildlife.
Deer – 3/19

Bald eagle – 3/19

Cormorant on the Willamette – 3/25

Sparrow – 3/25

Lesser goldfinch – 4/8

Mallard – 4/8

Wood ducks up in a tree – 4/8

Osprey – 4/8

Green-winged teal – 4/14

Mallard – 4/14

Golden-crowned sparrow – 4/14

Robin – 4/14

White-crowned sparrow – 4/14

Squirrel – 4/14

Rabbit – 4/14 (This was one of several dozen bunnies that I encountered on this day.)

Woodpecker – 4/14

Lot 3 also had its share of wildlife.
Scrub jay – 3/19

Dove – 4/8

Killdeer – 4/14

Red breasted sapsuckers – 4/14 (Males peck the sign to make noise to either attract mates or establish territory.)

Pied billed grebe in Oxbow Slough – 3/19

Ring-necked ducks from the bridge over Oxbow Slough – 3/25

Buffleheads from the bridge over Oxbow Slough – 3/25

Geese from the bridge over Oxbow Slough – 3/25

Hummingbird along the Blue Heron Trail – 4/14

Orange-crowned warbler along the Blue Heron Trail – 4/14

Dark-eyed junco at Eola Bend County Park – 4/14

Northern flicker at Eola Bend County Park – 4/14

Swallows at Eola Bend County Park – 4/14

Red-tailed hawk near the landfill – 4/14

Great blue heron at Oxbow Slough across from the bench viewpoint near Lot 4 (Homestead Road) – 4/14

Wood duck drake in Oxbow Slough – 4/8

Ruby-crowned kinglet – 4/8

Rabbit – 4/8

Egret between the Red Osprey and 10k Loops – 4/8

Turkey vulture near the old cherry orchard – 4/14

We’re lucky to have this park nearby and it seems crazy that we still haven’t checked out all of the trails yet. It at least gives us a reason, besides the abundant wildlife, to keep going back. That being said we are really looking forward to some more remote hiking in quieter forests. Happy Trails!

Yellow-3/19
Black-3/25
Red-4/8
Cyan-4/14

Flickr: Minto Brown Walks / Minto Brown and Eola Bend County Park

Tags 10k loop, blue heron loop, Brown Squirrel loop, Dog Park, Eola Bend County Park, green deer loop, Lot 3, minto-brown island park, old cherry orchard, orange turtle loop, oxbow slough, purple rabbit loop, red osprey loop, Salem, willamette river, Willamette Valley, Yellow Duck Loop

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Trip report Willamette Valley

Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge – 04/13/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 17, 2023
2 Comments on Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge – 04/13/2023

We have eagerly been awaiting the arrival of Spring but instead we are seemingly stuck in Winter. I had scheduled a couple of days off in mid-April with dreams of sunny hikes filled with wildflowers and great views. Those dreams were put on hold and my hopes turned to dry hikes with decent views and maybe some wildlife.

I turned to an old reliable source for wildlife for my first hike of my extended weekend and made the 15 minute drive to the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. Despite its proximity to our house this was only my fourth time hiking at the refuge, in large part due to the fact that the vast majority of the trails and refuge is closed from October 1st through March 31st. With our official hiking season running from the start of May through the end of October our window for visiting is basically just the month of April unless it shows up on our actual schedule. (My previous visits were in April, May and July.)

The forecast was for a dry, partly cloudy morning with a chance of showers starting after 11am. There was however a frost advisory, so I was expecting a chilly outing. As I pulled out of our garage I was encouraged to see the start of what looked to be a beautiful sunrise. As the crow flies the refuge is a mere 8 miles from home, but it lies in a valley while we are on a hill. As I drove down the hill toward the highway I quickly realized that low lying clouds were camped out in the valley and a solid bank of fog greeted me at the Baskett Butte Trailhead.

The fog made my choice of whether to visit the viewing platform atop Baskett Butte now or on the way back easy, so when I came to the Rich Guadagno Memorial Loop I veered right.

I had a rough idea of where all I was hoping to go on this visit and now that I knew I was saving the viewpoint for later the plan came more into focus. I would follow the Memorial Loop to the Inter-Tie Trail and take that trail to the Moffitti Morgan Loop Trail. I planned on hiking that loop clockwise to visit Moffitti Marsh and then Morgan Lake before taking the Inter-Tie Trail back to the Memorial Loop.
There were a few buttercups blooming in the grass and not much else along this side of the Memorial Trail.

A lone strawberry blossom.

The Inter-Tie Trail was a wet and muddy affair. I could hear a lot of birds in the surrounding trees but couldn’t make any of them out unless they flew right in front of me.

I went left here which got me out of the slick mud but onto even wetter grass.

There hadn’t been a lot to get excited about as I made my way along the loop until I got close to Moffitti Marsh which was full of water from our wet Spring.
Coming up on the marsh which is just on the other side of the dip in the road.

Two rabbits trying to decide if they were going to keep eating grass or race off into the blackberry bushes.

While there were a decent number of ducks in the water at the marsh getting pictures or even making out what types they were was difficult due to the fog.

Ring-necked ducks

I think this is a marsh wren.

Beyond the marsh the trail follows a fence line along some farmland, and it was along this stretch that the I got the first sign that the fog might be starting to lift.

By the time I’d reached Smithfield Road, where the trail turns right, I was in a fairly clear pocket which was fortunate because there were several different types of birds in the area.

I think the 2nd goose in from the right is a cackling goose while the others are Canada geese. It’s a bit smaller and the white patch is shaped differently.

Swallows

California quail

Just before reaching the Smithfield Road Trailhead I passed a bustling wetland with northern shovelers and cinnamon teals.

Cinnamon teals

Northern shoveler drake

Northern shoveler females

Signs at the Smithfield Road Trailhead.

My break from the fog was short lived and I found it again at Morgan Lake.

There were a lot of ducks out on the lake but again they were not easy to make out.
Buffleheads

Ring-necked duck

Possibly a lesser scaup.

Mallards

The trail along the swollen lake was basically flooded which made for a cold trudge through the grass and mud. It turned out to be worth it though as shortly after passing the lake I spotted a herd of elk on a hillside that we’d seen elk on before.

The only bull I could pick out.

When the loop trail made a 180 degree turn to begin climbing back toward the Inter-Tie Trail I refocused on looking for wildflowers. I quickly spotted a few fawn lilies.

My focus bounced between the numerous birds that were singing and flitting about in the trees and looking for more flowers as I continued uphill.
Robin

Bench overlooking Morgan Lake

Morgan Lake from the bench.

Spotted towhees

A lot of geese way below the trail.

I took the Inter-Tie Trail back to the Rich Guadagno Memorial Loop where I veered right to finish it and visit the viewing platform.

I started seeing a lot of toothwort on this side of the loop.

More fawn lilies too.

The viewing platform on Baskett Butte to the right.

One of several western meadowlarks (Oregon’s state bird) on the butte.

American kestral

A better look at the yellow on the meadowlarks.

View from the platform.

I called an audible at the viewpoint and decided to finally follow the small but obvious path down the SE side of Baskett Butte. I wasn’t sure exactly where it came out but I suspected that it came out somewhere along Coville Road. If my suspicion was correct then I planned on following Coville Road south to the Cackler Marsh Trail, one that I hadn’t hiked before.
Sign along the path.

More fawn lilies.

The path leading down toward Coville Road. The outhouse at the Baskett Butte Trailhead is on the left below.

Baskett Butte from below.

