Category: Hiking

Hiking

2024 Wildlife Gallery Part 1 – Feathered Friends

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 22, 2025
3 Comments on 2024 Wildlife Gallery Part 1 – Feathered Friends

A couple of my favorite posts to put together every year is our wildlife galleries. Seeing animals on our hikes is always a highlight. (Maybe not rattlesnakes, but in 15 years of hiking we’ve still only seen one on trail.) A couple of years back we spilt our gallery post into two, feathered and featherless. This helps keep the number of pictures to a more reasonable number. While we do our best at identification, we are not experts’ Any corrections or further identification of species are appreciated.

A couple of other notes, while we really enjoy taking pictures as a way to record what we see on our hikes, we are by no means photographers. We use our phones and a point and shoot camera on the auto setting, so the pictures are far from professional, but we hope you enjoy them. We also practice Leave No Trace Principles including Principle 6: Respect Wildlife which means observing from a distance, never feeding, and respecting any area wildlife closures.

Acorn woodpecker – 3/30/24 Mulkey Ridge Trail, Corvallis, OR

Lewis’s woodpecker – 8/31/24 Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR

Northern flicker – 6/19/24 Deception Butte, OR

Black-backed woodpecker? – 9/13/24 Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

Hairy? woodpecker (I have a hard time with Hairy vs Downy woodpeckers) – 6/19/24 Deception Butte Trail, OR

Anna’s hummingbird – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Rufous hummingbird – 8/3/24 Crater Lake National Park, OR

American goldfinch – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

American robin – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

American dippers (ouzels) – 5/12/24 Lee Wooden Fishhawk Falls County Park, Clatsop County, OR

Black-headed grosbeak – 6/8/24 Cedar Butte (Tillamook State Forest), OR

Bullock’s oriole (top of photo) – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

LOL! This is the best photo of a varied thrush I could get this year. 2/3/24 Forest Park, Portland, OR

Hermit thrush – 6/15/24 O’Leary Mountain Trail (Willamette National Forest), OR

Chickadee – 9/9/24 Hidden Lake Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Dark-eyed junco – 3/30/24 Mulkey Ridge Trail, Corvallis, OR

Common yellowthroat – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Dusky flycatcher – 8/19/24 Pine Lakes Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Hammond’s flycatcher – 8/22/24 East Fork Wallowa River Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Ash-throated flycatcher – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Lazuli bunting – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Mountain bluebirds – 8/18/24 Cliff Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Western bluebirds – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Cedar waxwing – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

California jay – 3/30/24 Mary’s River Natural Park, Corvallis, OR

Canada jay – 6/19/24 Deception Butte Trail, OR

Stellar’s jay – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Crow – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Raven – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Sage thrasher (new sighting for us) – 9/8/24 National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, OR

Western meadowlark – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Western tanager – 7/24/24 Tenderfoot Wagon Road Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Pine siskins – 8/20/24 Chimney-Wood Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Ruby-crowned kinglet – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Spotted towhee – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Townsend solitaire – 9/13/24 Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

Yellow-rumped warbler – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Orange-crowned warbler – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Wilson’s warbler – 6/8/24 Kilchis Forest Road (Tillamook State Forest), OR

Purple martins – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Tree swallows – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Barn swallows – 5/11/24 Fort Stevens State Park, OR

European starling – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Brewer’s blackbird – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Yellow-headed blackbird – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Red-winged blackbird – 2/10/24 Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Bushtit – 7/6/24 Independence River Front Park, Independence, OR

Brown creeper – 6/19/24 Deception Butte Trail, OR

White-breasted nuthatch – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Red-breasted nuthatch – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Pacific wren – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Marsh wren – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Rock wren – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Golden-crowned sparrow – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Savanah sparrow – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Song sparrow – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Chipping sparrow – 4/13/24 Sams-Walker Day Use Area, WA

White-crowned sparrow – 4/13/24 Sams-Walker Day Use Area, WA

House finch – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Cassin’s finch – 8/4/24 Crater Lake National Park, OR

Cassin’s vireo – 8/21/24 Maxwell Lake Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

American kestral – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Peregrine falcon – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Copper’s hawk – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Red-tailed hawk – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Northern harrier – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Osprey – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Bald eagles – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Turkey vulture – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Dusky grouse – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Sooty grouse – 8/31/24 Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR

Ruffed grouse – 11/28/24 Silver Falls State Park, OR

California quail – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Dove – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Pigeons – 9/8/24 National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, OR

Band-tailed pigeons – 6/8/24 Kilchis Forest Road (Tillamook State Forest), OR

Pigeon guillemont – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Oyster catcher – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Whimbrel – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Seagull – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Spotted sandpiper – 7/24/24 Bonny Lakes (Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Wilson’s phalarope (another first for us) – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Double-crested cormorant – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

American bittern – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Great egret, female mallard, and great blue heron – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Mallard drake – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Ruddy ducks – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Northern shoveler – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Buffleheads – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Green-winged teal – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Northern pintail and American wigeons – 2/10/24 Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Canvasbacks (first time sighting for us) – 2/10/24 Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Common merganser drake – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Hooded mergansers – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Cinnamon teal – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Lesser scaups – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Greater scaup – 5/11/24 Skippanon River, Warrenton, OR

Ring-necked duck – 5/26/24 Bull Prairie Lake (Umatilla National Forest), OR

Gadwalls – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Barrow’s goldeneye – 9/11/24 Pyramid Lake (Mt. Hood National Forest), OR

American coot – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Pie-billed grebe – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Eared grebe – 5/26/24 Bull Prairie Lake (Umatilla National Forest), OR

Horned grebe – 2/10/24 Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Canada geese – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Cackling geese – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Tundra swans (first sighting for us) – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Hiking

Shellburg Falls – 01/20/2025

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 21, 2025
No Comments on Shellburg Falls – 01/20/2025

It had been nearly 14 years since we visited Shellburg Falls (post). Since that time a lot has changed there, most notably the area was burned in the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire. The area remained closed until May 2024, when it was reopened thanks in large part to volunteer work done by the Trail Keepers of Oregon (TKO). I had MLK Day off from work and while the polar vortex was keeping people from outdoor activities in some parts of the country the low at Shellburg Falls was forecast to be a crisp but reasonable 25F with nothing but blue skies.

I couldn’t pass up hiking weather like that so while Heather was getting ready for work I headed out to the Shellburg Falls Trailhead. Please note that access roads for the trailhead changed post fire and that some information online and certain navigation apps (I’m looking at you Google Maps) still show the pre-fire route. The directions in Oregon Hikers Field Guide (linked above) are correct as of this writing.

One of the other changes post fire is that the loop we did back in 2011 is no longer possible due to the closure of the section of trail that passed behind Shellburg Falls. You can still reach Shellburg Falls on either the west side or east side, you just can’t make a loop out of it. There are several other loops that are possible in the area on the east side of the creek and my plan was to check out three of those and also take a detour to the Silver Falls State Park Backcountry.

Prior to doing any of that though I headed down the Shellburg Falls Trail to do the roughly 1.5-mile out-and-back on the west side of the falls.

The trail parallels Shellburg Road and briefly joins it after passing a gate to cross Shellburg Creek and then returns to a single track recrossing Shellburg Creek on a new footbridge installed by TKO volunteers.

Shellburg Creek

Trail sign ahead on the right marking the resumption of the Shellburg Falls Trail.

The trail soon passes the top of the falls before descending via new switchbacks and turning back up the creek for a view of the full waterfall.

May 2011 view.

First sunlight hitting the rocks above the trail.

Barricade and sign marking the closed section of trail.

2011 view

After admiring the falls I headed back up toward the trailhead but stayed on Shellburg Road and turned right across the parking area to head toward the shelter and day use area.
Some survivors on the far hillside.

I heard a number of woodpeckers throughout the day, but this was the only one I was able to spot.

Outhouse at the day use area up ahead.

Parking spots at the day use area along with the shelter. The trails on the left and right are the Vine Maple Trail, the shortest loop option at about 1-mile.

While my plan was to do the Vine Maple Loop it would not be all at once. Instead, my plan was to take the left (northern) section to the Shellburg Creek Trail where I would turn left onto that loop which would eventually lead me back to the trailhead where I would then take the southern section of the Vine Maple Loop to the August Mountain Trail.

The only tree I had to step over on a trail all morning.

Arriving at the 4-way trail junction with the Shellburg Creek, August Mountain, and southern portion of the Vine Maple Trail.

At the junction I made a hard left onto the Shellburg Creek Trail.

We had not been on this trail in 2011, so it was brand new to me. The trail climbed gradually along Shellburg Creek (no views) for a third of a mile before turning away from the creek and climbing more steeply.

