Category: Washington

Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Nestor Peak – 06/03/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 5, 2023
No Comments on Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Nestor Peak – 06/03/2023

We have really come to enjoy spending time at wildlife refuges and have been looking for more to visit. I’d noticed Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge on maps when looking at the Mt. Adams area so I dug a little deeper to find that there is a trail there, the Willard Springs Trail. The refuge webpage describes the Willard Springs Trail as a “two-mile loop” then lists the trail length as 3.79 miles. The Oregonhikers.org field guide entry shows 2.3 miles as the hike length. No matter which length was correct, on it’s own the hike would be too short to warrant the 2:30 hour drive from Salem. I went looking for a way to fit a visit in and looked over my map of future trailheads and saw that the trailhead for the Nestor Peak hike was located on the way to the refuge. The Nestor Peak hike was just over 8-miles so adding the Willard Spring Loop would put the day around 11 miles which sounded manageable.

Our plan was to visit Conboy Lake first since it was the furthest from home, and an earlier start there might provide a better chance at spotting wildlife. We parked at the refuge headquarters and made our way to the historic Whitcomb-Cole Hewn Log House.

The path to the cabin on the right.

Built in 1875 the cabin was moved from its original location in 1987.

The snowy top of Mt. Hood from the cabin.

After exploring the cabin we set off on the Willard Springs Trail only we briefly went the wrong way. A grassy track lead north directly across the gravel road from the path to the cabin and we took it.

We got about 250′ before realizing that this path was just going to take us back to the parking lot so we backtracked to the gravel road and followed it toward the lakebed across a small canal. (The Garmin named this Cold Springs Ditch.)

We turned left on a wide grassy track along the ditch. Numerous colorful birds were flying in and out of the bushes and trees along the ditch, most of which would not sit still long enough for me to photograph.

There was a lot of monkeyflower in and along the ditch.

Lupine along the ditch.

Lazuli bunting

Robin

Yellow warbler (according to the Merlin app).

Red-winged blackbird

The top of Mt. Adams above the trees.

We followed the ditch for a third of a mile then crossed over it to a field with bird houses and more birds.

Swallow

Western bluebirds

We stayed right at a junction near the corner of the field following the trail through the grass then into a mixed forest.

Honeysuckle

Columbine

Rose

The lakebed was often visible through breaks in the trees.

Through one such gap in the trees we spotted a pair of greater Sandhill cranes. The refuge is the only place in Washington that supports breeding pairs of the birds.

Approximately 1.4 miles from the trailhead we came to a 4-way junction. To the left was a “shortcut trail” and to the right a viewing platform with the Willard Springs Trail continuing straight(ish).

Continuation of the Willard Springs Trail behind the sign.

More often than not on our hikes we strike out with viewing platforms/bird blinds. (We’d have better luck if we sat and waited for the wildlife to come to us.) It was a different story today with a deer making its way across the lakebed and an excellent view of Mt. Adams.

We hung around long enough that this warbling vireo came to check on us.

After a nice break at the platform we continued on the Willard Springs Trail. After another 0.5-miles we came to a signed spur trail to Willard Springs.

We followed this spur 0.2-miles to its end at a couple of benches near the springs.

Willard Sprins hidden in the vegetation. We could hear them better then we could see them.

A healthy lupine near the springs.

We returned to the junction and continued on the loop which now turned back south. It was interesting to see the change in the forest along this section that was further from the lakebed.

Cat’s ear lily

Hitchhiker

Lupine along the trail.

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Swallowtail

Lorquin’s admiral

Arriving back at the refuge headquarters.

Two interesting things to note about the hike were that the Oregonhikers.org Field Guide mentioned a trailhead 0.2-miles from the HQs along the entrance road but we passed no trails coming from the road and there appeared to be a no parking sign on the side of the road near where we expected to see this other trailhead. Our guess is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department decommissioned the alternate trailhead at some point. The other oddity was that while we did pass the other end of the shortcut trail neither of us noticed another trail joining from the left closer to the headquarters which would have been the other end of the trail that had split off at the edge of the field with the bird houses. There was even a map at the trailhead showing such a trail. Possibly another recent change (or we both just missed the connector trail).
Trail map at the trailhead.

The Garmin map shows the shortcut, spur to the old trailhead, and the other connector as well as some different locations for the trails.

Between exploring the cabin and briefly going the wrong way our hike here came in at an even 4-miles with only 50′ of elevation gain. Given the 4-mile figure the 3.79 miles listed on the refuge webpage for the Willard Springs Trail is probably the most accurate of the distance we came across. We didn’t see any other people, just a lot of wildlife which made for a great first stop of the day.

After finishing at Conboy Lake we drove back south to the Buck Creek Trailhead #1.

This is one of several trailheads located along the roughly 21-mile Buck Creek Trail loop. We had hiked a segment of the Buck Creek Trail in 2020 on our Monte Carlo – Monte Cristo Loop (post). Today’s segment would be a roughly 4.2 mile climb to a former lookout site atop Nestor (Nester) Peak. We picked up the trail on West side of N-1000 across from the trailhead.

It was later in the morning than we usually get started due to visiting Conboy Lake first and even though it was a little before 10:30am it was already feeling a little warm. The trail made a steep initial ascent before leveling off a bit.

There were lots of phantom orchids blooming along the lower sections of the hike.

Thimbleberry

Spotted coralroot was also plentiful.

Wallflower

Near the 3/4-mile mark we recrossed N-1000.

The trail actually lost some elevation here as it descended toward N-1300.

The trail ran parallel to N-1300 for a mile before again turning steeply uphill.
One of only two trees that were down over the trail, both were easily manageable.

The one small stream crossing.

There was enough sunlight getting through to really heat up the trail.

While there wasn’t much there we did occasionally see poison oak throughout most of the lower 2/3rds of the hike.

After the trail steepened we passed a spring on the right at the first of three switchbacks.

Sign above the switchbacks warning mountain bikers that they were ahead.

Following a fourth switchback the trail came to another dirt road which we jogged slightly right on before finding the continuation of the Buck Creek Trail.

Buck Creek Trail to the left near the roads end.

For the next half mile the trail climbed at a healthy pace. Heather hadn’t been feeling well and the heat wasn’t helping things. We talked it over and she told me to go ahead and she would go at her own pace so we split up for now.

More spotted coralroot.

Just over a half mile from the road crossing the trail crossed another road.

After another initial steep climb the trail relented a bit as it traversed around a ridge before gaining a ridgetop and following down to a saddle below Nestor Peak. Along the way were a couple of openings hosting bright wildflowers.

Vanilla leaf

Queen’s cup

Anemone

Lupine

Mt. Hood from the Buck Creek Trail.

Mt. Hood

Cedar hairstreak on yarrow.

Paintbrush, lupine, penstemon, and balsamroot.

Moth

Penstemon

Gaining the ridge.

Paintbrush

Showy phlox

The trail dropped off the ridge and started another good climb along a hillside to a ridge end where it turned steeply uphill climbing to road N-1600 a tenth of a mile below the summit of Nestor Peak.
Approaching the start of the final climb.

Sub-alpine mariposa lily

Showy phlox

Road N-1600.

A right turn on the road led past more wildflowers with a view of Mt. Hood to the remains of a shed on top of Nestor Peak.

At the summit Mt. Adams came into view to the NE.

I took a break at the summit and followed some butterflies around trying to get pictures. While I was busy chasing butterflies Heather messaged to let me know she was at the start of the final climb so I waited for her at the summit.

Unfortunate amount of graffiti on the old shed.

Mt. Hood and balsamroot.

Mt. Hood

Oregon sunshine

Boisduval blues

Duskywing

Balsamroot

Moths

Moth

Lupine

Butterfly on cat’s ear lily.

Woodland stars

Paintbrush

After Heather got a break too, we headed back down. There was a little bit of a breeze as we went down which combined with going downhill instead of up helped it feel cooler on the way down.

Blue-head gilia

Ookow

Winecup clarkia

Mountain lady slipper

The hike here would have been between 8 and 8.5 miles but I wandered around the summit area enough to log 8.9 miles on the GPS unit.

We passed 8 others on the trail (3 hikers and 6 mountain bikers) and saw another mountain biker on Road N-1600 from the summit. It was a nice hike but it would have been a little more enjoyable in cooler temperatures. The views and wildflowers were great though. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Conboy Lake WLFR and Nestor Peak

Tags Buck Creek Trail, Buck Creek Trailhead #1, Conboy Lake, Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge, hiking, Mt. Adams, Nestor Peak, Sandhill Crane, Washington, Whitcomb-Cole Cabin, Willard Springs, Willard Springs Trail

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge – 05/20/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 22, 2023
No Comments on Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge – 05/20/2023

For the second week in a row, we turned to a National Wildlife Refuge System as a hiking destination. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently manages 568 wildlife refuges throughout the United States with the primary statutory purpose being the conservation of native species. Where and when appropriate the refuges offer access to the public for activities such as photography, wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, paddling, and of course hiking. We have really come to enjoy our visits the various refuges, so we were looking forward to exploring a new one to us, the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

Situated just East of Washougal Washington along the Columbia River, Steigerwald Lake is part of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Complex. In addition to Steigerwald Lake the complex also includes the Franz Lake, Pierce, and Ridgefield refuges. Of those Ridgefield (post) is the only one we’d previously visited. We had hoped to visit this refuge a couple of years ago, but the refuge was undergoing an extensive restoration that kept it closed until May of last year. The refuge hosts roughly 5-miles of crushed gravel trails. Two of the trails, the Mountain View and the Refuge River, are open all year. A third trail, the Wildlife Art Trail, is partially closed October 1st through April 30th. The Refuge River Trail is open to pedestrians, bicycles, jogging, horseback riding, and leashed dogs which is rare for a refuge while the other trails are hiker (pedestrian) only. To use the Refuge River Trail joggers, cyclists, equestrians and leashed dogs enter the refuge from the West via the Captain William Clark Park Trail by either starting at Steamboat Landing or Captain William Clark Park.