Sure enough the path ended at Coville Road a very short distance from the outhouse. I turned south (right) on the road and followed it 0.2-miles to a gate at the start of the Cackler Trail.

The trail is simply a dike road that leads to the refuge HQs.

The headquarters is to the left of the road on the far side of South Slough.

I followed this trail to the end of the water before turning around. There were a lot of ducks, geese, and blackbirds around.

Also a bunch of American coots.

Northern shovelers

Buffleheads

Red-winged blackbird

Yellowlegs (probably lesser)

Baskett Butte (left) from my turn around point.

On the way back to the trailhead I did spot a lone ruddy duck dozing along the shore.

The ruddy duck woke up after all the American coots headed off.

Savannah sparrow

One more American kestral

My outing came in at 6.6 miles with a little over 300′ of elevation gain. It turned out to be a nice morning after the early fog and by the end I had some views of the snow in the Coast Range.

Hopefully actual Spring weather is just around the corner because our hiking season sure is. The snow pack is currently well above average which is great, but we are ready for some sunshine. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Baskett Slough 2023

Tags Baskett Butte, Baskett Slough Wildlife Refuge, Cackler Trail, elk, geese, hiking, Inter-Tie Trail, Moffiti Marsh, Moffitti Marsh Trail, Moffitti Morgan Loop Trail, Morgan Lake, Morgan Lake Trail, Oregon, Rich Guadagno Memorial Loop Trail, Ruddy Duck, Smithfield Road Trailhead, Western Meadowlark, Willamette Valley

Corvallis Hiking Oregon Trip report Willamette Valley

Fitton Green Natural Area – 03/11/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date March 13, 2023
1 Comment on Fitton Green Natural Area – 03/11/2023

Since mid-February we’ve had several rounds of snow, lots of rain, and a stretch of cool (cold) temperatures. We are more than ready for Spring to arrive. A well-timed break in the weather pattern gave us an opportunity to get back to hiking with a trip to Benton County’s Fitton Green Natural Area. While the Fitton Green Natural Area is managed by Benton County a network of trails also allows access to land managed by the Crestmont Land Trust, Greenbelt Land Trust, and the City of Corvallis (Bald Hill Natural Area).

We had visited Bald Hill in 2016 (post) so for this visit we chose to start at the Wren Trailhead (Cardwell Hill West TH) and visit the Crestmont Land Trust and Fitton Green trails.

The signboard at the trailhead had a good map which revealed two trails that were not present on the map I’d downloaded from the County’s website, the North and Bridge Trails.

Of the two the North Trail most interested us as it would allow us to avoid repeating a section of the Cardwell Hill Trail. The Bridge Trail would have been an option had we been looking for a shorter loop. After settling on our route we set off on the Cardwell Hill Trail.

From the trail we had a brief view of Marys River.

We followed the gravel roadbed turned trail for half a mile, crossing into the Crestmont Land Trust area, to the well signed junction with the North Trail.
The forecast was for patchy morning fog with a chance of light showers between Noon and 3pm and partly sunny skies. They got the patchy morning fog part right.

The first of three abandoned cars we’d pass on the day. This one was in a field on a hillside before entering the Crestmont Land Trust.

Interpretive signs greeted us as we entered the Crestmont Land Trust.

The North Trail junction.

We turned uphill on the North Trail at the junction where we encountered the first of several “Shovel Stations”.

The shovels can be used to remove cow pies from the trails during periods of cattle grazing in the land trust. Thankfully there was no grazing happening currently so there was no need to carry the shovel to the next station, but we thought it was a neat idea. The North Trail gained approximately 200′ in the first third of a mile where we came to a viewpoint with a fairly new looking gazebo and a unique set of table and chairs that had been carved from stumps.

The gazebo housed a small table with benches. A particularly nice touch was the lack of back on the bench that wasn’t facing the view which allows you to sit facing the view.

The view from the gazebo.

The stump table and chairs.

Not sure what the most recent gathering was but there was an interesting variety of items around the table.

After admiring the gazebo and odd table setting we continued on the North Trail which began a half mile descent back to the Cardwell Hill Trail.
Another bench along the trail.

Turkey tails

The Cardwell Hill Trail in the valley below the North Trail.

Dropping down to the Cardwell Hill Trail.

We turned back onto the Cardwell Hill Trail which quickly entered the Fitton Green Natural Area. We ignored two spurs of the Fitton Green North-South Trail on the right and followed this trail up and over its high point a total of 1.5 miles to the Cardwell Hill East Trailhead.
The first spur didn’t have any signage

The second spur had a marker naming it the Fitton Green North-South Trail.

Trail marker

Dimple Hill in the McDonald Forest (post).

The other two abandoned cars, these were outside of the natural area.

Arriving at the east trailhead.

We turned around at the trailhead and regained the 250+ feet that we’d dropped from the trail’s highpoint. The out and back to east trailhead wasn’t necessary but it was some good hill training for the hiking season to come. We then descended 300′ to the Fitton Green North-South Trail where we veered left.
One of the more impressive trees along this section of the Cardwell Hill Trail

The Fitton Green North-South Trail.

Tragedy nearly struck on this trail when a slow-moving slug barely avoided a foot.
Watch your step.

We followed this trail a total of 1.1 miles where we turned right onto the Allen Throop Loop Trail. Along the way we passed Amy’s Trail at the 0.4-mile mark, a private road at the 0.9-mile mark, and the western end of the Allen Throop Loop at the 1-mile mark.
Amy’s Trail

The clouds were beginning to break up as we climbed up this trail.

The western end of the Throop Loop.

The eastern end of the Allen Throop Loop. Continuing on the Fitton Green North-South Trail would have brought us to the Panorama Drive Trailhead.

We turned onto the Allen Throop Loop Trail which brought us to an oak savannah hillside.
There seems to have been a spelling error (Alan vs Allen) on the trail marker.

Plaque at a viewpoint along the Allen Throop Loop. Note that it is Allen not Alan on the plaque.

Despite the clouds breaking up we didn’t have a view of Marys Peak, the highest peak in the Oregon Coast Range (post).

The trail overlooks the cities of Corvallis (to the left/east) and Philomath (straight/south).

Bald Hill with Corvallis beyond from the Throop Loop.

East toward the Coast Range.

We were too early for any wildflowers, especially this year with the lingering cold weather but we did spot some lupine leaves along the trail before we came to a bench at a junction with the Mulkey Ridge Trail.

This is the trail that connects Bald Hill with Fitton Green.

The trail made a slight climb from the bench arriving back at the Fitton Green North-South Trail less than a quarter mile later.
The junction from the Throop Loop Trail.

We turned left and retraced our steps on the Fitton Green North-South Trail to its junction with Amy’s Trail where we turned left (West) dropping into a denser forest.
Map at the start of Amy’s Trail.

Gate at the Fitton Green-Crestmont Land Trust border.

Creek along Amy’s Trail. With all the wet weather there was a fair amount of water in all the streams/creeks in the area.

After a third of a mile on Amy’s Trail we came to a junction with Creek Road.

We turned left crossing over the little unnamed creek to a T-junction near a picnic table. To the right was the Creek Trail while the Upper Forest Trail went left.

On the hillside above the picnic table is the Creek Trail.

Our plan was to make as wide a loop as possible through this area so we went left following the Upper Forest Trail uphill.

Switchbacks along the Upper Forest Trail.

After a fairly stiff climb the Upper Forest Trail descended more gradually arriving at High Road 0.4-miles from the Picnic Table.

Arriving at High Road.

