Category: Hiking

Erma Bell Lakes and the Shale Ridge Trail – 08/29/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 30, 2020
5 Comments on Erma Bell Lakes and the Shale Ridge Trail – 08/29/2020

With our recent backpacking trip around Diamond Peak (post) leaving us with just one more featured hike yet to do from William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Central Oregon Cascades” (4th edition) the only logical thing to do the following weekend was that last remaining hike. That hike was to the Erma Bell Lakes and as luck would have it late August was a pretty good time to visit, the berries were ripening and the mosquitoes weren’t too much of a nuisance. With a drive time of almost three hours the loop around the 8.5-9 mile loop around the lakes wouldn’t take long enough for us not to break our self imposed rule of the driving time being longer than our time spent hiking so we added a second stop to the day at the Shale Ridge Trail.

We started the morning by driving to the Skookum Creek Campground where the Erma Bell Trail begins.

The trail crosses Skookum Creek on a footbridge.

Soon after crossing the creek the trail enters the Three Sisters Wilderness.

The trail traverses a forested hillside where we found a few ripe thimbleberries to snack on.

A little over half a mile from the trailhead the Irish Mountain Trail splits off to the left toward Otter Lake allowing for a loop past that and several other lakes.

We stayed right choosing to follow Sullivan’s suggestion to complete the loop counter-clockwise. The trail continued along the forested hillside for another mile before crossing a small stream on a bridge near Lower Erma Bell Lake.

Just beyond the bridge we took a short spur trail to the left to visit the lake.

The lake was a pretty blue color and quite deep.

Despite the beauty of the lake our attention had been diverted by the familiar “meep” of pikas, our favorite trail critters. We quickly spotted one of the little fur balls collecting greens along the rocky lake shore.

We watched the pika go back and forth with its greens several times before resuming our hike. We continued on the trail around the lake taking another detour after crossing the lake’s main outlet creek to check out a small cascade.

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Beyond the outlet the trail began a .4 mile climb up toward the Middle Erma Bell Lake.
Lower Erma Bell Lake from the climb.

A short but steep trail to the left just before the high point of the trail led to a viewpoint of a waterfall between the lower and middle lakes.

Above the falls.

After checking out the waterfall we continued up to Middle Erma Bell Lake.

Ouzel

Ducks

We continued beyond Middle Erma Bell Lake passing a small pond on the right before arriving at Upper Erma Bell Lake .7 miles from the waterfall, also on the right.
Pond along the trail.

Spur trail on the right to Upper Erma Bell Lakes.

Paintbrush and aster along the lake shore.

Upper Erma Bell Lake

Lupine and paintrbush

In addition to a few flowers there were lots of ripe berries near the lake which we sampled before continuing. The trail climbed gradually for half a mile to a junction with the Judy Lake Trail which passes Mud and Edna Lakes (but no Judy Lake) before ending at the Taylor Burn Guard Station.
Judy Lake Trail on the right.

We stayed left passing above Mud Lake which was barely visible through the trees below.

Just under a mile from the Judy Lake Trail junction we arrived at another junction, this time with the Williams Lake Trail.
Williams Lake Trail joining from the right.

Again we stayed left continuing for another .4 miles to Williams Lake. Before reaching the lake we encountered a grouse that was less than pleased with our presence.
Grouse giving us the what for from a tree.

Williams Lake

Dry creek bed near Williams Lake.

The trail began to descend beyond Williams Lake passing through some damper meadows where berries were plentiful and some flowers remained (and so did some mosquitoes).

Pearly everlasting

Fleabane

Prince’s pine

Mushroom

Aster

Coneflower

Paintbrush

A little over two and a quarter miles beyond Williams Lake we arrived at a junction with the Irish Mountain Trail which headed uphill to the right.

A short distance from the junction we came to Otter Lake.

Curious dragonfly

The trail descended for another half mile to the Erma Bell Lakes Trail completing the loop.

We turned right and returned the .6 miles to the now busy trailhead. Sullivan lists the hike at 8.4 miles but we both came up with a little over 9 miles, most likely due to the various side trips tp the waterfalls and along the lake shores. We left the trailhead and headed back toward Oakridge on Forest Road 19 stopping at the Shale Ridge Trailhead on the left (south) near milepost 30.

This trailhead serves as the start of the Shale Ridge Trail and the upper terminus of the North Fork Trail (segment 5). We had spent time on the North Fork Trail earlier in the year hiking segment 1 out of Westfir and another short section to Buffalo Rock in May (post).

We weren’t here for that trail today and instead headed south on the Shale Ridge Trail, which according to a note written on the signboard had been partially logged out in June.

The trail quickly entered the Waldo Lake Wilderness.

We followed the trail through old growth forest. The North Fork Middle Fork Willamette River could be heard at time off to our right but not seen.

Ghost Pipe aka Indian Pipe

We were below the ridge that we had been on during the Erma Bell Lakes hike and at the 1.8 mile mark we came to Skookum Creek which was flowing through multiple channels through the forest. This area was the highlight of the hike along the Shale Ridge Trail.
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We continued beyond Skookum Creek just over a mile to the North Fork Middle Fork River at Cedar Bog. This was as far as we had planned on going and as far as the trail had been cleared to. In theory the trail continues up to the Blair Lake Trail (post) on the far side of the river but the condition beyond Cedar Bog is mostly likely very rough.
Arriving at Cedar Bog.

One of a couple dry channels.

North Fork Middle Fork

Flagging on a downed tree marking the continuation of the Shale Ridge Trail.

North Fork Middle Fork at Cedar Bog

Orange flagging on the far side of the river.

20200829_132354 Monkeyflower at Cedar Bog

Candy flower

We turned back here and returned to our car completing a 5.8 mile out and back. While this hike was short on views there were some impressively large trees along the way and it was fairly level with only a 400′ cumulative elevation gain. The two hikes combined for nearly 15 miles of hiking which ensured that our hiking time was indeed longer than our driving time. More importantly we’d seen some nice lakes, all of which had their own distinct differences and had been gotten to watch a pika doing its thing. On top of it all we could finally say that we had done at least part of all 100 featured hikes in one of Sullivan’s guidebooks. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Erma Bell Lakes and the Shale Ridge Trail

Tags Cedar Bog, Erma Bell Lakes, grouse, hiking, Irish Mountain Trail, Judy Lake Trail, Lower Erma Bell Lake, Middle Erma Bell Lake, north Fork Trail, Oregon, Otter Lake, Pika, Shale Ridge Trail, Skookum Creek, Three Sisters Wilderness, Upper Erma Bell Lake, waldo lake wilderness, Waterfall, Williams Lake

Hiking

Diamond Peak Loop Days 3 & 4 – 08/24 & 8/25/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 29, 2020
2 Comments on Diamond Peak Loop Days 3 & 4 – 08/24 & 8/25/2020

**Note the 2024 208 MF Fire burned over a portion of this hike near Blue Lake.**

Morning of day three was a little less smoky and we were eager to get an early start to try and avoid doing the long climb from Notch Lake to the divide above the Pacific Crest Trail in the afternoon heat. We were up with the sunrise and after coffee and some granola we were back on the Diamond Peak Trail heading north.

Some blue sky again.

The trail lost 500′ of elevation over the next mile including some steeper drops before arriving at a junction with the Happy Lake Trail.
Happy Lake Trail junction.

We detoured left here for the half mile hike down to Happy Lake.

Unlike the Blue Lake Trail the Happy Lake Trail was fairly level losing less than 100′ of elevation before passing by a large meadow and arriving at the lake.
Just a small part of the meadow.

We set our packs down and then followed a path to a hard to see waterfall along the lakes outlet creek.

It might have been hard to see the whole thing but it sounded wonderful. There were also a lot of wonderfully ripe berries in the area.

A viewpoint along the cliffs gave us a look at the rocky pillar of Mt. Yoran which we would be passing on the way to the divide later in the day.

After enjoying the lake and waterfall (and consuming quite a few berries) we returned to the Diamond Peak Trail and continued on. It was a mile and a half to our next trail junction and we were pleasantly surprise to find that this stretch of the trail had seen some recent maintenance which made the going that much easier.

We think this was Bear Creek. Other than the outlet of Happy Creek no other creek beds had flowing water on this side of the mountain.

Diamond Peak from the trail.

At the junction we left the Diamond Peak Trail and turned right onto the Diamond Peak Tie Trail.

This trail had also recently been cleared and was lined with huckleberries. It was also apparent that this was a much wetter area than we’d been in so far along the loop which meant mosquitoes which kept us from stopping for long.

One of several damp meadows.

The creeks were still dry though.

An unnamed lake.

After two miles on the Diamond Peak Tie Trail we arrived at the Vivian Lake Trail. We had been on the other end of this trail when we visited Vivian Lake in 2013 (post).

We turned right onto this trail and in a quarter mile arrived at rock rimmed Notch Lake.
Small unnamed lake just before Notch Lake.

Another little lake/pond near Notch Lake.

Notch Lake

This was a really neat lake and we would have loved to stick around a bit but all the standing water in the area made for a lot of pesky mosquitoes so we unfortunately had to move on pretty quickly.