I saw a good number of varied thrushes including 4 or 5 in this spot, but once again I failed at getting a clear picture.

The forest along the creek held up pretty well in the fire.

I was keeping an eye out for the Lost Creek Trail which would be heading uphill to the right (or left if you’re going the other way) of the Shellburg Creek Trail. I first spotted a faint trail signed as a horse route.

I had seen this trail on at least one map and knew it wasn’t the trail I was looking for. (It theoretically rejoins the Shellburg Creek Trail a short distance later, but I did not notice the other end.)

Frosty leaves

A short distance later the trail crossed a roadbed that was not on any of the maps that I had available to me. (This road is shown on several other maps that I did not happen to be using.)

Referring to the maps I had, and my GPS track this old roadbed looked like it might be what I was looking for. There was no sign for the Lost Creek Trail but the other tail signs at the junction increased my confidence that this could be the trail. I turned uphill on the roadbed and climbed 150′ in a quarter of a mile to the end of the road.

End of the line. I briefly searched for old tread before deciding that this was not in fact the Lost Creek Trail.

I returned to the Shellburg Creek Trail and continued on that loop. A tenth of a mile later I passed an abandoned trail that had been covered with debris. A few feet beyond the abandoned trail I came to an unsigned T-junction at the edge of a clearcut.

The T-junction

The trail leading uphill here was in good shape and I was confident that I had finally found the correct trail, so I turned right.
Heading uphill from the Shellburg Creek Trail.

After climbing for a bit I passed the upper end of the closed trail and a trail marker for the Snag Loop Trail.

As near as I can tell the decommissioned section of trail was the Lost Creek Trail as some maps show both the Lost Creek and Snag Loop Trails.

I continued uphill crossing a roadbed at the half a mile mark and arriving at Shellburg/Ayers Creek Road at the three-quarter mile mark.

Arriving at the road crossing.

Shellburg/Ayers Creek Road (depending on the map)

I turned right on the road for a tenth of a mile to an intersection where I proceeded straight into a wide muddy area.

On the other side of the intersection.

The Lost Creek Trail followed the muddy roadbed for another 0.2-miles before splitting off to the left at a trail pointer.

The trail continued uphill to Lookout Mountain Road at the edge of Silver Falls State Park.
Some of the forest up higher had survived the fire as well.

Arriving at Lookout Mountain Road.

Gate at the border of Silver Falls State Park.

I had been on the other side of that gate in 2022 during my 21.5-mile perimeter loop of that park(post).

The unmistakable flat top of Coffin Mountain (post) in the distance.

After tagging the gate, and shedding a layer, I headed back down to the Shellburg Creek Trail.

Shortly after starting back down I spotted a couple of early wildflowers.
Evergreen violets – Viola sempervirens

Snow queen

Back at the Shellburg Creek Trail.

From the junction the Shellburg Creek Trail descended at a good pace through a recently replanted clearcut before ending at Shellburg Road after two thirds of a mile.

While the Sun was out and it had warmed up a bit the shady areas were still frosty.

The trail crossed this road at the 0.3-mile mark. It turns out this roadbed is the one I turned up earlier in error.

Shellburg Road

I turned left onto the road and followed it approximately 500′ to the trailhead where I again headed for the day use area (left this time) and picked up the southern section of the Vine Maple Trail.

I followed the Vine Maple Trail back to the 4-way trail junction and turned right onto the August Mountain Trail.

The back of the shelter.

The August Mountain Trail crossed Shellburg Creek on another nice new bridge then climbed August Mountain to a signboard at a roadbed.

Following a pointer for the Shellburg Falls Trail I headed downhill into a creek drainage where I spotted a few deer on the opposite hillside.
While not unobstructed, the fire had opened up partial views of Mt. Jefferson.

Mt. Jefferson through the trees.

Two of the deer.

The trail dropped to Shellburg Road (again) and continued on the far side.

I however turned left onto the road in order to make another little loop, and to see if the fire had opened up any views of Stassel Falls. While the waterfall is on private property the Santiam State Forest Boundary extends far enough that it is possible to get glimpses of the 125′ waterfall. There is no official trail but I picked up a use trail which I followed, keeping an eye out for private property or no trespassing signs.

While the fire had burned away much of the trees the angle looking toward the falls from this side of Stout Creek still doesn’t provide a great view.
Stassel Falls

Given the rough terrain, dangerous hillside, and lack of a view I don’t recommend this side trip. I returned to the road and followed it down to a picnic table next to Lower Shellburg Falls. Along the way I was passed by a bike, the first person I’d seen on trail all morning.

The picnic table in the distance.

Lower Shellburg Falls

2011

I saw a second trail user, an equestrian, just before I headed up toward Shellburg Falls from the road.

I had the waterfall to myself and as a bonus there was a nice rainbow at its base.

Rainbow and ice below Shellburg Falls.

Icicles on the rocks above Shellburg Creek.

After admiring the falls again I headed back by taking the August Mountain Trail through the burned forest to the road crossing.
August Mountain Trail on the left.

At Shellburg Road I turned left and followed it above the falls and back to the bridge over Shellburg Creek.

At the gate I hopped back onto the Shellburg Falls Trail and took it back to the trailhead.

My convoluted route came to 10.8-miles with a little over 1700′ of elevation gain and consisted of five loops.

Given the numerous options and proximity to Salem (about an hour) it’s an area we need to make more use of. There is also a network of mountain bike only trails in the area making it a popular destination at times but on a day like to today it provided a lot of solitude.

One interesting prospect that I found myself thinking about was the possibility of shuttling from Shellburg Falls over to Silver Falls State Park. It would make for a long outing but could include at least a dozen waterfalls with the right planning. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Shellburg Falls

Tags August Mountain Trail, hiking, Lost Creek Trail, Lower Shellburg Falls, Oregon, santiam state forest, Shellburg Creek Trail, Shellburg Falls, Shellburg Falls Recreation Area, Shellburg Falls Trail, Silver Falls State Park, Snag Loop Trail, TKO, Trail Keepers of Oregon, Vine Maple Trail

Central Coast Hiking Oregon Oregon Coast Trip report

Yachats and Waldport Area Trails

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 13, 2025
No Comments on Yachats and Waldport Area Trails

We kicked off our 2025 hikes with a multi stop day on the Oregon Coast. During our offseason, Nov-Apr, I spend a fair amount of time looking for hikes to add to our list of to-do hikes. The Oregon Hikers Field Guide provided me with three short hikes in and around Waldport Oregon that we had yet to check out.

We started our morning in Yachats at the Smelt Sands State Recreation Site.

We’d used this trailhead in 2020 for a hike on the 804 Trail. We set off on the 804 Trail again this time but after two tenths of a mile we turned right off the 804 Trail.
We started with this hike in part due to it being the first day of the final king tides, abnormally high tides, for the season. High tide for Smelt Sands was going to be 9:45am so we were hoping to see some of the wave action.

It was just before 8am as we hiked the 804 Trail.

We made a mistake and turned right on the paved path here, but we should have continued beyond the large signboard to a second path marked by a wooden post. You can see the small white and black to the left of the green signboard. We may have been distracted by “Free Coffee” being printed on the bottom of the green sign.

We wound up walking through the Fireside Motel’s parking lot and out to Highway 101 via its driveway instead of the Overleaf Lodge & Spa. Either way we faced a choice at the highway. We could go directly across to Diversity Drive and walk up it 125 yards to the start of the Ya’Xaik Trail. (There are a small number of parking spots available at the end of Diversity Drive but be careful not to take any of the spots reserved for the townhomes here.) Our other option was to turn north (left) along the highway for a tenth of a mile and then cross (at the Earthworks Art Gallery) where we could pick up the public footpath at the Gerdemann Botanic Preserve. Please note that dogs are not allowed on the paths at the Gerdemann Botanic Preserve. Dog owners who would like to do a loop can find a dog friendly trail to the north of the fire station between the art gallery and Diversity Drive.

We chose to walk the highway shoulder to try and minimize the amount of traffic that would be passing by.

This post is similar to the one along the 804 Trail where we should have turned right.

Information about the preserve.

The public entrance.

The path through the preserve is only about a quarter mile. The trail climbs gradually along Mitchell Creek with numerous interpretive signs. It also passes “Grandmother Spruce” a 300+ year old Sitka spruce that spans the small creek.

One of the interpretive signs on the left.

Boardwalk over Mitchell Creek.

The plaque at the base of Grandmother Spruce.

Grandmother Spruce

The upper end of the preserve trail.

Pointer for the Ya’Xiak Trail on the far side of the upper gate.