According to the maps High Road continued to the left a short distance then became the Lookout Extension before dead ending in the forest. Something to check out on another trip. Today we turned right following this roadbed 100 yards before once again turning left, this time onto the Mid Forest Trail at a 4-way junction.
The Mid Forest Trail is hidden behind the tree on the left. To the right is the Creek Trail while High Road continues straight ahead.

Another 0.4-mile descent brought us to a junction in an oak savannah with the Lower Forest Trail and Middle Road.

Lots of green moss along this trail.

A little snow on the ridge in the distance.

Rabbit that Heather spotted.

The junction was at the far end of this open space.

Stayed left at the junction on what was now the Lower Forest Trail which descended another quarter mile to Lower Meadow Road.
This was by far the most confusing junction we’d encountered all day. It was one of only a couple that was unsigned and none of the maps that we’d seen or had brought with us showed the road continuing to the left. Since we’d planned on staying left at all junctions except for at High Road we initially turned left here thinking it was the River Trail, but it just didn’t feel right so we turned to the Garmin which did show the road continuation. It didn’t look anything like the River Trail route so we promptly turned around and returned to the 4-way junction and took a left downhill through the meadow.
Lower Meadow

The River Trail brought us to Marys River then turned north along the river for a 0.2-miles.
Gate along the River Trail just before Marys River.

Marys River

Male common merganser floating Marys River. I only had a brief second to try and get a picture as he floated by thus the poor focus.

A short spur trail led down to the river bank.

We had spent all morning watching for wildflowers knowing that everything was running late this year but holding out hope that we’d spot an early bloomer. One of the first to bloom each year in the forests around the valley is snow queen and finally along the river here we spotted a few of the small purple flowers.

The River Trail veered away from Marys River and back into the meadow before ending at Lower Meadow Road. We turned right on the road which crossed an unnamed creek before meeting the Cardwell Hill Trail.

Not flowers but mushrooms are always fun to spot.

Lower Meadow Road crossing the creek and ending at the Cardwell Hill Trail.

We turned left onto the Cardwell Hill Trail. We had missed this 0.4-mile section which followed Marys River earlier when we’d turned up the North Trail.

The short Trestle Extension led to a view of a railroad trestle over Marys River.

The signboards at the North Trail junction from the Cardwell Hill Trail.

Robin near the North Trail junction.

We retraced our steps from the North Trail junction under the partly sunny skies that had been promised.
No more fog.

Today’s hike came in as 9.3 miles on the Garmin with approximately 1200′ of cumulative elevation gain.

While it hadn’t felt at all like Spring when we’d set off that morning by the end of the hike, and after seeing the snow queen blossoms, we could convince ourselves that it might not be too far off. The forecast had been spot on with the patchy fog giving way to partly sunny skies, and we did have two very light showers pass over while we were looping through the Crestmont Land Trust.

This was a nice hike and an area that we will definitely be back to. There are trails that we didn’t take this time to come back and explore and the possibility of longer or shorter loops make it an attractive option when we were looking for something open year-round and not too far home. Happy Trails!

Hiking Oregon Portland Trip report Willamette Valley

Marquam Park – 02/11/2023

A favorable forecast prompted us to head out for our February hike on Super Bowl weekend. We chose Marquam Nature Park in Portland as our destination due to it being less than an hour from Salem and allowing for a reasonable distance with some good elevation gain for an off-season hike on trails that we had not explored yet.

While there are several trailheads located around the park most have a 2-hour parking limit so we opted to begin our hike at Council Crest Park. (Note that the gate opens daily at 8:00am.) We were hoping that the forecasted “mostly sunny skies” would translate into mountain views from Council Crest after having been greeted by fog in 2018, but despite some blue sky on our drive north we were again greeted by clouds.

We held out hope that skies might clear up by the time we returned and set off on the Marquam Trail on the eastern side of the park following a pointer for the Marquam Shelter

The trail led downhill for just over a mile to a junction with the Sunnyside Trail. There were several road crossings along this stretch.

Coming up to the SW Greenway Ave crossing at the 0.3-mile mark.

Mossy bench

Small trailhead at SW Fairmount Blvd at the 0.5 mile mark.

At the 1-mile mark the trail crosses NW Sherwood Dr.

Maybe the steepest section of the hike was the tenth of a mile between NW Sherwood and the Sunnyside Trail.

The Sunnyside Trail junction.

At the junction we forked left onto the Sunnyside Trail and followed it another 0.7-miles downhill to the Marquam Shelter.

Every (official) trail junction was well marked by pointers which helped us stay on course.

The Shadyside Trail on the far hillside.

One of two hairy woodpeckers that were busy foraging for breakfast.

Coming up on the Marquam Shelter.

We saw little fungi, but these turkey tails added some color to the forest.

The Marquam Shelter.

The Marquam Shelter is one of two separate destinations that Sullivan gives options for in his “Aerial Tram & Council Crest” featured hike entry in “100 Hikers/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington”. We used our visit to Council Crest in 2018 to check this featured hike off our list but now we could officially cross off the other. We didn’t detour into the shelter to check out the historical photos due to a homeless person who seemed to be just waking up. That being said the park and trails were all well maintained and we saw almost no garbage. There did seem to be a lot of clothing items (glove, hats, and even a night splint) placed on or near a number of the trail markers.

We ignored the Shadyside Trail which headed uphill away from the shelter and continued another 20′ and turned uphill onto the Basalt Trail which was an old roadbed.

A tenth of a mile from the shelter we passed the Connor Trail on the left. This trail would have taken us to OHSU and the Portland Areal Tram. Sullivan’s described routes have you taking the Tram both ways for the Marquam Shelter option or downhill for the Washington Park to Council Crest option. (The latter route also includes a Portland Streetcar and Max Light Rail rides.) We were committed to hiking only though, so we continued up the Basalt Trail another 0.2 miles to the Marquam Trail.

We forked left onto the Marquam Trail (right would have allowed for a much shorter loop) and climbed a series of switchbacks 0.3-miles to SW Gibbs Street.
The Marquam Trail to the left and right with the Basalt Trail in the center from the first switchback.

Trail marker near SW Gibbs.

The trail briefly followed the road past a large water tower then crossed over and dropped 0.2-miles to a junction with the Flicker Trail.

The Flicker Trail from the Marquam Trail.

We stayed on the Marquam Trail at the junction for another 0.7-miles where we met the other end of the Flicker Trail.

This time we turned onto the Flicker Trail following it uphill for 0.3-miles to the Warbler Trail.

Note it is still not “mostly sunny” even though it was now almost 10am.

We decided to detour up the Warbler Trail which climbed 0.4-miles to another small pullout along SW Fairmount Blvd.

While not a warbler this spotted towhee graced us with a song.

Checking out a budding leaf.

The end of the Warbler Trail.

We dropped back down to the Flicker Trail and turned left continuing North 0.3-miles to the Towhee Trail (where we did not see any towhees).

We turned left on the Towhee Trail which climbed a half mile to yet another small trailhead, this time on SW Marquam Hill Road.

We crossed the road and continued on the Towhee Trail another 0.6-miles to its end at the Marquam Trail.
Pointer for the Marquam Shelter at the trailhead.

Bench along the switchbacks down to the Marquam Trail.

The Towhee Trail junction with Marquam Trail was nearly all the way back down to the Basalt Trail (the lower trail in the photo).

We turned left onto the Marquam Trail and followed it another 0.6-miles to the junction with the Sunnyside Trail.
Not sure what the story is behind this post but it was the only one we spotted with this type of number.

We passed the Shdayside Trail after half a mile.

