Tag: Pine Creek

Pine Lakes – 08/19/2024

For our second vacation hike in the Wallowa Mountains we set our sights on the Pine Lakes Trail. This was another of the 100 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes Eastern Oregon” 1st edition (2022) and would be number 96 for us on our quest to finish all 100 (post). Sullivan gives two out-and-back option for this trail, a 4.2-mile hike to Chute Falls and a 14.8-mile hike to Pine Lakes.

Heather and I had already decided that I would try for the lakes while she was going to aim for Chute Falls. She has continued to struggle with a breathing issue which has caused her to keep a slower pace than in years past making longer hikes problematic from a time standpoint. Our plan was to set off at our own paces and Heather would wait for me at or near Chute Falls. We also established a timeframe in which she should expect me.

The hike begins at the Cornucopia Trailhead which is on private land owned by the Cornucopia Lodge and Packstation. We followed pointers at the lodge to the current parking area.

The current trailhead was approximately half mile from where the public parking area was in Sullivan’s description. That meant an extra mile of hiking for each of us. I threw my pack on and set off on the private road following pointers for the Pine Lakes Trail.
This pointer refers to trail 1880 as “Pine Creek” but other signs and the Forest Service website refer to it as “Pine Lakes”.

This one says Pine Lakes.

Sign for the Packstation.

As I neared the packstation a pair of dogs noisily raced toward me, one a German shepherd. Luckily they were all bark and no bite, but it got my adrenaline pumping. I continued on passing the forest boundary and the small parking area Sullivan had described.
Squirrel with breakfast at the packstation.

The trail follows an old roadbed for most of the first 2.1 miles.
Old footbridge over a dry creek bed. It didn’t look particularly safe so I stuck to the road.

The dry creek bed crossing.

Shortly beyond the dry creek bed I came to the East Fork Pine Creek where a pair of cow elk dashed across the trail and disappeared in the underbrush.

Seeing the elk was exciting. Less exciting was seeing the actual cows after crossing the footbridge. In typical cow fashion their plan for avoiding me was to get onto the trail ahead of me and walk 10 to 20 yards down trail then turn around to see if I was still following.
Black cows on the trail ahead.

Meanwhile Heather was taking pictures of flowers along the road to the packstation.
Coneflower

Snowberry

Try as I might to convince the cows that they simply needed to step off the trail to either side they were convinced that sticking to the trail, and booby trapping it with fresh pies, was the best way to lose me.

West Fork Pine Creek

Formation on the hillside.

Western clematis

Paintbrush

Fireweed

Approximately a mile beyond the packstation I arrived at the first of two bridges over the West Fork Pine Creek. I briefly lost the cows here when they forked right along the creek while I crossed the slightly damaged bride.
The bridge felt stable despite being slanted at a 45-degree angle.

I picked up my pace hoping to beat the cows to the second bridge which was another 1.1-miles up the trail.

View from the trail.

I could hear and see the cows on the far side of the creek, and now they seemed to be racing me to the second bridge. Before getting that far I met a second group of cattle on my side of the creek near a ford where the fist group of cows were now crossing. Lucky for me this new group was a little smarter and they led the first group off trail into the brush leaving me cow free.

The second bridge.

West Fork Pine Creek

Heather caught this cool cloud from her currently cow free hike. (She would run into them later where they’d ducked off the trail in front of me.)

Not far from the bridge was an established campsite just before the trail began to switchback uphill.
Looking back down at the campsite.

Chute Falls is located slightly off-trail near a righthand switchback 0.3-miles from the second bridge.
The use trail straight ahead at the switchback.

I followed the steep use trail 150 yards to Chute Falls.

I carefully made my way down to the base of the falls.

The base of Chute Falls.

After visiting the falls I returned to the trail and continued to climb toward Pine Lakes. The trail switchbacked past the 10′ upper tier of Chute Falls.

I continued uphill through the forest past a view of a waterfall on the Middle Fork Pine Creek and passed into the Eagle Cap Wilderness 1.2-miles beyond Chute Falls.

Looking back down the valley.

View up the valley.

Wilderness sign on the tree marking the boundary.

The Pine Lakes are back up there somewhere.