Going right on the Ya’Xiak Trail would complete the loop to Diversity Drive, but before we did that we turned left on the unmarked Starr Creek Trail. This well maintained trail led a third of a mile to Starr Creek and Starr Creek Road. (Note there is no parking available at Starr Creek Road.)

The Starr Creek Trail.

Mushrooms

Approaching Starr Creek.

Starr Creek

Starr Creek Road

After tagging the road we headed back to the Ya’Xaik Trail junction and followed it south for a third of a mile before it turned west and headed downhill to Diversity Drive.
The upper gate at the junction.

Ya’Xaik Trail

The right hand fork here is the trail leading down to the fire station that dog owners can use to make a loop. A local had warned us that this trail can be pretty slick. We went left to remain on the Ya’Xaik Trail.

There was a little climbing involved before the trail headed down to Diversity Drive.

The Ya’Xaik Trail at Diversity Drive.

We walked down Diversity Drive, recrossed Highway 101, and returned to the 804 Trail which we followed back to our car. It was a little after 9am so it was still about 45 minutes from high tide, but there were already a lot of people watching the waves come crashing in.

Our hike here clocked in just under two and a quarter mile with a little over 225′ of elevation gain.

We could have extended this hike up to 14 miles by continuing north on the 804 Trail and then walking the beach to the Alsea River as we’d done in 2020, but since we’d already hiked that section of the Oregon Coast, we opted not to extend this hike but instead check out a different section of beach later in morning. From Smelt Sands we drove north on Highway 101 to Waldport and the John Maré Woodland Trailhead.

Simply put the three-quarter mile Woodland Trail runs between this lower trailhead and the Red River Disc Golf Course at Woodland Park off South Crestline Drive. The hike however is not simple, even with the fairly detailed descriptions in the OregonHikers Field Guide and a input from a local who provided some useful information. Abandoned roadbeds, trails connecting to neighborhoods, and paths used by the disc golf course create a web of interconnected trails/paths with the only signage being for the disc golf holes. With many pauses to check our map and the descriptions I believe we only took one wrong turn which resulted in us doing a figure eight near Woodland Park instead of a loop as we’d intended.

The trail set off from the interpretive signs at the trailhead and quickly crossed the Red River (actually just a creek).

The Woodland Trail continues to the left while the right connects up to a road.

At the quarter-mile mark the trail crosses an abandoned roadbed.

It was at the end of this stretch where we ran into a local who gave us some tips on our route.

The trail climbed fairly steeply via switchbacks to another roadbed and after passing a cement barricade we veered left onto an unmarked path.

Just up this path we encountered the first signs of the disc golf course.

A footbridge over the Red River below with a disc golf hole on the opposite ridge. We were able to use the OregonHikers Field Guide map to identify this connector trail as one we did not want to take. That map had many of the connector trails identified in red which helped keep our position located as well as keep us on the correct route.

We managed to arrive at the skate park having stayed on course.

The Woodland Trail between the skate park and playground.

Our (my) mistake came at a junction near the playground. I misinterpreted the map and had us turn right on a wide path at a junction then take a quick left when we should have stayed more of less straight.

I had taken one of the red trails then regained the OregonHikers route when we turned left only we were now hiking in the opposite direction of their route.

Heather was able to get me to understand my error and we simply looped back around to the playground then once again took the connector trail to where we’d turned left and this time turned right.

The right hand fork led us to a large opening which the local we’d spoken with earlier aptly described as a landing strip.

At the northern end of the opening the trail reentered the forest.

We continued to refer to the OregonHikers track to stay on the correct path which followed a ridge to its end above the Red River.

We dropped down to the footbridge over the creek and then continued straight on an abandoned roadbed.

The gentleman we’d spoken to earlier had mentioned these three sets of stairs.

We followed this roadbed back to the switchbacks where we’d encountered the local and at the bottom of the switchbacks turned right on another roadbed that led us back to the trailhead.

The old roadbed at the bottom of the switchbacks.

Rainbow over the baseball fields at the trailhead.

This hike was just 1.6-miles with approximately 175′ of elevation gain.
Woodland Trail on the left and our next stop, the Lint Slough Trail, on the right.

Our next trailhead was just under a mile drive away (0.4 as the crow flies) at the Lint Slough Trail.

This short out-and-back begins on a wide grassy track along the Lint Slough before becoming single track. There are several benches along the trail which according to the city is approximately 0.8-miles long, but we only managed to get half a mile out before we lost the tread in the vegetation.

Memorial plaque

There was a bypass uphill for this short flooded section.

There were a number of bufflehead ducks, a pair of geese, and one noisy great blue heron at the slough. All of the wildlife seemed to be positioned as far away from the trail as possible.

The great blue heron in a tree across the slough.

This little group of buffleheads was the exception.

I turned around at this bench due to not seeing an obvious continuation of the trail here. I had also lost Heather who had stayed up to avoid the flooded section and instead of returning to the trail I was on, on the other side of the flooded bench, stayed up on the higher path. That path began leading up uphill away from the actual trail without another way to get back to the correct path. She wound up backtracking and we met shortly after I had started back.

The slough from my turn around point.

A little blue sky reflecting in the water on our hike back.

Yarrow

Bull thistle (non-native)

Rose (probably non-native)

From Lint Slough we drove back to Highway 101 and headed north toward Newport and stopped at the Driftwood Beach State Recreation Site.

The king tide was now heading out which provided us with the ability to walk the beach and enjoy the breaks in the clouds giving us some much-needed glimpses of blue sky.

Looking north along the beach.

The view south.

We headed north first in the direction of Seal Rock (post). We turned back after 0.4-miles at a creek on Holly Beach.
The wet sand and debris from the high tide was up to the vegetation along much of the beach.

We decided to turn back at the creek partly to avoid crossing it, but also because we had been walking into the wind. It wasn’t a particularly cold day, but the wind chill was almost making it uncomfortable.

Seagull with a crab.

We decided to continue south past the recreation site though to add a little time and distance to our day. (Our rule of spending as much time hiking as driving was in jeopardy of being broken.) We hiked 0.6-miles to the south turning around once we were confident our self-imposed rule wouldn’t be broken.
Cape Perpetua (post) to the south.

Buckley Creek

We had to ford Buckley Creek which was only a couple of inches deep at most.

Semipalmated plovers

Western gull

Heading back north.

The path back up to the parking area at Driftwood Beach.

This was a quiet 2.1-mile walk on the beach. We only saw a couple other people and at Noon the parking lot was nearly empty.

The weather held up great for us. I think we drove through at least one rain shower every time we were in the car except between the Woodland and Lint trails, but we never got rained on. The four hikes came to just 6.9-miles with 425′ of cumulative elevation gain making it a good early season outing. With the exception of the 804 and Ya’Xaik trails these probably aren’t destination hikes, but they were enjoyable hikes and would be worth a visit if you were staying nearby or in the area and looking for a quick outing. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Waldport Area Trails

Tags 804 Trail, Crestline Park, Driftwood Beach State Recreation Area, Gerdemann Botanic Preserve, hiking, John Maré Woodland Trailhead, Lint Slough Trail, Lint Slough Trailhead, Oregon, Oregon Coast, Smelt Sands, Waldport, Woodland Trail, Ya'Xaik Trail, Yachats

Hiking

The Hikes of 2024 – A Look Back

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date December 31, 2024
5 Comments on The Hikes of 2024 – A Look Back

2024 was a big year for us hiking wise. It wasn’t the number of hikes (55 days on trail) or mileage (496.8), but the culmination of an eight-year goal to complete all 100 hikes from a single edition of William L. Sullivan’s five regional guidebooks (post).

With our focus set on finishing the Eastern Oregon book, and in the process the 500 hikes, we primarily stuck to Oregon this year. In order to complete that goal we took three separate trips to NE Oregon and one to Central Oregon. We did spend three days hiking in Washington but failed to make it to California or Idaho this year. We also only spent four days hiking in Southern Oregon in 2024.

Our easternmost hike was at Hat Point, Oregon above Hells Canyon (post).

Our southernmost hike was an overnight trip in the Sky Lakes Wilderness (post).

As always seems to be the case our westernmost hike involved the Pacific Ocean, this time at Crescent Beach (post).

Finally, our northernmost hike was during the same day as our westernmost hike. After visiting Crescent Beach we drove north to Oregon’s Fort Stevens State Park for a hike which was further north than any of the hikes we did in Washington this year.

As mentioned above there were 55 days spent hiking which included a total of 84 stops. Twenty of the stops involved trails that we’d hiked before but none of these were exact repeats. Out of the 496.8 miles 75.4 were repeated from previous years.