There was a short section with some railing before dropping down to the Sunnyside Trail.

After completing our loop we turned left had hiked the 1.1-miles back uphill to Council Crest where the clouds were finally starting to break up.

Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to provide a view of any Cascade volcanoes but it was at something at least.
Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams are out there beyond the clouds.

Freemont Bridge spanning the Willamette River with the Columbia River in the distance.

Hummingbird

Hermit thrush looking for snacks at Council Crest Park.

Our hike came to 7.8-miles with at least 1700′ of elevation gain.

This was a nice hike and a good one for this time of year since it doesn’t really have any big sights along the way. A mountain view would have been great and of course by the time we on the freeway driving home Hood, St. Helens, and Adams were all clearly visible. Oh well, there will be plenty more opportunities over the next months.

After our hike we were able to meet up with some of Heather’s family for a great lunch at Salvador Molly’s. It was a great way to cap of the day. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Marquam Park

Tags Basalt Trail, Conners Trail, Council Crest, Flicker Trail, Hermit Thrush, hiking, Marquam Nature Park, Marquam Shelter, Marquam Trail, Oregon, Portland, Shadyside Trail, spotted towhee, Sunnyside Trail, Towhee Trail, Warbler Trail

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Trip report Willamette Valley

Talking Water Gardens – 12/17/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date December 19, 2022
1 Comment on Talking Water Gardens – 12/17/2022

After a couple of months of being on my own while Heather recovered from a bad knee she had been released to take short hikes with minimal elevation changes. With Heather cleared for action we just needed a favorable forecast for our December hike. When a day off coincided with a rain-free forecast we set off for the Talking Water Gardens in Albany. The site of two former mills Talking Water Gardens is a series of wastewater ponds created to assist with water treatment for the cities of Albany and Millersburg. While it may not sound like a typical place for a hike a series of paths and maintenance roads provide for a nice stroll with plenty chances to spot wildlife.

There are a couple of possible starting points for a visit to the gardens and we chose to begin at Waverly Lake and follow a route suggested in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide.

Waverly Lake at sunrise.

We headed left (clockwise) around Waverly Lake where a number of ducks were paddling around.

Mallards

Buffleheads

I think this is a ruddy duck.

American coots

Guessing these are some sort of domestic/mallard? crossbreeds. Very interesting looking.

More mallards near Cox Creek

Cox Creek flowing toward Waverly Lake.

Nearing the outlet of Cox Creek.

When we arrived at Cox Creek flowing out of the lake we crossed Salem Avenue then crossed Cox Creek on a footbridge.

We turned left on far side of the creek and followed a paved path 0.3 miles to Waverly Dr. NE and the other possible starting point, Simpson Park.

We almost got off-track here. This path on the right (just after passing under some railroad tracks) does lead into the wetlands but it wasn’t part of the Oregon Hikers described hike.

One of several interpretive signs along the trails.

Frosty leaves, it had been a chilly 28 degrees when we started out.

Simpson Park

We walked over to the park to take a look but didn’t check out the Simpson Park Trail this trip.
The Simpson Park Trail is a 1 mile out and back along the Willamette River. It also offers access to the Riverfront Trail which one could follow SW almost 3.5 miles to Monteith Riverpark at the mouth of the Calapooia River. With Heather being limited to shorter hikes for now that wasn’t an option today but will be something we look forward to trying in the future.

After the brief detour we recrossed Waverly Road and entered the gardens through a black gate.

We headed left past a mostly frozen pond.

Map on a welcome sign.

Frozen leaves

There are numerous different loops and routes available through the gardens. We followed the Oregon Hikers description linked above. We had to stop numerous times to consult the track map from that description to stay on the right path due to the trails not being marked/signed and the only maps having been located near the entrance. The paths themselves were in good shape and we saw a lot of ducks and other birds as we wound through the wetlands.

American wigeons

Bald eagle fly over

Flock of geese flying over

One of many unsigned intersections.

Robin

One of two memorials in the gardens.

Bufflehead

Green winged teal

Northern shoveler

Frost

Simpson Park across a pond.

After completing our loop we headed back to Waverly Lake where some fog had rolled in.

Fishermen heading into the fog at Waverly Lake.

Mallards hanging out in the fog.

Dark eyed junco

The GPS had us at a 3.5-mile hike, a little more than what Oregon Hikers showed but we did double-back a handful of times for one reason or another.

This was surprisingly nice hike and we’re anxious to visit again when the plants are green and water is flowing through the ponds. This was perfect though for a first outing to test Heather’s progress. Merry Christmas and Happy Trails!

Flirck: Talking Water Gardens

Tags Albany, Bald Eagle, Cox Creek, Ducks, hiking, Oregon, SImpson Park, Talking Water Gardens, Waverly Lake, Waverly Lake Trailhead

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Trip report Willamette Valley

Silver Falls Perimeter Loop – 10/29/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date November 2, 2022
5 Comments on Silver Falls Perimeter Loop – 10/29/2022

With October and our official hiking season coming to an end I was hoping to go out with a bang by doing a long loop around Silver Falls State Park. I had gotten the idea during our 2021 hike in the backcountry of the park (post). While looking at the map for that hike I had started doing the math for the loop and it appeared to be a little over 20 miles which would be a long day but doable. Heather was not as enthused as I was about the possibility, so I had originally planned on attempting the loop on a day off while she was working. With her knee ending her season early it seemed like a good way to put an exclamation on the end of mine.

As the day neared I started second guessing myself. Some much need wet weather had moved in, and Friday was the wettest day we’ve had in months. The forecast for Saturday was for more rain in the morning, a 70% chance, followed by several hours of patchy fog then mostly cloudy skies. Twenty plus miles with wet feet wasn’t my ideal way to spend a hike but I decided to give it a try figuring I could cut the loop short by using one of the many trails running through the park. I packed some extra pairs of socks in a dry sack and had my rain gear ready as I made the 40-minute drive to the South Falls Trailhead.

It was a dark and raining when I left home but shortly after turning onto Highway 214 I popped out of the low clouds and left the rain behind. Things were trending positive. When I got to the South Falls Day Use Area entrance I was reminded that by the gate that the Park opens at 8am and not 7am from October through March and it was only 7:30am. I needed to purchase a pass so I drove to the North Falls Trailhead where I knew there was a pay kiosk, only I had forgotten that the station there only accepts cash which I didn’t have. After using the restroom there I drove back through the park to the campground entrance remembering that there was a station along the entrance road that did take cards. I decided that I would get a pass there and then park at the 214 Trailhead like we had in 2021 since there was no gate blocking that one. At the kiosk I immediately inserted my card into the cash slot. Things were trending down. I managed to retrieve the card using a pair of travel nail clippers and finally got my pass. It was nearly 8am as I came to the turn into the trailhead at Lookout Mountain Road. Given the time I changed my mind here and decided to revert back to my original plan and drove back to the now ungated South Falls Day Use Area.
A lot more blue in the sky than I had expected to see.

The route I had penciled out was to take the paved bike path from the parking lot to the campground where I would pick up the Nature Trail. I could take that trail to the 214 Trail followed by a portion of the Newt Loop to the Catamount Trail. I hoped to take that trail up to Buck Mountain then take the Perimeter Trail down to the Trail of Ten Falls near the North Falls Trailhead. I planned on visiting all ten falls and returning to the parking area via the Canyon Trail portion of the Trail of Ten Falls. I crossed South Fork Silver Creek on a footbridge to pick up the Bike Path on the far side where I turned left.

Crossing Highway 214 to the campground.