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Beargrass

Approximately .2 miles beyond Notch Lake the Vivian Lake Trail veered left and the Mt. Yoran Trail split to the right.

The Mt. Yoran Trail climbed at an increasingly steep grade over the next 1.7 miles before gaining a ridge and leveling out.

Diamond Peak from the trail; the smoke was back.

Textured mushroom

On the ridge.

The trail followed the ridge with some small ups and downs for a mile before dropping to Divide Lake at the base of Mt. Yoran.

Diamond Peak

Lousewort

Mt. Yoran from the trail.

Diamond Peak again.

Mt. Yoran on the left and the divide on the right.

Passing under Mt. Yoran.

Please tell me that’s a seed and not that the ground squirrels have taken up smoking.

Divide Lake

The mosquitoes weren’t nearly as bad here so we were able to take a nice long break before resuming our trek.
Blue sky making a comeback.

Diamond Peak from Divide Lake

Climbers trail to Mt. Yoran.

Thank goodness it was a seed.

When it was time to continue we followed the Mt. Yoran Trail around Divide Lake and past two smaller unnamed lakes before making the steep 300′ climb to the divide.

Beardtongue

Mt. Yoran from Divide Lake

One of the unnamed lakes.

Starting up to the divide.

After crossing the divide the trail dropped down to the Pacific Crest Trail.

We turned left here and followed the PCT downhill for 2 miles.

Along the way we bumped into another backpacker who was doing the same loop in the other direction. We were able to let him know about the trail conditions ahead and he let us know that the Yoran Lake Trail now continued past Yoran Lake all the way to the Pacific Crest Trail. When we had done our Yoran Lake hike in 2014 (post) we had bushwacked from Yoran Lake to Lils Lake and the PCT so this was welcome news.
PCT

Diamond Peak from the PCT.

Lakeview Mountain

New looking sign at the newly extended Yoran Lake Trail.

Huge tree mushroom at the junction.

The Yoran Lake Trail passed by Lils Lake and arrived at Yoran Lake in .4 miles.

Diamond Peak from Yoran Lake.

We had originally intended to set up camp here but there were already a number of people at this lake and we weren’t (I wasn’t) feeling all that sociable so we decided to press on to Karen Lake which was less than a quarter mile away. I don’t have a lot of patience to begin with and my Garmin had quite working at Divide Lake due to the memory being too full (at least that’s what I hoped it was, and it was) and that had put me on edge.
Dry creek bed (this feeds Trapper Creek).

Right hand fork to Karen Lake.

Things were much more solitary at Karen Lake aside from a lone duck patrolling the waters.

We had camp set up by 3pm and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying the lake (and the decreasingly smoky skies).

Dragon fly visit.

A little bird joining the duck on the rocks.

Is this a tadpole? We first thought it was a newt then a fish but it’s got feet.

While the smoke was clearing there were more clouds coming and going, but we had kept a close eye on the forecast before leaving and there hadn’t even an inkling of a chance for precipitation for the trip or the next couple of days.

The moon was really showing up well over the mountain.

We had just gotten settled in the tent for the night when the light outside turned orange. I threw my clothes back on to try and catch the sunset which was spectacular.

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After a whole lot of picture taking I got back into the tent and we tried to sleep. It didn’t come easy though. I don’t know if knowing we had less than 5 miles the next day before heading home had us excited or if our spot just wasn’t all that comfy but we had a hard time falling asleep. Then just after 4am we both woke up for some reason. Heather was the first to realize why when she asked why her quilt was wet. It took a moment to register but it was raining! Luckily we always carry our rain fly even if there isn’t any rain in the forecast for just such an occasion. We hopped out of the tent and threw it on before it really started to come down which kept everything pretty dry. We heard a couple of rumbles of thunder in the distance and I never could fall back asleep. The showers had mostly stopped by 5:30 am when we decided to start packing up.
Rainfly deployed

Diamond Peak a little after 6am.

Another light shower passing over as we were leaving.

After some coffee we were on our way. It was before 6:30 so it wasn’t very light but it was plenty light for hiking.
Some funny looking beargrass along the trail.

A half mile from Karen Lake we crossed the dry bed of Karen and Yoran Lakes outlets.

In another half mile we passed a small unnamed lake.

We encountered a little blowdown along this trail but nothing too bad.

Two miles from the little unnamed lake we were passing a large meadow on the left when we noticed another lake at it’s end. I decided to go check it out and left the trail. As I neared the meadow a deer jumped up and splashed off into the grasses.
The lake doesn’t show a name on the map but West Bay Creek flows out of it (of course it too was dry at this time of year).

Over the next three quarters of a mile we encountered two little girls hats laying in the trail. We picked them up and left them at the junction with the Whitefish Creek Trail not knowing if the owners were still at one of the lakes and if so which way they’d come from.

We turned left at this junction following the pointer for the Trapper Creek Trailhead. It was just under half a mile to the closed bridge over Trapper Creek.

While the bridge didn’t appear to be in that bad of shape we honored the posted closure signs and made our way down to the ford.

The water was cold but it was an easy ford and with only .2 miles left to get back to the car we didn’t have to deal with wet feet for long. We completed our loop having covered 13.1 miles on the third day and 4.7 on the final day for a grand total of 48.4 miles. The trip allowed us to cross the Diamond View Lake, Marie Lake and Diamond Peak, Corrigan and Blue Lakes, and Divide Lake hikes off of our featured hikes to-do list leaving us with just the Erma Bell Lakes hike to complete the 100 featured hikes in Sullivan’s Central Cascades book. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Diamond Peak Loop Day 3 & Day 4

Hiking

Diamond Peak Loop Day 2 – 08/23/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 29, 2020
15 Comments on Diamond Peak Loop Day 2 – 08/23/2020

**Note the 2024 208 MF Fire burned over a portion of this hike from Marie Lake to Blue Lake.**

We woke up early on the second day of our loop around Diamond Peak and as the Sun was coming up we realized that it had gotten a little hazy overnight.

Diamond Peak in the morning.

Our plan for the day was to leave camp and hike to the summit of Diamond Peak then come back, pack up, and continue on our loop. We hoped to make it as far as Blue Lake but were also ready to stop at Corrigan Lake if necessary. We took breakfast with us as we set off to the north on the Pacific Crest Trail.

We followed the PCT for approximately 1.2 miles to a rocky viewpoint where we stopped to cook breakfast.
The viewpoint from below on the PCT.

We should have been able to see Summit Lake and Mt. Thielsen to the south from the viewpoint but after a smoke free hike the day before our luck ran out.
Summit Lake and a lot of smoke.

At least the sky above Diamond Peak was still fairly blue.
The north flank and route up Diamond Peak.

After eating we continued 50 feet up the trail to a bunch of cairns marking the summit path.

Fireweed catching the morning sunlight.

Cairns on the left side of the trail marking the route.

Chipmunk inspecting some bleeding heart.

We turned up the well worn path and began to climb steeply through the trees and then onto rocks.
Summit Lake and the route up through the trees.

Here come the rocks.

The path soon split into multiple user routes with cairns, flagging, and green paint marking the way.
Cairn on top of the big rock on the right.

A carin and paint on a rock along the route and some pink flagging on the tree down to the left.

It was approximately a mile between the PCT and the false summit of Diamond Peak and over 1800′ of elevation gain. After leaving the trees the climb got even steeper. Through the loose rocks a few flowers could be found.
Looking up at the false summit.

Paintbrush

Buckwheat

Patches of penstemon.

Seed heads of Drummond’s anemone

As we climbed we passed a couple of small snow patches and gained more views which were all dominated by smoke.
Dark smoke to the SW

A snow patch below the false summit.

Final pitch to the false summit, still pretty blue.

At the false summit we were at 8421′ and could finally see Mt. Thielsen, at least the very top of it’s spire at least.

We had been backpacking there just two weeks prior (post) and were thankful that it hadn’t been this weekend. Looking around, it wasn’t just smoky to the south.
Looking west to a wall of smoke.

Smoke to the east.

Smoke to the NE too.

NW also equals smoke.

20200823_090207 Smoke starting to drift in from the east.

We were still .4 miles and 350′ from the 8777′ true summit of the mountain and to reach it we would need to pass three gendarmes that block the ridge between the summit and false summit. Sullivan describes having to use your hands and “lots of caution” to work around them to the clear path on the other side. We started out and got to the first gendarme where I got up too high following a path. I had to back track and work my way down to Heather who had taken a different track but we still seemed too high. By this point the uncertainty of the best line to take had given us time to really think about where we were and the nerves kicked in. We wound up listening to them and headed back to the false summit deciding that it wasn’t worth the risk on such a smoky day where we wouldn’t get much in the way of views. We expected the view north that we would have had from the summit to be just as smoky given the fact that from the false summit we could see the top of the South Sister which was also appeared to be surrounded by wildfire smoke.

After making the decision to turn back we were able to relax and enjoy the jaunt back down to the PCT focusing on flowers and critters along the way.
One of several Clark’s nutcrackers.