One unique aspect to this year was relying on different forms of transportation for two of the hikes.
In July we took the Wallowa Lake Tramway up Mount Howard (post).

In August we traveled by boat to Wizard Island in Crater Lake National Park (post).

We were fortunate to have good weather for most of the year. It got damp at the end of October and stayed that way for most of the remainder of the year, but our November vacation took us to Disneyland (post) where the weather was close to perfect. That was our first non-hiking (albeit a lot of walking) vacation since 2012.

While weather wasn’t an issue, wildfires were. In particular smoke from a record setting 1,937,512 burned acres beginning with the Little Yamsay Fire in April. The fires really took off in July and the fire season wasn’t officially declared over until October 28th.
The Town Gulch Fire near Carson, OR was dangerously close to blocking our access to one of the featured hikes we needed to do to finish our goal (post).

Here are a some of our favorite sights from the previous year.
January – Corvallis to Sea Trail

February – Sunrise from Maple Creek Road

March – Mary’s Peak from Fitton Green

April – Bridal Veil Falls

May – Fishhawk Falls

May – Willow Creek Trail

May – Juniper Hills Preserve (The trails here were/are closed so we simply parked along the road and took pictures.)

May – Madison Butte

June – Cook Hill

June – Deception Butte Trail

June – Mt. Adams from Big Huckleberry Mountain

June – Grasshopper Meadow (Unfortunately this area burned by the Young Grasshopper Fire in September.)

July – Horsepasture Mountain

July – Nasty Rock Trail

July – Lower Bonny Lake

July – Minam Lake

July – Mount Howard

August – The Pinnacles

August – Downing Creek Falls

August – Schneider Cabin

August – Pine Lakes Trail

August – Laverty Lake

August – Aneroid Lake

September – Hidden Lake

September – Mt. Jefferson from Sprague Lake

September – Black Wolf Meadows

October – White River Canyon

October – Kinzel Lake

October – Sawtooth Trail

October – William L. Finely National Wildlife Refuge

October – Gold Lake Shelter

November – Silver Falls State Park

December – McKenzie River Trail

We couldn’t have asked for much more out of this year’s hikes and for the first time in eight years we don’t have any specific hiking goals that we are working on. Our focus will remain on visiting trails that we still haven’t hiked as well as expanding the areas we’ve visited. Happy Trails!

Tags Crater Lake, hiking, Mount Howard, Oregon, Wallowa Mountains, Washington

Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Lower McKenzie River Trail – 12/21/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date December 23, 2024
No Comments on Lower McKenzie River Trail – 12/21/2024

There haven’t been many good weather days in December and those that were dry had either been on days when we were at our desks at work, or one of us was under the weather. With Christmas right around the corner we were running out of time for a December hike so we decided that no matter what the weather we would be heading out on the winter solstice. Once again, the forecast was for a dry day Friday but rain all day Saturday. Given the forecast we opted for a river hike. Forested river hikes typically don’t have big views so cloudy skies don’t negatively impact the hike.

We headed to the McKenzie River National Recreation Trail to hike a segment of the trail we had not hiked before. We parked at the Lower McKenzie River Trailhead. (Note that the linked Forest Service page incorrectly states the trailhead is along Highway 125 instead of 126.)
The trailhead.

The trail begins at a signboard at the eastern end of the trailhead. For the first half mile the trail squeezes between the river and the highway before briefly veering away from the highway.
The caution sign was related to some pile burning that the Forest Service had been doing.

McKenzie River

Mushrooms

The trail approached the highway again across from McKenzie River Ranger Station.

After passing a junction with a spur trail coming from the ranger station at the 1 mile mark the McKenzie River Trail dropped away from the highway.
National Recreation Trail symbol on a tree to the left.

For the next 4.5 miles the trail stayed further away from the highway. At times it followed the bank of the McKenzie River and at others it veered away to avoid private property. At all times the trail passed through a lush green forest.

Private Road sign on Duffy Rd.

There was quite a bit of witches’ butter fungus along the trail.

There were a lot of other mushrooms too.

Unnamed creek crossing.

Ruby-crowned kinglet. We didn’t see much wildlife on this hike but there were several kinglets flitting among the trees here. This was the only photo of one I managed to get though.

We had not expected any blue sky so this was a treat. It had rained for most of the drive and sprinkled for a minute shortly after we started hiking, but it had been dry otherwise.

The trail switching back up a small hill.

The most significant elevation change was this decent to a footbridge over Lost Creek.

Coral fungus

Lost Creek

The footbridge over Lost Creek was a little over 4.5-miles from the Lower McKenzie Trailhead.

Lost Creek

Willamette National Forest Boundary

Approximately 5.25-miles from the trailhead we crossed Belknap Hot Springs Road.

Sign for the Belknap Hot Springs Lodge and Gardens.

Shortly after passing the lodge the trail approached the highway again for a brief time before the river veered away again and the trail followed it.

We had originally planned on turning around at 11am, but Heather’s ankle was starting to bother her, so she turned around at 10:45. I decided to keep going for another 15 or so minutes to try and reach Forest Road 2650 where the trail crosses the river to continue on the western side of the river.
Unnamed seasonal stream.

Footbridge over Scott Creek.

Scott Creek

Mushrooms

Footbridge over Boulder Creek.

Highway 126 bridge over Boulder Creek from the footbridge.

Boulder Creek flowing into the McKenzie River.

Forest Road 2650.

Boat ramp at Forest Road 2650.

The river from Forest Road 2650.

I turned around on the bridge and started back at a quick pace to try and catch up to Heather.

This short section along the road is just east of Belknap Springs Road.

Madrones

Moving at a quick pace had heated me up enough that I had to take off my rain gear which I’d been wearing the entire hike despite it being 99% dry.
A little sunlight on the forest floor.

Not 10 minutes after removing my rain gear it began to rain.
Rain shower falling over Lost Creek. It wasn’t raining hard enough to convince me to pull my rain gear back out.

I spotted Heather with a little over three and a quarter mile left back to the trailhead. (Look for a little orange in the trees ahead and to the right of the trail.)

The rain had stopped again by the time I caught up to Heather.

Ours was the only car at the trailhead when we got back.

My Garmin showed 13.8 miles for the hike to FR 2650, and I’d estimate close to 700′ of elevation gain spread out over several short climbs.

With this hike in books, we’ve now hiked much of the 26.5 McKenzie River Trail.
Red – Clear Lake, June 2014 (post). Green – Tamolitch Pool, May 2013 (post), Cyan – Middle segment, November 2020 (post).

We also started a hike at the Upper McKenzie Trailhead in July 2023 (post) but took the Santiam Wagon Road to Sand Mountain instead of the McKenzie River Trail. We are now just missing sections of the trail between the upper trailhead and Clear Lake, Clear Lake and Koosah Falls, and FR 610 and FR 2650. At some point we do plan on filling in those gaps.

This hike wraps up our 2024 hikes. We hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and as always happy trails!

Flickr: Lower McKenzie River Trail

Tags Belknap Springs, Boulder Creek, hiking, Lost Creek, Lower McKenzie River Trail, McKenzie River National Recreation Trail, McKenzie River Trail, Oregon, Scott Creek

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Trip report Willamette Valley

Silver Falls State Park – Thanksgiving 2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date December 2, 2024
1 Comment on Silver Falls State Park – Thanksgiving 2024

With November quickly coming to an end we hadn’t managed to get out on a trail yet. We skipped the first two weekends due to poor weather and then spent most of the next week at theme parks in Southern California (post). While we got plenty of walking in at the parks, I didn’t consider those days as our monthly outing. Both Heather and I came down with head colds following our return home, so another weekend came and went without a hike. The forecast was dry for Thanksgiving which provided an opportunity to get a morning hike in. I was feeling better, but Heather was still dealing with a lingering cough, so I set out alone to check out the newest trailhead at nearby Silver Falls State Park.

The North Canyon Trailhead was opened in June 2023 followed by the North Rim Trail in July 2023. I was looking forward to checking out these new features, so I parked at the new trailhead and set off following pointers for the North Rim Trail.

The route I’d planned was to take the new trail 0.8-miles to the North Falls Trailhead then take a 0.6-mile out-and-back detour on the Upper North Falls Trail to visit Upper North Falls. After returning to the North Falls Trailhead I would take the Trail of Ten Falls down into the canyon passing behind North Falls and following this trail past Twin Falls to the Winter Falls Trail where I would turn left to visit Winter Falls and then climb out of the canyon to the Winter Falls Trailhead.