I detoured left to check out this bridge over Howard Creek.

Howard Creek

With the Nature Trail being a loop I could have gone either direction from the campground to reach the 214 Trail. Going left was a tenth of a mile shorter but I really wanted to make the loop as wide as possible so I went right at a pointer for the trail and Ampitheater.

We had been on the Nature Trail in 2021 so it was familiar surroundings as I made my way to the 214 Trail where I turned right.

Sign at the 214 Trail junction to let people know that there are no waterfalls in the backcountry.

I followed the 214 Trail for 1.3 miles to the Newt Loop.
Just a little fog but no rain.

Passing the Smith Creek Trail (left) after 0.6 miles on the 214 Trail.

Rough skinned newt on the 214 Trail. (Probably headed for the Newt Loop too.)

Big nursery tree along the 214 Trail.

The trail post at the junction shows the Catamount Trail instead of the Newt Loop but the map at the junction labels it the Newt Loop.

Map check.

I turned right onto the Newt Loop and arrived at a junction with the Catamount Trail after 0.4 level miles.
This second post included the Newt Loop along with a pointer for the Catamount Trail.

Crossing a CAT road along the Newt Loop.

Turning onto the Catamount Trail.

The Catamount Trail was new trail for me having not used it on our loop in 2021. The park map showed this trail extending 4.6 miles to a junction with the Lost Creek Trail then continuing another 0.9 miles to Buck Mountain. As a mountain bike trail the Catamount wound steadily uphill through the forest.
Lots of nursery stumps along the trail.

Another nursery stump.

Side trails were well marked.

Did not expect to see that overhead today.

I believe this short section of fire scar was from the 2020 Beachie Fire.

After 3.8 miles on the Catamount Trail I came to a 4-way junction with a maintenance road.

The Catamount Trail continued on the far side the road only there was a “Do Not Enter One-Way” sign on the post.

This was the first I’d heard of the trail here being one-way and I haven’t had a lot of luck since my hike in finding that information online or maps, but I honored the sign and turned left on the maintenance road following a Catamount Trail pointer.
Turning onto the road.

The opposite side of the post had a pointer for the Lost Creek Trail.

I followed the road for half a mile to the Lost Creek/Buck Mountain Trail junction.

I veered uphill to the right here.

The Lost Creek/Buck Mountain junction.

On our previous visit we had arrived at this same junction having come down the Buck Mountain Trail. To make this hike as different as possible (and to remain as far to the outside of the park as possible) I turned right on the Lost Creek Trail.
The Lost Creek Trail doubles as a fire road.

I followed this trail for 0.8 miles to a junction with the Catamount Trail at the edge of a clear cut.

Here is where I would have come up had the Catamount Trail did not have the on-way section. (Note that on some mountain biking maps the one-way section is labeled “Upper Catamount Trail.)

I turned left onto the Catatmount Trail at the junction and quickly found myself walking through the clear cut.

The treeless section wasn’t long. It appeared to have been an area impacted by the 2020 Beachie Fire.

Still some bleeding heart blooming.

There wasn’t a lot of bright Fall colors in the backcountry, but this maple stood out.

Was a bit surprised to see a few violets along this section.

Nearing the end of the logged area.

At the tree line the trail split unexpectedly (another feature not shown on the park map) into two one-way trails. The right hand fork (in this direction) was one-way uphill while the left down. I was going down at this point so I stayed to the left.

It wasn’t long before the two trails rejoined. The trail continued downhill to the Buck Mountain Loop near its crossing of Howard Creek.
The rejoining of the trails.

There were several bridges along this section of the trail. I also ran into the only mountain bikers that I would encounter all day in this area, a group of five.

The Buck Mountain Loop junction.

I turned right at the junction and crossed Howard Creek then turned right again back onto the Catamount Trail.
Bridge over Howard Creek.

The continuation of the Catamount Trail on the right.

The trail now climbed uphill for 0.2 miles to the large trail junction on Buck Mountain, a total of 1.1 miles from the Lost Creek Trail junction.

The map showed the section I had just done as 0.9 miles, but my track was a bit more twisty than the map.

From the junction I took the Perimeter Trail.

The park map lists this trail as 5.9 miles in length and has a “Steep” warning not far from the Buck Mountain junction. The trail was in good shape and although it lost over 350′ of elevation in just under a mile to a crossing of South Fork Silver Creek the grade was reasonable. Compared to some of the other trails we’d been on this year it didn’t seem all that steep.

A small opening on the way down.

Footbridge over South Fork Silver Creek.

South Fork Silver Creek

If I had paid better attention to the elevation numbers shown on the park map I might not have been so surprised when the trail began to climb on the other side of the creek. Over the next 2.1 miles the trail gained over 650′ before arriving at junction with the Rackett Ridge Trail. Up until the Rackett Ridge junction I had only encountered 8 people, the group of 5 mountain bikers and three trail runners (one solo and two together). The number of people seen doubled at this junction.

I’m a hiker so I went right here.

Big fungus on the tree ahead.

Map at the Rackett Ridge junction.

I continued on the Perimeter Trail which now began a nearly 3-mile descent that was at least as steep as the section before with the warning. The use of switchbacks allowed the grade to stay reasonable though.

Another impressive nursery log.

I stopped in this area to change out of my sweaty socks and into one of the extra pairs I’d brought expecting rain.

The vegetation went through several changes as the trail lost elevation.

This was a big tree in the midst of much smaller ones.

Roemer’s Meadow Trail (left) isn’t shown on the park maps yet, but it was completed in 2021 with help from the Salem Area Trails Alliance. (They do a lot of good work in the park and the area.) The trail is approximately 1.7 miles from the Rackett Ridge junction.

The Trail of Ten Falls junction near Highway 214.

Looking back up the Perimeter Trail.

For the hike to be a true loop I would have turned left onto the Trail of Ten Falls, but in order to see Upper North Falls I needed go right for 0.3 miles so that’s what I did.

Upper North Falls

After visiting the falls I headed back and passed under the highway to a large map at a “T” junction.

A left would have taken me to the North Falls Trailhead.

I turned right at the signboard then veered right onto the Canyon Trail at a congested fork in the trail.
The Rim Trail to the left and Canyon Trail to the right, both part of the Trail of Ten Falls.

The Canyon Trail descended some stairs then wound its way behind North Falls in approximately a tenth of a mile.

The trail followed the creek arriving at Twin Falls a little over three-quarters of a mile from North Falls.

I’m always impressed by the size of this rock in the creek.

Not Twin Falls, but a nice little cascade nonetheless.

This post could be a little confusing without a map. The Twin Falls Trail climbs uphill to a group camp and does not lead to Twin Falls. The falls are the opposite side along a very short spur trail that connects at either end to the Canyon Trail.

Twin Falls isn’t very easy to see from the spur trail either even though you’re right next to it.

I was able to find a better viewpoint of Twin Falls further along the Canyon Trail.

Twin Falls

My next detour came 0.3 miles beyond Twin Falls when I turned left onto the Winter Falls Trail.

The Winter Falls Trail crosses the creek on a footbridge then climbs gradually to the base of Winter Falls before steepening to climb up to the Rim Trail. I turned around before the steep part.

North Fork Silver Creek

Winter Falls, as the name suggests it’s not much of a waterfall outside of Winter when rain and snowmelt provide more water.

With the dry Summer it isn’t a great Fall color year but there was a decent display along this trail.

After saying hi to Winter Falls I returned to the Canyon Trail and continued toward the South Falls Day Use Area. Next up was Middle North Falls and another detour to go behind this one as well.
I turned left here on the spur trail behind Middle North Falls.

