Category: Trip report

Fields Peak – 07/23/2021

Our time in John Day had come to an end and it was time to start our journey back to Salem. We were planning on visiting Heather’s parents in Bend for the night but of course we had a hike planned on the way. The hike to Fields Peak and McClellan Mountain in the Aldrich Mountains was another hike that was previously featured in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Easter Oregon” but had been moved to the back of the book in his most recent 3rd edition. We began the hike at the McClellan Mountain Trailhead after a rough final 1.2 miles of driving (high clearance vehicles recommended). The bright spot of the drive was spotting a bobcat in the road.

While the route to Fields Peak is open to OHVs the McClellan Mountain Trail, which splits off to the east after 1.5 miles is not.

The trail/OHV track begins through a barbed wire fence and heads steeply uphill, at times, 0.7 miles to a saddle.

A lone interpretive sign near the beginning of the trail.

The saddle

Sullivan mentioned that bitterroot bloomed on the ridge to the right but it was too late in the year to see any of them but I wandered out along the ridge a short distance anyway having reached the saddle ahead of Heather.

Fields Peak from the saddle.

Heather arriving at the saddle.

We had gained a little over 700′ in the first section and now the trail would gain nearly another 600′ in the 0.8 miles to the trail junction.
A rare level section.

Scarlet gilia in the middle of the OHV track.

Nearing the trail junction.

The McClellan Mountain Trail to the right.

We ignored the McClellan Mountain Trail for now and climbed another 0.8 miles gaining 700 plus more feet to the 7362′ summit of Fields Peak. The meadows along the track were way past bloom but it was evident that earlier in the year there would have been quite the wildflower display.
A peak east to McClellan Mountain and the more distant Strawberry Mountain (post).

We saw a number of these moths sleeping on the hyssop.

Hyssop and sunflowers

Paintbrush

Looking up Fields Peak.

Mountain coyote mint

Shadow of Fields Peak

Buckwheat

A few trees near the top.

Final steep pitch to the summit.

View west, Aldrich Mountain is the high point to the near right.

It was another nice morning with relatively clear skies given the fires that were (and still are) raging in Oregon.
View north

McClellan Mountain and the Strawberry Mountain Range to the east.

Logan Valley to the SE.

The view south.

We had a nice break and then headed back down. On the way several grouse startled us when they flew out of the trees as a group of raucous Clark’s nutcracker watched from the tree tops.

20210723_075245 More moths

When we reached the junction with the McClellan Mountain Trail we turned left.

Aside from being a little crowded with brush the trail was in relatively good condition with just a couple of downed trees that were easily navigated.

Over the next 2.2 miles the trail slowly lost elevation as it alternated between south and north facing hillsides via four saddles, the first of which we arrived at after 0.5 miles.
Hillside above the trail.

Sagebrush mariposa lily

Approaching the saddle where we would cross the the north side of the hill ahead.

The first saddle with Moon Mountain behind.

Looking back along the trail.

Looking back from the saddle.

The north side had a few more trees.

Looking back toward Fields Peak

We passed through a rocky section near the second saddle.

In another half mile we found ourselves passing through the second saddle and back on the south side of the ridge.
McClellan Mountain from the second saddle.

Yet another half mile of trail brought us to the third saddle. Sullivan calls this phlox saddle and there was indeed a lot of phlox present it but had been a long time since it bloomed and all of the plants were now brown and dried.
Approaching the third saddle.

The trail was again on the north facing side as it passed over a ridge leading out to Moon Mountain.
Moon Mountain

Fields Peak (center).

McClellan Mountain as we approached the fourth saddle.

As the trail descended to the fourth saddle it disappeared in the sagebrush meadow.

The good news was this fourth saddle was where the off trail route to the top of McClellan Mountain started so we simply made our way through the sagebrush to the gentlest looking slope and started up the mountain. Sullivan showed it being 1.2 miles and just under 700′ up to the 7043′ summit.
Looking back you can sort of make out the trail angling down the near hillside.

Looking up McClellan Mountain.

Earlier in the hike I had mentioned to Heather that the only real disappointment of the trip had been the lack of large wildlife (aside from the dozens of deer and lone bobcat we spotted on our drives). As we crested the first hill on our way up McClellan Mountain though we spotted a line of ungulates crossing the hillside far above us. They were far enough away that I couldn’t tell for sure if they were elk or deer but once again the zoom on our camera helped solve the mystery.
In the middle of the center hill to the left of the tree in the foreground is the line of what turned out to be 5 bull elk.

Blurry due to the elk moving and the deep zoom.

Four of the bulls stopped to look back at us.

The fifth and largest bull on top of the ridge waiting for the rest.

After watching the elk disappear over the hillside we continued on. As far as off trail hikes go this was nice and straight forward, not ever too steep, and the vegetation wasn’t too tall or thick.

An old fence line on the hill.

Fields Peak on the left, an unnamed peak in the center and Moon Mountain on the right.

False summit (there’s always at least one). After some debate we went to the left of the rock outcrop which worked out well.

Passing the rock outcrop.

Almost there.

The Greenhorn Mountains, Elkhorns, Dixie Butte and the Strawberry Mountains from left to right in the distance.

Looking back at Fields Peak

The John Day River Valley.

Logan Valley

Company at the summit.

We took another nice break at the summit before heading back the way we’d come. On the return trip we had an encounter with what we believe was our first ruffed grouse.
Passing back through Phlox Saddle.

A better look at the rocky section of trail.

Mountain coyote mint, one of only a couple with this coloration on the stems.

Butterfly and a beetle.

20210723_114437 Sagebrush mariposa lily

Ruffed grouse

A final look at McClellan Mountain.

For the second day in a row our hike came in at 12.3 miles, this time with approximately 3200′ of elevation gain.

In our five days of hiking in the area we passed a single hiker (with dogs), something that is unheard of even on weekdays on the western side of the State. We were a little concerned about ticks but we only saw two, Heather had one on her hand the first night on the Rock Creek Trail and she had a second on her tights at the end of the Canyon Mountain hike but neither had bitten her. It had been an enjoyable trip but it was time to head home. We drove to Bend and had a nice visit with Heather’s parents before leaving early the next morning for one final short hike. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Fields Peak

Tags Aldrich Mountains, Bull Elk, Fields Peak, hiking, John Day, Malheur National Forest, McClellan Mountain, McClellan Mountain Trail, Moon Mountain, Oregon, Ruffed Grouse, sagebrush mariposa lily

Blue Mountains - South Hiking Oregon Trip report

Monument Rock and Little Malheur River – 07/21/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 28, 2021
4 Comments on Monument Rock and Little Malheur River – 07/21/2021

We were finally down to our last Oregon Wilderness area to visit, the Monument Rock Wilderness (post). The 20,210 acre wilderness is located in the southern Blue Mountains a little over an hour east of John Day. We’d spent the night in John Day and woke to find that it had rained overnight but we hadn’t heard any thunder so we were optimistic that no new lighting caused fires would be springing up. We had two hikes in the wilderness planned for the day with the first being a hike to the wilderness’s namesake, Monument Rock.

Our starting point for the hike to Monument Rock was the Table Rock Trailhead. The final 3.8 miles to this trailhead require slow driving and a high clearance vehicle.

The trailhead is at this hairpin curve below Table Rock. The road continues another 0.8 miles to the staffed Table Rock Lookout but reportedly worsens which is hard to imagine is possible.

The trail quickly crossed the wilderness boundary on an old roadbed completing our goal of hiking in all of Oregon’s 46 wilderness areas open to human visitors.

First time seeing a wilderness sign quite like this.

There was quite a bit of smoke in the sky this morning even though we still weren’t really smelling it.

A red Sun behind the smoke, presumably mostly from the 400,000 plus acre Bootleg Fire east of Klamath Falls in south central Oregon.