At the Winter Falls Trailhead I would again pick up the Trail of Ten Falls aka the Rim Trail where I would turn right and follow it past the Nature Store. Shortly after passing the Nature Store the Trail of Ten Falls heads down into the canyon again to pass behind South Falls. The trail is also known as the Canyon Trail between this point and where it heads into the canyon near the North Falls Trailhead. I would follow the Trail of Ten Falls/Canyon Trail behind South and then Lower South Falls on the South Fork Silver Creek. The trail eventually leaves the south fork behind and then later crosses the North Fork Silver Creek before passing Lower North Falls. A short spur trail just East of North Falls leads to Double Falls on Hult Creek. After crossing Hult Creek the Trail of Ten Falls passes Drake Falls followed by Middle North Falls. I would take another short spur trail leading behind Middle North Falls before continuing another half mile to a junction with the Twin Falls Trail. Finally I would take the Twin Falls Trail uphill a half mile back to the North Canyon Trailhead. This route resulted in an approximately 8.8-mile hike with close to 1000′ of elevation gain.

I chose the route because it included roughly 1.5-miles of trail that was new to me. The new-to-me trail included the North Rim Trail, Twin Falls Trail, and a short section of the Winter Falls Trail (between Winter Falls and the Winter Falls Trailhead). I chose the direction (clockwise) because the last two times I’d visited the waterfalls I’d been going the opposite direction, so I wanted a different perspective this time around.

Onward to the pictures!
The North Rim Trail heads left at a fork with the Twin Falls Trail a short distance from the parking lot.

I stuck to the North Rim Trail here leaving another (short) trail to do next time.

The Nature Play Area along the loop trail I didn’t take.

One of two bridges along the North Rim Trail.

Railing near the North Falls Viewpoint.

North Falls from the viewpoint.

North Falls

Map located at the North Falls Trailhead.

Upper North Falls from the Upper North Falls Trail.

Upper North Falls.

The split in the Trail of Ten Falls where the Canyon Trail heads down to North Falls.

North Falls

Trail behind North Falls.

Behind North Falls.

I will always take pictures of these large boulders in the creek.

Hair ice, a phenomenon that only occurs on rotting wood when the correct mix of moisture, atmospheric conditions, and temperature combines with the fungus Exidiopsis effusa. There were quite a few occurrences this morning.

Trail marker at the Twin Falls Trail junction.

Twin Falls

Twin Falls is a tough one to get a good clear view of the full waterfall. Recent rainfall had provided good flow for this fall which helps with the visibility.

This is Twin Falls on July 7, 2006.

All the rain had the side creeks and falls flowing as well.

Nearing the Winter Falls Trail and its bridge over the creek.

The view from the bridge.

Winter Falls from the Winter Falls Trail.

Winter Falls

It’s a steep couple of tenths of a mile climb from Winter Falls up to the trailhead which warmed me up enough that I removed my beanie, buff, and made a switch to lighter gloves shortly after I’d turned back onto the Trail of Ten Falls/Rim Trail.

The forecast had called for sunny skies, but we were also dealing with an air stagnation warning. For a brief moment I thought the fog might burn off, but that never materialized and by the time I arrived at South Falls more fog had rolled in.

There are some nice big trees scattered throughout the park.

Trail of Ten Falls/Canyon Trail above South Falls.

South Falls

Behind South Falls

For a short loop just to South Falls you can cross the bridge and return to the rim.

The trail below heading for Lower South Falls.

From behind Lower South Falls. I scared a poor woman so badly as I neared the falls. She was setting her phone up on a tripod for a selfie and didn’t see me coming nor could she hear me with the roar of the falls until I was just a couple of feet away. When I said that I was just going to sneak behind her she let out the loudest scream I’ve heard in a while.

Ankle deep pools behind the falls.

Lower South Falls

The mile long Maple Trail (right) allows for a shorter loop to both the falls on South Fork Silver Creek.

This is now the North Fork Silver Creek.

Unnamed falls on a side creek.

The footbridge over the North Fork Silver Creek.

Pool below the bridge.

Lower North Falls

Footbridge over Hult Creek and the spur trail to Double Falls.

Double Falls

Back on the Canyon Trail.

More fog.

Drake Falls

Middle North Falls

Spur trail (right) to Middle North Falls.

Behind Middle North Falls.

Splash pool

The Winter Falls Trail footbridge spanning the creek ahead on the right.

Chipmunk.

I saw a few birds (and heard several more) and saw a deer on my drive through the park, but this was the only wildlife that I managed to even try and get a photo of on the hike.

Twin Falls again which meant I was nearly to the Twin Falls Trail.

Twin Falls Trail junction.

It was another stiff climb out of the canyon. There was a bench at a switchback with a somewhat obstructed view of Twin Falls.

The Twin Falls Trail leveled out near its end.

Arriving back at the junction with the North Rim Trail.

I spotted several ruffed grouse as I was driving out of the trailhead.

I really enjoyed this loop. It began and ended with waterfalls and saved Middle North Falls, which I’ve decided is my favorite of the ten, until near the end. It was also a great time of the year to visit to see the falls full from the recent rains. This was my seventh visit to the park and even with my 2022 perimeter loop (post) there are still a number of trails I’ve yet to explore away from the waterfall area. I’m already looking at possible routes for the next visit. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Silver Falls State Park Thanksgiving

Hiking

Marilyn Lakes and Betty Lake Trails – 10/19/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 21, 2024
2 Comments on Marilyn Lakes and Betty Lake Trails – 10/19/2024

Snow returned to Cascades earlier in the week with the white stuff falling at elevations down to 4000′. While it didn’t stick around on the roads, we suspected enough snow fell for there to be some on the forest floor at lower elevations heading into the weekend. We tested our hypothesis by driving Highway 58 to Forest Road 5897 (Waldo Lake Road) for a pair 5+ mile hikes.

Our first stop was for the Marilyn Lakes Trail. There are several potential starting points for the hike to these two lakes. Hike Oregon recommends starting at the Gold Lake Sno Park for cross-country skiing or snowshoeing in the Winter. Sullivan recommends starting at the Gold Lake Campground for the hike. (Gold Lake Road, aka FR 500, to the campground would be inaccessible due to snow in Winter.) We however chose to begin off of FR 5897 at a small pullout on the right just under 2-miles from Highway 58 where a pair of small signs marked a ski trail.
The pointer is for Gold Lake & Highway 58.

The pullout along FR 5897.

We set off on this trail and quickly came to the junction with the Gold Lake Trail where we turned right.
We were pleased to find that there was more snow left than we’d expected.

Coming up on the Gold Lake Trail.

Trail signs at this well marked junction.

The Gold Lake Trail lost a little elevation as it descended for 0.2-miles to a parking area at the end of FR 500.
Campsites on the right at the Gold Lake Campground.

Looking back up the Gold Lake Trail.

We walked up FR 500 and crossed Salt Creek.

Downstream several miles Salt Creek flows over Salt Creek Falls (post).

On the far side of Salt Creek was the day use area (and start of the Marilyn Lakes Trail) to the right and the Gold Lake Shelter on the left.

Signs ahead for the Marilyn Lakes Trail.

The trail was a bit overgrown in spots but being a ski trail there were plenty of blue diamonds to help keep us on the right path.

After 0.4-miles we came to a junction where we turned right following a pointer for Marilyn Lakes.

The left-hand fork led up to FR 500. We took this fork on our way back.

Heading toward the lakes.

We came to a second junction in just 400′.
The right-hand fork is the start of the Lower Marilyn Lakes Trail.

We went right again and in another 400′ got our first glimpses of Lower Marilyn Lake.

The trail followed the lake for a third of a mile providing a couple of nice views.

Lower Marilyn Lake

The trail veered away from Lower Marilyn Lake and passed the SW end of Upper Marilyn Lake in an overgrown meadow. It was clear that the area between the lakes would be extremely wet/boggy in late Spring/early Summer. Mosquitos are a real problem that time of year throughout the Waldo Lake area making it a less-than-ideal time for a visit.
A lot of downed trees had been logged out.

We lost the trail briefly in this area and simply headed for the diamond in the distance.

Upper Marilyn Lake

Beyond the upper lake the trail gained 200′ of elevation to reach a small parking area off FR 500.

Canada jay

The cold air and moisture started fogging up my camera lens.

The trail got very overgrown just before reaching the road. We were pretty damp after passing through this mass of huckleberries.

We turned left onto FR 500 and followed it just over three quarters of a mile to a short spur on the left that led to another signed parking area.

We picked the trail back up here and followed it downhill a quarter of a mile to Upper Marilyn Lake.

Not sure what is going on with this mushroom.

A bald eagle was circling over the lake hoping to catch a fish for breakfast.