Buckwheat

Paintbrush

Penstemon

Basin with a number of flowers.

Mountain heather

Partridge foot

Another paintbrush

It was slow going but we made it back to the PCT where we noticed the smoke a little more than we had earlier that morning.
A little smoke in the trees.

When we got back to camp we packed up and realized that we’d consumed quite a bit of our water already so we decided to stop by Rockpile Lake again to refill our reservoirs before continuing on our loop.
Slightly smokier Rockpile Lake.

After refilling our water supply we continued to the junction with the spur trail to Marie Lake (.5 miles from the PCT) where we turned left to stay on the Rockpile Trail (at a pointer for the Diamond Peak Trail) and climbed steeply up the side of Diamond Rockpile.

It wasn’t as much of a rockpile as the named implied as it was mostly forested with a single viewpoint near the high point along this portion of trail.

Summit Lake out there in the smoke.

The trail then dropped a bit on the west side of Diamond Rockpile to a 4-way junction with the Diamond Peak Trail 1.2 miles from the Marie Lake junction.

While there were plenty of signs along the trails they often didn’t identify the trail itself but rather pointed you in the direction of other trails or features. This junction was a good example as one sign identified the Rockpile Trail while another directed you to Rockpile Lake and Road 2160.

There were no signs naming the Diamond Peak Trail but there was a pointer to the south for Ruth Lake and a pointer to the north for the Pioneer Gulch Trail (which we thought was the name of this trail at first).

We need to go north so we followed the pointer for the Pioneer Gulch Trail and headed north.

The Diamond Peak Trail rolled up an down for nearly 1.5 miles before arriving at a junction with the actual Pioneer Gulch Trail on the left.
One of the uphill sections.

Note again that the sign is letting you know what is in the different directions but not identifying the trail name.

We stayed on the Diamond Peak Trail heading for the Corrigan Lake Trail which was just over 2 miles further along. These two miles had not been maintained so there were a few obstacles to get around but nothing too difficult. We also regained a view of Diamond Peak along this stretch which was now behind a thin layer of smoke.
Typical obstacle for this stretch.

We turned left down the Corrigan Lake Trail when we arrived at the junction.

It was a little over half a mile and 300′ down to the lake which had a nice view of Diamond Peak.

Lots of insect husks on the plants along the lake.

We took a nice long break at the lake where another couple of groups of backpackers appeared to be planning to spend the night. Our plan was to push on and try and find a spot for our tent near the Diamond Peak Trail junction with the Blue Lake Trail. We were hoping to get down to that lake in the evening but didn’t want to haul our full packs up and down the steep 400′ of elevation change.

We left Corrigan Lake to the other backpackers and climbed back up to the Diamond Peak Trail and continued on our clockwise loop around the mountain. This next section of trail was clearer and in just under a mile we came to the Bear Mountain Trail junction.

Fleabane

Bear Mountain Trail junction.

Look a named trail!

From the junction the Diamond Peak Trail climbed a ridge before leveling off above Blue Lake which was hidden in the trees.

The Blue Lake Trail was .8 miles from the Bear Mountain junction and just before reaching it we spotted what we had been hoping for, an open flat spot for our tent. We set up camp between the Diamond Peak and Blue Lake Trails and then headed down to the lake for dinner and to get more water.

There was a decent amount of blowdown along the upper portion of the .9 mile stretch to the lake which followed a ridge crest (with a view NW down to Happy Lake) before dropping steeply down the opposite side of the ridge via a series of switchbacks. The hillsides had quite a few wet areas and several flowers were still in bloom.
Starting to drop off the ridge.

Arnica

Fleabane

Pearly everlasting and fringed grass of parnassus

Aster and fringed grass of parnassus

Scouler’s bluebells

The trail brought us to an open hillside on the east side of Blue Lake where a landslide left a large meadow.

Lots of coneflower

Fireweed and coneflower

Owl’s clover

We appeared to be the only humans at this lake but we were greatly outnumbered by a legion of little frogs.
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Dragon fly and a bunch of frogs

Chatty squirrel

We spent most the evening at the lake before heading back to the tent when the Sun started dropping.

Despite not making it up to the summit of Diamond Peak, and it being too smoky to get any views even lower, it had been a good day. It had also been a long day. We had been planning on it being somewhere in the 14.5 to 15 mile range assuming that we made it all the way to the summit but our GPS units put us just over 16 miles for the day without the extra .8 out and back between the false summit and summit. We slept well apart from me waking up for a moment when I heard some coyotes followed by a couple of hoots from owls. They weren’t bothering me I just stayed up to listen to them for a bit until they stopped. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Diamond Peak Loop Day 2

Tags backpacking, blue lake, Blue Lake Trail, Corrigan Lake, Diamond Peak, Diamond Peak Loop, Diamond Peak Wilderness, Diamond Rockpile, Frog, hiking, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, Rockpile Lake, Rockpile Trail, Rockpile Trail. Pioneer Gulch Trail

Diamond Peak Area Hiking Trip report

Diamond Peak Loop Day 1 – 08/22/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 27, 2020
4 Comments on Diamond Peak Loop Day 1 – 08/22/2020

Four of the five remaining featured hikes from William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Central Cascades” (4th edition) were scattered around Diamond Peak in the Diamond Peak Wilderness. To check these off our to-do list we decided to hike a four day loop around the mountain visiting most of the highlights of those four hikes. We started our trip at the Trapper Creek Trailhead, a trailhead that we were familiar with having started our Yoran Lake hike there in 2014 (post). After crossing some railroad tracks we arrived at the actual trail and set off into the Diamond Peak Wilderness.

The writing on the sign made us chuckle, it says “If you need a map you should stay home”. All kidding aside you should always carry a map and refer to it as often as necessary.

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Two tenths of a mile from the railroad tracks we arrived at the Yoran Lake/Whitefish Trail junction where we had turned right in 2014. Posted on this sign (as well as before the railroad tracks and on the signboards at the start of the trail) was a notice that the Trapper Creek Bridge was closed due to damage. That was our return route for the final day but we knew there was an established ford so we weren’t too concerned about it.

We stayed left on the Whitefish Creek Trail which climbed gradually following Trapper Creek.

Breakfast time.

While several lakes including Yoran, Karen, and Diamond View drain into Trapper Creek they are seasonal flows yet Trapper Creek was flowing nicely. The main source of water for the creek is a spring between those lakes. As we continued up the Whitefish Trail the sound of running water faded and the forest shifted to dustier lodgepole pine.

Unnamed lake along the Whitefish Trail

Just under 5 miles from the trailhead we arrived at Diamond View Lake. It had been overcast when we began our hike but the clouds were burning off fast and as we sat at the lake taking a break the clouds lifted and gave us a full view of the east side of Diamond Peak.
Arriving at Diamond View Lake

Diamond Peak with Mt. Yoran to the right.

Sharing our break spot with a butterfly

Crossbill near Diamond View Lake

We continued past Diamond View Lake passing a couple small lakes and ponds before arriving at a 4-way junction with the Crater Butte Trail a total of 5.7 miles from the trailhead.

From the junction the Whitefish Trail continues for 3.9 miles to Crescent Lake. The 13.7 mile Crater Butte Trail starts at the Crater Butte Trailhead on the east side of Odell Lake and passes Fawn and Saddle Lake (post) prior to the junction and then continues on to the Pacific Crest Trail. That was where we were headed so we turned right on the Crater Butte Trail which promptly crossed a mostly dry bed of Whitefish Creek.

There were some markers along the trail, possibly mile markers and after two miles on this trail we passed the signed junction for the Snell Lake Trail.
Mile marker?

A lone lupine

Nice looking sign for the Snell Lake Trail.

It didn’t look like the Snell Lake Trail sees much use, at least at this end.

Beyond the Snell Lake Trail junction the scenery became a little greener with heather filled alpine meadows and Mountain View Lake with a great view of Diamond Peak.

The heather was all done blooming but there was a lot of dried blossoms.

The summit of Diamond Peak.

One and a quarter miles from the Snell Lake junction we crossed the small but pretty Mountain Creek before a short steep climb.

After the climb the trail returned to its gradual grade with a few ups and downs.

Just over 5 miles after turning onto the Crater Butte Trail we arrived at the PCT.

Our plan was to set up camp near the junction as we hoped to summit Diamond Peak the next morning from the PCT before continuing on our loop. With COVID-19 significantly lowering the number of thru hikers we weren’t too concerned about taking spots from them so we picked one a bit off the trail and set up our tent.

As it wasn’t quite 1:00 yet we could do some exploring after getting camp situated. We briefly contemplated attempting to summit that afternoon but decided against it due to heat and needing water so instead we headed for Rockpile and Marie Lakes by taking the Rockpile Trail which continued across the PCT from the Crater Butte Trail.