We followed the old road bed through sagebrush and occasional stand of trees for a total of 1.7 miles to a post. There was a nice amount of red paintbrush blooming amid the sage and lots of interesting rock formations along the way.

Clark’s nutcracker

Monument Rock in the distance.

Paintbrush in the sagebrush.

Ground squirrel

There was a fair amount of this green paintbrush too.

We believe this post (not the 1.7 mile post) marked a side trail to Rock Spring but we didn’t see any tread in the area to know for sure.

Bullrun Rock dead ahead.

Table Rock in the distance.

The Table Rock Lookout.

Two kinds of paint.

Bullrun Rock below the Sun.

Monument Rock again.

Old man’s whiskers

A checkermallow

We passed this sign for the Amelia Trail along the way but again didn’t see any trace of tread for it.

Grazing cattle near the post.

The post with Monument Rock in the background.

We made a sharp left turn following an old jeep track uphill toward Bullrun Rock.

In a little under a half mile we were at the base of the rock near a fence.

I believe that is Ironside Mountain.

We then scramble up the side of Bullrun Rock to the 7873′ summit.

The jeep track and Monument Rock.

Table Rock

Looking down into the Monument Rock Wilderness

After enjoying the view we climbed down and returned to the post which we then continued past through an old fence and onward toward Monument Rock.

Woodpecker

Mountain bluebird

The old road bed wasn’t much more than a cattle trail now but we followed it for approximately 0.2 miles to what was shown on our GPS units as a sharp turn to the right. Sullivan indicated that there was a small cairn in this area marking the start of the route to Monument Rock. We didn’t notice any cairns but comparing the map on our GPS to the one in his guidebook led us to believe this was the correct spot so we followed an elk/cow path to the left but it was leading us too much to the east so we struck off cross country toward the flank of Monument Rock.

Looking back toward Bullrun Rock.

The initial climb up was a little steeper than we’d expected which led us to believe we may have not been quite where Sullivan would have had us go up, but we managed to make it up to a broad ridge where we then headed uphill through sagebrush.
Table Rock from where we gained the ridge.

Heading up.

Soon the large rock cairn atop Monument Rock was visible (the cairn was likely constructed by Basque shepherds or possibly gold miners long ago).

We made our way over to the andesite outcrop and climbed up to the cairn and took a break.
20210721_085946 Me making my way up to the cairn.

Bullrun Rock from the cairn.

Table Rock from the cairn.

The Monument Rock Wilderness.

The haze had cleared up somewhat by this point giving us blue sky at least overhead as we began our hike back.
The cairn on Monument Rock from below.

We decided to try a slightly different route back down hoping that we could follow the ridge further down and pick up what was showing on our GPS units as a trail below following South Bullrun Creek. Sullivan’s map showed the first part of the trail from the turn where we’d left the road bed extending 0.3 miles to a spring but the Garmins showed the trail then continuing south. Our thought was that if a trail had at one time been down there it was likely built on a less steep grade than the side we’d scrambled up.
Heading downhill.

20210721_092712 Heather spotted this sheep moth.

When we came to what appeared to be an old jeep track or path of some sort we turned right (north) and followed it down a short but still steep hill.

The path leading downhill.

The trail that was shown on the GPS dropped over 150′ from where we were, presumably down to the spring, but that was about 120′ more than we needed to lose so when the hillside leveled out a bit we made a hard right turn and made our way back to the track we’d taken earlier. We arrived below the point where we’d scrambled up and then headed back to the old road bed. Once we rediscovered the road we followed it back past the post and to the trailhead.
20210721_095222 Table Rock in the distance with Bullrun Rock on the right.

Robin

Quite a bit of a difference from the morning.

The hike here came in at an even 7 miles with just under 900′ of elevation gain.

We had a little left in our legs after the Monument Rock hike so after navigating the rough 3.8 miles back to the Elk Flat Springs Campground we continued another 3/4 of a mile on Forest Road 1370 to the North Little Malheur Trailhead. The Little Malheur River had been one of Sullivan’s featured hikes in previous editions of his Eastern Oregon book but repeated fires and lack of maintenance have relegated it to a back of the book entry. We had decided to check it out to see what the trail condition was and to hopefully make it to the Little Malheur River which was approximately 2.2 miles from the trailhead.

We were encouraged to find signs at the trailhead showing that the Blues Crew had done some work on the trail.

We were less excited that a cow crew was currently present.

In true cow fashion instead of just letting us pass by above them on the trail they ran uphill onto the trail and the for the next couple of miles we occasionally caught up to them and they would run off along the trail again kicking up dust and leaving cow pie mines along the path but I digress. Getting back to the hike, the trail was faint but flagging and a few rock cairns assisted in keeping it found (along with the cows).

Yarrow and an orange agoseris.

Wilderness sign marking the boundary of the Monument Rock Wilderness.

Table Rock from the trail.

Elk Flat Creek.

An orange flag to the right ahead.

The trail following Elk Flat Creek.

A few areas of green trees remained.

We were entertained by a large number of hawks in the area.

Unnamed stream shortly before reaching the Little Malheur River.

Monkshood along the stream.

It appeared that quite a few trees survived along the Little Malheur.

The trail crossing the Little Malheur River. We were especially excited to see a lot of nice pink monkeyflower along the banks.

We reached the river which wasn’t much more than a creek here, but it was a pretty setting. Wildflowers and green vegetation hosted a number of butterflies.

20210721_122441

Pearly everlasting

After a nice relaxing break along the river we returned the way we’d come. In theory the trail extends another 5 miles to the south trailhead crossing the river 7 times along the way but we had gone far enough for today. It was nice not to be following the cattle on the way back.
Ground squirrel

Either a big ground squirrel or a small marmot.

Another hawk.

Fluffy clouds forming over the Monument Rock Wilderness.

Our hike here, which included just a bit of wandering, came in at 4.8 miles giving us 11.8 for the day.

It had been a good ending to our quest to visit all of Oregon’s designated wilderness areas and we celebrated with an early dinner at 1188 Brewing in John day before turning in early so that we could get up in the morning and head into the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Monument Rock and Little Malheur River

Tags Bullrun Rock, Elk Flat Creek, Elk Flat Springs Campground, hiking, Little Malheur River, Little Malheur River Trail, Monument Rock, Monument Rock Wilderness, Oregon, Oregon wilderness areas, table rock, Table Rock Lookout

Central Oregon Hiking Ochoco Mountains Oregon Trip report

Rock Creek to Spanish Peak – 07/20/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 27, 2021
1 Comment on Rock Creek to Spanish Peak – 07/20/2021

After spending the night camped near First Creek along the Rock Creek/Ochoco Mountain Trail we got an early (6:30am) start to hopefully climb up the 2000 plus feet to the summit of Spanish Peak before the day got too hot. According to Sullivan’s map (which matched the Forest Service’s map) it was 5.3 miles to the summit.

Just 0.2 miles from where we had made our makeshift campsite we came to an established campsite in a saddle near where the Ochoco Mountain Trail supposedly turned uphill to start the climb.
Continuing along the Waterman Ditch.

If this trail sign was marking a junction it wasn’t clear where the other trail was.

Campsite at the saddle.

There was no clear tread other than the continuation of the Rock Creek Trail to the north where it ends at the National Forest Boundary in another mile. There was however a sign for the “Rim Trail” on a tree uphill from the trail.
The Rim Trail sign on a tree trunk.

We headed uphill to the sign and picked up what appeared to be a rough trail but it also looked like it could have been an elk trail.

We tried our best to follow it uphill but there were no blazes, flagging, or cut logs to indicate that it really was an actual trail and in less than a half mile we lost it in brush.