Our plan was to start at the refuge trailhead and hike the trails then then take the Captain William Clark Park Trail to Steamboat Landing and back. We opted for this approach because online information showed 7am and 8am as the opening times for Captain William Clark Park and Steamboat Landing respectively while the refuge website reported that it’s gate opened at 5:30am and we’d be arriving shortly after six.
The Mountain View Trail is named so because of the view of Mt. Hood, which on this morning was hiding behind the clouds on the left side of the photo.

Map and information at the trailhead.

We followed the wide gravel trail as it climbed atop a levee separating the wetlands to the east from industrial lands to the West.

View to the East.

Looking West toward Washougal.

We followed the trail atop the levee watching on both sides for wildlife.

Mallards

A duck and a goose sharing a log.

A mallard and an egret in a channel to the West.

Ducks flying over the wetlands casting clear reflections.

Water dripping from a mallards bill.

One of several rabbits we spotted to the West.

Deer across the wetlands. (The young buck may have been sticking his tongue out at us.)

Families of geese.

Wood duck mallard

When the trail split just prior to reaching the Refuge River Trail we stayed left.

Trail sign at the junction with the Refuge River Trail.

We turned left onto the Refuge River Trail following it for 0.3-miles to the Wildlife Art Trail where we again turned left.
Sparrow

Coming in for a landing.

Red Tail Lake to the right of the Wildlife Art Trail.

Pretty sure these are the same three we saw from the Mountain View Trail.

This deer laying along the shore of Red Tail Lake was new though.

Common yellow throat

One of many great blue herons that we watched fly overhead throughout the day.

The Wildlife Art Trail passing around Redtail Lake.

Gibbons Creek is in that grass somewhere with at least one deer.

Killdeer along Redtail Lake.

Turns out the deer laying on the lake shore wasn’t alone.

Roses

Purple martins

Just beyond the Cottonwood Bridge the trail forks. To the right is the seasonal section of the loop open May 1st through September 30th. The left-hand fork dead-ends in a tenth of a mile overlooking the wetlands.

We headed left to the overlook before continuing on the loop.

Egret at Scaup Pond.

Egret with a frog meal.

Mushrooms

We got a kick out of the “Birds Only Beyond This Sign”.

Kingfisher

I had been watching a kingfisher as we arrived at the overlook and after it flew off I turned to my right and thought that there was a bittern standing just a few yards away. Then my eyes adjusted and I realized it was one of the art pieces and I’d been fooled.
We’ve only seen two bitterns on our hikes and both times we only spotted them as they flew off from the grassy cover that they’d been hiding in so I was pretty disappointed when I realized I’d been duped, but kudos to the artist because it looked real at first glance to me.

We returned to the loop and passed through the seasonal gate.

The wetlands were pretty full of water to our left but between the trail and the water was a fair number of bushes and grass which was apparently popular with the deer.

You have something in your teeth.

Spotted towhee

At least two deer in the grass.

Another American goldfinch.

We left the seasonal section of trail near the junction with Refuge River Trail where we again turned left, promptly crossing a creek on Dragonfly Bridge.

Spotted sandpiper

We followed this trail to its end at the refuge boundary.
Oregon sunshine and yarrow

The Columbia River ahead.

Viewpoint along the Columbia River.

Approaching the Lampray Brdige.

Looking back from across the bridge there was a bald eagle in the dead snag along the river.

There were lots of geese along this section of trail.

Red clover in some Oregon sunshine

Another spotted sandpiper

Steigerwald Lake in the distance with a family of geese and crow on a log in the near channel.

End of the trail.

It was about 8:15am when we turned around and it was already feeling fairly warm, but there was relief on the way in the form of some clouds coming in from the Pacific.

Savannah sparrow

Here come the clouds.

Double the eagles.

For the second week in a row we got to watch an American Kestral on the hunt.

Arriving back at the Dragon Fly Bridge and the junction with the Wildlife Art Trail.

We had planned on following the Refuge River Trail all the way to the western end of the refuge but just 500′ beyond the trail junction we rounded a corner to find the trail flooded.

Since neither of us was interested in finding out how deep the water was we turned around and simply took the Wildlife Art Trail back.

Red tailed hawk

Geese nesting atop a snag.

More deer in the grass along Gibbons Creek.

Egret at Redtail Lake.

Great blue heron at Redtail Lake.

We followed the Refuge River Trail back past the junction with the Mountain View Trail and continued West.

Purple martins

When the light catches the feathers right it’s obvious where the purple martin’s name comes from.

Common yellowthroat

House finch

A mile from the Mountain View Trail we arrived at the refuge boundary with Captain William Clark Park.

The trail follows a dike to Steamboat Landing.

The main attraction at Captain William Clark Park is Cottonwood Beach where in 1806 Lewis & Clark established a camp while they secured provisions for the return trip through the Columbia River Gorge. The Provision Camp Trail leads down to the beach and picnic area.

The Provision Camp Trail

While there had been quite a few people on the Captain William Clark Park Trail there were just a few people in this area.

While the beach is extremely popular in the Summer and especially on weekends it became evident why we weren’t seeing folks today when we reached the “beach access”.

Northern flicker

Having the beach be underwater was fine with us, it meant fewer people, but the water level became an issue when the Provision Camp Trail turned back inland toward the dike to complete its loop.
Flooded trail ahead.

With the loop cut off we went back the way we’d come and returned to the dike where we turned left to continue on to Steamboat Landing.
Black headed grosbeak

Osprey

Back on the dike.

At the other end of the Provision Camp Trail was an interpretive display with replica canoes.

The flooded section of trail from above.

It was another mile from the interpretive display to Steamboat Landing. The trail was pretty busy, and we were now in the city, but we were still managing to see a good deal of wildlife.

Turtles!

Another turtle

Common merganser

Great blue heron

Steamboat Landing

At Steamboat Landing we turned down to a viewpoint along a fishing dock.

After a brief break we headed back.
A family of geese out for a float.

While it had clouded up overhead the morning clouds that had blocked any view of Mt. Hood had given way. Unfortunately, there was enough haze in the air to essentially wash the mountain out.
The large “hump” ahead is Larch Mountain (post). Mt. Hood is a little further to Larch’s right.

Grainy proof of Mt. Hood’s existence.

Silver Star Mountain (post) to the North.

We turned left onto the Mountain View Trail and headed back to the trailhead feeling really good about the amount of wildlife we’d seen although I was still a bit bummed about being fooled by the bittern art. As we neared the end of the wetlands that changed as a pair of bitterns got into a dispute over territory. The victor landed along the water below the levee.

The American bittern in the grass.

I had the chance to take way too many pictures as the bittern posed for the people on the levee.

It was an exciting ending to a great wildlife hike. We made our way down to the now nearly full trailhead. Happy Trails!
We’d been the first car in the lot that morning.

Having to retrace our steps a couple of times due to flooded trails put our hike at 12.4 miles for the day with minimal elevation gain.

Full album (Flickr): Steigerwald Lake Wildlife Refuge

Hiking Mt. Adams Trip report Washington Washington Cascades

Crystal Lake (Mount Adams Wilderness) -08/13/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 17, 2022
2 Comments on Crystal Lake (Mount Adams Wilderness) -08/13/2022

For our day trips we try and keep our driving time time to trailheads under 3 hours (preferably two and a half or less). The one exception to that is Mount Adams which sits right around that 3 hour mark from Salem. Due to the distance we don’t get there as much as we’d like but we’d put it on this years schedule. We’ve been turning more to Matt Reeder’s guidebooks and hike #16 his “Off the Beaten Trail (2nd edition) was the hike that we’d originally planned on. While doing some research on the Riley Camp Trail I learned of a use trail not far from the that trail’s junction with the Pacific Crest Trail that led to Crystal Lake so we decided to extend his suggested hike a bit.

A very favorable forecast, sunny skies with a high in the low 50s, provided a green light for our plans and we made the long drive to the Riley Camp Trailhead.
The Riley Camp Trail (Trail 64) on the opposite side of FR 23.

A short distance up the trail we stopped to fill out a day use permit (free) and review the wilderness map on the signboard.

Trail 64 led gradually uphill through a nice forest.

A little over one and a quarter mile from the trailhead we came to a signed junction with the Riley South Trail (Trail 64A).

We stayed left on the Riley Camp Trail which almost immediately entered the Mount Adams Wilderness.

We weren’t aware that the Forest Service was employing wilderness greeters.

May I see your self-issued permit?

We had started to notice a fair number of mosquitos near the junction and were forced to turn to the Deet. We’d been pretty luck so far this year at avoiding the little blood suckers but not on this day. While they weren’t anywhere near as bad as we’ve had them before they were persistent between the Riley South junction and the end of the Riley Camp Trail at the PCT. With the bugs after us we kept a decent pace as the trail continued it’s gradual climb through the forest.
The trail was in pretty good shape with just a few downed trees to step over/under.

First look at Mt. Adams through the trees.

Near the 2.7 mile mark the trail briefly entered a 2015 fire scar.

Luna Lake

Aster

We left the fire scar behind as the trail turned north passing by a series of ponds/lakes (mosquito breeding grounds).