I again returned to the Canyon Trail and quickly arrived at the Drake Falls viewing platform.
Middle North Falls from the Canyon Trail.

The 27′ Drake Falls.

Approximately a quarter mile beyond Drake Falls I turned right onto the Double Falls Trail.

Much like Winter Falls, Double Falls is on a side creek which has a low flow much of the year.
The hiker at the base gives a good idea of the fall’s height, you just have to use your imagination to add water.

On my way back to the Canyon Trail I ran into one of Heather’s friends which allowed me to pause for a moment to talk and update her on our new kittens. Just beyond the Double Falls Trail I passed the eighth waterfall of my hike, Lower North Falls.

It was about here that my feet started to let me know that this was a long hike. It was almost a mile from Lower North Falls to my next marker, a junction with the Maple Ridge Trail.
The Canyon Trail crosses the creek just downstream from Lower North Falls then makes a short climb to get above the canyon cliffs.

A quarter mile from the Maple Ridge junction was Lower South Falls, another that the trail passes behind.

After passing behind the falls the trail climbs a number of stairs which at this point of the hike was a mean trick.

After conquering the stairs it was another 0.6 miles level miles to a footbridge at a fork in the trial within sight of the tenth and final waterfall, South Falls.

I walked out onto the bridge for the view then returned to the junction to take the right hand fork and go behind this fall as well.

I stayed right at junctions as I climbed to the top of South Falls then followed a paved path to a footbridge where I crossed the creek.

View toward South Falls from the footbridge.

I followed the paved path to the Bike Path where I recrossed the creek then made my way along the parking lot to the car.

Not sure what this old building was, possibly restrooms by the doors.

One of several picnic shelters in the park.

Approaching the Bike Path where I recrossed the creek.

I can see the car!

The hike turned out to be close to 22 miles with somewhere around 2900′ of cumulative elevation gain. The GPS originally said 22.4 miles but that was partly due to it jumping around when I was behind the different falls and it didn’t have a good connection to the satellites. Removing some of the points put the total down to 21.5 miles but doing that lost the out-and back behind Middle North Falls and some of the switchbacks up from South Falls. Whatever the actual distance it was a lot for me but overall everything held up pretty well. A couple of small blisters on one heel were the worst consequence. The fact that it hadn’t rained surely helped with the feet.

Track prior to trying to remove some of the jumps in data points.

The lack of people in the backcountry is almost a shame as the forest is lovely and the trails well maintained. I say almost a shame because for those of us who do take the time to explore it, the solitude only adds to the beauty. The Trail of Ten Falls was busy comparatively, but it wasn’t the zoo that it would have been on a Summer weekend which was nice. Doing the loop in reverse would have resulted in less folks at the falls but we’d been to the falls in the morning on all our other visits so this gave me a chance to see them with the Sun at a different angle. The only minor bummer was not being able to hike the full Catamount Trail due to the one-way section. If I were to do it over I would probably start at the North Falls Trailhead and go clockwise so that I would have been going the right way for that section and still would have ended with most of the Trail of Ten Falls. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Silver Falls Perimeter Loop

Corvallis Hiking Oregon Willamette Valley

Peavy Arboretum to Dimple Hill – 10/22/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 26, 2022
3 Comments on Peavy Arboretum to Dimple Hill – 10/22/2022

We finally saw some much needed wet weather arrive which started to push out the smoke that had caused the air quality in NW Oregon to be some of the worst in the world for a few days. I was more than happy to alter my plans if it meant the beginning of the end of the nearby fires. With anywhere from a 40 to 90 percent chance of precipitation (and the possibility of an isolated thunderstorm or two) the most promising forecast was for the McDonald-Dunn Research Forests north of Corvallis. Heather and I had visited the McDonald Forest four time already, the most recent in 2021 when we attempted to connect the previous three hikes via a big loop from the Sulphur Springs Trailhead (post). Due to some closures for active logging operations we were only able to connect two of the three hikes, McCulloch Peak (post) and Chip Ross Park to Dimple Hill (post). My plan for this outing was to connect the other hike, Peavy Arboretum (post), as well as checking out a few trails in the forest that we hadn’t been on previously.

After checking online to make sure there were no current closures that might affect me I decided to start my day at the Peavy Arboretum’s Woodland Trailhead

I had left my route for the day fairly open as I wasn’t sure how wet I might get. I knew that I wanted to start by hiking the 0.4 mile interpretive Woodland Loop Trail which began at the far end of the Woodland Trailhead and then I’d planned on making my way to the Lewisburg Saddle Trailhead where I would follow Road 600 (Patterson Road) SW at least three quarters of a mile to a junction with the Ridge Trail where we had turned onto that trail on our 2021 hike (coming from the other direction). I didn’t get many photos on the interpretive loop since the Sun hadn’t quite risen yet and it was fairly dark under the trees.
The Woodland Loop at the end of the parking lot.

Starting to get a little lighter near the end of the loop.

After warming up on the sort loop I walked a short distance along the entrance road toward the entrance then crossed the road at a post for the Red Cedar Run Trail.

What followed was a 19.2 mile (19.6 including the Woodland Loop Trail) reverse lollipop loop utilizing parts of 29 different trails and roads in the forest, not all of them on purpose. This is a good time to mention that having maps is extremely helpful when exploring this forest, but due to the active management by the Oregon State University Forest Department new trails are occasionally constructed while others may be closed or rerouted (the same for roads). Some trails are also closed seasonally or, as we saw on our previous visit, due to active logging operations. Finally the map/brochure available online from the Forest website, at least as of this writing, does not show all of the existing roads/trails. This was an issue that I ran into late in my hike today. Other online resources such as Trailforks show some of the missing roads/trails but may also omit others. (Trailforks is a mountain biking site so some of the hiker only trails such as the Woodland Loop are not included on their map.) My recommendation is to have as many maps handy as possible and a sense of adventure if you’re going to start exploring the area. I had my Garmin and the Forest map but really wish I had had the Trailforks map with me as well.

Back to my hike though. My route went like this (TF indicates that the trail was shown on the Trailforks map but not on the Forest map.):
Woodland Trail, Red Cedar Run Trail, Peavy Arboretum Road, Maritime Meander Trail, Forest Discovery Trail, CFIRP Trail, Section 36 Loop, Road 550, Road 500 (Nettleton Road), Dave’s Trail, Road 5010, Vineyard Mountain Trail, Road 600, Road 650, Upper Dan’s Trail, Road 650, Road 600, High Horse Trail (TF), Upper Bombs Away (TF), Road 640, Road 600, Ridge Trail, Road 600, Road 580 (Davies Road), New Growth Trail, Old Growth Trail, Road 580, Dave’s Trail, Banzai Trail (TF)*, Road 543, Road 540, Section 36 Loop, Road 540, Calloway to Cronemiller Trail, Calloway Creek Trail, Intensive Management Trail, Pond Trail.

*Instead of the Banzai Trail I had intended on taking the Powder House Trail but this section of the Banzai Trail wasn’t on the Forest Map and I went left when I should have gone right at an unsigned junction.

If that sounds a little confusing it was. As you may have guessed the weather turned out much better than forecasted with only one shower that lasted less than a minute near the end of my hike. I suspected I might be in for a nicer day as I made my way up the Red Cedar and then Maritime Meander Trails.
Cedars along the Red Cedar Run Trail.

A brief stint on Peavy Arboretum Road between the Red Cedar Run and Maritime Meander (on the left ahead) Trails.