The hike had suddenly become an off-trail adventure. Between the Sullivan’s and the Forest Service map we knew the general route that the trail supposedly took so we did our best to recreate it at first. That meant a series of switchbacks up a steep hillside through a sagebrush meadow above First Creek.

The trail then supposedly wrapped around the ridge between First and Second Creeks arriving at a rock cairn along a rim 2.5 miles from the saddle. We thought that we might rediscover the tread as we switchbacked up, but we did not. As we compared the maps with our GPS we noticed that we weren’t that far below the top of the ridge and that it might be possible to simply climb over the ridge taking a more direct route to the rim cairn. We decided that was our safest bet as we weren’t sure if we would find the trail wrapping around the ridge and even if we did a large downed tree in the wrong spot could make it impassable. We followed game trails through a small stand of trees into more sagebrush on top of the ridge.

Rock Creek Lake

Gaining the ridge.

We found the trail again on top of the ridge and were soon following rock cairns to the rim.

View from the rim.

Spanish Peak

A local

The trail was easy to follow along the rim but soon it came into some trees (and past a few wildflowers) where it appeared maintenance hadn’t been performed for a bit.
Astter

Some sort of delphinium I think.

Downed trees across the trail ahead.

Interestingly camouflaged beetle on the upper onion.

Lupine

20210720_084339 A checkermallow

Some more downed trees that we had to go around.

We briefly left the trees and were back to cairns in the sagebrush but soon reentered the trees and encountered more obstacles.

After passing through a couple of meadows we came to a rocky hillside below Spanish Peak where we left the trail and headed uphill following a few scattered cairns along what was shown on the GPS as the “Mascall Jeep Track”.

We left the trail here, note the small cairn on the left.

Heading uphill.

Scarlet gilia

Paintbrush

After a third of a mile we came to Spanish Peak Road, a dirt track to the radio tower and former lookout site atop Spanish Peak.
//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

We turned left on the road and followed it another 0.3 miles up to the summit.

The site of the former lookout.

The view was impacted by the “widespread haze” that had been forecasted but we could still make out quite a bit (and at least it didn’t smell smokey).
Looking out toward the John Day River valley.

SE to Windy Point.

West to Rock Creek Lake and on the horizon the flat topped Lookout Mountain (post) and pointier Round Mountain (post) in the Ochocos.

NE to the John Day River Valley.

Lookout and Round Mountain and the rim that we had hiked up below Spanish Peak.

The Pisgah Lookout on the far side of the Bridge Creek Wilderness (post).

A hazy Mount Hood to the NW.

After taking a break at the summit we returned down the road to the jeep track and followed it back down to the Ochoco Mountain Trail where we turned left into some trees.

We passed through a meadow filled with fritiallry butterflies who were loving the remaining hyssop blossoms.

After 0.3 miles back on the Ochoco Mountain Trail we came to a signed junction with the Mascall Corral Trail.

Here we made a hard right and headed steeply downhill along the Baldy Creek drainage.

This trail was in a little better shape having seen some maintenance.

Baldy Creek was on our left.

The trail soon followed old roadbeds, including another section of the Mascall Jeep Track and just under three miles from the junction arrived at the Mascall Corrals Trailhead

Red-tailed hawk

Western tanager

Arriving at the trailhead.

Signage at the trailhead.

From this trailhead we turned right and followed Forest Road 3820 one and a quarter miles (some of which was disappointingly uphill) to Arvid Nelson Road where we turned right for another 0.8 miles to the Rock Creek Trailhead and our waiting car.
Baldy Creek below FR 3820.

A sulphur butterfly of some sort.

A watermellon or June bug as we called them growing up.

FR 3820 meeting Arvid Nelson Road.

Spanish Peak from Arvid Nelson Road.

This was an 11.5 mile hike with almost 2500′ of elevation gain. The off-trail scramble above First Creek had made the hike a lot more difficult than planned, made more so by having our full backpacks instead of a lighter day pack, but it had been fun (mostly) and despite the haze we had decent views on the day.

From the Rock Creek Trailhead we drove to Highway 26 then headed east to John Day where we checked into the Dreamers Lodge then had a nice dinner at the Outpost Pizza Pub & Grill before turning in for the night. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Spanish Peak

Tags Arvid Nelso Road, backpacking, Baldy Creek, hiking, John Day, lookout mountain, Mascall Corrals Trailhead, Mascall Jeep Track, Ochoco Mountain Trail, Ochoco Mountains, Oregon, Outpost Pizza Pub & Grill, Rock Creek, Round Mountain, Spanish Peak, Western Tanager

Central Oregon Hiking Ochoco Mountains Oregon Trip report

Black Canyon Wilderness and Rock Creek – 07/19/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 26, 2021
2 Comments on Black Canyon Wilderness and Rock Creek – 07/19/2021

**Note the 2024 Rail Ridge Fire burned over the Black Canyon Wilderness.**

Every year we pick our vacation time in January/February (due to work) so we never know what the conditions will be when we choose. We had a week scheduled in July for a trip to the John Day area in hopes to make further headway on the 100 featured hikes in Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” (post) and to complete our goal of visiting all of Oregon’s designated wilderness areas (minus the two that are closed to human visitors) (post).

With severe drought conditions present all of the West and multiple wildfires burning in Oregon we kept an eye on the forecast and made daily checks with the relevant National Forests to make sure the hikes that we had planned remained open. While all of the trails were open a red flag warning for possible scattered thunderstorms Monday and Tuesday for the Blue Mountains had us a little concerned. The forecast also called for “wide spread haze” every day but fortunately not for “smoke” which meant we’d probably not have much in the way of views on the trip. We could deal with the haze, it was the possibility of new lightning caused fires that could quickly end our trip and our two days of hiking (Monday & Tuesday) involved our first overnight backpacking trip of the year.

Monday we left Salem and drove to the Boeing Field Trailhead, the first of two stops in the eastern portion of the Ochoco Mountains.

This trailhead, named in honor of a B-18 bomber that crashed nearby during a WWII training flight killing all four crew members, provides access to the Black Canyon Wilderness via the Owl Creek Trail.

We headed down the Owl Creek Trail and quickly entered our 45th Oregon wilderness area.

We descended to the nearly dry bed of Owl Creek in the scar of a 2008 wildfire and in a half mile reached the Black Canyon Trail.

Aster, paintbrush, and fireweed.

Fireweed, aster, and pearly everlasting.

Clouds and smoke mixing in the sky made it hard to tell if any thunderstorms might be developing.

We never heard any thunder but we did briefly get sprinkled on.

Ground squirrel.

Columbine

Fritillary butterfly

Black Canyon Trail junction.

We turned left onto the Black Canyon Trail and followed it down into Black Canyon along Owl Creek soon leaving the fire scar behind.

Owl Creek crossing approximately 1.5 miles from the junction.

In another half mile we arrived at Black Canyon Creek which we easily crossed on small logs.

Fish in Black Canyon Creek

We were seeing a lot of mountain lady slipper orchids but unfortunately they were all past.

Three quarters of a mile after crossing Black Canyon Creek we passed the Coffee Pot Trail and soon entered another fire scar, this one from 2002.

Western Tanager

Just under 4 miles into the hike we came to the second crossing of Black Canyon Creek and our turnaround point for the day.

California tortioseshell

Western Jacob's ladder Western Jacob’s ladder

Black Canyon Creek

After a short break on a log spanning the creek we headed back to the car stopping occasionally along the way to watch pollinators busy at work.

This was an eight mile out and back with almost 1600′ of elevation gain, mostly on the way back.

From Boeing Field we drove back the way we’d come 4.3 miles to the Rock Creek Trailhead.