The trail traversed a rocky hillside with excellent views for 0.8-miles after entering the wilderness before reaching another set of switchbacks. While the climb was gradual the rocky trail tread made for some tricky walking.

Somewhere on the other side of the peaks on the left is the Schneider Cabin where we’d hiked the day before.

Cliffs above the trail.

As I made my way across the rocks I tried to keep my eyes open for any larger animals on the surrounding hillsides. It wasn’t easy due to the tricky terrain, but it paid off when I spotted a few mountain goats on far side of the valley.
I spy mountain goats!

A zoomed in photo of the mountain goats.

I kept my eye on the goats as I continued.

I arrived at another set of switchbacks 0.8-miles from the wilderness boundary that climbed uphill through a rock field where I spotted a single pika that dashed out of sight before I could get a photo.

I believe that is Cornucopia Peak on the left.

Going up.

Fireweed above the trail.

Above the switchbacks the trail leveled out a bit then descended to a basin with a mixture of forest and meadows.

Paintbrush along the trail.

The forest on the other side of the pass.

West Fork Pine Creek

There was a large waterfall flowing down from the outlet of the Pine Lakes. (Not West Fork Pine Creek whose headwaters were beyond the meadowed basin.

West Fork Pine Creek begins somewhere above the basin at the far end.

Rock formations along the cliffs.

Arnica and pearly everlasting

I tried to get a clearer look at the large waterfall but couldn’t find a clear line of sight.

Approximately 3.2-miles from Chute Falls the trail crossed the outlet creek.

Gentians along the trail.

Evidence of an avalanche at the far end of this meadow. It took a lot of trail maintenance to clear the snapped trees from the trail.

Wildflowers lining the trail.

The trail began another series of switchbacks in order to climb above the waterfall and to Lower Pine Lake.
A doe that turned out to be on the trail above me. There was a switchback just ahead of where I was.

The forest in the basin.

The Pine Lakes are in the basin ahead.

Arnica and aster?

Monkshood

Seep along the trail.

Grass of parnassus

American sawort

Something had been bedded down in this little bowl below the trail.

Goldenrod

The valley I’d come up to the right.

Nearly 5-miles from Chute Falls I arrived at the dam at the outlet of Lower Pine Lake. A number of lakes in the Wallows were dammed to control water flow to the surrounding communities.

Lower Pine Lake

The trail headed north around Lower Pine Lake arriving at Upper Pine Lake 0.2-miles from the dam.

Lower Pine Lake

Lower Pine Lake from between the two lakes.

Upper Pine Lake from the same spot.

Upper Pine Lake.

I did a little exploration along the eastern shore and then found a spot in the shade to take a brief break and change into a new pair of socks.

The view from my break spot.

After my break I headed back to Chute Falls to locate Heather. Along the way I stopped for more photos and to look for pikas and mountain goats (to no avail).

Shrubby cinquefoil

White mariposa lily, the only one I spotted, and I’d missed it on the way up.

Yellow columbine, I also missed this on the first pass.

Dusky flycacther

A meadow and the forest in the lower basin.

Fritillary on pearly everlasting

Trail maintenance in the avalanche section.

Loved the rock colors in the area.

I’m guessing some sort of wren.

Caterpillers

I detoured to Chute Falls again to see if Heather was waiting there which she wasn’t, so I hiked down to the campsite where I found her waiting. While I was taking another break we started to talk about the falls and realized that Heather had missed the lower, larger, portion of Chute Falls. She had missed the first user trail and detoured at the next righthand switchback which brought her to the upper tier. I showed her a photo from my phone to confirm that she’d missed that part of the falls then, we hiked up together to check it out.

After making sure she’d seen the rest of Chute Falls we headed for the trailhead.

We picked up the cows again in between the two bridges and herded (followed) them back to where I’d picked up the first group at the East Fork Pine Creek before they finally turned off the trail.

Herding the cattle back past the damaged bridge.

West Fork Pine Creek.

The footbridge across the East Fork Pine Creek ahead. We’d left the cows behind here and made our way back to the trailhead.

Given our starting point, three detours to Chute Falls and some exploring at Upper Pine Lake my hike came in at 16.4-miles and over 2700′ of elevation gain.