I took a quiet detour to Randall Pond before hopping onto the Maritime Meander Trail.

Sunrise from the Maritime Meander Trail.

Forest Discovery Trail junction with the Maritime Meander Trail.

I stayed left at trail junctions along the Forest Discovery Trail, crossing Road 510 along the way, then turned left onto the CFIRP.
The trails were well signed in the Arboretum.

I had been on the Forest Discovery Trail just under a mile when I reached the CFIRP Trail.

I followed the CFIRP Trail for half a mile uphill across Road 514 and ignoring a spur trail back to Road 510 to the Section 36 Loop.
Road crossing.

The Section 36 Loop junction.

I turned left onto this trail, the first section of trail that I had been on previously, and continued uphill 0.4 miles to Road 550. I left the Section 36 Loop here and took a left onto the road.
Section 36 Loop

A bench along the trail faces this tree.

Road 550 from the Section 36 Loop.

Most of the 0.3 mile road is closed to motorized traffic so Road 550 was fairly overgrown compared to the other roads/trails in the forest but there was still clear tread. I did question my choice though when my feet started to feel the moisture from the grass start reaching my socks.
Looking back down Road 550.

My feet started to dry when I reached the section open to motorized vehicles.

Road 550 ended on a saddle at Road 500 where I again turned left following this road just under half a mile to Dave’s Trail where, you guessed it, I turned left.

Lots of sparrows, towhees, and wrens were out this morning but most wouldn’t sit still at all.

Dave’s Trail

I continued to climb gradually on Dave’s Trail crossing Road 590 near the quarter mile mark then dropping slightly to Road 5010 at a 3-way road junction after 1.3 miles.

A gated road on the left led back up the hill I had just passed under some radio towers while Road 500 was to the right. Road 5010 was ahead on the left heading up Vineyard Mountain.

On our previous hike we’d taken the Vineyard Mountain Trail uphill from this junction (having come up Road 500 instead of on Dave’s Trail) so this time I followed Road 5010. When I reached the radio towers atop the mountain I discovered that we’d completely missed the remains of the 1930’s Dean George Peavy Cabin.
The Vineyard Mountain Trail at the junction.

The foundation, fireplace and chimney are all that remain of the former OSU Dean’s cabin.

After visiting the cabin remains I continued slightly downhill on Road 5010 to a post marking the Vineyard Mountain Trail.

It was approximately 1.5 downhill miles to the Lewisburg Saddle Trailhead where there were a decent number of cars.
Some twisted trees along the Vineyard Mountain Trail.

After numerous tries I finally caught a spotted towhee.

The Vineyard Mountain Trail briefly follows an old roadbed.

The section of trail between the roadbed and the Lewisburg Saddle Trailhead is one of the trails subject to seasonal closures. This section is closed when it is wet enough that you’d leave tracks in which case you could follow the roadbed to the right to Road 500.

Close up of the seasonal closure notice. It wasn’t wet so I continued on the Vineyard Mountain Trail.

At the trailhead I crossed Sulphur Springs Road and passed an orange gate on Road 600 (Patterson Road). After gradually climbing for three quarters of a mile I arrived at a junction with Road 620 on the right. The Ridge Trail started from Road 620 near the junction so I could have turned there and followed it back to the Lewisburg Saddle I would have accomplished my goal of connecting all of our hikes here. The weather was so nice though that I decided to push on and try to reach Dimple Hill.

Looking back at the towers on Vineyard Mountain from Road 600.

Road 620 on the right.

I stayed on Road 600 for another 1.4 miles (the first 0.6 being new to me) then turned left onto Road 650 at a saddle.

A tenth of a mile up Road 650 I veered onto Upper Dan’s Trail and made way to the summit of Dimple Hill.

Mary’s Peak (post) with a cloud just blocking the summit.

The view was nice but there were enough clouds and lingering haze to the SE that I was a bit disappointed. Someday I will make it a point to get to Dimple Hill on a bluebird afternoon/evening but for now I settled for the blue sky overhead and headed back to Road 600.

If I would have had the Trailforks map handy I would have seen that I could cross Road 600 at the saddle and follow it uphill to Road 662 which would have brought me to what is shown on that map as the High Horse Trail. I then could have followed that to Upper Bombs Away but those two trails weren’t on the McDonald Forest map. I hiked back down Road 600 just over three quarters of mile to a trail crossing where I turned left on the unsigned High Horse Trail. (Not sure if that is the “official” name but it is the name on the TF map.)

The High Horse Trail. Not shown to the right coming up from below is the Upper Horse Trail.

Despite the High Horse and Upper Bombs Away Trails not being shown on my map or Garmin we had taken these on our 2021 hike so I was familiar with them.
Bikers on Road 600 below.

Moss covered tree.

Lichen

Unsigned junction where the High Horse Trail continues to the left to Road 662 and Upper Bombs Away veers right.

Another connector trail on the left coming down from Road 662 to join the Upper Bombs Away Trail.

The Upper Bombs Away Trail can get a little confusing as it switchbacks downhill but the forest along the trail is some of my favorite in the McDonald Forest. There is another well established trail that basically shoots straight downhill and a couple of use trails that appeared to possibly be coming downhill from Road 600. I basically stayed left and/or downhill until I arrived at Road 640 (0.6 miles from the High Horse Trail).
Will the real trail please stand up?

Switchback near Road 640.

On our previous visit we had crossed Road 640 (it was closed between the trail and Road 600 at the time) and followed Lower Bombs Away to the Ridge Trail at Road 620. Since I’d been on that section of trail before and not Road 640 I took the road 0.3 miles back to Road 600 then turned left on Road 600 for 100 yards to Road 620.

I hopped onto the Ridge Trail and followed it up and over a knoll to Road 600 near Lewisburg Saddle.
The Alpha Trail on the left at the quarter mile mark. This is where we had turned on the 2021 hike.

Road 600 ahead.

At Lewisburg Saddle I took Road 580 for a tenth of a mile to the New Growth Trail and headed downhill.

The New Growth Trail.

A connector trail at the 0.4 mile mark led back up to Road 580 and marked the start of the Old Growth Trail.

Old growth

The end of the Old Growth Trail at Road 580.

After a mile on those two trails I was back on Road 580 which I followed for almost two miles to Dave’s Trail.

One of three spur roads to the left that I passed.

I turned left onto Dave’s Trail which paralleled Road 580 for 0.6 miles where it met the road again.

Blackberries

It was here that things got a little messy for me. I was already at approximately 15.7 miles and my plan was to head back as directly as possible. The plan was to take the Powder House Trail on the other side of Road 580 which was the only trail shown on the McDonald Forest map (no trails were on the GPS topo map). When I crossed the road though there were were two trails. One heading slightly downhill to the left and one uphill to the right and no signs on this side of the road.
The proverbial fork in the road.

I went left (I chose poorly) and followed what I thought was the Powder House Trail a third of a mile to a sign with a pointer for the Banzai Trail.

Madrone

A few clouds starting to move in.

The McDonald Forest map showed a small section old road between Roads 562 and 543 as the Banzai Trail which I was not close to according to the GPS. The Trailforks map shows the Banzai Trail starting where I had left Road 580 so my guess is that it has been somewhat recently added. I decided to forge ahead knowing that whatever I was on would eventually hit one of the forest roads that I could use to reach Cronemiller Lake and get back on course. I followed signs when available and after a mile found myself at a road with no apparent signage.

The Banzai Trail likely continued on the other side but without a pointer I wasn’t about to find out and turned right here which took me uphill for a tenth of a mile to the Road 560 and Road 562 junction.