More Mt. Adams.

Paintbrush and lupine

Beyond the mosquito birthing centers the trail began to curve back to the east and entered Riley Creek Meadows.

Sub-alpine mariposa lily

Riley Creek along the trail.

Just over 4.5 miles from the trailhead we crossed Riley Creek.
Riley Creek at the crossing.

Beyond the crossing the trail made a final 0.3 mile climb to the PCT.
A trail sign up ahead at the junction.

We turned right on the PCT which brought us back to Riley Creek after 0.2 miles.
PCT marker on the tree.

Riley Creek below the PCT crossing.

We detoured briefly upstream to revisit our dinner spot during an overnight trip in 2017 (post).

White mountain heather

A nice paintbrush

After the short detour we continued south on the PCT to Burnt Rock (just under half a mile from Riley Creek).
Mt. Adams behind us as we headed south.

Sheep Lake

Mt. Rainier behind a line of clouds.

Burnt Rock behind the snags left over from the 2012 Cascade Creek Fire.

Alpine false dandelion

Grouse

Near Burnt Rock we looked for a user trail heading toward the mountain and took a left onto it once we spotted it.

It was another half mile to Crystal Lake. The use trail was fairly easy to follow. It did steepen just before the lake.

Hummingbird visiting paint.

Mountain heather

On the final pitch.

Mt. Rainier and Goat Rocks

Phlox

Almost there.

Not Crystal Lake, just a pretty little tarn nearby.

Fortunately mosquitos weren’t an issue up here so we were able to relax and spend a good deal of time exploring around the lake and a little beyond.
Mt. Rainier

Just a bit of snow left around 6300′.

The little tarn we’d passed.

While not big Crystal Lake was deep.

View down from the rocky ridge on the south side of the lake.

The rocky ridge along the south side of the lake.

We continued a tenth of a mile beyond the lake for a dramatic view of Mt. Adams.

We could hear a waterfall below on Riley Creek.

Zoomed in on the waterfall below.

Crystal Lake from above.

Mt. Rainier with Goat Rocks to the right.

Mt. Rainier

Some of Goat Rocks.

Golden-mantled grounds squirrel

After a good break we headed back down past the lake and back to the PCT.

Getting ready to drop down.

Clark’s nutcrackers

Butterfly on mountain heather.

Saxifrage

Violet

Alpine speedwell

A checkerspot

A crescent

Mountain bluebird

Northern flicker

I’m guessing a warbler of some sort. We saw quite a few of these little yellow birds but had a hard time actually getting a photo.

We turned right on the PCT and followed it back to the Riley Camp Trail and then followed that trail back to our car.
Mt. Adams from the PCT.

Adams Glacier

Riley Creek at the PCT crossing.

Wildflowers along the PCT.

Bee on valerian

Butterfly on valerian

Another butterfly on valerian

Looking back at Mt. Adams from the Riley Camp Trail.

Passing through Riley Creek Meadows.

Gentian

We only saw a couple of beargrass blooms.

Pollinators on fleabane.

False hellebore

Luna Lake and Mt. Adams from the trail.

The mosquitos remained a nuisance as we made our way back to the car so we kept a brisk pace. When we arrived back at the car there was a family preparing to set off for an overnight stay. They had an extra half of a pizza due to getting a free pie after the pizzeria initially made the wrong one. They offered us the extra since they couldn’t take it with them and we gladly accepted. Lunch was solved and dinner wound up also being solved when my parents took us and our Son (who was visiting for our Nephew Tyler’s 4th birthday party) out to Gilgamesh Brewing’s The Woods. It was a great ending to the day.

Our hike to Crystal Lake came in at 12.6 miles with approximately 2900′ in cumulative elevation gain. While I typically don’t share tracks for off trail hikes this one is listed on several prominent hiking websites so am including it below. If you do visit please be respectful, tread lightly, and Leave No Trace. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Crystal Lake

Tags Crystal Lake, Gilgamesh Brewing, Gilgamesh The Woods, hiking, Luna Lake, Mt. Adams, Mt. Adams Wilderness, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Riley Camp Trail, Riley Camp Trailhead, Riley Creek, Riley South Trail, sheep lake, Washington, wildflowers

Hiking Silver Star Mountain SW Washington Trip report Washington

Starway Trail to Silver Star Mountain

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 25, 2022
8 Comments on Starway Trail to Silver Star Mountain

The late snow melt in in SW Washington had prompted us to push a planned hike to Silver Star Mountain at the end of June to next year but when we found ourselves in need of a substitute for another hike we took the opportunity to pull it back into this year. This would be our fourth visit to Silver Star Mountain having previously taken Ed’s Trail in 2013 (post), the Bluff Mountain Trail in 2015 (post), and the Grouse Vista Trail in 2019 (post). Those hikes had taken place on July 1st, June 27th, and June 24th respectively so this was a later visit for us, but we knew that the late snow melt had delayed the wildflower display so we still expected to get to experience that.

Our inspiration for this visit came from Matt Reeder’s “Off the Beaten Trail” (2nd edition) which was printed in 2019. Reeder calls the hike to Silver Star Mountain via the Starway Trail as “by far the most difficult….”. He also mentions that the last two miles of driving on FR 41 to reach the trailhead are “potholed and rocky” while the Forest Service states “Trailhead is best accessed by high clearance vehicles due to rough road conditions.” The Washington Trail Association also mentions that “…most of the roads accessing the trailhead have been severely degraded…” This last description was probably the most accurate description of what we encountered for the final 3 miles on FR 41. The road didn’t have pot holes, it had craters. Our Outback scrapped the ground twice emerging from said craters and I can’t imagine how a low clearance vehicle could make it given the current condition of the road. In fact there was a sign at the Sunset Falls Campground with slash going through a low clearance vehicle. We parked at a pullout near a gate at the FR 41/FR 4107 junction. Reeder mentions that you can drive 4107 approximately a half mile to the start of the actual Starway Trail at Copper Creek but if the gate gets closed your stuck. Looking at the gate we weren’t sure if it even still closed but we were more than done with driving at that point.

We headed down this one lane road approximately a half mile to a small parking area near a bridge over Copper Creek.

It was an overcast morning which was a welcome sight for this hike. Reeder had recommended not attempting this hike on warmer days due to the steepness of the climbs. The forecast for Silver Star was for a high in the low 60’s with partly sunny skies. We hopped that by the time we reached Silver Star we’d be greeted by those partly sunny skies, but the low 60’s temperatures were what we were really after. Beyond Copper Creek the trail followed an old road bed as it gradually climbed for a little over a quarter of a mile to a fork.
Overgrown roadbed that is now the Starway Trail.

The fork with the Starway Trail to the right.

The trail began to steepen here but didn’t really pick up steam until reaching a couple of switchbacks 0.4 miles from the fork.

Scouler’s bluebells

Beardstongue

Paintbrush

Taken from the first switchback this gives a little reference for how steep the trail was.

The switchbacks only lasted a tenth of a mile and then the trail shot almost directly uphill. The grade varied between steep and really steep for three quarters of a mile where it finally leveled out for a bit on a bench along the ridge we had been following.
Pictures never do justice to just how steep trails are.

Almost to the bench.

Level trail!

A section of trail on the bench passed through a carpet of foam flower. We’d never seen so much of that flower in one area.

Inside out flower

For about a half mile the trail avoided any overly steep climbing and then it once again headed uphill in earnest.
The trail starting to steepen again.

Every website I checked agreed with Reeder that the Starway Trail didn’t see a lot of use. They all mention the steepness of the trail and that the trail was faint and could be difficult to follow. After having hiked the trail we can confirm the steepness but it appears that someone or some agency has put a good deal of work into improving the trail. We had no trouble following the tread and there were a couple of places where a series of short switchbacks appear to have replaced sections that went straight uphill.
The first set of what appeared to be fairly recently built switchbacks.

At the top of the switchbacks the trail emerged in a small meadow where it once again leveled out.
Approaching the little meadow.

A little bit of blue overhead through the fog.

Tiger lily

Paintbrush

Wood rose

Thimbleberry

I had gotten to this level section first and looked for a place to sit down and wait for Heather but the meadow was too wet so I found a log in the trees at the far end and had a seat.
Into the trees to look for a log.

For a little over a half mile the trail climbed gradually alternating between forest and small meadows before arriving at its high point just below the wildflower covered Point 3977. Along the way we emerged from the clouds and got our first glimpses of Silver Star Mountain and Mt. St. Helens.

Silver Star Mountain

Bunchberry

Our first view of Mt. St. Helens

Zoomed in on Mt. St. Helens.

Arriving below Point 3977.

Point 3977

Pollinator on catchfly

The pink vetch was very bright.

Silver Star Mountain from the trail below Point 3977.

Rose

Wildflowers on Point 3977.

Bluebells of Scotland

Sub alpine mariposa lily

Checkerspot on Oregon sunshine

Lots of purple larkspur amid the other flowers.

A few columbine were hiding in the mix.

Violet

We surprised a fellow hiker as he rounded Point 3977 from the other side. He said he hadn’t expected to run into anyone on the Starway Trail. He’d started at the Ed’s Trail Trailhead and was doing a big loop using the Starway Trail and then road walking FR 41 & 4109 back to his car. He climbed up Point 3977 and we continued on planning to do that same thing on our way back. On the far side (south) of the point the Starway Trail suddenly dropped heading steeply downhill through a meadow.
Starting down.

Looking back up.