We would be going this way when we continued on our loop but both of the lakes are a bit off the trail and visiting them now gave us the opportunity to relax by the water before turning in for the night. A half mile down the Rockpile Trail on the left we found the signed .1 mile spur trail to Rockpile Lake.
Diamond Peak from the Rockpile Trail

Rockpile Lake

There were a few camps set up along the south side of the little lake. We decided not to stay long here as kids throwing rocks into the lake might be fun but it isn’t exactly relaxing so after checking it out we returned to the Rockpile Trail and turned left toward Marie Lake. After 110 yards we came to a junction with the Rockpile Trail continuing to the left while a spur trail continued .2 miles to Marie Lake.

We followed a trail along the south side of the lake to a view of Diamond Peak. While there were people camped here too the lake was bigger and we found a spot along the lake shore to sit and relax.

From our spot we could see the false summit of Diamond Peak and the route that we would be taking the next morning.

Hikers on the trail to the right coming down from the false summit.

As the afternoon turned to evening more people showed up including some bathers, some floaters and a couple of skinny dippers. We kept the photos to the non-humans at the lake though.

Dragon fly

We had dinner by the lake then pumped water before heading back to our tent. We spent a little time exploring the area around camp and picked some huckleberries before turning in for the night. We had planned on hiking somewhere in the area of 12 miles but we wound up showing 14.3 on our GPS units (they actually agreed this time). It had been a beautiful day, not too warm and pleasantly smokeless given the number of wildfires in California and Oregon. We were hoping that the rest of the trip would be equally nice and turned in looking forward to the next days adventures. Happy trails!

Flickr: Diamond Peak Loop Day 1

Tags backpacking, Crater Butte Trail, Diamond Peak, Diamond Peak Wilderness, Diamond View Lake, hiking, Marie Lake, Mountain Creek, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Rockpile Lake, Rockpile Trail, Trapper Creek, Trapper Creek Trailhead, Whitefish Trail

Cottage Grove Hiking Old Cascades Oregon

Bohemia Mountain – 8/15/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 17, 2020
2 Comments on Bohemia Mountain – 8/15/2020

A busy weekend provided us with a good excuse to cross the short hike to Bohemia Mountain off our to-do list of featured hikes. We had been putting this one off due to the 2:30 hour drive time just to reach the trailhead for what was listed in Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide in the Central Oregon Cascades” as a 1.6 mile hike. For a hike that short we would typically look for a longer option or additional hikes in the area to do the same day. This weekend a short hike was perfect though, in particular one south of Salem. We were going to be celebrating our nephew Tyler’s second birthday that afternoon in Lebanon so a quick hike in the morning was perfect. It was also supposed to hit triple digits in many areas so a long hike would have been hot even in the mountains.

We were still looking at 1.6 miles being a little too short so we decided to park approximately three quarters of a mile from the trailhead at a small pullout below the Musick Guard Station just before a fork in Road 2460.

We chose to park here so that we could hike down the road to the left to the ghost town of Bohemia City, once the center of the Bohemia Mining District, which formed after the discovery of gold in the area in 1858. A nearly level .6 mile walk down the rough (and private) road led to the old post office.
Bohemia Mountain from the road.

While the old post office is on federal land the road is private (no unauthorized vehicles) and so is much of the surrounding land where some mining still occurs so exploration here should be kept to a minimum.
Old mining structure from the road near the post office.

No miners were seen but I did spot a pika nearby.

We returned the way we’d come after visiting the post office keeping our eyes out for wildflowers. Despite it being mid-August we spotted quite a few different varieties even though most were well past peak.
Fireweed

Beardtongue

Paintbrush, pearly everlasting, and some type of fleabane

Large boykinia

Nuttall’s linanthus

Spreading dogbane

Blue head gilia

Bistort

False hellebore

Owl’s clover

After getting back to the road junction we started up Road 2460 (Sharps Creek Road) and took a quick look at the Musick Guard Station. Although not posted anywhere at the site the Umpqua National Forest Website still lists the Guard Station as closed due to COVID-19.

We then continued up Sharps Creek Road .7 miles to Bohemia Saddle and the official Bohemia Mountain Trailhead.
Mountain parnassian butterfly on pearly everlasting.

A lone lupine still in bloom.

Skipper

Scarlet gilia

Bohemia Saddle

Signage at Bohemia Saddle

The trail itself starts approximately 100 yards up the road to the left on the right hand side.

Sign marking the start of the trail.

The trail climbs steeply up Jackass Ridge just over three quarters of a mile to the broad, flat rocky top of Bohemia Mountain. It was already in the mid 70’s as we made the climb which fortunately was at least mostly shaded as it stuck to the west side of the ridge.
Starting up Jackass Ridge

Rainiera

Paintbrush and fleabane

The rocky ridge provided shade during the climb.

A lingering anemone.

There were a couple of openings to the east where views could be had of the Cascade Mountains. Between haze and the position of the Sun we didn’t get the clearest views.
The Fairview Peak lookout tower to the left with the Three Sisters, Broken Top, and Mt. Bachelor in the distance.

Three Sisters, Broken Top, and Mt. Bachelor in the distance.

Nearing the summit.

Mt. Bailey and Mt. Scott in the distance.

Mt. Bailey and Mt. Scott

20200815_091026_HDR Bohemia Mountain summit

There was a lot of space to explore up on the summit and despite the conditions we were able to identify Cascade peaks from Mt. Jefferson in the north to Mt. McLoughlin (barely and only with the naked eye) to the south.
Mt. Jefferson and Three Fingered Jack

Mt. Washington and the North & Middle Sisters

Three Sisters, Broken Top, and Mt. Bachelor

Mount Yoran and Diamond Peak

Tipsoo Peak, Howlock Mountain, Mt. Thielsen, Mt. Bailey, Mt. Scott, Hillman Peak and The Watchman.

We could also see Bohemia City’s post office below between the mountain and Fairview Peak.
20200815_091605_HDR

Fairview Peak lookout

We returned the way we’d come, stopping to eat a few ripe huckleberries along the way.
A lot more yet to ripen.

20200815_094548 We also found a few ripe thimbleberries.

We kept our eyes out for more pikas and while we didn’t see any others we did spot an alligator lizard and a lot of butterflies.
Alligator lizard

We were right on schedule for the birthday party when we started our drive to Lebanon but then things went off the rails. During the drive to the trailhead FR 2212 crossed two saddles, Helena Saddle (7.5 miles from FR 22) and Champion Saddle (8.3 miles from FR 22). At Helena Saddle we had forked right and Champion Saddle left but as we drove back we mistook Champion Saddle for the earlier saddle and forked left onto Champion Creek Road (BLM Road 2473). It took us a bit to realize we were on the wrong road. It became apparent when the road conditions became far worse than anything we remembered on the drive up and we also passed a sign that this road was not maintained. That sign at least gave us a fair amount of certainty that we knew which road we were on because we had passed the other end of the road on FR 22. It was signed for the Bohemia Mines but also warned that the road was not maintained and to use FR 2212. Call it stubbornness or stupidity but we were far enough along on the road that we just kept going and it kept getting worse. We did pass a couple of other vehicles parked at pullouts so at least in theory it was passable. Our Subaru Outback managed to make it through in one piece (which is more than I can say for our nerves) but it was not fun. It certainly isn’t a road that I’d take unless I was specifically looking to do some 4wd driving. Our little wrong way expedition added about 40 minutes to our drive so we were fashionably late to the party. Luckily Tyler didn’t seem to mind and we had nice visit before continuing home. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Bohemia Mountain

Tags alligator lizard, Bohemia City, Bohemia mining district, Bohemia Mountain, hiking, Jackass Ridge, Musick Guard Station, Oregon, Pika, Post Office, Umpqua National Forest

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Theilsen/Mt. Bailey Area Oregon

Thielsen Creek and Cottonwood Creek Falls Overnight – 08/08 & 09/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 13, 2020
5 Comments on Thielsen Creek and Cottonwood Creek Falls Overnight – 08/08 & 09/2020

**Note the 2020 Thielsen Fire burned a portion of this hike.**

For the second weekend in a row we were off to a wilderness area for an overnight trip. The goal this time was an off-trail waterfall in the Mt. Thielsen Wilderness which was inspired by a 2016 trip report posted by Bruce at Boots on the Trail. Not only would this trip take us to Cottonwood Creek Falls but it also allowed us to check off one of Sullivan’s featured hikes, Thielsen Creek, from his “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” guidebook.

As an added bonus we were joined by a couple of Heather’s running buddies, Nan and Peggy, who we apparently had not scared off earlier in the year when they joined us for a pair of hikes to Memaloose Lake and Milo McIver State Park back in June (post).

We began our adventure from the Howlock Mountain Trailhead near Diamond Lake.

Little bee landing on fireweed at the trailhead.

The trail began at a fork. Following the guidebook we took the left hand fork which arrived at a tunnel passing under Highway 138 after .2 miles.

There had been a number of logs down along the section and when we saw that the right hand fork also led to the tunnel we decided that we would try that on the way back but for now we hiked through the tunnel.

The trail was wide and dusty from horse use as we climbed gradually for 1.1 miles, ignoring horse trails to the left, to a junction with the Spruce Ridge Trail on the right.