Here we threw on our full backpacks as our plan was to camp somewhere along Rock Creek and then return on a loop the next day by hiking up to Spanish Peak the next day following the route of the Ochoco Mountain Trail and Mascall Corral Trail.

From the trailhead the trail descended to Rock Creek crossing it on a nice footbridge.

The number of insects on the blossoms and their size differences were fascinating.

The trail then followed along Rock Creek for a bit before the creek began descending more steeply than the trail. At the 2.4 mile mark we arrived at a sign announcing the Waterman Ditch.

Snacks

Lorquin’s adrmiral

A little light on the tread in this section.

The trail then followed the old ditch passing the remains of a cabin next to Fir Tree Creek in 1.4 miles.

Fir Tree Creek

Butterflies on coneflower

The cabin ruins.

We continued on heading for Second Creek which was just over 1.5 miles beyond Fir Tree Creek where we hoped we might find a spot to camp or at least refill our water supply.

Coming around a ridge end toward Second Creek.

Monkshood at Second Creek

This little guy oversaw our water pumping.

There wasn’t a lot of water in Second Creek and the crossing where the most obvious spot to get water was had a whole lot of yellow jackets flying around. We had to do a little hunting up and down the creek in thick vegetation to find a pool deep enough for our pump but finally managed to. What we couldn’t find was a place for our tent or a spot to cook dinner away from the yellow jackets and mosquitos so after getting water we reluctantly continued hiking. After nearly 1.5 more miles we arrived at First Creek where there was almost no water but there was a suitable spot for a tent.

It had been a long day with this hike coming in a little over 7 miles making it a 15+ mile day for us.

It was also a warm evening and we had the rainfly on due to the slight chance of rain which made it even warmer. It did finally cool off enough overnight to warrant pulling our sleeping bag/quilt over us and we managed to get some sleep. I woke up once when something fairly big cracked it’s way through the trees below our camp and a couple more times when a pair of nearby owls were trading hoots. It was a more difficult start to our trip then we had anticipated but a good day none the less. Happy Trails!

Tags backpacking, Black Canyon Creek, Black Canyon Trail, Black Canyon Wilderness, Boeing Field, Boeing Field Trailhead, hiking, Ochoco Mountain Trail, Ochoco Mountains, ochoco national forest, Oregon, Owl Creek Trail, Rock Creek, Rock Creek Trail, Waterman Ditch

High Cascades Hiking Oregon Three Sisters Area Trip report

Rainbow Falls and Substitute Point – 07/04/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 8, 2021
1 Comment on Rainbow Falls and Substitute Point – 07/04/2021

For the Fourth of July we typically pick a hike in the Old Cascades but this year we aimed higher and headed for the Three Sisters Wilderness in the High Cascades. We had two stops planned, a short hike on the Rainbow Falls Trail to the viewpoint of distant Rainbow Falls and a longer hike on the Foley Ridge Trail to Substitute Point. We stopped first at the Rainbow Falls Trailhead since it is right off Foley Ridge Road (FR 2643) on the way to the Foley Ridge Trailhead. Neither of these trailheads currently require a Central Cascades Wilderness Permit for day hikes (you are required to fill out a free self-issued permit at each TH though).

The first half mile of the trail follows an old road bed to a former trailhead.

We continued along the trail entering the Three Sisters Wilderness before turning along the edge of the steep hillside high above Separation Creek (post)

One of two phantom orchids we saw along the trail.

Newish looking wilderness sign.

Maples overhanging the trail.

Madrone trunks

A little under 1.5 miles from the TH we arrived at a rock fin where a short scramble led to a view of distant Rainbow Falls. It was just after 8am which wasn’t an ideal time due to the falls being to the east with the Sun directly behind and still low in the sky.
It’s a pretty narrow scramble so probably not for kids or those uncomfortable with heights.

A lone madrone at the end of the fin.

Looking toward the falls. (The North Sister is back there too but not visible due to the lighting.)

Rainbow Falls on Rainbow Creek

The best I could do with the lighting.

Looking up Separation Creek.

Looking back up along the rocks.

A use trail continued toward the falls, but as far as I know it’s not possible to reach them or to get a better view so we returned the way we’d come. From the Rainbow Falls Trailhead we then drove another 5 miles up FR 2643 to its end at the Foley Ridge Trailhead.

The 8 mile long Foley Ridge Trail begins at the trailhead and leads into the Three Sisters Wilderness were it eventually ends at the Pacific Crest Trail. We had been on the upper end of the trail twice, once on a backpacking trip around the South Sister (post) and the other another backpacking trip where we explored some of the areas waterfalls (post). Today’s plan was to hike the first 4.5 or so miles of the trail to the Substitute Point Trail and then follow that 0.7 mile trail to a former lookout site atop Substitute Point. We were looking forward to the view atop the point but also interested to see what the area looked like after being hit hard by wildfires in 2017.

The first mile and half of the trail was unaffected by the fire and hosted a few blooming rhododendron and other woodland flowers.

Pink pyrola

Crossing of Gold Creek which was nearly dry but it hosted a fair number of mosquitos.

Columbine, bunchberry, and wild roses.

An anemone with some bunchberries

Entering the Three Sisters Wilderness

Queen’s cup

Beargrass

20210704_091724 Candy sticks

Rhododendron

Pacific coralroot

We soon found ourselves in the fire scar which at least lessened the number of mosquitos greatly.

The 2017 Separation Fire was started by lighting in August along with dozens of others. The fire became part of the Horse Creek Complex which burned something in the neighborhood of 30,000 acres. It was the same year as the Eagle Creek and Whitewater fires making 2017 a really bad year for great hiking areas. Nearly four years later signs of the slow recovery could be seen in the form of wildflowers and small trees.
Washington lily

Lupine

Squirrel

Tiger lily

The trail briefly entered an area of older trees that had fared a little better during the fire.

Twinflower

Leaving the green trees behind.

The trail climbed gently which allowed us to fully appreciate the wildlife and wildflowers, in particular some really impressive Washington lilies.
Washington lilies

They smell as good as they look too!

This one was a monster.

20210704_134302_HDR Chest high

Crab spider on the lower left petal.

Penstemon

Earlier in the week I had been reading that the blossoms turn pink after being pollinated.

Clodius parnassian

Pretty moth

Penstemon

Woodpecker

Pond along the trail.

Water lilies

The trail began to level off as it passed between Proxy Point on the left and Substitute Point on the right. With the trees being burnt we had a good view of the rocky Proxy Point but the angle of the hillside below Substitute Point kept it hidden. Also visible was The Husband further ahead to the East.
Looking toward Proxy Point

The Husband, South Sister, and the shoulder of Substitute Point.

Frog along the trail.

The trail curved around the base of Substitute Point where we got a view of Three Fingered Jack and Mt. Jefferson.
Proxy Point, Scott Mountain (post), Three Fingered Jack and Mt. Jefferson

Bleeding heart

We came to the junction with the Substitute Point on its NE side.
The Husband from the junction.

The Substitute Point Trail didn’t appear to have been maintained, possibly since the fire, but it was easy enough to follow as it headed uphill.

This was sort of a mean trick, the trail entered these green trees then almost immediately switched back into the burn.

Phlox

The climb wasn’t particularly steep until the end as it approached the rocky spire where a lookout once sat. As we approached it was hard to believe there was a trail to the top.

There was in fact a nice trail that wound up the west side, although a single downed tree did require a hands and knees crawl along the way.

Mt. Bachelor from the trail.

Proxy Point

Some unburned forest and a view of Diamond Peak.

Diamond Peak (post)

The Little Brother and North & Middle Sister behind The Husband with South Sister to the right.

The trail leading up.

The view at the top was at the same time spectacular and sad. We could see that much of the area that we’d explored on our previous backpacking trips had been burned badly by the fires.
The summit of Substitute Point

Scott Mountain, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington, and Belknap Crater (post).