For nearly the next three quarters of a mile the trail alternated between steep descents and more gradual downhills losing a little more than 500′ in the process. Then the trail shot back uphill gaining over 300′ in the next 0.3 miles before arriving at a junction with the Bluff Mountain Trail.
Stars on the trees marked the Starway Trail at times.

Pinesap emerging from the ground.

A cairn at the end of this brief level section marked the start of another steep descent. By this time we’d lost enough elevation to be back in the clouds.

Part of the elevation loss was to drop below some interesting rock outcrops.

Fully back in the fog.

Time to climb again.

Big root balls.

Trail sign near the Bluff Mountain Trail junction.

Final pitch to the Bluff Mountain Trail.

On the Bluff Mountain Trail at the junction.

We turned right on the Bluff Mountain Trail which steadily climbed for nearly three quarters of a mile to a fork.

Lots of nice wildflowers along the Bluff Mountain Trail.

Another checkerspot

Paintbrush

Penstemon

We just couldn’t quite shake the fog.

First sighting of Mt. Rainier.

Mt. St. Helens to the left with Mt. Rainier to the right.

Coiled lousewort

Lupine

Getting closer to Silver Star.

Crab spider on fleabane

Spirea along the trail.

Bistort and mountain goldenbanner

First Mt. Adams sighting.

A crescent on bistort.

Penstemon

Wallflower with beetle.

Passing below Silver Star Mountain.

Mt. Hood

Rock arch below Silver Star’s summit.

At the fork we turned uphill to the left leaving the Bluff Mountain Trail.

This short connector trail climbed 0.1 miles to an old roadbed.

Fading avalanche lily.

The old roadbed.

We turned left and followed the roadbed 0.2 miles to a saddle.
The summit to the left with Mt. Adams in the distance.

Mt. Hood to the right at the saddle.

We headed for the summit to start and met a couple with a cute puppy named Hazel, the same name as our cat that we’d lost a year ago nearly to the day (post). The puppy even shared similar colored fur to our Hazel’s.

The view from the summit was a good one on this day. The clouds were low enough that we could see all five of the Cascade volcanoes: St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, Hood and Jefferson.
Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams.

Goat Rocks (between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams)

Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Jefferson. If you enlarge and look closely you can also make out Three Fingered Jack and the North Sister to the far right.

Swallowtail

Sturgeon Rock

Wildflowers at the summit.

Bug at the summit.

After a nice break at the summit we dropped back down to the saddle then climbed to the southern high point just to say we did.
Point 3977 is the the island surrounded by clouds.

There was a lot of butterfly action here.

After tagging the southern point we headed back the way we’d come.
The only beargrass bloom we saw all day.

As we were passing below Silver Star we kept our eyes out for our favorite trail animals, pikas. We’d heard a few from the summit and we were rewarded with spotting one of the little rock rabbits in a talus slope.
The talus slope.

Pikas are not easy to spot.

On alert.

As always we kept our eyes out for other things we’d missed on the first pass.
Orange agoseris

Ladybug

Making the steep climb back up to Point 3977.

We did wind up making the short climb to the top of Point 3977 even though the clouds had risen enough to effectively block most of the views.
Looking toward Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier.

Looking toward Silver Star.

The views weren’t great but the wildflowers were.
Possibly a Native American vision quest pit.

Bluebells of Scotland with at least three visible insects.

Some bright paintbrush.

Larkspur

A brief appearance by Silver Star’s summit.

After a short break on Point 3977 we began the relentless descent to Copper Creek. The long steep descent was not a friend to the knees but we managed to make it down in one piece. Just before reaching the bridge we passed just the second hiker on the Starway Trail for the day.

Sorry knees.

Mock orange

A little blue sky in the afternoon.

We walked back up FR 4107 to our car and began the tedious drive back down FR 41 and made our way safely home.
Salmonberries along FR 4107. I may have eaten a few as well as some red huckleberries along the lower portion of the Starway Trail.

Both of those berry types are too sour for Heather who prefers thimbleberries but alas those were only beginning to show signs of ripening.

Looking back at the hillside the Starway Trail climbs from FR 4107.

In my research I’ve seen several different distances listed for this hike. In Reeder’s book he lists the hike to Silver Star as 10.2 miles. Our GPS units recorded 11 miles though. Some of that may be due to going to both ends of Silver Star and some additional distance may be due to the newer switchbacks (assuming they really are new). Regardless of the actual distance I think everyone agrees that the total elevation gain is right around 4200′.

I’m not sure we could have asked for a better day to do this hike on. We got some big views and lots of wildflowers while the temperature remained mild thanks to the low clouds and we saw our first pika of the year. I don’t know that either one of us would ever want to try that drive again but the hike itself was worth the effort. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Starway Trail to Silver Star

Tags bluff mountain trail, Butterly, FR 41, hiking, mountains, Off the Beaten Trail, Pika, Point 3977, Silver Star Mountian, Starway Trail, Starway Trailhead, Sturgeon Rock, Washington, wildlfowers

Hiking Mt. St. Helens Trip report Washington Washington Cascades

Goat Marsh Lake and Kalama Ski Trail – 06/25/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 27, 2022
1 Comment on Goat Marsh Lake and Kalama Ski Trail – 06/25/2022

After a wet and mild Spring, Summer announced its arrival with our fist 90-degree temperatures just in time for the weekend. When it gets that warm we typically turn to the mountains for relief but that’s a little trickier this year due to there being quite a bit of snow still up in the Cascades. Even some of the lower elevation mountains are still in the process of melting out. For instance our original plan for this hike had been to visit Silver Star Mountain (post) via the Starway Trail, an approach that we haven’t done yet. While this mountain is accessible recent reports showed several remaining snowdrifts but more importantly the wildflower show is running late. To decide where to go I turned to my spreadsheet looking for hikes that I had scheduled in coming years around the end of June. Goat Marsh Lake was on the schedule for next year and while the Goat Marsh Research Natural Area is located with the Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It sits at a low enough elevation that there was a chance that snow wouldn’t be an issue. Using NOAA’s NOHRSC snow depth layer on the PCTA’s interactive map confirmed that snow shouldn’t be an issue at the lake or along the loop we were planning after visiting the lake using the Kalama Ski and Toutle Trails. With a forecast high of 78 degrees it would be warm but not unbearable so with that as our plan we got an early start and headed north to the Goat Marsh Lake Trailhead.

We parked a little up FR 8123 from the trailhead and walked back down to the start of the trail.
FR 8123

This was the Kalama Ski Trail (Trail 231) and part of the loop we were planning as well as the way to reach the Goat Marsh Trail in a quarter mile.

We followed this path to the junction where we turned right to visit the lake.
It appeared the trail had been rerouted at least a couple of times to cross this dry creek bed.

This trail led slightly uphill for 0.5 mile to our first view of the lake. Along the way we’d spotted a cow elk in the trees but she disappeared before we could take a picture.

Fence at the boundary for the Research Area.

Goat Mountain and Goat Marsh Lake.

The trail continued around the lake for a little over three quarters of a mile. We spotted two more cow elk and moments later noticed a whole heard, including several calves, further to the north.

Mt. St. Helens

Trillium

Vanilla leaf

Frog on a log.

The two cow elk in the middle of the grassy area.

Calves lined up, this one is a bit blurry due to them moving and the amount of zoom used.

The elk herd not zoomed in.

Zoomed

After watching the elk for a while we continued on.
Coralroot

Goat Mountain

Avalanche lilies

Mt. St. Helens

Marsh violet

Frog under a log.

Salmonberry

Sign near the end of the trail.

At the end of the trail.

Beaver lodge

Duck and ducklings

Geese out in the grass.

We returned to the trailhead and crossed FR 8123 to stay on the Kamala Ski Trail.

The road crossing.

We had a little trouble picking up the trail beyond the sign because there was also a campsite here with several use trails radiating from it. We used our GPS while we looked for the blue diamonds that would identify a ski trail. Heather was the first to spot one and we were soon on the ski trail heading toward Mt. St. Helens.
In the campsite trying to decide which way to go.

Once we found it the trail was pretty obvious, at least for a while.

Approximately three quarters of a mile from the road we came to a junction with the Blue Lake Horse Trail. The horse trail can be used to reach Blue Lake (post) to the north via the Toutle Trail or the same Toutle Trail to the south near the Kalama River (post) which we could have done here to shorten our loop. Instead we stayed straight on the ski trail.

We had remarked several times during our Ashland vacation about the lack of mosquitos, and really insects overall, but that was not the case here. While they weren’t a big issue it was noticeably buggier here than it had been in Southern Oregon. The local birds were busy doing their part to reduce the number of bugs.
Gray jay with a snack.

Western tanager. Right after this photo he flew straight at us snatching an insect out of mid-air.

Four tenths a mile from the horse trail the ski trail made a turn away from the mountain and headed SE.

The trail became a little more overgrown then came to a series of dry creek beds where we again had to hunt for signs of the trail.

Butte Camp Dome in front of Mt. St. Helens.

Crossing another dry bed.

Where is the trail?

In one of the creek beds. We were using the GPS along with looking for cairns and/or flagging.

Goat Mountain

You can’t really make them out in the photo but there is a pink flag and a blue diamond (on a downed tree) near the edge of the green trees.

We were now entering the section of trail that the NOHRSC indicated there could be some lingering snow patches.
There was another short brushy section before the forest opened up.

One of the strangest snow sightings we’ve come across.

My theory was bigfoot hung this.

The NOHRSC estimated 2″-3.9″ of snow and that seemed to be about right.

Unlike in the Siskiyous this melting snow had produced a fair number of mosquitos so we hustled through this section even though it was scenic.