We remained on the Howlock Mountain Trail which was increasingly littered with blowdown. None of it was particularly difficult to navigate but it makes for more work than necessary. A short distance beyond the Spruce Ridge junction we paused to make some adjustments and I took my leave of the group temporarily. Sullivan’s offers two options in the guidebook, an 11.4 mile out and back to Thielsen Meadow or a 15.7 mile “lollipop” loop visiting Howlock Meadows. Since we were backpacking those distances would be less, but the hike to visit Cottonwood Creek Falls promised to add 3 or 4 miles to the days total. I figured that visiting Howlock Meadows would put the day in the 13-15 mile range which I felt up for, but that was pushing it for others. I hiked on passing over, under and around downed logs until I arrived at Thielsen Creek, 3.5 miles from the trailhead.
Sample of the blowdown.

Along the way the trail spent some time above Timothy Meadows which Thielsen Creek flowed through and it entered the Mt. Thielsen Wilderness.

Fittingly a downed log welcomed us to the wilderness.

Thielsen Creek at the head of Timothy Meadows

20200808_103506 flower at Timothy Meadows

20200808_103846 Musk monkeyflower?

On the other side of the creek was a fork. The Howlock Mountain Trail continued on the left with the Thielsen Creek Trail on the right following (at a distance) the creek up to Thielsen Meadow.
Thielsen Creek Trail

Howlock Mountain Trail

I kept on the Howlock Mountain Trail which climbed for 3.5 miles to the Pacific Crest Trail near Howlock Meadows, a pumice barren that had more character than I had expected. Oddly after a few early obstacles this stretch of the trail was virtually clear of downed trees which made for some easy hiking.

Pinesap

As the trail climbed around a ridge end the forest thinned enough to get some views of both Mt. Thielsen and Mt. Bailey (post)

Mt. Bailey

Mt. Thielsen

After rounding the ridge the trail remained mostly in the trees until it neared Howlock Meadows and then Howlock Mountain started to come into view.

Orange agoseris

As I mentioned the pumice barren of Howlock Meadows had quite a bit of character. There was more green than I had expected and gentle rolling hills gave it a nice aesthetic. The view of both Howlock Mountain and Mt. Thielsen was also pretty darn nice.
IMG_3389_stitch

I turned right (south) on the Pacific Crest Trail following a pointer for the North Crater Trailhead.

Butterfly on pumice

As is usually the case the PCT was in good shape as it contoured along the hillside in a series of ups and downs.
PCT leaving Howlock Meadows.

Mt. Bailey from the PCT.

Talus slope above the PCT.

Lots of rocks along the hillside.

The trail popped out of the trees after rounding a ridge end where there was a nice view of both Mt. Thielsen and Mt. Bailey.
IMG_3438_stitch

After 3 miles on the PCT I arrived at the junction with the Thielsen Creek Trail.

When I had left the group we decided that they would set up camp in the area and I would attempt to find them and if that didn’t work we would meet at the junction at 2:30pm. I was almost 2 hours early, I had given myself a little extra time in case I got slowed down but instead the gradual grade of the climb and the good condition of the trails had allowed me to make excellent time. I walked beyond the junction a few hundred feet to Thielsen Creek.
PCT crossing Thielsen Creek

While there were a couple of tents set up nearby neither was ours. Two use trails led up along the creek on either side and I chose to try the trail on the right (south) side of the creek.
Use trails on the left and right hand side of Thielsen Creek.

This trail led me to a snow patch in a boulder field.

I continued on though hoping to reach a high point where I could see across the creek. When I finally managed that I could see where my group was so I dropped down and crossed the dry creek bed above where Thielsen Creek began.

Found our tent.

There was a large area with a number of suitable tent sites on the little hill here. There were several other tents set up off in the trees but no one was really very close to anyone else. After getting my stuff set up in the tent I joined the others in a relaxing break looking across the boulder field at Mt. Thielsen.

I was also looking at the saddle between Mt. Thielsen and Sawtooth Ridge which we needed to climb over in order to reach the falls.

When it was time to make our attempt at Cottonwood Creek Falls Peggy opted to enjoy the relaxing sound of the creek and great views of the mountain and Heather, Nan, and I set off.
I was doing my best to try and remember which side of the creek Bruce had gone up on his hike but couldn’t exactly recall so we opted to go down to the creek and try the trail that I had started up when I was looking for camp. Whether it was the way Bruce had gone or not didn’t really matter and this way provided a great view over our shoulders of Diamond Peak and an up close look at Mt. Thielsen.

The drawback to boulders is that the going can be slow, but on the plus side sometimes they hide some pretty surprises.

With all the flowers we had seen the week before in the Mt. Adams Wilderness (post) the one that we had looked for and not seen had been pink monkey flowers. There hadn’t been much in the way of flowers so far on this trip but the profusion of pink monkey flowers among the boulders was spectacular.

Pink and white blossoms

Some yellow monkeyflower too.

As we got higher into the boulder field we could see a clear use trail on the opposite hillside heading up to the saddle so we crossed over and picked it up.
Maybe “clear” use trail isn’t exactly the correct term.

It’s clearer here.

From the saddle we could see the patch of open space in the trees below where camp was and on the horizon were Diamond Peak, Sawtooth Mountain (post), and Cowhorn Mountian (post).

Mt. Thielsen

Sawtooth Ridge

East side of Mt. Thielsen

Cottonwood Falls was on the far side of the pumice plain.

Paintbrush, penstemon, and buckwheat near the saddle.

Now Bruce had said in his report that the slope was steep but I think the concept of “steep” is a lot like “spicy” food, it is somewhat subjective. His route down had been to traverse northerly along the slope bending down toward the tree line toward the end of a boulder field that lined part of the pumice plain. A use trail (or game trail, it’s hard to say) headed more directly down from the saddle though. I opted to try the northerly traverse while Heather and Nan opted for the faint trail.
I had to drop below this neat rock feature which I got too close to and had a difficult time finding my footing to get around.

Looking up the hillside.

Looking back at the rock formation.

For us this was a really tough descent. The hillside didn’t have a lot of give to it and the loose pumice made it feel like you could easily slip. My route had taken me quite a bit away from Heather and Nan but I am sure I could hear them calling me names. I finally made it down to a tree where I felt like I could take a break.

I could see Heather and Nan working their way along the tree line now and I headed in their direction before heading steeply downhill through the trees.

Game trails and elk beds were all over in the trees and I followed these when I could using them to get down to a flatter area. That flatter area was the edge of the boulder field that we had not managed to make it around.

IMG_3591_stitch

Impressively large cave on the face of Mt. Thielsen.

We didn’t mind the boulders, at least the ground was relatively level.

Penstemon

The saddle doesn’t look too bad from this angle.

We crossed the boulder field and walked out onto the pumice plain.

IMG_3625_stitch

We then dropped into a dry channel by a large boulder.

We followed this channel to the spring feeding Cottonwood Creek.
20200808_155843

We were a bit surprised to find a memorial plaque near the spring.

We followed the creek downstream a few hundred feet to the top of Cottonwood Creek Falls.

We scrambled down the north side of the falls to get a look at them.

After taking the in the falls we went back to the spring and refilled our water supply before heading back to camp. On the way back we avoided the boulder field then climbed up through the trees to our earlier route. From there we launched uphill as best we could aiming for the saddle which was now in Mt. Thielsen’s shadow.

We got onto the use/game trail as soon as we could going back up.

The “trail” leading up to the saddle.

I spotted this spider when I got to the saddle. I think it may be a wolf spider carrying babies?

The wind was howling now at the saddle but we needed a bit of a breather plus the views were just so good.
Mt. Thielsen with the Sun behind.

Howlock Mountain

Unfortunately the lighting wasn’t all that great due to the position of the Sun so we never really could capture all the colorful rocks on the mountain.

To get back to camp we avoided the boulders and stuck to the south side of the creek bed which was easier going for the most part.

Nan who is an experienced rock climber said that the hike over the saddle and back may have been the sketchiest thing she’d ever done. It was right up there for us too and not something that we will probably repeat, but it was beautiful and we were glad to have experienced it. Back at camp we had dinner and just stared at Mt. Thielsen as the Sun went down.
Junco near camp.

20200808_194340 Mt. Thielsen

The light turned a crazy purple shade just before dark which we hadn’t remembers experiencing before.
20200808_203800

I woke up the next morning just after 5am and sat out watching Mt. Thielsen as the Sun rose.
Anyone know what the celestial body to the right of the Moon is?

We had been hearing the distinctive “MEEPS” of pikas the night before and I was hearing them again in the rocks on the other side of the creek while I sat there so after breakfast and packing up I set off to see if I couldn’t locate one. It didn’t take long.
IMG_3839_stitch Searching for pikas in the rocks.

Jackpot

I sat down by the creek until the rest of the group was ready to set off.
Mountain heather

Monkeyflower

Partridge foot

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Lupine

Merten’s rush

When it was time to go we took the PCT to the Thielsen Creek Trail and followed it 2.2 miles to Timothy Meadows having to go around a massive tree fall along the way.

Another angle of the tree fall.