Proxy Point and Scott Mountain.

The Three Sisters, Little Brother and The Husband

Mt. Bachelor, The Wife, and Sphinx Butte.

Kidney Lake

img src=”https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51292219058_ec3f2f67bc_c.jpg” width=”800″ height=”600″ alt=”IMG_9866″>South Sister

Mt. Bachelor and The Wife

North and Middle Sister behind The Husband

Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Washington

We took a nice long break at the top watching butterflies soar around us.
A swallowtail and two whites (maybe clodius parnassians) in flight.

After our break we headed back. We’d had the hike to ourselves but were now passing a handful of hikers heading up the trail. We stopped a few times to watch butterflies (in hopes they would land) and to smell the occasional lily.
Clodius parnassian in a blossom.

Moth and a parnassian.

The hike here came to 10.3 miles with 2000′ of relatively gentle elevation gain. With the 2.8 miles we did at Rainbow Falls it came to a 13.1 mile day and a great way to spend the 4th of July.

While we were sorry to see how badly much of the area was burned it was encouraging to see the trails were in relatively good shape and that there was new growth coming. We fear that hiking in recently burned forest is only going to become more common in the years to come but hike we will. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Rainbow Falls and Substitute Point

Tags Clodius Parnassian, foley ridge trail, Foley Ridge Trailhead, hiking, Horse Creek Complex, Oregon, Proxy Point, Rainbow Falls, Rainbow Falls Trail, Rainbow Falls Trailhead, Substitute Point, Substitute Point Trail, Three Sisters Wilderness, Washington lily

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Jefferson Area Oregon Trip report

Berley and Santiam Lakes- 07/03/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 7, 2021
8 Comments on Berley and Santiam Lakes- 07/03/2021

For the Fourth of July weekend we had originally planned on a trip to Central Oregon but the drought conditions that were exasperated by the recent heat wave had us reconsidering not being home to guard against rogue illegal fireworks (a house in our neighborhood lost a fence and tree last year on the 4th). Our decision was made final when, following the heat wave, mostly dry thunder storms passed over the Ochoco Mountains where some of our hikes were planned. Lighting caused fires have kept firefighters busy since then as the race to contain the fires that are still cropping up from that storm system. We turned to Plan B, which was in part a modified Plan A, and spent the weekend hiking in the Central Cascades. On Saturday we stuck to our originally planned hike to Berley and Santiam Lakes but instead of continuing on to Bend afterward we drove back home.

This hike is covered in Matt Reeder’s “101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region” and provided us an opportunity to revisit some places as well as discover some new ones. The hike starts at the Pacific Crest Trailhead along Highway 20 at Santiam Pass.

For now this is one of the trailheads where a Central Cascade Wilderness Day Use Permit is not required but a NW Forest Pass ($5/day or $30/annual) is, as well as completing a free self-issue permit. Note that for overnight trips a Central Cascade Wilderness Permit is needed for any visits to the Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters or Mt. Washington Wilderness areas.

We had started another hike here in October of 2012 when we hiked to the base of Three Fingered Jack then returned on a loop past Martin, Booth, and Square Lakes (post). We were interested to not only see the area during a different season but also to see what had changed in nearly 9 years. This was particularly interesting to us due to the area having been burned badly in the 2003 B&B Complex and this would give us an idea of how the forest was recovering. Given the huge swaths that were burned in the September 2020 wildfires this might give us a small frame of reference for what to expect for some of the areas. The first thing that we noticed was that post fire trees seemed larger than we remembered which was confirmed by comparing some pictures of the Pacific Crest Trail junction with the Old Summit Trail 0.2 miles from the trailhead.
Trail sign at the junction on 10/13/2012.

Trail sign at the junction on 07/03/2021.

What we didn’t really notice though was just how many of the snags were now missing.
Entering the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness in 2012 (0.3 miles from the TH).

Entering the wilderness in 2021.

We followed the PCT a total of 1.2 miles to a junction with the Santiam Lake Trail. The view to the south was as spectacular as we had remembered with several Cascade Mountains in view along with several distinctive lesser peaks.
Cache Mountain, Black Crater (post), Tam McArthur Rim & Broken Top (post), North & Middle Sister, Mt. Washington, and Hayrick Butte (flat top on the right).

To the north the top of Three Fingered Jack was occasionally visible.

There were a few more flowers in bloom now than there had been in October.
A thistle

Penstemon

Bleeding heart

Pussytoes

California stickseed

Another penstemon

Shortly after passing a small unnamed lake we arrived at the junction.

Mountain bluebird by the lake.

We turned left onto the Santiam Lake Trail at the junction striking off on new to us trail. The Santiam Lake Trail headed slightly downhill to the north passing a series of small ponds/lakes before making a sweeping turn to the west then meeting up with the now abandoned Santiam Lodge Trail (coming uphill on the left) one mile from the PCT.

There was a good amount of scarlet gilia blooming along this section of trail.

Three Fingered Jack

One of the ponds.

Queen’s cup

Another pond with Maxwell Butte (post) behind to the right.

Unnamed lake along the trail with Maxwell Butte behind.

Lupine

Dark-eyed junco

Sub-alpine mariposa lilies

Woodpecker

The view south.

Seasonal pond

A half mile beyond the abandoned trail (there was part of a sign still hanging, partially hidden on a tree) we came to an unsigned fork.

We admittedly hadn’t read Matt’s hike description recently and had conveniently forgotten that there were no maintained trails to the Berley Lakes and this unmarked fork was where he would have had us turn. It wasn’t shown on the GPS map and since we hadn’t bothered to re-familiarize ourselves with the hike we continued on the Santiam Lake Trail but were still looking for the trail to Berley Lakes.

We crossed the nearly dry bed of Lost Lake Creek (There was enough water around to host a healthy population of mosquitos though.) and continued through a meadow filled with lupine into some unburned forest.

Beargrass

The combined presence of the trees and more water in Lost Lake Creek (which the trail was now following) was a perfect recipe for even more mosquitos. We hustled along as quickly a possible to try and keep as much of our own blood as possible.

Recent snow melt is another recipe for mosquitos.

Another creek crossing.

Shooting star

Mountain heather. Typically if we see this blooming we expect there to be mosquitos.

Fortunately the creek soon faded out in an open rocky landscape where the heat of the sun kept the buggers away and we were able to slow down a bit.

A sulphur

Alpine false dandelion

One of several snow patches at the tree line.

Nearing the end of the opening.

More snow in the trees.

A checkerspot

By the time we’d reached the open area it was obvious we had missed our turn and should have taken the fork we’d seen since we were now past the Berley Lakes. That was fine though as the original plan had been to visit those lakes first and hook up with the Santiam Lake Trail beyond Lower Berley Lake then continue on to Santiam Lake and return via the Santiam Lake Trail. Our new plan was to visit Santiam Lake then find the route to Lower Berley Lake, visit it, then check out Upper Berley Lake and return to the Santiam Lake Trail at the fork. Beyond the open plain the trail began a 250′ descent through more unburned forest to Santiam Lake.

Trees & melting snow = more mosquitos.

Not Santiam Lake but a very pretty unnamed lake just to the left of the trail approximately 0.4 miles from Santiam Lake.

Not sure what type this is but the orange on the wing was pretty.

We turned off the Santiam Lake Trail at a “No Campfires” sign and followed a familiar path down to the lake.

It had been almost 11 years since we visited this lake. On our previous visit we had come up the Santiam Lake Trail from the Duffy Lake Trail (post).

Mt. Jefferson behind Red Butte

Duffy Butte on the left.

Three Fingered Jack

Paintbrush, shooting stars, and buttercups.

We set off to hike around the west side of the lake but we encountered quite a bit of recent blowdown and decided it was a little more trouble than it was worth.