We watched the eagle for quite a while. It swooped twice but came up empty both times.

I had about as much success getting a picture of the eagle in flight as it had fishing.

After watching the eagle for quite a while we continued on the trail which followed the lakeshore.

Common mergansers

Diamond Peak (post)

Diamond Peak and Mt. Yoran with a few of the mergansers flying overhead.

The best views of Diamond Peak were found near the northern end of the upper lake.

The eagle was now watching us.

A tenth of a mile beyond the lake we found ourselves back at the second junction we’d come to. We turned right and made our way back to the first junction.

We went straight here this time and followed this trail 0.4-miles to FR 500.

We turned left again on FR 500 and followed it a third of a mile to the Gold Lake Campground.

After crossing over Salt Creek we detoured to the right to visit Gold Lake before returning to the car. This was a 5.4-mile hike with approximately 300′ of elevation gain.
Gold Lake

We got in the car and drove another 3.5-miles up FR 5897 to the large Betty Lake Trailhead on the left.
More fogging on the lens.

The Betty Lake Trail began with a slight downhill to cross a dry creek bed then climbed briefly to a wide saddle before dropping to Betty Lake.
The dry creek bed ahead.

At an unmarked but obvious fork we veered left to visit the lake shore.

Bear tracks. We weren’t the only visitors to the shoreline.

We followed this use trail along the lake for a while before heading uphill to rejoin the official trail.
Mount Ray

The trail made another brief climb through the forest before beginning a gradual descent past a series of smaller lakes before arriving at a junction with the Jim Weaver Loop.

Howkum Lake on our left was the first lake we passed by.

Reflection in Howkum Lake.

Nearing the second lake on the left, Horsefly Lake.

Horsefly Lake

The third lake, Tiny Lake, was just off the trail to the right.

Tiny Lake

The junction with the Jim Weaver Loop was next to a small unnamed lake.

We turned left onto the Jim Weaver Loop passing the unnamed lake and following the trail four tenths of a mile to another junction near the shore of Waldo Lake.

A different bear had been wandering around this area.

We could tell it was a different bear because the prints were noticeably larger. (11 1/2 shoe size for reference.)

Signs at the junction.

We had passed this junction in 2015 during a lollipop loop into the Waldo Lake Wilderness. We started that hike from the Shadow Bay Day Use Area and used the Shadow Bay Shoreline Trail to reach the Jim Weaver Trail. There wasn’t a clear view of Waldo Lake from the junction, so we headed left on the Jim Weaver Loop to find a spot where we could access the rocky shore.
View from the junction.

I dropped down to the shore on the other side of this footbridge.

The longer hump to the right in the distance is Waldo Mountain (post). The west side of the lake and the wilderness were heavily burned in the 2022 Cedar Creek Fire.

Fuji Mountain (post) is just barely visible over the left shoulder of hump in the foreground.

After getting an unobstructed view we headed back. It was a pretty uneventful return. We dropped down to Betty Lake to hike the use trail along the shoreline instead of staying up in the forest.
Tree reflecting in snowmelt.

Betty Lake had some nice coloration.

Mount Ray from Betty Lake again.

There were about a half dozen cars at the trailhead when we got back, but we hadn’t passed anyone on the trails during either of our hikes. There had been a family loading up their car when we first arrived at this trailhead and one occupied campsite at the Gold Lake Campground, but the hikes themselves had offered solitude.

The hike to Waldo Lake and back came in at 5.3-miles with approximately 450′ of elevation gain which was very similar to the Marilyn Lakes stop.

This brought the days total to 10.7-miles and around 750′ of elevation gain.
A look at the two hikes proximity to each other.

Longer or shorter hikes could be done from either trailhead. With a number of other trailheads in the area as well it’s no wonder the Waldo Lake area is a popular destination. This was our seventh visit to the area and there are still many miles of trails we’ve yet to be on. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Marilyn and Betty Lakes

Hiking

Progress Report – 500 “Featured Hikes” – Completed September 2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 15, 2024
15 Comments on Progress Report – 500 “Featured Hikes” – Completed September 2024

We did it. This post is a long time coming. It marks the completion of a goal we set for ourselves in 2016, but actually started six years earlier. As we’ve mentioned before our hiking journey really began in 2010 when we purchased the first of William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes…” guidebooks. This book quickly became our go to for inspiration and prompted us to eventually pick up editions for all five areas covered in his series. The areas are the Oregon Coast & Coast Range, NW Oregon & SW Washington, Central Cascades, Southern Oregon & Northern California, and Eastern Oregon. Sullivan continues to make regular updates and today we own fifteen editions from the series, three covering each area. These updates typically mean changes to the makeup of the 100 featured hikes along with any changes affecting the remaining featured hikes.

These changes can be necessary due to a variety of factors. Closures due to wildfire, flood, or landslide damage are the main issues. Some featured hikes are on private land where the landowners may close or restrict public access. Lack of trail maintenance or abandonment by the managing agency can also be a reason for a hike to no longer be “featured”. One positive reason for a change in featured hikes is when a new trail or trail system is opened warranting inclusion. With the frequent changes to the 100 hikes lineup we initially weren’t sure how we would define the criteria for finishing this goal. In 2018 we decided that we would focus on a single edition from each area and when we’d hiked at least a portion of all 100 hikes in that edition that area would be considered completed.

Setting the single edition criteria led to three edition swaps. In 2020 we went from focusing on the 2016 4th edition of the Oregon Coast book to the earlier 2009 3rd edition due to one featured hike (Salmonberry Railroad) being closed to public access with no timetable set for reopening. The following year we changed editions of the Southern Oregon book going from the 2017 4th edition to the 2021 edition 4.2. Three hikes that had been featured in the 2017 edition had since been badly burned and were going to be closed for an extended time prompting Sullivan to replace them for the time being. Finally, in 2023 we switched from the 2015 3rd edition of the Eastern Oregon book to the newly formatted 2022 edition. (Sullivan stopped using “editions” and printing any years on the cover based on feedback from bookstores.) In the latter case he had removed Dug Bar as a featured hike, most likely due to a long drive on what he had described as a road so bad it required 2 hours to drive just 25.4 miles. We had driven the first 14 miles of this road for the featured Eureka Bar hike (post) and had zero interest in repeating those 14 miles, let alone another 11.4 that were said to be worse.

The swapping of the Eastern Oregon editions did present the largest issue to the entire quest for 500. One of the new featured hikes, Juniper Hills, was a pair of short hikes on private land owned by the Nature Conservancy. Before we had a chance to visit the Nature Conservancy revoked public access to the trails. There was some hope that they would begin allowing public access again in 2024, but after reaching out to them this past May it appears there are no plans for that in the foreseeable future. In the end we decided to drive to the two trailheads, get out and walk to the fences to take photos. The painted hills there were the main goal of the featured hike and those were at least visible from the fence line (post).

While we did not get to hike nearly any of the 3.9-miles of trails at the Juniper Hills, we did manage to hike a good majority of the miles covered in the featured hikes.

Using unique miles, that is counting 2.5-miles for a 5-mile out-and-back or 5-miles for a 5-mile loop, we’ve hiked 84% of the total miles possible over the 500 hikes. The numbers are broken down below:

Possible Completed Percent
Area Miles Miles Completed
NW Oregon 593.4 540.2 91%
Central Cascades 562.1 506.5 90%
Oregon Coast 468.9 381.8 82%
Eastern Oregon 644.4 507.3 79%
Southern Oregon 564.1 440.6 78%
Totals 2832.9 2376.4 84%

We have completed 100% of the miles for 345 of the 500 hikes and at least 50% for 458 of them. The missing miles stem from a variety of causes from closed portions of trail to some of Sullivan’s featured hikes having options of up to 40 miles (Timberline Trail loop around Mt. Hood). In the case of Eastern and Southern Oregon there were several extended backpacking trips where we visited the lakes and/or viewpoints of featured hikes, but we did not come from the trailheads for those hikes. We do plan on going back to some of these hikes to visit of the things we missed, but we have no intention to try and complete 100% of all 500 hikes.

We completed the Central Cascades in 2020 (post) just over a week before the September 8th windstorm driven fires burned over a number of the featured hikes.

The fires in 2020 created a sense of urgency for us to complete the remaining books as soon as possible. We managed to finish both the Oregon Coast (post) and NW Oregon (post) that year. As 2022 began we hoped to complete the Southern Oregon book in 2024 and Eastern in 2025.

We made good progress on Southern Oregon in 2022 completing 29 featured hikes. Those came at the expense of time spent in Eastern Oregon where we only picked up 6 featured hikes. (This became 7 when we switched Eastern editions the following year.)