We encountered the first other hikers we’d seen when we arrived at the junction with the Toutle Trail (Approx 3 miles from the Goat Marsh Lake Trailhead). The junction was unsigned and they were considering which way to go to find the Loowit Trail. We pointed them north (left from the direction we were coming, straight for them) on the Toutle Trail and then turned south (right) ourselves onto the Toutle.
Looking back at the junction from the Toutle Trail. The post with no sign is the continuation of the Toutle while the trail on the left is the ski trail.

We followed this trail south for half a mile passing through a beargrass meadow that appears to have bloomed heavily last year and a lava flow with excellent views of Mt. St. Helens before dropping to FR 81 at the Red Rock Pass Trailhead.

Last years beargrass.

Strawberry

Phlox

FR 81 below the trail.

Trail sign at the trailhead.

We crossed FR 81 and continued on the Toutle Trail.

After 100 yards we came to a familiar fork where we had turned uphill in 2019 on our Cinnamon Ridge Hike linked above.
Raven flyover

The fork.

We were going in the opposite direction of what we’d done in 2019. Bugs were a bit more of a nuisance here so we kept a steady pace as we made a little climb then descended to McBride Lake and the Kalama River.

One of several side creeks we crossed.

Trillium

Avalanche lily

Violet

Goat Mountain beyond McBride Lake.

Sourgrass

Valerian

Solomonseal

Saxifrage

A little west of McBride Lake the Toutle Trail crosses the Kalama River on a closed road bed.

Kalama River from the road bed.

Our original plan was blown up here. We had intended to follow the Toutle Trail to the start of the Kalama Ski Trail and then take that trail back uphill to the Goat Marsh Lake Trailhead. The problem was I had already forgotten about the Blue Lake Horse Trail and when I had glanced at the GPS and saw a trail extending north from the end of the road bed I mistook it for the ski trail so we followed the road bed a quarter mile to FR 81. (We had a paper map with us but didn’t pull it out to confirm.)

The Blue Lake Horse Trail on the far side of FR 81.

When we crossed FR 81, two things that should have tipped us off to our mistake. First the sign clearly said “Blue Horse Trail” and second instead of blue diamonds there were orange diamonds with arrows marking this trail.
The sign did show FR 8123 which was the road the trailhead was on so that fed into us not realizing our mistake at first.

We followed this trail for a third of a mile before we realized what we’d done. We stopped and considered our options. We could back track three quarters of a mile to the Toutle Trail or a third of a mile to FR 81 and follow one of them west to the ski trail. Another option was to continue uphill on this trail to the junction we’d passed earlier and retrace our steps on the ski trail from there back to the trailhead. All of those options meant adding distance and retracing steps. Heather suggested another option, simply heading cross-country for FR 8123 and the trailhead.
An orange diamond on a tree ahead.

The forest was definitely conducive to cross-country travel so we struck off in a WNW direction. The cross-country hike was about as easy as we could have hoped for and after 0.7 miles we arrived a FR 8123 just 0.2 miles from our car.
Where we left the horse trail.

Typical terrain for the cross-country walk.

It seems like every time we go off-trail we come across a mylar balloon. We’ve really come to despise those things. We packed it and the ribbon out.

The trickiest part was crossing this dry stream bed but we fortunately came to it at a spot that was perfect for crossing.

FR 8123

Coming up to the Goat Marsh Lake Trailhead (and our car) on FR 8123.

I had estimated a 10-12 mile hike with only about 800′ of total elevation gain and we came in at 10.8 miles.

Our track with the cross-country portion in orange.

While it had been a warm day, the combination of shade provided by the forest and a fairly steady breeze, it hadn’t been too hot. The hike had provided a lot of diverse scenery and great views of Mt. St. Helens. The wildlife was a big bonus along the Goat Marsh Trail too. It seems like we can always count on hikes in Mt. St. Helens area to be great ones. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Goat Marsh Lake

Tags Blue Lake Horse Trail, Butte Camp Dome, elk, Goat Marsh Lake, Goat Marsh Lake Natural Research Area, Goat Marsh Lake Trailhead, goat mountain, hiking, Kalama River, Kalama Ski Trail, McBride Lake, Mt. St. Helens, mt. st. helens national volcanic monument, Red Rock Pass, Red Rock pass Trailhead, Toutle Trail, Washington

SW Washington SW Washington Coast Trip report Washington

Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-Tailed Deer – 06/11/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 12, 2022
2 Comments on Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for the Columbian White-Tailed Deer – 06/11/2022

Another rainy weekend was in the forecast which had us questioning whether or not it was worth heading out. Our original plan had involved a hike with mountain views so we wanted to save that for a day with a clearer forecast. This had us looking for something that wasn’t view dependent. The Julia Butler Hansen Refuge a.k.a the Columbian White-Tailed Deer Refuge fit that bill and was on our schedule during the month of June in 2025. I had it penciled in for June due to one of the trails in the refuge, the Center Road Trail, only being open to hiking from June through September. While a refuge hike is typically okay on a rainy overcast day it had poured Friday and we were expecting Saturday to be similar and weren’t keen on driving over two hours to be drenched for an entire 12 mile hike. Friday evening we had all but decided to take the weekend off but just to be sure I pulled up the NOAA forecast for the refuge. To our surprise there was just a 10% chance of showers in the morning followed by partly sunny skies and a high in the low 60s. That sold us and we got our packs ready for a 5am departure the next morning.

After a brief conversation with a very friendly Washington State Trooper (I completely missed a 45mph sign and was given a warning) we pulled into the refuge HQ (open Mon-Fri 7:30am – 4pm). We had gotten the hike for this idea from the “more hikes” section of Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast & Coast Range” guidebook as well as an entry in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide describes a 6.1 mile loop, which for reasons that will become evident later, is no longer possible. (I have contacted both with updated information.)

A damp and cloudy morning.

Swallow

Our plan had been to to the described loop but after reaching the far end of the loop we were going to do an out-and-back along Steamboat and Brooks Slough Roads to add a little hiking time since a six mile loop would likely violate our rule of not having our driving time be greater than our hiking time on day trips. From the HQ we walked out of the parking lot onto Steamboat Slough Road and turned right crossing Indian Jack Slough. The loop description was to then turn right through a gate into the refuge shed/garage yard.
Indian Jack Slough and the garage from Refuge HQ.

The gate, including a secondary pedestrian gate were padlocked and there were “Area Closed” signs on the driveway gate. This was a bit unexpected, but shouldn’t have been if we’d have read the Refuge website more closely. What we discovered after our hike was that at some point a 0.3 section of Center Road, from Steamboat Slough Road west, had been closed to the public making the loop impossible and leaving the Center Road Trail as a 5 mile round trip out-and-back. At this point though we weren’t sure what was going on so we decided to simply head out Steamboat Slough Road and were prepared to skip Center Road and make the hike a simple out-and-back.

Beyond the shed/garage there was a living quarters and just beyond that we spotted the first Columbian White-tailed deer of the day.

We followed this road for 2.3 miles to the start of the White-tail Trail. It is possible to drive to this trail and park at the nearby dead end of Steamboat Slough Road.
Elochoman Slough

The first of many bald eagles we spotted (atop the dead tree across the slough).

Working on drying out.

Lots of non-native yellow flag iris in the area.

Little birds such as this sparrow were everywhere but rarely sat still.

A different eagle waiting to dry.

There are at least 5 birds in the tree including four goldfinches.

A male goldfinch takes off.

The morning clouds were starting to break up as forecasted.

One of many great blue herons.

A male wood duck.

Another great blue heron with the female wood duck on the log below.

The first of several osprey.

Cattle in a field along the road.

Geese

Snail crossing the road.

Maybe a yellow warbler. I had to use the digital zoom to get between the branches so it’s not the clearest photo.

The start of the mile long White-tail trail which travels along a setback levee.

There was a pole with a bunch of bird nests hung from it near the start of the trail. We’d never seen one like it before.

It turned out to be nests for purple martins, a bird that as far as we know we hadn’t seen before.

Bald eagle in the same area.

Slug on lupine

A different type of lupine.

Lupine, daisies and yellow gland-weed.

Bumble bee needing to dry out.

We spotted more white-tailed deer along the levee, a pair of young bucks.

A look at the white tail. He gave us a better look but in that one he was also doing his business so we stuck with this uncentered, slightly blurry version.

There was also a great blue heron sitting in a nearby snag.

While we were keeping an eye on the bucks and the heron to the inland side of the levee there were geese, ducks, and various small birds all around us.
Guessing marsh wren.

Ducks

Goose with goslings.

Common yellow throat.

Male gadwall?

We eventually tore ourselves away from the wildlife bonanza and continued on.

There was pretty much non-stop bird song throughout the day.

Traffic on the Columbia River.

The Santa Maria on the Columbia.

Female brown-headed cowbird?

Flowers along the levee.

American robin

Red-winged blackbird chasing a heron.

When we reached the end of the White-tail Trail we turned right onto Steamboat Slough Road. You can also park near this end of the trail but you must come from the west as Steamboat Slough Road is missing a section (which is why you hike on the levee).

We followed this two-lane version of the road for approximately 1.25 miles to a fork and turned right on Brooks Slough Road. After just 0.2 miles we passed the western end of the Center Road Trail. This end was clearly open. We talked ourselves into believing that either we missed where we were actually supposed to go or that they just hadn’t unlocked the gate yet since we were still unaware of the updated rules for the trail and decided that we would take this trail on our way back and we could do the loop after all.
Note the sign does not indicate that you cannot reach the HQ from the road, it simply says it is 5 miles round trip. Online it adds that hikers must exit the trail the way they entered.