It was a fairly unremarkable hike back along the Howlock Mountain Trail. There were a few butterflies out and I missed a picture of a good sized buck near the Spurce Ridge Trail junction.

Just picture a good sized buck in the trees, I snapped this hoping to get lucky but I don’t see him at all.

After passing through the tunnel we took the other fork back to the trailhead. It was slightly shorter and there were no trees down but it was the horse route so it was dusty, deep, and full of road (trail?) apples. Not sure it was a good trade. Regardless we all made it back in (relatively) one piece. There were a few blisters, some mosquito bites, and perhaps even a little blood shed but we had all survived. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Thielsen Creek Overnight

Tags backpacking, Cottonwood Creek Falls, hiking, Howlock Meadows, Howlock Mountain Trail, Howlock Mountain Trailhead, Howlock Mountian, mt. thielsen, Mt. Thielsen wilderness, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Pika, Sawtooth Ridge, Thielsen Creek, Thielsen Creek Trail, Thielsen Meadow, Timothy Meadows

Hiking Mt. Adams Trip report Washington Washington Cascades

Foggy Flat Backpack Day 2 – 08/02/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 6, 2020
No Comments on Foggy Flat Backpack Day 2 – 08/02/2020

Normally when we are just hiking back to a trailhead the same way we got to a campsite it wouldn’t warrant a separate trip report, but our hike from Foggy Flat back to the Killen Creek Trailhead did. After spending the night at Foggy Flat(post) we woke just after 5am to find clear skies and a nice sunrise.
Goat Rocks in the morning

Even before the Sun was up it was light enough to get a good look at Mt. Adams.
Mt. Adams

Morning had brought out the mosquitoes so we decided to pack up and stop for breakfast somewhere along the return hike hoping for a less buggy spot. After a mile we stopped at the Muddy Meadows Trail junction where a log made for a prefect bench to have breakfast on.
Looking down the Muddy Meadows Trail from the log.

After breakfast we continued on the Highline Trail which offered good views of Mt. Rainier and Goat Rocks in this direction. When we weren’t looking at the mountains or the flowers various birds caught our attention.
Small hawk

Gray jay

Going in this direction gave us some good looks ahead toward Mt. Rainier.
Mt. Rainier and some of the Goat Rocks.

Northern flicker

The unnamed lake near the Pacific Crest Trail had an excellent reflection of the forest and Mt. Adams.

Little bird near the PCT junction.

When we reached Killen Creek (.2 miles beyond the PCT junction) we crossed on the footbridge then removed our packs to take the steep use trail down below the waterfall as we’d planned the day before.

Killen Creek below the waterfall.

Mt. Adams from the waterfall.

After exploring the area below the falls we climbed back up and continued through Killen Creek Meadows, stopping to check on the pollywogs along the way.
IMG_3174_stitch

The blue sky made for a different look than we’d had the day before and we kept pausing along the way to marvel at the scenery.
Mt. Rainier and Goat Rocks from the PCT.

Breakfast time (possibly second breakfast)

Zooming in on Mt. Rainier

We were almost surprised when we arrived at the junction with the Killen Creek Trail. The miles go by pretty quick when you’re distracted. We turned down that trail putting Mt. Adams to our backs.

Killen Creek Trail heading away from Mt. Adams.

We turned to look back several times seeing less and less of the mountain before we lost sight of it for good.

It had been wonderful trip. The Mt. Adams Wilderness has yet to let us down and we’re already looking forward to our next visit down the road. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Foggy Flat Backpack Day 2

Tags Foggy Flat, Highline Trail, hiking, Killen Creek, Mt. Adams, Mt. Adams Wilderness, Pacific Crest Trail, Washington, Waterfall

Hiking Mt. Adams Trip report Washington Washington Cascades

Sleeping Beauty & Foggy Flat Backpack Day One- 08/01/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 6, 2020
5 Comments on Sleeping Beauty & Foggy Flat Backpack Day One- 08/01/2020

Our first backpacking trip of the year was over Memorial Day weekend (post) but since then we hadn’t had an opportunity to break out our tent. Sleeping Beauty, a 3 mile featured hike in Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington” (4th edition), gave us a reason to put the tent to use again.

It wasn’t because the hike to the top of Sleeping Beauty was backpackable, but rather the 2:45 drive time to the trailhead was too long for this to be a stand alone hike for us. To make the trip worth the drive we decided to continued to nearby Mt. Adams and do a hike to Foggy Flat from Matt Reeder’s “PDX Hiking 365” guidebook.

We began our trip by driving to Trout Lake, WA then continued on to the Sleeping Beauty Trailhead.

The trail climbed steeply up through a green forest for a mile to a forested saddle. Most of the flowers had passed but a few lingered and the pearly everlasting was getting started. Thimbleberries weren’t quite ripe but we did find a few strawberries to snack on.

Beardstongue

Pearly everlasting next to thimbleberry bushes.

Not quite ready yet.

Near the saddle we got our first look at the rock feature that is Sleeping Beauty from the trail (it is visible on the drive).

The trail bends to the right (ignore a fainter trail heading left) at the saddle continuing through the trees.

Another bit of climbing brought us beneath the rocks.

The trail switchbacked its way up amid the rocks up stonework ramps gaining views of the surrounding Cascade mountains along the way.
Mt. Adams

Goat Rocks (post) to the left beyond Mt. Adams

Looking down at some of the switchbacks.

Mt. St. Helens in the distance.

The top of Mt. Rainier.

Mt. Hood to the South.

IMG_2431_stitch Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Goat Rocks and Mt. Adams.

Indian Heaven Wilderness

It was fairly windy up on the rocks, just windy enough to make us a little nervous when we got to the saddle near the top as we had to push back a bit against it. Luckily the top is fairly wide and there was a least one place behind a rock where the wind was non-existent.
Looking east over the top of Sleeping Beauty.

20200801_084405_HDR Looking west to the true summit where a lookout once stood.

We were hoping to see a mountain goat as they do live here but alas we only saw some fur on a rock and a couple of bushes. The views would have to do and they did just fine. I scrambled over to the former lookout site after deciding it looked safe enough while Heather waited at the saddle.

Mt. Hood from the foundation of the former lookout.

After a good long time exploring the area and enjoying the views we headed back down. We passed several groups of hikers heading up (just about everyone had a mask) so we were once again glad we’d gotten the early start to have the top to ourselves.

From the trailhead we drove back to Trout Lake and turned left onto Mount Adams Road aka Forest Road 23. (Google would have had us continue on the forest road we had been on to reach the Killen Creek Trailhead, but Google doesn’t always know the condition of the Forest Roads and I don’t either so we played it safe.)

We then followed Reeder’s direction to the Killen Creek Trailhead stopping along the way when Heather spotted a nice waterfall on Big Spring Creek.
Sign at a pullout along FR 23.

These were huge yellow monkeyflowers.

Big Spring Creek

After the brief stop we drove on. The final 9 miles on FR 23 was gravel but wide and not too bad. We turned off of the gravel onto the narrow, paved FR 2329 which was a nice break, but beyond the turn for Takhalakh Lake Campground this road also turned to gravel. It was not in the best condition and was fairly narrow and busy which made for a bit of a tedious final 6 miles to the Killen Creek Trailhead.

After attempting some gear repair (a hole in some clothing) we set off and quickly entered the Mt. Adams Wilderness.

This was only our third visit to the wilderness with our first having been a hike from the South Climb Trailhead to Iceberg Lake in 2014 (post) and the second an overnight stay at Horseshoe Meadows in 2017 (post). (Apparently this is an every three year thing.)

The Killen Creek Trail climbed through the forest where we were pleased to find quite a few flowers were blooming. Little did we know what was coming.
Lupine along the trail.

Arnica

Lousewort

More lupine along the trail.

Partridge foot and lupine.

Lupine, paintbrush and valerian.

Lupine along the trail which sees a good amount of equestrian use.

Mountain heather.

As we continued to climb the number and types of flowers we were seeing kept increasing.
Yellow buttercups mixed in with the lupine, paintbrush and valerian.

Beardstongue, arnica and lupine.

Beargrass

Approximately 2.5 miles up the trail the flowers really started to explode as the trail began to level out a bit.

Over the next mile we gained views of Mt. Adams and crossed a small alpine stream all while being mesmerized by the flowers.

Lousewort

Elephants head near the stream.

Elephants head and a shooting star.

20200801_125034 Mountain heather

Phlox

As we gained elevation we also began to get glimpses of Mt. Rainier to the NW.

The views and flowers just kept getting better as we went.

False hellebore amid the lupine.

20200801_130422

Paintbrush framed by trees.

Woolly pussytoes

After a little over 3.25 miles the Killen Creek Trail ended at the Pacific Crest Trail.

We had been to this junction in 2017 when we had hiked the PCT north from Horseshoe Meadows. We had continued a few hundred feet before realizing that Killen Creek was still almost a mile away. This time we would be hiking beyond Killen Creek and so we turned left on the PCT and continued on.