The rocky trail surface and amount of sun exposure added to the difficulty of this hike, but luckily there had been a fairly consistent cooling breeze which kept it from feeling too hot. The views were spectacular along the entire route and aside from the cows the variety of wildlife was great. We returned to Baker City and had dinner at the Eagle Cap Grill before turning in for the night for our last night in Baker City. We’d be moving our base to Enterprise the next day for the final three hikes of our trip. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Pine Lakes

Hiking Oregon Trip report Wallowas

Zumwalt Prairie Preserve

For our last day of hiking on our Memorial Day weekend trip to NE Oregon we planned on visiting Zumwalt Prairie. Managed by the Nature Conservancy there are four trails open to hikers totaling approximately 9.5 miles combined. We had originally planned on doing all four but for reasons to be explained later we wound up skipping the Canyon Vista Trail this trip.

We had had a mix of weather so far during the trip with a snow shower on Friday (post) and nearly 80 degree temperatures on Saturday (post). Sunday was again up in the air as the forecast called for a 50% chance of showers and possible thunder storms after 11am. We got our typically early morning start and made the 45 minute drive from Wallowa Lake to the the preserve.

As we left Wallow Lake we were surprised to see that the Wallowas were mostly cloud free so on the way to the hikes we decided to start with the viewpoint hikes first in hopes of getting some nice looks at both the Wallowas and the Seven Devils in Idaho. Based on the trailhead locations we thought we might start with the Canyon Vista Trail but as we turned onto Duckett Road and passed Duckett Barn and the information kiosk there we noted how rough and wet the dirt road was. The map of the preserve mentioned that between the turn off for the Harsin Butte Trail and the Canyon Vista Trailhead “high clearance /4wd vehicles are recommended….This road may be impassable at times during the winter or when wet”. We decided that there was no reason to risk getting stuck, especially since there seemed to be quite a bit of fog toward the area where the trail looked to be. When we reached the spur road for the Harsin Butte Trail we turned down it and started our day there.

Described as sort of a scramble route the Harsin Butte Trail gains just under 700′ in .8 miles to the summit viewpoint. Even before we started climbing though the views were good.
Looking toward the Seven Devils in Idaho

Findley Buttes (You can see some of the standing water on Duckett Road on the right hand side.)

From a distance and especially while driving it’s a bit difficult to notice all the flowers but once we got onto the trail we realized there were a whole lot of different flowers present.

Old man’s whiskers

Phlox with larkspur in the background

Cusick’s paintbrush

White-stem frasera

Paintbrush

A wild onion

Larkspur

Milk vetch

Chickweed

Woodland stars

An assortment of flowers

We were following a clear path and could see the continuation of the path going up the side of Harsin Butte so we were a little confused when we passed a couple of rock cairns about a quarter mile from the trailhead.
One of the carins and the trail going up Harsin Butte in the background.

We ignored the cairns and stayed on the clear path.

After another quarter mile of walking we realized that this was not the trail to the butte, it was heading around the west side of the butte to what looked like a corral instead. We backtracked to the cairns and followed them to find the continuation of the correct path.

It seemed the higher up we went the more flowers we were spotting.

One exciting find for us were the monument plants which we don’t get to see all that often.
Monument plant

Top of the monument plant

Shooting star

As we were climbing we noticed that the low clouds behind us seemed to be moving our way fairly quickly. I decided to try and double time it up to the summit in an attempt to avoid being over taken by clouds before getting to see the view. Apparently 3 days of hiking had taken more of a toll on me than I had realized and I was quickly sucking wind. The 5000′ elevation probably wasn’t helping me any and I regretted my decision every time I had to stop to try and catch my breath.
Here comes the clouds.

One of the times that I found myself gasping for air I noticed this rockcress.

The path led briefly into a stand of pines where game trails crisscrossed and elk sign abounded.

A few different flowers showed up in this area.
Bluebells

Yellow bell

Violets

Ball-head waterleaf

After a brief disappointment upon realizing there was a false summit I made it up to the actual summit with its solar powered antenna.

The cloud scare proved to be a false alarm, at least for the moment as they passed to the north of Harsin Butte between it an one of the Findley Buttes.

There were a few clouds over the Wallowas to the southwest but also some sun shining on the northern end.