Roses along the road.

Muskrat

Warbler

Osprey

Brooks Slough Road junction.

We turned right and followed this narrow one-lane road along Brooks Slough. For the first mile it ran parallel to Highway 4 then it veered away becoming a quieter walk.

Another eagle sitting near the top of the first tall tree on the far side of the slough.

Interesting shrub along the road.

The partly sunny skies had indeed materialized.

Kingfisher

California scrub jay

White pelicans

Some sort of ornamental shrub/tree but it had cool flowers.

Turkey vulture

Couldn’t tell what type of ducks they were.

We followed the road for approximately 2 miles to what was shown on the GPS as Alger Creek.
Alger Creek somewhere in the grass flowing into Brooks Slough.

Pond on the other side of the road.

Black pheobe?

After a short break we headed back. It was actually starting to feel warm now but we distracted ourselves with even more wildlife.

Red-tailed hawk

American goldfinch

Swallowtail

Cedar waxwing with a salmonberry.

Goat lounging in a driveway across the highway. There had actually been a black goat in nearly the same spot on our first pass.

Caterpillar

When we got back to Center Road we reread the signage and stuck to our plan to try and complete the loop.

We had been discussing all the different wildlife that we’d seen already and I mentioned that the only thing missing was a turtle. Not long after starting down Center Road I noticed something brown (that didn’t look like a cow) in the distance near the tree line. As I was staring at it a large set of antlers raised from the grass and I realized it was a bull elk.
The elk is in the center of the photo near the tree line.

We watched him as he munched on grass for quite a while before moving on. At that point I said something to the effect of forgetting about the turtle because that was better. It wasn’t too much longer before we came to some more wetlands. Lo and behold there was a turtle.

Many pictures followed before resuming our hike.

Heather spotted a pair of egrets in a distant tree which proved impossible to get a decent picture of.
Here is a not so decent picture of the egrets.

We also startled up a pair of American bitterns.
One of the bitterns in flight.

After 2 miles we spotted a set of posts with signs where we finally understood that the Center Road Trail no longer runs the entire length of the roadbed now.

We were less than half a mile from the HQ which was visible from where we were but we obeyed the signs and turned around. It would have been about a perfect distance for us as we were at the 12.1 mile mark when we had gotten to the closed area. Now we had to backtrack two miles on Center Road before the mile long White-tail Trail and the 2.3 mile road walk back to the HQ parking lot. Not only was this a lot longer than we’d planned but the surface had been mostly paved and what wasn’t paved was packed gravel road beds so our feet were really protesting as we retraced our steps.

Heather spotted this garter snake along Center Road. Another animal to add to the days list.

Back at the White-tail Trail.

It had cooled down again which provided some relief as we trudged back.

A second turtle

Mallards

Way more water in the afternoon.

Another kingfisher. It was in the same tree as the heron had been earlier that morning when we were watching the bucks.

Family swim

By Steamboat Slough Road we had all kinds of blisters/hotspots on our feet.

Arriving back at the refuge HQ.

I got to the car first, changed shoes and drove back to pick up Heather who was only about a quarter mile behind me. My GPS read 17.5 miles of almost entirely flat hiking.

Fortunately I had thought to bring my parents camera which has more powerful zoom than my point and shoot and also our binoculars which Heather had been using since there was so much wildlife to be seen. We encountered a couple of other hikers on the White-tail Trail as well as a pair of cyclists and several cars along the various roads but for the most part it was a fairly peaceful (long) hike. The one thing we kept coming back to was that if we hadn’t done the hike the we did we wouldn’t have seen some of the wildlife that we encountered. Was it worth the blisters though? You betcha – Happy Trails!

Flickr: Columbia White-tailed Deer Refuge

Hiking SW Washington Trip report Washington

Black Hole Falls – 06/04/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 11, 2022
7 Comments on Black Hole Falls – 06/04/2022

After our extended Memorial Day weekend of hiking in the Medford area we were looking forward to a poison oak free outing. While we didn’t come away from that trip with any physical repercussions from the plant it had gotten into our heads to the point where we were seeing it when we closed our eyes. As I said before I’m sure after a while people just get used to it but we weren’t anywhere near that point yet and while it is present in the Willamette Valley and parts of the Columbia Gorge it isn’t as abundant. On our schedule for this hike was a visit to Black Hole Falls along North Siouxon Creek. This was good timing as the forecast for the weekend was for rain showers which, barring heavy fog, wouldn’t negatively affect our experience here. Black Hole Falls is a hike featured in Matt Reeder’s “Off the Beaten Trail” 2nd edition guidebook which as the title suggests contains 55 (50 featured and 5 bonus) hikes that don’t usually see a lot of visitors. In most cases it isn’t because of poor road or trail conditions but there are more popular destinations nearby causing these hikes to be overlooked. In the case of Black Hole Falls the drive wasn’t the greatest but it also was nowhere near the worst we’d been on but it is also near the much more popular hike at Siouxon Creek (post). Note that the 2020 Big Hollow Fire affected the Siouxon Creek area (it didn’t reach North Siouxon Creek) which was reopened in August 2021.

We followed the Oregon Hikers Field Guide directions to the North Siouxon Trailhead which were also the direction provided by Google Maps as Reeder’s directions were no longer appeared accurate. (We don’t independently trust Google Maps as it sometimes tries to send you on roads that in no way shape or form appear passable.)

The trail departing from this trailhead is actually the Mitchell Peak Trail which leads to the summit of Mount Mitchell (post) but that destination is over 9 miles away with the upper portion of the trail being unmaintained. The trail drops steeply for approximately 200′ from the trailhead before leveling out. The remainder of the hike was a series of ups and downs, none of which were too long nor too steep. There were a number of creek crossings some of which had footbridges (sometimes makeshift) or logs to cross on. Given the wet conditions we chose to ford a couple of the creeks instead of risking slipping off of a slick log. A reroute of the trail at mile 3.5 dropped below a pair of cascades where the previous tread had been washed out. At the 4.5 mile mark the trail forks with the right hand fork leading a quarter mile downhill to Black Hole Falls.
Dropping into the forest.

The forest along the trail was just what we’d needed with a lush green (poison oak free) under story where woodland wildflowers and mushrooms thrived. With no confusing junctions and very little blowdown along the trail we were able to fully relax and take in the surroundings.

Anemone

Vanilla leaf

Baneberry

Quite a few snails and slugs along the trail.

Starflower

Some of the logs had had tiles and ropes placed on them to help avoid slipping.

Surprisingly this was the only rough-skinned newt we spotted all day.

Foam flower

Inside-out flower

There were some huge nursery logs in the forest here.

A good example of a makeshift crossing.

Most of the flowers were white or pale pink but this salmonberry blossom added a splash of bright color.

A side trail near the 1.75 mile mark led down to a campsite near North Siouxon Creek.

Violets

This was an interesting log/bridge.

Millipedes were everywhere but this one was a color we hadn’t seen before.

These were the ones we were seeing all over.

The dismount was a little awkward but doable.

Star-flowered solmonseal catching a moment of sunlight.

Fairybells

Solomonseal

False lily of the valley

Moss and lichens

Spotted coralroot

Bunchberry

Small fall along the trail.

Did I mention millipedes were everywhere?

Another creek crossing.

The trail reroute at the 3.5 mile mark.

The reroute

This was one of the log crossings that looked too slick and high to warrant an attempt so we forded here. The water was ankle deep and we crossed easily.

We forded just above the larger rocks in the middle of the creek.

The lower of the two cascades.

After fording the trail climbed up hill alongside a large tree that had fallen directly in the middle of the reroute. The presence of this tree didn’t cause too much trouble although it was wide enough that you could clamber over it except for near it’s top. I had wound up on the wrong side so I took the opportunity to follow the original trail to the old crossing before climbing up and around the root ball of the tree to rejoin Heather on the trail.
The upper cascade.

Looking across the old crossing you can see where some of the hillside was washed out.

Looking back at the trail from the creek. The large downed tree was the one that was too wide to climb over.

Most of the downed trees were like this although there was one that required ducking pretty low.

We could hear the songs of wrens throughout the hike but only caught flitting glimpses of the little singers.

Two of the footbridges were in a state like this. It held but we had to watch our step to not only avoid the holes but also the millipedes.

This was another ford/rock hop. There was a log serving as the bridge but it also looked slick. The rope in the picture was connected to the log and I almost didn’t see it (both times by).

Deep pool near the crossing.

A post marked the side trail down to Black Hole Falls.

We turned right and descended to Black Hole Falls which did not disappoint.
First view through the trees.

The pool was a beautiful green.

More cascades and clear pools were located downstream.

Heather taking in the view.

Since I was already wet from the fords I waded out in the calf deep creek to get a different angle.

In addition to the beautiful waterfall and creek there was a unique feature in the basalt to the left of the falls that looked to us like a head with a wide open mouth.

We stayed at the falls for a while before heading back. The forest was just as pretty on the return trip as it was on the way to falls. A light rain finally began to fall in the final mile or two of the hike which felt nice by then.
The right fork heading on toward Mount Mitchell.

A really long nursery log spanning across this whole depression.

Camouflaged mushrooms.

The only trillium that still had its petals.

It looked like someone took a slice of this mushroom.

There weren’t too many views of North Siouxon Creek from the trail but this was a nice one.

Sour grass

Youth-on-age

Scouler’s corydalis

Candy flower

With some wandering down and along the creek and at the falls our day came in at 10.6 miles and approximately 2400′ of cumulative elevation gain.