Where the Killen Creek Trail was heading for Mt. Adams the PCT was bending around the mountain. This made for more up and down hiking as opposed to steady climbing. Mt. Adams occasionally made an appearance over our right shoulders and the flowers continued to be amazing.

20200801_131817 Cinquefoil

White and pink mountain heather, paintbrush and lupine above the PCT.

Shooting star

Violets

Coming in for a landing on groundsel.

Aster

The Goat Rocks was soon fully visible between us and Mt. Rainier.

IMG_2746_stitch Goat Rocks

A little under a mile from the Killen Creek Trail junction the PCT began a descent to Killen Creek Meadows.

Aster and white seed heads

There were a couple of small ponds still holding water in the meadows and we noticed a lot of ripples in the water as we approached.

It turned out to be pollywogs, and a lot of them.

Spirea

The PCT crossed Killen Creek on a footbridge just above a waterfall.

Killen Creek and Mt. Adams.

There was a steep path down on this side of the falls but it looked like the PCT might have a good view of it on the other side of the creek so we opted not to head down. We figured the worst case scenario was that there wouldn’t be a view and we could just go down on the way back out.

As we started to cross the bridge we noticed something in the creek nearby, it was an ouzel.

There wasn’t a great view of the waterfall on the other side.
The waterfall from the PCT.

The PCT descended to a lower meadow where a trail led out to a campsite and another possible vantage point for the waterfall but the view was obscured so we put it on the to do list for the next day.

From Killen Creek it was .2 flower filled miles to a junction with the Highline Trail.
Highline Trail ahead.

Here we left the PCT as it continued on its way to Goat Rocks and beyond and turned up the Highline Trail. Not far from the junction we arrived at an unnamed lake with a reflection of Mt. Adams.

The wildflowers had been impressive thus far but the Highline Trail took it up a notch.

Yellow arnica along the trail.

Beargrass in full bloom.

Subalpine mariposa lily

After a total of 1.7 miles on this trail we arrived at another junction. This time it was the Muddy Meadows Trail.

Look more lupine that way.

We continued on the Highline Trail another mile before reaching Foggy Flat, a wet meadow near an unnamed creek.
Still tons of flowers.

Frog near Foggy Flat

Mt. Adams from Foggy Flat

Frog in a little stream at Foggy Flat.

Zoomed in

We walked along the meadow to the far end where the creek was located looking for tent sites. There was one occuppied site along the trail across from the meadow but that was about all we saw at first.

The Highline Trail crossed the creek on a footbridge but then launched steeply uphill so we turned around and decided to check around the meadow more thoroughly for a suitable site.

Gentian

Elephants Head

We are fairly picky about our campsites. We do not like to camp on any vegetation, especially in meadows and we do our best to maintain a proper distance from water and trails. Unfortunately we are in the minority and it was obvious from the fire rings and smashed grasses that many others aren’t as selective (not to mention the TP – come on people). We finally managed to find an acceptable spot tucked into some trees.

With camp established we took our daypacks out put our essentials plus dinner and the stove into them and set off across the creek on the Highline Trail. Reeder described the trail beyond Foggy Flat as having “incredible views” but also “difficult creek crossings”. Our plan was to go as far as the Muddy Fork crossing and unless it looked really easy turn back there.
Monkeyflower and willowherb along the creek.

The climb up from the creek was indeed steep and we were happy to just have our daypacks on.
Mt. Rainier behind us.

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The trail dropping steeply behind us on one of the steeper sections.

We passed several nice campsites as the terrain became more level at the edge of a lava flow. A couple of the sites were occupied. Despite the rockier conditions due to the lava flow the flower show continued.
Can you spot the yellow paintbrush?

Shortly after crossing another little creek we found ourselves in the lava field with an excellent view of Mt. Adams. We had been waiting for the clouds to break up all day and now they were starting to oblige.

Buckwheat

We continued to follow the Highline Trail through the lava and past snow fields.

The lava also provided great views of Mt. Rainier and Goat Rocks.

Goat Creek falling from Goat Lake.

IMG_2955_stitch Red Butte and Mt. Adams

Red Butte, a neat looking cinder cone.

Flower amid the rocks.

We did indeed stop at Muddy Fork. It was a little more of a crossing than we wanted to tackle at that point.

We backed track a bit to rise where we had seen a great looking spot for dinner (or a tent). We cooked our dinner there and then explored a bit on the ridge above the spot where we found a few flowers amid the rocks and more amazing views.
Paintbrush

Cutleaf daisy

Dwarf alpinegold

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We eventually headed back to Foggy Flat under the watchful eyes of the locals.

We were momentarily distracted below one of the snow fields as we watched a stream forming in front of our eyes.
Water in the upper portions of the snowmelt stream.

The same stream 3 minutes later.

When the water reached a large hole that would take some time to fill we managed to pull ourselves away and continue back to our campsite. We stopped at the creek to get water for the next day and turned in fairly quickly. There were just enough mosquitoes about to be a nuisance making the confines of the tent that much more appealing.

Combining this hike with our previous two visits we’ve managed to cover quite a bit of the trails that wrap around the mountain. The east side of Mt. Adams is on part of the Yakima Indian Reservation and is largely trail less. Special permits are required to enter the Reservation with the exception of Bird Creek Meadows on the SE side of the mountain.
Mt. Adams Tracks

From every angle that we’ve seen it Mt. Adams continues to impress us. It’s truly a special place. Happy Trails!
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Tags backpacking, Foggy Flat, Goat Rocks, Killen Creek Meadows, Killen Creek Trail, Killen Creek Trailhead, lupine, Mt. Adams, Mt. Adams Wilderness, Mt. Rainier, Muddy Fork, Pacific Crest Trail, Red Butte, Round-the-Mountain Trail, sleeping beauty, sleeping beauty trail, wildflowers

Central Oregon Hiking Lakeview Oregon Trip report

Lake Abert and Summer Lake – 07/24/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 30, 2020
4 Comments on Lake Abert and Summer Lake – 07/24/2020

Our time in Lakeview had come to an end and we were ready to head home after a week of hot, challenging, but enjoyable hiking. Before we went home though we had planned two more stops on the way. The second stop was to do the final featured hike in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Easter Oregon” 3rd edition in the Klamath Falls section. That hike was at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area but before that hike we had originally planned to hike to the top of Abert Rim.

The Abert Rim hike had been a featured hike in the 2nd edition of Sullivan’s book but was now relegated to an “additional” hike. The hike to Abert Rim entails a 1.6 mile, 2100′ elevation gain climb entirely off-trail. By this point of our trip we just weren’t up for another off-trail adventure let alone one that gained 2100′ in 1.6 miles. We decided that instead of climbing Abert Rim we would park at the wildlife viewing area where the hike would begin and walk down to Abert Lake. We parked at a signed pullout between mile posts 84 & 85 of Highway 395.

After reading the interpretive signs at the pullout we headed down a steep trail (we missed the dirt road that led down at a much gentler grade).

Once we were down the steep little hill we found the dirt road and followed it right along the lake watching the birds and the sunrise.

Gulls and avocets

American avocets

We walked down the shore until we reached a brushy area which was likely Juniper Creek. From here we had a good look across the highway at Juniper Gulch which would have been where we bushwacked up to the rim.

To get back to our car we followed the dirt road up from the lakeshore.

We wound up doing a short .7 mile loop which was perfect. From there we drove back south on Hwy 395 to Hwy 31 and turned right (NW). We turned into the wildlife area headquarters (near milepost 70) and followed a pointer fot a “Wildlife Viewing Loop”. After 1.6 miles at a junction we turned right and followed this road to its end at the Windbreak Campground (a $10 parking permit is required, we purchased ours online prior to our trip).

When planning the trip we had been worried about mosquitoes but for the most part they had been a non-issue. They were a bit of a nuisance along South Fork Crooked Creek (post) and behind Barnhardi Cabin (post) but that had been it. I had received one bite (I think) while Heather had not been quite as lucky, her shoulders were pretty bumpy with just a few on the legs. Our luck ran out at Summer Lake with it’s marshes and ponds it was the prefect recipe for the little buggers. Deet was applied quickly but not before Heather had a 20+ new bites.

Despite that the hike here was nice, it was flat following dikes for 2.3 miles which meant no elevation gain. Birds were almost as plentiful as mosquitoes but boy are they skittish. Most of the ducks flew off before we really got a chance to focus on them. The white faced ibis were more photogenic and we got to see another sandhill crane. We also spotted a coyote and two pups crossing the dike.

A white faced ibis and some ducks.

Swallow rave

Sandhill crane

Look more ducks!

White faced ibis coming in for a landing.

Looking out over Summer Lake

White faced ibis

Black-neck stilt

Killdeer

Great blue heron in flight.

After 2 miles the dike made a hard right and .3 miles later (at a tractor) we reached private land and turned back.

The dike also provided a good view of Winter Ridge where we had started our Lakeview area hikes (post).