This is the start of what is labeled the Banzai Trail on the McDonald Forest map.

Road 562 went straight downhill and steeply.
The photo doesn’t do the steepness justice but the trail lived up to its name here.

At some point the road became 543 before reaching a fork where I stayed right.

Another closed roadbed on the left. This is where I stayed right on Road 543.

In another quarter mile I found myself at a 3-way junction.
Road 540 to the left and 541 to the right.

I turned right on Road 541 which brought me to Cronemiller Lake in half a mile.

George W. Brown Sports Arena near Cronemiller Lake.

Not that kind of a lake.

I went right around the lake on the Section 36 Loop where for the first time all day a very brief shower passed overhead.

A few drops hitting the lake.

Kingfisher on the far side of the lake.

The trail hit Road 540 on the far side of the lake where I turned left and walked back along the lake on the road a short distance to the Calloway to Cronemiller Trail.

I turned right onto this trail following it downhill for 0.2 miles to a junction with the Calloway Creek Trail.

I turned right and then turned right again a short distance later onto the Intensive Management Trail.
Second right.

I crossed three roads in the next 0.3 miles before arriving at a signboard map at a split in the Intensive Management Trail.

I veered right following the Intensive Management Trail for another 0.3 miles to the Peavy Arboretum Trailhead.

A 100 yard road walk brought me to the Pond Trail at Randall Pond which I briefly followed before cutting across two roads to the Woodland Trailhead where I’d started almost 7 hours earlier.

In the end the wrong turn onto the Banzai Trail had only added a mile or so to my day and it was trail that I hadn’t been on before so that was a plus. There was enough up and down to put the cumulative elevation gain right around 3000′ feet but none of the climbs were too long or steep. The weather couldn’t have been much better and the trail/road conditions were very good which made a hike like this a bit easier. The amazing thing is that there are still roads and trails that I’ve yet to explore which makes the thought of returning that much more exciting. Happy Trails!

Blue is today’s track, red 2021, purple 2018, and yellow 2016

Flickr:Peavy Arboretum to Dimple Hill

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Trip report Willamette Valley

Spring Valley Greenway – 09/10/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 12, 2022
2 Comments on Spring Valley Greenway – 09/10/2022

September has always been a bit tricky for planning hikes. Historically it seemed there was always at least one weekend where snow returned to the mountains while other weekends might see rain or 90 degree temperatures. In recent years extreme wildfire behavior has entered into the mix resulting in some devastating fires and some very unhealthy air quality as was the case with the Labor Day fires in 2020. A rare east wind event that year caused a number of wildfires to explode.

A similar, but not nearly as strong, wind event was forecast for Friday & Saturday which coincided with our third attempt at using a Central Cascade Overnight Wilderness Permit. We had planned on trying to reach Goat Peak in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness after having failed to do so in September 2018 (post) but the combination of extreme fire danger and forecast for wide spread smoke resulted in our once again deciding not to utilize the permit we’d obtained. (An early snowstorm in 2021 and thunderstorms in July of this year were the reasons we’d changed our permit plans.)

We were still hoping to sneak some sort of hike in so I started looking for another idea. We didn’t want to go too far from home due to the potential for fast spreading fires but at the same time the Saturday forecast for Salem was a high in the mid-90’s and widespread haze/smoke. I turned to the Oregon Hikers Field Guide for inspiration and noticed the Spring Valley Loop in the Willamette Valley State Parks section. It was less than a 20 minute drive from home and at less than four miles would allow us to be done hiking by mid-morning and avoid the warmer part of the day.

Prior to leaving in the morning I checked up on a fire that had started the day before in South Salem along Vitae Springs Road and stuck my head outside to see if the air smelled of smoke. Everything seemed okay so we proceeded to get ready and headed out at about a quarter to 7am. While the air didn’t smell of smoke the sky had a familiar hauntingly orange hue to it. As we prepared to set off on the first of three short loops from the Spring Valley Trailhead we remarked at how dark it still was due to the layer of smoke overhead. (The majority of the smoke was likely from the Cedar Creek Fire near Waldo Lake (post) which had grown rapidly overnight toward Oakridge and Westfir prompting evacuations although there was also a new fire to the NE at Milo McIver State Park (post).)

For the first loop we walked back up the park entrance road approximately 400 feet to the Rook Trail on the left.

We followed this trail as it wound through the woods for nearly a mile before ending at the entrance road a short way from Highway 221 (Wallace Rd NW).
The combination of low light and orange hue made for some poor photography conditions.

Approaching the entrance road. The gate is for the road which is only open during daylight hours.

We turned right onto the road and followed it for a tenth of a mile to the unsigned Generator Trail (there was some pink flagging present) and took a left onto this one-way trail.

The Generator Trail.

The 0.4 mile Generator Trail brought us back down to the entrance road between the trailhead and where we had turned onto the Rook Trail.

As we followed the road back to the trailhead we were discussing which loop to try next. That decision was made by the couple having an intimate moment in the back of a pickup parked at the start of the Perimeter Trail. We turned right, away from the show, and cut across the mowed field surrounding the vault toilet to pick up the also unsigned Upper Spring Valley Trail.

Spring Valley Creek passing under the entrance road.

The mowed field.

Upper Spring Valley Creek Trail.

The 0.7 mile Upper Spring Valley Creek Trail simply loops back to the trailhead so we hopped that by the time we had finished the short loop the couple was finished as well.

A few Autumn colors starting to show, now we just need some Fall rain.

Brief glimpse of the Willamette River.

The tailgate was up on the pickup, a good sign for us.

Some of the various non-native wildflowers in the area.

Before setting off on the Perimeter Trail we decided to make the quick detour down to the Willamette.

Mile 74.2 of the Willamette Water Trail.

We didn’t quite make it to the river though as the couple had apparently decided to switch locations, but at least they were taking turns. We made a hasty retreat and set off on the Perimeter Trail.
The Perimeter Trail begins to the right of the gate.

The Perimeter Trail loops around another mowed field but after 0.2 miles the signed TCC Trail splits off to the right into the woods (assuming you are hiking counter-clockwise).

Invasive common tansy but the beetle was cool looking.

We were initially fooled by this side-trail at the 0.1 mile mark which was not the TCC Trail, but did provide access to the Willamette.
Willamette Mission State Park (post) is located on the opposite side down river.

There’s the TCC Trail.

After just a tenth of a mile on the TCC Trail it appeared that we were going to be led right back out to the field but the TCC Trail made a hard right and stayed in the woods for an additional four tenths of a mile.

Back to the field after half a mile.

At the field we turned right onto what in theory was the Perimeter Trail following it another 0.4 miles back to the trailhead.

Invasive Canadad thistle.

Common toadflax – non-native.

Moth mullein – you guessed it, non-native.

The Sun behind a layer of smoke.

Pigeons (or doves) in a snag.

The three loops came to a grand total of 3.5 miles with a little over 200′ of elevation gain.

While the conditions weren’t ideal there was a cool (mostly) breeze and it never smelt like smoke. Early Spring would be a much better time to visit or maybe a little later once more of the leaves have had time to change color but given the circumstances it was a suitable destination. It was nice to find another option so close to home too. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Spring Valley Greenway

Tags Generator Trail, hiking, Oregon, Oregon Hikers Field Guide, Perimeter Trail, Rook Trail, Salem, Spring Valley Greenway, Spring Valley State Park, TCC Trail, Upper Spring Valley Trail, Wildfires, willamette river, Willamette River Trail