Just one of several large uprooted trees along the shore.

Taking a break along the shore and enjoying the view would have been nice but the mosquitos weren’t interested in letting us sit peacefully so when we came to the third bunch of downed trees we called it good and headed back for the Santiam Lake Trail. We followed it back to the open plain where the mosquitos hadn’t been bad and stopped to study the map in Reeder’s book (still weren’t smart enough to take the time to re-read it though) and we could see that from this end his track showed him heading for Lower Berley Lake just before a topographic feature. We made our way across the plain where butterflies were busy flying from plant to plant.

The “topographic feature” ahead on the right where we planned on turning for Lower Berley Lake.

Mountain heather along the trail, it was warm and sunny enough that the mosquitos weren’t as bad this time by.

Threeleaf lewisia

Getting closer to the hill where we planned on turning.

California tortoiseshell butterflies in the bed of Lost Lake Creek.

Later when we finally did read the hike description Reeder mentioned a cairn marking a user trail but we didn’t notice any cairn (and admittedly may have turned too soon) but we spotted what appeared to be faint tread along a hillside above a dry stream bed and took a right onto it.

The track on the map showed the route on the south side of the lake but this trail was leading to the south side of Lower Berley Lake. It led past a couple of campsites to some rocks above the lake.

Three Fingered Jack from the rocks.

We picked our way down through the rocks to the lake shore and followed a user trail west until more downed tress forced us to climb back up above the rocks.

More tortoiseshells

A butterfly photo bomb

Once we were back above the lake we came across what looked like another user trail leading away from it.

We thought it might be a side trail to Upper Berley Lake so we turned right on it but soon realized that we were following a dry bed instead of a trail.

The bed was popular with the butterflies.

A GPS check showed we were heading too much to the NNE and needed to be NNW so we left the bed and used the GPS units to find Upper Berley Lake, but not before startling a doe.
Cross country to Upper Berley Lake, the doe was in this meadow and headed in the direction of the patch of snow at the far end.

Upper Berley Lake

Reeder mentions a view of Three Fingered Jack from this lake as well but we were on the wrong side of it for that. The lake shore where we were was pretty thick with small trees so we would have needed to back track to make our way around for a view but we decided to save that for another time. We took a slightly more direct route back toward Lower Berley Lake and found what seemed to us a bit of a random Day Use Only sign.
We wound up finding the same “user trail” and followed it down to the lower lake.

What we could see was a clear trail heading south past the lake. We went down to the lake shore to see if we could pick something up since the track in the book showed it at the SW edge of the lake. We couldn’t make out any clear trail but that could have been because it was covered in butterflies.
California tortoiseshell butterflies along Lower Berley Lake.

Three Fingered Jack and about a half dozen butterflies.

We did another comparison of the track in the guidebook and the topographic map on our GPS units and came to the conclusion that we were in the right spot and just needed to hike over a saddle between two hillsides. As we made our way up we found an obvious trail.
The hillside on the right was rocky.

The trail dropping down from the saddle with Mt. Washington and the North Sister ahead.

This trail was at times easy to follow and at others non-existent.

Just under three quarters of a mile from Lower Berley Lake we ran into three hikers heading for the lake which we took as a good sign. Just a short distance later we came to the dry channel of Lost Lake Creek.

It was hard to tell where the “trail” crossed or where it was on the far side. Reeder’s track showed the alignment converging with the Santiam Lake Trail at an gradual angle but we could see that we were only about a tenth of a mile from that trail as the crow flies so we abandoned all attempts at following the user trail. We headed straight for the Santiam Lake Trail and found it without much difficulty.
Found it!

We were a tenth or two of a mile from the actual junction which wound up working in our favor. We had rejoined the Santiam Lake Trail just north of the seasonal pond where there were now dozens of butterflies hanging out and this time they weren’t all the same types.

We made our way back to the PCT then followed it south back to the trailhead but not before stopping at a viewpoint for one last look at the mountains.
Yellow beetle on lupine.

Orange agoseris

Back at the PCT.

Bumble bees on penstemon.

Cicada in the grass.

Black Crater, Broken Top, North & Middle Sister, Mt. Washington, Hayrick Butte, and Hoodoo Butte from the viewpoint.

Three Fingered Jack from the viewpoint.

Track for our 12.9 mile, 1300′ elevation gain hike

After a great day of hiking we spent the evening with my Grandma and parents. It was a great start to the holiday weekend. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Berley & Santiam Lakes

Tags Berley Lakes, butterflies, cascade mountains, hiking, Lower Berley Lake, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Santiam Lake, Santiam Lake Trail, Three Fingered Jack, Upper Berley Lake

Central Oregon Hiking Ochoco Mountains Oregon Trip report

Walton Lake & Round Mountain – 06/18/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 24, 2021
6 Comments on Walton Lake & Round Mountain – 06/18/2021

After spending three nights in Pendleton and two John Day it was time for us to head back to Salem on Friday. We planned on stopping at Walton Lake in the Ochoco National Forest along the way to visit the man made lake where I had spent some time in my childhood. We also planned to hike from the lake to the summit of Round Mountain which we had done from the opposite side back in 2017 (post). After our hike we were meeting Heather’s parents for a late lunch/early dinner in Redmond at Madeline’s before continuing home to Salem.

We left John Day a little before 5am and arrived at Walton Lake shortly after 6:30am. There were already several folks our fishing and we were met by the camp greeters.

A paved/gravel 0.8 mile trail encircles the lake with the Walton Lake Trail splitting off on the south side of Walton Lake. We decided to hike around the lake clockwise passing the small dam that created the lake and a number of campsites before arriving at the unsigned Walton Lake Trail after 0.6 miles. Along with the people fishing there were a number of ducks (including ducklings), geese and coots around the lake.
American coot and a duck family.

Spotted sandpiper

Pied billed grebe

Mountain bluebird

The spur of the Walton Lake Trail that leads to the Round Mountain Trail.

We turned up the spur trail which climbed through a meadow where several families of geese were hanging out.

After 0.2 miles the spur trail crosses the campground road.

It was about this time that we realized that we hadn’t put our NW Forest Pass out. We headed back down to the lake and completed to the 0.8 mile loop to put our pass out. We later realized that it wasn’t good at Walton Lake anyway and paid the $5 day use fee.

20210618_072716

A saxifrage.

This is also a good time mention that a 0.3 mile segment of the spur trail between Forest Road 2220 and Forest Road 22 is by Forest Order 06-07-01-21-02 closed from 5/18/21 to 10/31/21 (or until rescinded). There were no signs present at the start of the spur trail nor at the crossing of FR 2220, the notice was however posted at the FR 22 crossing (along with a warning about sheep dogs).
The order also states that the closure area will be signed along with pink flagging along all boundaries on the ground (we didn’t see any pink flagging at FR 2220).

Fortunately the Round Mountain North Trailhead is just on the other side of FR 22 from the Walton Lake entrance if you don’t want to road walk around the closure. Assuming you are coming from the FR 22 crossing though the Walton Lake Trail continues 1/2 mile to its end at the Round Mountain Trail (0.2 miles from the North Trailhead).

Larkspur

Approximately 0.4 miles from FR 22 the trail passes a snow survey site in a small meadow where we spotted several does.

A short distance beyond the meadow we arrived at the Round Mountain Trail where we turned left. (Ignore the sign, it was the only one present and it was facing the wrong way.)

The trail climbed to a dry, rocky plateau but not before first passing a nice display of lupine.

20210618_080749 Chocolate lily

The rocky plateau with Round Mountain to the right.

Death camas

A wild onion

Yarrow

The trail dipped off the plateau and lost a little elevation on its way to a saddle below Round Mountain. Just over 2 miles from the Walton Lake Trail we passed Scissors Spring in a meadow on our right.
Paintbrush

Valerian along the trail.