We double timed it back to the car in an attempt to keep the bugs at bay. We could have done without those pests but c’est la vie. It had been a fun week but our feet were done and by the time we had gotten back to the car we were even happier with our decision to save Abert Rim for another time. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Lake Abert and Summer Lake

Tags coyote, duck, hiking, Lake Abert, Lakeview, Oregon, Sandhill Crane, Summer Lake, Summer Lake Wildlife Area, White Faced Ibis, Windbreak Campground

Central Oregon Hiking Lakeview Oregon Trip report

Gearhart Mountain – 07/23/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 30, 2020
3 Comments on Gearhart Mountain – 07/23/2020

**Note the 2021 Bootleg Fire burned the entire Gearhart Mountain Wilderness.**

Thursday marked our sixth straight day of hiking and promised to be one of the longer, if not longest hikes of our trip. The weather had cooperated and after a couple of afternoons with possible thunderstorms the forecast for Gearhart Mountain was for mostly sunny skies. We were hoping to reach the 8370′ summit of the mountain which is located in the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, one of 6 Oregon wilderness areas we had yet to visit (we are trying to visit all 46 of the wilderness areas in Oregon open to people post).

This visit would also check off another of William L. Sullivan’s featured hikes (we are trying to hike all of those as well post). The hike begins at the Lookout Rock Trailhead. Sullivan’s entry for this hike described the final half mile of the road to the trailhead as rough and steep. The Forest Service website linked above shows the trailhead before that final half mile of road listing it as closed. I had learned my lesson regarding trailhead roads the day before (post) so we parked at a pullout after about a mile on FR 012.

We set off up the road which aside from one short stretch with a pretty good runoff channel looked to be in pretty good shape and there was nothing to indicate that the road was actually closed (it continues beyond a gate at the trailhead to the Lookout Rock fire tower).

The gate on the right through the trees.

In hindsight the drive to this trailhead would have been much easier than the .5 miles to the DeGarmo Canyon Trailhead. Regardless we reached the start of the actual trail, filled out a wilderness questionnaire, and set off on the Gearhart Mountain Trail.

I was momentarily disappointed when we passed a post that looked like it used to sport a wilderness sign (I like to get photos of signs for each wilderness we enter) but a little further up the trail my spirits were lifted when we spotted one of the signs.

After .7 miles we came to The Palisades, a group of andesite formations of different shapes and sizes.

It took us quite a while to get through this section of the trail. I’m not sure what we had expected but The Palisades really blew us away and we could have spent quite a bit more time exploring the area. Beyond The Palisades the trail lost a bit of elevation as it began a forested stretch.

Approximately 2 miles in on the trail we came to a spring in a small meadow.

We began to see a few more flowers beyond the spring as the trail gradually climbed for .4 miles to a switchback that was not shown on our GPS maps.
Mountain coyote mint and paintbrush along the trail.

Starting the switchback.

Scarlet gilia

The switchback brought us beneath another interesting rock formation.

As we walked below the rocks we came to a small stream that was home to some other types of flowers and flowed past a good sized meadow.
Columbine

Monkshood and California corn lily

20200723_074949 Monkshood

20200723_075220 Orange agoseris

More rocks above the trail.

The trail continued to climb beyond the meadow along more open hillsides where pink mountain coyote mint and white Nuttall’s linanthus were abundant. Other flowers included paintbrush and a few balsamroot blossoms.

After 4.5 miles we arrived at a saddle where we faced a choice.
Just about to the saddle.

To reach the summit of Gearhart Mountain we would need to strike out cross-country to the east for approximately 1.5 miles. The trail headed NE from the saddle dropping down to a series of meadow before climbing steeply to “The Notch” below the summit and continuing to Blue Lake in 4 miles and it’s end at FR 015 in 6.8. We were hoping to reach the summit and then would decide if we felt up to continuing to the meadows and The Notch. Sullivan’s description of the hike to the summit mentions a “scramble to the left 0.2 mile to the mountain’s long Ridgecrest”. He also says to “look for a break in the cliffs”. From the saddle it was easy to see the cliffs he was referring to.

Gearhart Mountain from the saddle.

Gearhart Mountain, The Notch to the right, and meadows below.

Penstemon in the rocks at the saddle.

We took a brief break and studied the cliffs before setting off through the white bark pines to find a break in the cliffs.

We found a reasonable break where the manzanita was our biggest obstacle and climbed up through the rocks.

Above the rocks the terrain leveled out a bit.

We made a slight miscalculation here as we veered uphill thinking that we had gotten past the cliffs and were on the long Ridgecrest portion of the mountain.

A fire pit also made us think we were on the right course.

We were following a ridge but the ridge kept getting narrower and rockier and after .4 miles (from where we had come up through the cliffs) we found ourselves on top of more cliffs. Luckily we only had to backtrack 150′ to find a spot where we were able to scramble down the east side of the rocks to a much easier walk through open forest.

We began to notice a snowy mountain to the east which after some debate we determined to be Mt. McLoughlin (post).
You can’t make the mountain out in the picture but it was out there.

Now you can sort of see it.

A little blurry but there is Mt. McLoughlin

We startled a few grouse along the way (and they startled us right back) and our presence seemed to also be annoying a pair of raptors. They were noisily circling overhead and we assumed that they must have had a nest somewhere on the cliffs.

We did our best to stay as far away from the rocks as possible to lessen the disturbance.

The last couple hundred feet to the summit was very easy walking on a the fairly flat top of the mountain.

The final little uphill on the left.

Summit of Gearhart Mountain

Survey marker

Summit register

It was a nice day with blue skies overhead but smoke from fires in California and some remaining clouds and haze along the skyline limited the views of the surrounding area. On a clearer day we would have had a good view of Mt. Shatsa and been able to see all the way to Mt. Jefferson to the NW. As it was with the help of binoculars we could just make out some snowy features on the horizon but other than Mt. McLoughlin we couldn’t be sure which of the Cascade peaks we were seeing.
The Notch is below to the right hidden by the cliffs.

West toward Mt. McLoughlin which is still hard to make out.

If you squint really hard you can make out a couple of snowy peaks on the horizon.

NNE view.

South back along the ridge.

East down to the meadows below and a second survey marker.

After our summit break we headed back. This time we stayed below the rocky Ridgecrest remaining in the easier to navigate trees.

The key with this was not swinging out too wide and getting too far below where we had come up from the saddle. Numerous GPS checks kept us from getting to far astray and led us back to the spot where we had come up between the cliffs.
Getting ready to drop down toward the saddle.

Heading down

At the summit we had debated on whether or not to go to the meadows and on to The Notch. Heather was concerned about mosquitoes around the meadows and from the summit it didn’t appear that there was much in the way of flowers down there. Going all the way to the Notch would have added almost 2.5 miles to the days hike which was already going to be around 13 miles if we went straight back to the trailhead. By the time we reached the saddle though we decided to at least check out the meadows, Heather could stop and turn around if the bugs got bad and we didn’t know when we might find ourselves back here. It also helped that the trail shown on the GPS unit didn’t appear to lose much elevation remaining at the 7900′ elevation except for a slight dip to 7800′ near The Notch. We had talked ourselves into it and down the trail we went.

We quickly discovered that this was one of those cases where the actual trail was not really anywhere near where it was shown on the map and we had fairly quickly lost almost 200′. It appeared that perhaps most people stop at the saddle as there was noticeably more blowdown along this portion of the trail and it was faint at some points even when it wasn’t passing through the edge of a meadow.

The good news was that it wasn’t long before we encountered the first strip of lush green along the trail and there were in fact a good number of wildflowers (and not many mosquitoes).

Paintbrush, monkshood, lupine and California corn lily

20200723_113900 Swamp onion

20200723_113954 The remnants of a shooting star.

20200723_114157 Penstemon

Gearhart Mountain from the trail below.

We were pleased to find that even near the largest meadow where water was visible we didn’t have much of an issue with mosquitoes.

Bistort

Mountain heather next to the stream.

The last of an elephant’s head.

Bog orchids

California corn lilies below Gearhart Mountain.

We followed the trail to the end of the big meadow which was near the start of the climb to The Notch and sat on some rock beneath Gearhart Mountain.

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We decided that this would be as far as we would go. We didn’t see the point in climbing 200′ in the next tenth or two miles for a view that was simply lower than the one that we’d had at the summit. We had a snack and located a small patch of lingering snow beneath the cliffs before heading back.

The hike back up to the saddle wasn’t as bad as we’d feared and soon we were heading down the other side. Going in this direction we got a better look at The Dome, another rock feature roughly 1.75 miles from the saddle.

The Dome from the trail.

We spent more time admiring the Palisades on the way back and met a couple of sagebrush lizards in the process.
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Despite a couple of tents set up along the road to the trailhead we saw no one all day on the trail. My Garmin put the hike at 15.7 miles. (Heather had less on hers but she also didn’t wander around like a fool while off trail like someone else may have.) It was a good hike to cap off our stay in Lakeview although we were planning on a couple of stops on the way home the next day so it wasn’t the last hike of our vacation. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Gearhart Mountain

Tags Fremont-Winema National Forest, gearhart mountain, Gearhart Mountain Trail, Gearhart Mountain Wildreness, hiking, Lookout Rock Trailhead, Oregon, The Dome, The Notch, The Palisades