The hike had lived up to being referred to as off the beaten trail as we didn’t encounter another hiker all day. We did have a pickup drive by while we were changing back at the car after our hike but it appeared to be someone from one of the logging companies checking the area. We had passed signs for active logging operations and saw equipment on the drive in. This turned out to be an excellent hike from start to finish and one that we will be keeping in mind to revisit in the future. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Black Hole Falls

Tags Black Hole Falls, forest, hiking, Matt Reeder, Mitchell Peak Trail, Mount Mitchell, mushroom, North Fork Siouxon Trailhead, North Siouxon Creek, North Siouxon Creek Trailhead, Off the Beaten Trail, Washington

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Balfour-Klickitat and Lower Klickitat Trails – 04/02/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 5, 2022
2 Comments on Balfour-Klickitat and Lower Klickitat Trails – 04/02/2022

We have spent much of our hiking “off-season” addressing long overdue house projects including replacing siding, windows, floors, and now countertops. Hopefully the projects will be done shortly after our official hiking season starts. In the meantime we welcomed the start of a new month with an outing to Lyle, WA for hikes on a pair of trails along the Klickitat River. Our first stop, on the west side of the river, was at the Balfour-Klickitat Trail. The site of a former ranch this day-use area includes a short interpretive loop, picnic tables, and a wildlife viewing path.

Rowena Plateau and Tom McCall Point (post) on the Oregon side of the Columbia River

We headed counter-clockwise on the loop which provided views of the Columbia River and across the Klickitat to Lyle.

The trail then turned inland along the Klickitat where a noisy group of domestic geese drew our attention to a pair of common mergansers and great blue heron.

A blurry heron along the river.

We spotted a number of smaller birds in the bushes and trees as we made our way around the loop. We also took a quick detour downhill to a picnic table overlooking the river.
Acorn woodpecker

Scrub jay

View from the picnic table.

A short time after returning to the loop we came to a sign for the Wildlife Viewing Area near a bench where we made another short detour.

This trail was not paved.

Woodland-stars

View from a bench at the end of the trail.

Mallards on the water below.

After checking out the wildlife viewing area we completed the 0.75 mile loop which brought our stop here to a total of 1.3 miles. We hopped in our car and drove across the river on Hwy 14 to the Lyle Trailhead. Here the 31-mile long Klickitat Trail begins. This Washington State Park trail follows the historic rail bed of the Spokane, Portland, Seattle Railway (SP&S). A 3 mile section of the trail north of Klickitat, WA is currently unhikeable due to a missing bridge over the Klickitat River effectively splitting the trail southern and northern sections of 13 and 15 miles respectively. We hiked 3.8 miles along the end of the northern section from Harms Road in 2014 (post).

Starting at mile 0.

The trail starts by passing some private homes in Lyle but soon provides views down to the Klickitat River. Across the river we spotted a number of deer working their across the hillside and a bald eagle surveying the river below.

Keep your eyes out for poison oak which was prevalent along the trail. Luckily the trail is nice and wide so avoiding it was easy enough.

Heather spotted these three deer across the river.

Another group of deer.

Bald eagle

We had chosen this hike based on Matt Reeder’s entry in his “PDX Hiking 365” guidebook where he recommends a late March visit for wildflowers. We kept our eyes out for flowers as we went and were not disappointed.
Larkspur and woodland-stars

Buttercups

Pacific hound’s tongue

Milepost 1

Saxifrage

Balsamroot

At the 1.7 mile mark we crossed the river on a Fisher Hill Bridge. The view was great and included a series of small cascades on Silvas Creek.

Silvas Creek

We continued north on the trail passing some nice views of the river which were briefly ruined by the smell of rotting flesh (fish?) which brought back memories of the decomposing whale we passed several years ago on our Floras Lake Hike (post).

Blue-eyed Mary

At mile two we passed the Lyle Falls Facility which is a fish monitoring station.

Beyond the fish facility the gap between the trail and the river closed and the views become even prettier.

Seasonal pool along the trail.

The only mountain view of the day was along this stretch with Mt. Hood making an appearance to the south.

Common mergansers

A short distance upstream we passed a screw trap, an instrument used to trap and count young fish.

We continued upriver until we reached milepost 6 where we called it good and turned around. I had gotten myself confused by misreading Reeder’s hike description and thought that there was another bridge around the 5 mile mark and had originally planned to turn around at that but since it didn’t exist (and we didn’t realize that until after passing MP 5) we made MP 6 the turnaround marker.

Popcorn flower

Columbia desert parsley

Lupine

Balsamroot

Shooting stars

Buttercups

Waterleaf

A balsamroot amid pungent desert parsley

Big-leaf maple trees lining the trail.

Big-leaf maple blossoms

Gold stars

Larkspur, poison oak, and buttercups

Spotted towhee

Squirrel

Dillacort Canyon

Red-stem storksbill

After turning around we took a brief break on a rocky beach near MP6.

On our way back it had warmed enough for the butterflies (and moths) to come out and we watched for them along with anything we’d missed on our first pass.
Couldn’t get a good look at this small moth but it was pretty.

Anise swallowtail

Sara’s orangetip

Grass widow

Slender phlox

Heading back.

Immature bald eagle

Propertius duskywing – Erynnis propertius

The mergansers had moved to the near bank.

Hood behind some clouds.

Ground squirrel

Mourning cloak

Lizard

View from the Fisher Hill Bridge in the afternoon.

Arriving back at the Lyle Trailhead.

Some backtracking and detours brought our hike to a little over 12.5 miles here giving us close to 14 miles on the day with only a couple of hundred feet of elevation gain.

Rattlesnakes and ticks are present in the area but we encountered neither on this day. It was a nice break from the projects at home and a good way to end our off-season. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Blafour-Klickitat and Lower Klickitat Trails

Tags Balfour-Klickitat Trail, Balfour-Klickitat Trailhead, Dillacort Canyon, Fisher Hill Bridge, hiking, Klickitat Rail Trail, klickitat river, Lower Klickitat Trail, Lyle Trailhead, Lyle Washington, Silvas Creek, Washington, wildflowers

Hiking Trapper Creek Washington Washington Cascades

Soda Peaks Lake – 09/06/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 9, 2021
No Comments on Soda Peaks Lake – 09/06/2021

For Labor Day we headed back up to Washington where we’d been able to mostly avoid smoke from the numerous wildfires in the West. We’d spent the day before in the Indian Heaven Wilderness (post) and today we were returning to the Trapper Creek Wilderness for the first time since 2013 (post). The wilderness areas are just eight miles apart, separated by the Wind River Highway (and Wind River).

Our planned hike for the day was inspired by a featured hike in Sullivan’s 5th edition of his “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington” book. While Sullivan describes two options for hike #34, Trapper Creek, both were a bit short for us after the 2 hour drive to reach the closest trailhead. His first option is a 3.8 mile out and back to what he calls the “Grove of Giants”, a stand of old growth cedar trees starting at the Trapper Creek Trailhead. His second option (beginning at a different trailhead) is a 5 mile out and back to visit Soda Peaks Lake. Our plan was to park at the Trapper Creek Trailhead and do an out and back hike passing the Grove of Giants, then continuing on the Soda Peaks Lake Trail to Soda Peaks Lake and beyond to a viewpoint on the rim above the lake.

The Trapper Creek Trail started out nearly level which made for a nice warm up before climbing.

Not far from the trailhead the unsigned Dry Creek Trail joined from the right.

Warning sign for burned trees due to the 2020 Big Hollow Fire (there’s that four letter “F” word again). The wilderness had been closed most of the year due to that fire (and some bad winter storms) and was only reopened in August.

The trail climbed gradually along a hillside above Trapper Creek for three quarters of a mile to a 4-way junction with the Observation Trail which we had been on in 2013.

The Observation Trail.

We stayed straight on the Trapper Creek Trail here.

For the next three quarters of a mile the trail gradually descended to a unnamed creek crossing.

On the far side of the creek we turned left onto the Soda Peaks Lake Trail.

We followed the creek downhill ignoring a side trail joining from the left and came to a footbridge over Trapper Creek.

Sign at the jct with the side trail joining from some private cabins.

The trail then passed through a stand of alder before turning left and reaching the Grove of Giants just under half a mile from the Trapper Creek Trail.

One of the big trees was down.

At the grove the trail made a sharp right turn and began an arduous three mile climb gaining over 2300′ of elevation.

Lousewort was just about the only flowers left blooming along the trail.

Grey jay

Observation Peak from the trail.

Huckleberry leaves

Woodpecker

There were three short stretches in saddles where the trail briefly leveled out giving us a respite from the climb.

Fungus amid some bark.

Big rock outcrop along the trail.

Mountain ash changing into its Fall colors.

Mt. Hood from the trail.

Mt. Hood

Red bunchberries and a blue berry from a queen’s cup.

Mt. St. Helens from the trail.

Mt. St. Helens

The only real obstacle came about a quarter of a mile from the lake where a large tree trunk blocked the trail. It was too wide to step over and at too steep an angle to climb over.

The only option was to climb steeply uphill to pass around the top of it.

Mt. Adams from the trail.

Almost to the lake which was busy with folks that most likely took the shorter route in.

Day use area at Soda Peaks Lake.

I don’t think we’d seen anyone all morning on the trails so the barking dogs and yelling people (maybe they were just talking loud but I wasn’t used to hearing voices) were enough encouragement to move on after a short break. The rim viewpoint that we planned to make our turnaround point was another 1.1 miles and 600′ of climbing away. The trail immediately climbed away from the lake from the day use area.