California tortoiseshell on valerian.

Mt. Jefferson from the trail.

20210618_083047 Maybe a miterwort?

Milbert’s tortoiseshell

Scissors Spring

A fleabane

20210618_085307 Geranium

Beyond the spring the trail began to climb through a series of hellebore filled meadows.

Woodpecker

Another doe

A comma butterfly of some sort.

Possibly some sort of phlox?

Another wild onion

Mountain bluebells

Threeleaf lewisia

Butterfly on Jessica stickseed

A larkspur, Jessica stickseed, and hyssop

Robin

Mountain view from a meadow.

Mt. Jefferson

Mt. Hood

Just over a mile from the spring the trail made a switchback at which point it steepened noticeably. The next 1/3 of a mile consisted of steep switchbacks through a hellebore meadow to Round Mountain Road 0.2 miles from the summit.

Viewpoint at one of the switchbacks. Cascade Mountains from Diamond Peak to Mt. Jefferson.
Diamond Peak

Mt. Bachelor

Ball Butte and Broken Top

Three Sisters

Mt. Washington

Three Fingered Jack

Mt. Jefferson

The trail sign along Round Mountain Road up the hill.

Fritillary butterfly

Silky phacelia

Prairie smoke

Balsamroot

Butterfly on an onion

20210618_100034 Ladybug on lupine

Round Mountain summit

We sat on the cool concrete in the shade cast by the radio tower while we watched butterflies swirl through the air.

And occasionally land.

Big Summit Prairie

Lookout Mountain (post)

Mt. Hood

Mt. Adams

After the break we returned the way we’d come with a slight delay caused by a Sara’s orangetip butterfly that refused to land despite repeatedly looking like it was going to as it flew in the same loop over and over again.

Not too horrible of a photo of the orangetip on one of its many passes.

We retrieved our car from the now packed Walton Lake but not before checking out some of the wildlife one more time.

A coot, a spotted sandpiper and ducks.

Osprey with a recently caught fish (we got to see the dive)

Ducklings

From Walton Lake we drove to Redmond where we were a bit early so we stopped at the Spud Bowl and watched some dogs playing in the sprinklers before meeting up with Heather’s parents at Madelines. We had a great meal then continued home to Salem. When a section of the trail isn’t closed (and you don’t have to go back to your car to after starting your hike) this would be about a 12 mile hike with approximately 1900′ of elevation gain while the 0.8 mile loop around Walton Lake would be great for kids. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Walton Lake and Round Mountian

Tags butterflies, hiking, lookout mountain, Ochoco Mountains, ochoco national forest, Oegon, Round Mountain, Round Mountain Trail, Walton Lake, Walton Lake Camground, Walton Lake Trail, wildflowers

Central Oregon Hiking John Day Oregon Trip report

Malheur River – 06/17/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 23, 2021
2 Comments on Malheur River – 06/17/2021

After a night in John Day we headed south for a day hike on the Malheur River Trail. The trail starts at Malheur Ford Trailhead where Forest Road 1651 actually does ford the river.

The Malheur, a designated Wild and Scenic River, is fed from the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness (post). The trail is 7.6 miles long running from the ford to another trailhead at Hog Flat. For our hike we planned on hiking around 6.5 miles of the trail at which point the trail would be starting the steep climb away from the river to Hog Flat. It was a pleasantly cool morning as we set off on the trail. Despite the Forest Service indicating that the trail had not been maintained it was in good shape with just a couple of trees to step over/around.
Bench near the trailhead.

Lupine along the trail.

There was plenty of river access along the way.

20210617_065036 Currant

Paintbrush and lupine along the trail.

Geraniums

Ponderosa pines

Mile markers were present (at least to mile 6) although we missed 3 & 5 on the way out. We managed to spot them on the way back though. There did seem to be a bit of a discrepancy regarding the first mile as there were two trees sporting “1”s.
First 1

Second 1

A little past the mile 1 markers the trail descended to Miller Creek where just a little water was present but it was enough to host a number of flowers.

Camas

Balsamroot, columbine, geraniums and paintbrush.

The trail did several more ups and downs sometimes rising above the river and other times dropping down to flats along it. A rocky viewpoint just before the 2 mile mark was fairly impressive.

Photo from the afternoon on the way back.

Tree marking mile 2.

Typical “obstacles” that were present along the trail.

Columbine

Cusick’s sunflower?

Balsamroot or mule’s ears?

Woodland stars

Mile 4

Right around mile five (which we missed the marker for) was a riverside meadow of wildflowers.

Salsify and geraniums

20210617_092225 Sticky cinquefoil

Swallowtail on scarlet gilia

20210617_092314 Geranium

Some sort of copper butterfly

A checkerspot

Iris

Balsamroot (or mule’s ears)

20210617_093615 A fleabane

20210617_093639 A different type of fleabane.

20210617_093941 Larkspur

20210617_094301 Rosy pussytoes

After hanging out in the meadow watching the butterflies for awhile we continued on.

Hog Flat is up on top of the hillside.

Mile 6 markers.

Cracked egg in the trail.

We passed this cairn around the 6.5 mile mark.

We turned around here shortly after passing the cairn. It appeared the trail was beginning it’s climb and we took the cairn and downed tree as signs that it was time to turn around. We did just that and headed back keeping our eyes open for the mile 3 and 5 markers.
A fritillary butterfly on an iris.

Found 5

This was a particularly tricky little muddy spot to stay dry crossing.

And there’s “3”.

Immature bald eagle. We saw it on the way out in the same area but couldn’t get a photo. This time it flew right by me, and I think it was giving me the stink eye.

Back at the trailhead.

This was a 13.5 mile out and back with a few hundred feet of elevation gain spread over the various ups and downs along the way. There were plenty of views of the river and a nice variety of wildflowers and wildlife making this a nice river hike. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Malheur River Trail

Tags Bald Eagle, hiking, Hog Flat, John Day, Malheur Ford, Malheur Ford Trailhead, Malheur National Forest, Malheur River, Oregon, Strawberry Mountain Wilderness, Wild and Scenic River, wildflowers

Blue Mountains - South Hiking Oregon Trip report

Tower Mountain – 06/16/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 22, 2021
5 Comments on Tower Mountain – 06/16/2021

After three days of hiking in the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness we headed south from Pendleton planning on spending the next two nights in John Day. While I was planning this vacation I began looking for possible hikes between the two towns. Sullivan had a pair of hikes in the back of his Eastern Oregon guidebook starting from the Winom Creek Campground including a hike to Tower Mountain, the highest point in Umatilla County. A 92′-tall Aermotor steel lookout tower stands atop the mountain and is still in operation during the fire season. Sullivan’s description used the Upper Winom Creek and Cable Creek Trails to reach the summit road for a 16.4 mile out and back or a 16 mile loop by descending the Tower Mountain Trail to Big Creek Meadows and following a tie trail from there to the Winom Creek Campground. Nearly all of the area was impacted by the 2019 Tower Complex Fire. There wasn’t a lot of information online regarding the trails here which pass through the North Fork John Day Wilderness but from what I could find online it appeared that our best bet was to simply start at Big Creek Meadows Campground and do an out and back hike using the Tower Mountain Trail.

We parked at the trailhead for the Tower Loop Trail at Big Creek Meadows Campground.

Instead of heading off on the Tower Loop Trail though we backtracked along the road to Big Creek and turned left following it to NF-52 (Blue Mountain Scenic Byway).

Frosty penstemon

Tall mountain bluebells

Big Creek

Sign for the Tower Mountain Trail across NF-52.

The tread for the Tower Mountain Trail was faint to say the least as it started in meadows along Big Creek.