In 2023 we continued to focus on Southern Oregon and were able to finish that area in October (post). We made some progress in Eastern Oregon as well picking up 10 featured hikes, but the edition swap left us with a net pick-up of just five. Six previously featured hikes that we’d completed had been removed in the new edition and one hike that we had done in 2022 was added to the featured hikes.

With just 16 remaining featured hikes, all in Eastern Oregon, we planned three full weeks of vacation in the Wallowa Mountains and to spend Memorial Day Weekend in Prineville. We ran into the aforementioned issue with Juniper Hills and almost had another due to the Town Gulch Fire near Summit Point (post), but on 9/9/24 we stepped onto the East Eagle Creek Trail (post) and the 500 were complete.
Featured hike starting locations. Blue = OR Coast, Red = NW, Black = Central Cascades, Purple = Southern OR, Yellow = Eastern OR

The best part of having taken on this goal is that we were led to many different areas that we otherwise might never had visited. The books provided us with a reason to explore much of Oregon and curated a desire to hike as many different trails as possible. We continue to turn to Sullivan’s books, using the “More Hikes” sections from the back of the books for inspiration along with various other sources and authors. As the number of trails that we haven’t hiked dwindle the frequency of revisiting previous hikes will increase, but our focus will continue to be on new destinations. Happy Trails!

Corvallis Hiking Oregon Willamette Valley

William L. Finley Wildlife Refuge – 10/10/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 13, 2024
2 Comments on William L. Finley Wildlife Refuge – 10/10/2024

After starting my week of vacation with back-to-back hikes with 4355′ and 5300′ of elevation gain, I took a day off and then picked a much more level hike to wrap up my week. I turned to the William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge located just south of Corvallis, OR. Despite several visits there were still some portions of trails that I had yet to hike there. Heather and I first visited this refuge in 2017 to complete one of Sullivan’s featured hikes (post). We hiked the Homer Campbell Boardwalk, Woodpecker Loop, and Mill Hill Loop that day. We returned in 2020 to check out the SE corner of the refuge including Pigeon Butte. I returned in 2021 during a solo April vacation and re-hiked many of the trails we’d been on during our previous visits and adding a short section of trail/road that we hadn’t yet hiked. Our most recent visit was in 2023 to the Snag Boat Bend Unit which is located approximately 3-miles east of the main unit on the other side of the Willamette River.

For this visit I mapped out a route starting at the Turtle Flats Walkway Trail. This extremely short (0.02-mile) paved path was one of those trails I had not hiked, and the parking area had a restroom and was close to another trail I had not hiked in its entirety, the Prairie Trail.
Hunting information kiosk across from the Turtle Flats parking area.

The Turtle Flats restrooms. (Photo from the afternoon.)

The entire Turtle Flats Trail in one photo.

Viewpoint at the end of the trail.

From the viewpoint a mowed path continued on to Finley Refuge Road across from the start of the Prairie Trail.

The Prairie Trail starts on a roadbed for a short distance then changes to “native surface” as it follows the edge of open fields.

I had a copy of the refuge map with me which came in handy to make sure I stayed along the correct fields.
I turned right here following said map through a small section of trees.

Poison oak is hard to miss when it is sporting its Fall colors.

Emerging from the trees and staying right.

The Prairie Trail turned East shortly after the trees and pointed me toward a pretty spectacular sunrise.

McCulloch Peak (post), Dimple Hill (post), and Vineyard Mountain (post) in the McDonald-Dunn Forest to the North.

Mary’s Peak (post) with a few clouds below its summit.

One of several raptors hunting over the fields.

Pigeon Butte to the left and Green Peak in the distance.

I thought I might see deer or even elk along the edges of the fields being fairly early in the morning, but aside from some fairly fresh deer sign the raptors and lots of smaller birds were all that seemed to be around. That was until I got to the northern end of McFadden Marsh. Still no deer or elk but I spotted the first great blue heron in a field just before arriving at the marsh.

The marsh itself was full of egrets, ducks and a few more herons.
Fog and McFadden Marsh to the left.

Mallards

Geese flying overhead.

Egret and ducks

Egrets

More egrets

Heron with the egrets.

McFadden Marsh

Egrets and a murder of crows.

Great blue heron

Red-winged blackbird

Prairie Trail along McFadden Marsh.

The Prairie Trail ends at a small pullout on Bruce Road which is where we’d parked for our 2020 hike here.
I could just make out the railings along Bruce Road from here.

Nutria family near Bruce Road.

The nutria family.

The Prairie Trail at Bruce Road.

I turned right onto gravel Bruce Road of 0.2-miles to a larger parking area on the others side of Muddy Creek.

Northern flicker

Starling

Muddy Creek

Interpretive signs at the larger parking area.

At this parking area I turned right onto the first mowed path which is the Cheadle Marsh Trail.

I followed this grassy track, between Cheadle Marsh on the left and Muddy Creek on the right, for almost a mile to a junction near the Cheadle Barn.

California scrub-jay

Peregrine falcon?

Pigeon Butte across Cheadle Marsh.

While I was photographing this egret I glanced to my left and noticed a buck staring back at me.

Meanwhile a great blue heron decided it wanted the egret’s perch.

The heron and egret

American coot

The roof of the Cheadle Barn poking up from the hill.

California quail escaping into the blackberry bushes.

The small hill up to the junction below the barn. My legs let me know that even this small hill was more than they were interested in today.

Robin

Spur trail to the Cheadle Barn.

I skipped the barn this time and continued on past a small pond to a junction with the Pigeon Butte Trail.

Spotted towhee

The pond and Cheadle Barn.

Ducks in the pond.

Pied-billed grebe. I also had a yellow-rumped warbler nearly land on me, but then it disappeared into the trees across the pond.

The gravel road that serves as the Pigeon Butte Trail ahead.

I turned right on the Pigeon Butte Trail and reluctantly made the gradual climb to a junction on the shoulder of the butte.

A successful egret and unfortunate rodent.

The junction is located at the crest of the trail/road.

Spur trail to the summit of Pigeon Butte.

My legs had already declared that they were not interested in going uphill and I’d already been up the butte twice, so I skipped the spur trail and continued downhill.

This section of trail passes the Finger Ponds which were almost completely dry this time of year.

The dry ponds hosted a good number of songbirds.

It appeared that there had been a number of controlled burns performed throughout the refuge.

The 0.9-mile section ended at a junction with the Cattail Pond Trail.

I turned left onto that trail (also a roadbed) and followed it a mile to a pointer for Cattail Pond.

Viewpoint bench looking toward Cabell Marsh.

Woolly bear caterpillar sharing the trail.

Gray Creek

At the pointer the Cattail Pond Trail turns left, and the road becomes the Mid-Refuge Connection Trail. I turned left at the pointer to visit the pond and hike a 0.6-mile section of the Cattail Pond Trail that I’d yet to hike.
Mallards

More mallards

Maple Knoll on the far side of Cattail Pond.

I’m assuming nutria but am not 100% convinced on this one.

The 0.6-mile section of trail looped around the pond and connected me to the Beaver Pond Trail which is the trail I’d taken on previous visits.
This section was a mixture of the edge of fields and wooded trail.

Follow the pointer.

A cedar waxing joined by a pair of finches.

I turned right at this sign onto the Beaver Pond Trail and followed it a half mile back to the gravel roadbed.

Just under 100 yards from the Cattail Pond Trail is this unsigned junction. The left is a half mile out-and-back spur on along the side of Maple Knoll. I stayed right this time having done the spur in 2020 with Heather.

The trail passes the Beaver Pond just before arriving at the roadbed.

The Beaver Pond was pretty well deserted given its lack of water.

I turned left onto the Mid-Refuge Connecting Trail.

The connector trail climbed gradually to a signed 4-way junction that serves as the start of the Mill Hill Loop.

Authorized personnel only on the right-hand fork here.

Arriving at the junction.

The right fork is the trail I came up. The center fork is the Mill Hill Trail, and the left fork is the Mill Hill Loop Trail which loops around Mill Hill in 1.7-miles and arrives back at the junction where I took this photo from.

Having done the Mill Hill Loop twice before I decided to save myself the distance and more climbing and took the center fork which would lead me to the Intertie Trail and eventually the Woodpecker Loop Trail.

There are several junctions along this stretch, most of which are well signed.

This junction marks the start of the Intertie Trail.

Crossing Finley Refuge Road.

I was moving pretty quickly through the forest here and startled a doe that came around a bend from the other direction. She bounded into the trees but didn’t go too far.

When I arrived at the Woodpecker Hill Loop I turned left. It meant a little bit of climbing, but going this direction would lead me past the Environmental Education Shelter on Woodpecker Hill.