It then curved around the north side of the lake passing through several rock fields where we heard a few pikas but were not able to spot any.

Not a pika, but it was a cute chipmunk.

After some gradual climbing the trail got serious and switchbacked steeply to the rim where it turned right following it for 0.2 miles to the viewpoint.

Mt. Rainier

The Goat Rocks with a smoke plume rising behind them to the north.

Mt. Adams with Soda Peaks Lake in the trees below. The row of peaks in between Mt. Adams and the lake is the Indian Heaven Wilderness.

The Red Mountain lookout where we’d been the day before.

There were more people coming down the trail headed for the lake. After a moment admiring the view and catching our breath we also headed back down. We stopped again briefly at the lake then said our goodbyes.

It was a long descent and our knees were happier once we were back on the Trapper Creek Trail. Heather also suffered a yellow jacket sting on her calf on the way down which wasn’t a nice surprise.

Mt. Hood and some vine maples.

This stellar’s jay almost hit Heather in the head.

Back on level ground.

The hike wound up being 12.5 miles with 3800′ of elevation gain. It was in the 80’s when we arrived back at the trailhead and the heat just made the hike a little harder. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable day in the Trapper Creek Wilderness. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Soda Peaks Lake

Tags Grove of the Giants, hiking, Soda Peaks Lake, Soda Peaks Lake Trail, Stellars Jay, Trapper Creek, Trapper Creek Trail, trapper creek wilderness, Washington

Hiking Indian Heaven Trip report Washington Washington Cascades

Indian Racetrack via Falls Creek – 09/05/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 8, 2021
1 Comment on Indian Racetrack via Falls Creek – 09/05/2021

The horrible wildfire season finally thwarted one of our planned trips when California announced that all National Forests would be closed over Labor Day Weekend (and at least through September 17th). This was at least the third year in a row we had a backpacking trip in the Siskiyou Wilderness planned but either fire or weather has kept those plans from happening each time. Much like last September many of the areas that aren’t on fire are suffering from unhealthy air quality due to the smoke so our options were limited. (How I miss the days of rain being the driving factor on where we were going to hike.) One of the areas that has been less impacted by the smoke has been SW Washington and so we turned to that area once again for a pair of hikes over the holiday weekend. We skipped Saturday as smoke was an issue pretty much everywhere save for the Coast and Coast Range and waited for the next system to push the smoke east (sorry Central Oregon).

For our hike on Sunday we turned to Matt Reeder’s “Off the Beaten Trail” 2nd edition. In his Indian Racetrack and Red Mountain description (hike #15) Reeder describes an alternate loop using the unmaintained Basin Lakes Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail as an alternate to the 7.4 mile out and back that he suggests. We’d been to Indian Racetrack and Red Mountain as part of a diffent loop (post) so this other loop sounded more interesting than the out and back. We figured if the old Basin Lakes Trail was too hard to follow we could simply turn back and still do the out and back as described since it was only 2 miles to the basin then an additional mile up to the Pacific Crest Trail. We started our hike at the Falls Creek Horse Camp. The Falls Creek Trail heads southwest from the horse camp descending to Falls Creek Falls.

The trail we wanted, the Indian Racetrack Trail, began on the opposite side of Forest Road 65.
There were no signs for the obvious trail.

Once we were on the trail we ignored an unsigned side trail on the right which presumably led down to Falls Creek.

Approximately 0.2 miles from FR 65 a second trail joined from the left at a wilderness signboard.

Approximately 120 yards beyond the signboard we arrived at an unsigned fork.

The Indian Racetrack Trail continued to the right while the abandoned Basin Lake Trail veered left. While the Forest Service no longer maintains the trail (or even lists it on their website) the tread was obvious and based on the number of road apples on the ground it is used fairly regularly by equestrians.

Entering the Indian Heaven Wilderness

A half a mile up this trail we came to a small meadow where a couple of hikers were camped.

They warned us that where were quite a few trees down the closer you got to the Basin Lakes but that didn’t dissuade us and we continued on. The trees weren’t much of an issue and in most cases clear paths simply went around them.

We crossed a branch of Falls Creek just under a mile along the trail.

The tread continued to be fairly easy to follow for another half mile and then it vanished, at least from our sight, near a gully.

After a few minutes of hunting for it (which included crossing and recrossing the gully) we decided to simply follow the tallest ridge in the direction of the lakes using our GPS and Reeder’s map. A quarter mile later we were looking down at Peggy Lake on our left.

We stayed on the ridge above Peggy Lake and turned on the far end made a hard right toward Janet Lake.
Typical vegetation and trees on the ridge.

We rediscovered tread as we dropped to a saddle near Janet Lake.

Sign at the saddle between Peggy and Janet Lakes.

We did walk down to the bank of Janet Lake to admire its reflection.

From Janet Lake it was another 0.1 miles to an unnamed (at least officially) Basin Lake, sometimes on tread and sometimes not.

Sleepy ducks

I believe Oregon Hikers calls this one “Cindy Lake”.

We passed another lake on our left a quarter mile later.

That was followed by what appeared to be a mostly dry lake bed on the right, now filled with green grass.

We were now at the eastern end of the basin facing a steep climb up to the Pacific Crest Trail. We needed to gain almost 500′ to reach that trail and at the moment we weren’t sure if there was any tread to follow up.

We scanned the hillside but couldn’t pick anything out so we put our route finding hats on and identified a small saddle where it looked like a trail would go and headed for it. As we approached we stumbled on tread.

The small saddle we’d been aiming for.

From there we were able to follow a faint path up and out of the basin.

Heather down to the right between a couple of trees.

20210905_090147 Me getting close to the top.

The top of the ridge.

The Pacific Crest Trail runs right along the ridge (despite where it’s shown on Google Maps) and passes over the top of Berry Mountain to the south. After catching our breath we turned right and headed toward Berry Mountain and yet more climbing.

Fortunately it was the PCT so the climb was relatively gradual as it switchbacked up 170′ in 0.4 miles.

Mt. Adams in some clouds.

Mt. St. Helens behind a line of clouds.

Gifford Peak (post) behind us.

Chipmunk

At a switchback a bit below the summit we were treated to a spectacular view of Mt. Hood.

Mt. Jefferson was also visible to the right of Mt. Hood. Unfortunately so was the smoke being produced by the Bull Complex Fire which destroyed the historic Bull of the Woods Lookout (post) on Labor Day 😦 .

"IMG_4572 Autumn is on the way, bring on the rain please.

The PCT stuck to the long summit which would have also provided good views of Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens on a clearer day.
Mt. Adams

Looking toward Mt. St. Helens

The peaks in the Trapper Creek Wilderness (post) to the west.

We finally began to descend from Berry Mountain and after 3 miles on the PCT arrived at a signed junction for the Indian Racetrack Shortcut Trail.
Cliffs on Berry Mountain

Mt. Hood as we headed downhill.

Red Mountain and its lookout tower.

This beargrass is way off schedule.

On our previous hike we’d arrived at this junction from the other direction so when we turned right we one a somewhat familiar trail. After a brief stint in the forest the trail entered larger and larger meadows.

After a half mile we arrived at the Indian Racetrack Trail arriving on our right.

This would be the route back to our car but first we wanted to revisit the lookout on Red Mountain so we continued straight for approximately 50 yards and turned left at a pointer for the Indian Racetrack Trail.

We followed the trail 0.8 miles to a road and then followed the road another quarter mile to the lookout gaining a total of 700′ along the way.

Mt. Adams from a viewpoint along the way.

We passed two sets of hikers on their way down, the second of which mentioned having accidentally driven to the lookout. Apparently someone had vandalized the gate which allowed vehicles to drive up the road. Hopefully the Forest Service can get that remedied quickly as Google still shows the Indian Racetrack Trailhead on Red Mountain.

Not sure if someone forced the door open too or not.

View of Mt. Adams beyond Indian Heaven.

Photo taken from the doorway, it looked like nothing had been vandalized.

Mt. St. Helens still hiding behind that line of clouds.

We took a long enough break at the summit to get to a brief glimpse of Mt. St. Helens summit.

Mt. Adams with a few clouds passing by.

Mt. Hood with smoke from the Bull Complex behind.

We headed back down the Indian Racetrack Trail to Indian Racetrack and then continued on it past Race Track Lake. We passed quite a few hikers on our way down and saw more at Indian Racetrack.
Indian Heaven Wilderness sign on Red Mountain with Mt. Adams in the background.

Race Track Lake on the left.

It was 2.3 miles total from the junction back to the Falls Creek Horse Camp. We continued to see more and more hikers and were once again glad we’d gotten an early start allowing us to have the lookout to ourselves.
Hardhack

Footbridge over Falls Creek.

Falls Creek

Butterfly near Falls Creek.

Sign at the final trail junction near FR 65.

Reeder called this a 12 mile loop but our GPS came in at 11.2 miles which was a nice surprise. Total elevation gained was approximately 2850′. For this loop route finding, map, and navigation skills are highly recommended, otherwise the out and back option still provides a nice hike. Happy Trails!

Orange represents the old Basin Lakes Trail which is not shown on most maps.

Flickr: Indian Racetrack via Falls Creek

Tags Basin Lakes, Basin Lakes Trail, Berry Mountain, falls creek, Falls Creek Horse Camp, hiking, Indian Heaven Wildernss, Indian Racetrack, Indian Racetrack Trail, Janet Lake, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Peggy Lake, Red Mountain, Red Mountain Lookout, Washington