Buttercups

The trail passed through a stand of young lodgepole pine where it was easier to see but there wasn’t much room to maneuver. Our theory on why the Forest Service hadn’t widened this was to deter OHV riders from using the trail as there is a large network of OHV approved roads/trails in the area.

Back to the faint tread.

Elk had chewed up this section of trail.

Snowshoe hare

The hare wasn’t too concerned about us and even stopped to munch on some grass just a few feet away from us as we passed.

The only sign/marker for the trail through the meadows.

On the map the trail appeared to cross a branch of Big Creek which it did.

We were surprised to find a second crossing (of the same creek) just a few moments later.

The trail became clearer as we continued on. It followed Big Creek for a little over 3.25 miles, sometimes climbing above the meadows along forested hillsides and other times passing through wet meadows with wildflowers. Some of other sections had avoided at least the worst of the 1996 fire.

Elephants head

Milberts tortoiseshell

Fleabane along the trail.

When the trail turned away from Big Creek it began to climb through an open lodgepole pine forest with some western larch mixed in.

Soon the lodgepole forest gave way to other conifers.

We began to have views of the Elkhorns (post) to the east.

Either a cinquefoil or an aven.

Arnica

The trail grew a bit faint as we passed through an open meadow with a variety of wildflowers.

Parsley

Woodland stars

Larkspur

Mountain bluebells

Violet

Nuthatch

There was also a nice view south of the Greenhorn Mountains including Ben Harrison and Vinegar Hill (post)

Vinegar Hill is in the center with Ben Harrison to the right of the green tree in the foreground.

The trail began to climb more gradually and actually dropped a bit to a saddle below Tower Mountain before again climbing steadily to an old roadbed at the wilderness boundary.
Back in forest burned in 1996.

Glacier lilies

Dropping to the saddle with Tower Mountain in the distance.

Valerian

The lookout tower on Tower Mountain.

Huckleberry blossoms

Arriving at the wilderness boundary.

Looking back into the North Fork John Day Wilderness.

A short distance later the trail ended at Forest Road 5226.

The Elkhorns from NF-5226.

The road loops around the summit of the mountain so either left or right would have led us to the lookout tower. We decided to go clockwise and headed left up the road.
We arrived at the summit after a 0.4 mile climb.
Western bluebird

We sat at on a bench facing the Elkhorns to rest and have a snack.

After the break we walked over to the tower to check it out. It wasn’t clear if it was okay to climb the stairs, there was no signage either way. We decided to admire it from the ground though.

After admiring the tower we continued on the road loop. When we came to a fork in the road we detoured left to a ridge end meadow with a view that included the Wallowa Mountains (post).

Wallowas on the left and the Elkhorns on the right.

Wallowa Mountains including Eagle Cap

Elkhorns

Balloon pod milk vetch

A patch of snow clinging to Tower Mountain.

20210616_105314 Lupine

20210616_105410 A penstemon

Paintbrush

Old man’s whiskers

We completed the road loop and then headed back down the Tower Mountain Trail. We retraced our steps looking for flowers and wildlife along the way.

20210616_112711 Ball head waterleaf

20210616_114428 Violets and ?

Tortoiseshell on a cone.

Shooting star

Fish in Big Creek.

I believe this is a columbian ground squirrel.

California tortoiseshell butterflies

Diffuseflower Evening-primrose

Red tailed hawk

Our hike came in at 12.7 miles with a little under 2000′ of elevation gain. The climb never felt very steep and the scenery along the trail was great.

We were both very impressed with this hike and it wound up being our favorite of the whole trip. Having a map for the lower faint portion of trail was necessary but the trail itself was in really good shape. We then drove to John Day and after checking into our motel had a wonderful dinner at 1188 Brewing. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Tower Mountain

Tags 1188 Brewing, Big Creek Meadows Campground, Blue Mountain Scenic Byway, Blue Mountains, California Tortoiseshell Butterfly, Columbian ground squirrel, hiking, North Fork John Day Wilderness, Oregon, Tower Mountain, Tower Mountain Lookout, Tower Mountain Trail

Blue Mountains - North Hiking Oregon Trip report

Buck Creek Trail – 06/15/2021

Post author By yunckrunner
Post date June 22, 2021
No Comments on Buck Creek Trail – 06/15/2021

For our third and final hike in the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness we had originally planned on a 13.9 mile loop using the Buck Creek, Lake Creek, and Buck Mountain Trails. That plan had been scrapped due to the damage caused by the February 2020 flooding in the area which left the roads and trails damaged. We parked as we had the two previous days at a gate along Bingham Springs Road (NF-32). Unlike the previous two days though it had rained overnight and the clouds were still breaking up as we set off on the 1.4 mile road walk to the Buck Creek Trailhead

There were no masses of swallowtails along the road this morning (post) but we did see a merganser across the Umatilla where some of the butterflies had been.

While the first two hikes in this wilderness had been featured hikes in Sullivan’s guidebook the Buck Creek/Buck Mountain Trails were back of the book entries. The Forest Service again had listed them both as open but the latest update (late May 2021) indicated that only the first 2 miles of the Buck Creek Trail had been cleared since the flooding and just the first 1/2 mile of the Buck Mountain Trail had received any maintenance. We were prepared to turn around when the maintenance petered out on both of these trails and we decided to start with the Buck Mountain Trail since it was said to be steep. We figured climbing first thing in the morning was better than later in the day.
Buck Creek Trailhead

Buck Creek Trail straight ahead with the Buck Mountain Trail to the right. Notice that the Buck Mountain Trail didn’t receive a nice new sign. (Not pictured is the Ninemile Ridge Trail to the left.)

Just a few hundred feet down the Buck Mountain Trail we arrived at Buck Creek where there was no bridge nor any way to cross dry footed.

It would have been an easy enough ford but starting the morning of with soaked feet didn’t sound appealing to either of us, especially to simply climb for 1/2 a mile and turn around assuming no further maintenance had been done on the trail. Since we weren’t willing to get wet we decided to return to the trail junction and head up the Buck Creek Trail.

It didn’t take long to realize that fording the creek or not we were not going to have dry feet today. The Buck Creek Trail had been maintained but not brushed out. The overnight rain transferred easily from the vegetation to our clothing and soon not only were our feet wet but so were our pants and at least the lower half of our shirts.

Nice new wilderness sign along the trail.

Signs of the flooding.

Blue sky

Washed out section of trail.

Recent trail repair here.

Slugs didn’t mind the damp conditions.

We made it a little over 1.75 miles before stopping at a deep washout.

There was no visible tread entering or leaving this deep ditch and we had spent the previous tenth of a mile or so pushing our way through the wet vegetation so we assumed the maintenance hadn’t gotten any further. We turned back and did our best to pick up any water that we’d missed on the first pass.

20210615_083538 Honeysuckle was everywhere in this wilderness, on all three hikes.

Squirrel!

We took a short detour when we reached NF-32 to check out some damage to the bridge over the South Fork Umatilla River.

There were no swallowtails today, and the merganser was no longer where we’d seen it but now there was a spotted sandpiper on the rocks where the swallowtails and merganser had been.

Apparently that is a popular spot for wildlife. We returned to car and drove back to Pendleton for the last time on this trip. For dinner we walked from the Rugged Country Lodge to Hal’s Hamburgers, in business since 1952. It was a nice ending to our stay in Pendleton. A brief but wet 6.5 mile hike with only a couple of hundred feet of elevation gain and a good old fashioned hamburger. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Buck Creek Trail

Tags Buck Creek, Buck Creek Trail, Buck Mountain Trail, Hal's Hamburgers, hiking, Ninemile Ridge Trail, North Fork Umatilla Wilderness, Oregon, South Fork Umatilla River