Signage at the Woodpecker Hill Loop.

The Woodpecker Hill Loop is a well-developed interpretive trail.

Stellar’s jay

Each of these kiosks has an informational placard inside.

Near the crest of the trail.

The shelter on Woodpecker Hill.

I took a quick break on the shaded bench at the shelter then headed downhill to the Woodpecker Hill Trailhead.

Dragon fly

Signboard at the Woodpecker Hill Trailhead.

From the trailhead I walked down the entrance road to Finley Wildlife Refuge Road and turned left. I now had a 0.7-mile gravel road walk to reach the Cabell Barn.
Yay, more uphill.

The back of a killdeer.

Bald Hill on the left.

Winkle Butte is the near rise on the left. On a clearer day Mt. Jefferson would be visible in the distance to the right of Winkle Butte.

Cabell Barn ahead.

I turned right across from the barn on Cabell Lodge Road following a pointer for the Cabell Marsh Overlook.

Historic granary

The Cabell Lodge burned on December 13, 2023.

The lodge in April, 2021.

From the parking area at the end of the road I followed a path to the overlook then descended to the marsh on the seasonal trail.

Cabell Marsh was busy with a lot of mallards and a few other species mixed in.

Geese

Pigeon Butte from the marsh.

Great blue heron towering over the ducks.

An egret along the shore to the right.

The egret facing off with the heron. The mallard appeared to be ready to act as the referee.

After a brief face off the egret moved on.

Observation blind accessed via the Homer Campbell Boardwalk.

When I reached the boardwalk I turned left and followed it a little over a third of a mile to a parking area where I picked up Finely Refuge Road again. I turned right and followed the road a half mile back to the grassy path that led to the Turtle Flats viewpoint.

Signboard at the boardwalk trailhead.

Back on the refuge road.

Muddy Creek

The path to Turtle Flats on the left and the start of the Prairie Trail ahead on the right.

The loop today came in at 13.2-miles with maybe 400′ of total elevation gain.

This was a nice mix of trail types, and as always seems to be the case here, it was full of wildlife sightings. Much of the refuge is only open seasonally (April 1 through October 31) although the Woodpecker Hill, Intertie, Mill Hill trails and the Homer Campbell Boardwalk (only to the observation blind) are open year-round. It was great to be able to hike some new to me trail and there is still a small unhiked spur off the Prairie Trail for a future visit. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Finley Wildlife Refuge 2024

Eugene Hiking Old Cascades Oregon

Eula Ridge to Mount June – 10/08/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 11, 2024
3 Comments on Eula Ridge to Mount June – 10/08/2024

What do you do the day after a 16.5-mile loop with 4355′ of elevation gain (post)? If you’re me, you make a questionable decision. With another sunny day in the forecast before showers moved in, I decided that I would finally check out the Eula Ridge Trail near Eugene. This 4.2-mile-long trail gains over 3000′ from Highway 58 to its end at the Hardesty Trail. The trail is very steep, so steep in fact that the Forest Service description states “After a short descent into a saddle, the really steep climb begins. This is a good place to turn back.” The saddle in question is just over 1.5-miles from the trailhead and marks the start of 16 switchbacks. The switchbacks are nowhere near as steep as the remainder of this trail. From the end of the trail it is just three quarters of a mile to the top of Hardesty Mountain (post), but there is no view from that peak. When we visited Hardesty Mountain it was on an out-and-back from the Mount June Trailhead. That hike gained approximately 2100′ of elevation. My bright idea was to combine the two to revisit Mount June where there was a view.

I set off just after 7am from the Eula Ridge Trailhead and immediately went the wrong way when I forked left on the Lawler Trail.
This trail would eventually end at the LoneWolf/Patterson Mountain Trail (post).

The small trailhead along Highway 58.

Wrong way dummy.

I got a little over a quarter mile up the Lawler Trail before realizing my mistake. The worst part was I’d climbed over 250′ in that quarter mile. I retreated to the trailhead and went right on the Eula Ridge Trail which dropped to a crossing of South Creek before climbing to a junction with the South Willamette Trail (post).

The South Willamette Trail to the right.

This trail was heavily damaged in a February 2019 storm, but it has since been cleared and was free of any blowdown for its entire length. The trail is forested with no views to speak of, but the forest is very nice. I had a lot of time to study it during my many breaks as I made my way uphill.

It was clear that mountain bikers use this trail regularly.

Near the 3.75-mile mark the trail passes a rocky spine which is actually an arch. I couldn’t see the arch from the trail, but thanks to Hike Orgon I knew it was there.

I actually waited until I was on my way down to step off trail and look at the arch.

Eula Ridge Trail sign at the Hardesty Trail junction.

I turned left on the Hardesty Trail and climbed another 240′ in 0.4-miles to a fork.

The lefthand fork leads to the viewless summit while the right is the Hardesty Cutoff Trail which bypasses the summit.

I went right forgoing the 100′ climb to the summit which would have also added a little distance to the day. In 0.2-miles I arrived at a junction with the Sawtooth Trail.

Forest below the Hardesty Cutoff Trail.

The Sawtooth Trail dropping to the right.

I briefly considered abandoning my original plan here, but it was only 9:40am. I decided to continue on, but with a turnaround time of 11:30am. If I hadn’t made it to Mt. June by then so be it. I had completely forgotten just how many ups and downs there were along the Sawtooth Trail, and how steep some of them were.
I was not looking forward to climbing back up some of these sections later.

Another saddle.

A view through the trees.

I passed the Hardesty Way Trail 1.5-miles from the Hardesty Cutoff Trail.

Just under two miles from the Hardesty Cutoff Trail the Sawtooth Trail makes two switchbacks downhill to drop below Sawtooth Rock where it enters a grassy hillside.

Mount June from the hillside.

Wallflower

I paused in the middle of the open hillside to again rethink my plan. It was now a quarter after 10am so I was fine on time but seeing Mt. June reinforced just how much more climbing lay ahead. I checked my water supply and found that I hadn’t been drinking enough. I still had close to two liters in my pack plus a Hydro Flask with extra water and a small Gatorade. I drank half the Gatorade and continued on. Two-thirds of a mile beyond Sawtooth Rock I came to a junction in yet another saddle.
Junction with the Lost Creek Trail.

The pointer for Eagles Rest (post) is the Lost Creek Trail.

Another 0.7-miles brought me to the Mt. June Trail at, you guessed it, another saddle.
I called this section “rhododendron ridge”.

The Mt. June Trail coming up from the right.

It was now just after 11am and I was facing a half mile, and nearly 550′, climb to Mt. June’s summit. I headed up and stopped at the first good sized log along the trail to finish off the Gatorade, eat some sweet and salty snack mix, and rest for a few minutes. After the break I headed up the steep trail arriving at the summit at 11:27am.

Unfortunately, the view was less than ideal. The recent warm weather had allowed the many fires still burning to pick up intensity which led to additional smoke.

If you look closely, you can see the tops of the Three Sisters poking up over the smoke in the distance. The open hillside in the foreground is the meadow below Sawtooth Rock and the hump just behind is Hardesty Mountain.

After another short break, and a change of socks, at the summit I started back. I was feeling okay on the downhills and the more level sections, but whenever the trails became at all steep my legs let me know they weren’t happy.
Heading down from the summit.

Climbing the hillside below Sawtooth Rock.

Sawtooth Rock

There was just a little smoke now and then in the forest.

The Eula Ridge Trail coming into view.

I arrived at the Eula Ridge Trail at 1:19pm and bombed down the steep trail as carefully as possible. There are a lot of loose rocks/pebbles along the trail so my trekking poles came in very handy.

There wasn’t much in the way of Fall colors along the trail, but these leaves really stood out.

Lookout Point Lake (Middle Fork Willamette River) from the trail.

There was one more small uphill on the far side of South Creek before dropping to the trailhead.

South Creek

I made it back to the car at 3:00pm. My Garmin clocked in at an even 17-miles and I estimated close to 5300′ of cumulative elevation gain.

This was a real challenge, especially the day after another difficult hike. It does make for one heck of a training hike, and I didn’t see another person the entire day. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Eula Ridge to Mount June

Tags Eula Ridge, Eula Ridge Trailhead, Hardesty Cutoff Trail, hardesty mountain, Hardesty Trail, Hardesty Way Trail, Hike Oregon, hiking, Lawler Trail, Mt. June, Mt. June Trail, Oregon, Sawtooth Rock. Lost Creek Trail, Sawtooth Trail, Sout Willamette Trail, Umpqua National Forest, Willamette National Forest