IMG_8359_stitch

To the southeast the Seven Devils had a similar look.
IMG_8363_stitch

After a nice rest (I needed it) at the summit we headed back down. The clouds over the northern end of the Seven Devils lifted a little reveling a little more of the mountains.

By the time we were finished, with what turned into a 2.1 mile hike, our shoes were pretty well soaked from the dew on the grass but the flowers seemed to love it.

We didn’t see any elk but we did spot a Belding’s ground squirrel who had popped up to check us out.

We hopped back in the car and drove back to the Duckett Barn and parked at the information kiosk there.

Those clouds we’d been watching were starting to move overhead as we set off on Patti’s Trail, a short lollipop loop which began on the opposite side of Duckett Road from the kiosk.

There weren’t as many flowers along this trail as we had seen on Harsin Butte but there were still quite a few and some that we had not seen during the first hike.
Camas

Old man’s whiskers and white-stem frasera

We followed blue posts and pointers to a fence.

This area was a bit rockier and had quite a bit of phlox and large head clover.
Lots of phlox

20190526_075112 Phlox

Large head clover, larkspur, and wild onion

20190526_075335 Large head clover

Wild onion

The trail descended slightly as it approached Camp Creek. Although we still had some clouds passing overhead we had a clear view of the prairie and the flowers we were passing by.
Duckett Barn starting to disappears as we descended.

Possibly hoary balsamroot

Hoary balsamroot?

Phlox

20190526_081858 Diffuseflower evening-primrose

Camp Creek

Patti’s Trail followed along Camp Creek to a small pond where red-winged black birds were hanging out.

Beyond the pond the trail continued following the creek passing more flowers and blackbirds along the way.

Possibly a mustard

White-stem frasera blooming

20190526_080638 Violets

20190526_081638 Hairy clematis

Old man’s whiskers

20190526_082540 Cusick’s paintbrush

The trail veered left at a stock pond.

We paused at the pond and Heather spotted a deer running up a nearby hillside.

The trail continued to bend back around to the left following what was described as the swale of a dry creek but again with the recent precipitation there was water flowing creating a nice little stream.

The trail eventually left the creek and was headed straight for Harsin Butte in the distance.

We’d lost sight of the posts at one point and were just sticking to what appeared to be the main track and ended up veering left of the butte and coming to a small watering hole where the track petered out.

Looking back from this higher vantage point we could see the next post we should have been aiming for so we backtracked and found another fainter track that put us back on the right course.

The clouds were breaking up nicely as we ended this hike and the butterflies were coming out.

After completing the loop and returning to our car we headed back toward Zumwalt-Buckhorn Road and our final hike of the day and trip on the Horned Lark Trail. While we were still on Duckett Road though we spotted a pair of elk running up the Findley Butte near the barn and stopped to get a picture.

Shortly after turning right onto Zumwalt-Buckhorn Rd we stopped again to get a picture of a Wilson’s snipe. One had flown up from the grass while we were on Patti’s Trail but we hadn’t been able to get a picture of that one.

When we were finally done with stopping for wildlife we parked at the Horned Lark Trailhead just over 3 miles from Duckett Road.

This trail was described as an “easy 1.9 mile loop which sounded like a perfect way to end our trip. We began by following a clear double track through the prairie. Lupine was blooming nicely in this area and there was a view of the Wallowa Mountains beyond the Findley Buttes.

As with Patti’s Trail the route of the Horned Lark Trail was marked by blue posts.

The trail descended toward a pond near Pine Creek.

Once again flowers were good supply.
Paintbrush and biscuitroot

A ragwort or groundsel (I think)

False sunflower?

Old man’s whiskers and milk vetch

20190526_094353 Western stoneseed

We spotted another ground squirrel ahead in the path.

He may have been on high alert due to the presence of a merlin nearby.

I had to dip into the digital zoom to get this photo so it’s a bit blurry.

We followed the path and posts to the fenced pond but the path disappeared near a post a bit beyond the pond.

We consulted the map that we’d printed out and it appeared to show the trail following a fenceline near Pine Creek so that’s what we did until we were able to spot another post in the distance.

The fence was popular with the birds.

We picked up a faint path and followed it toward the post.

We followed the posts up a draw where the tread was often indiscernible.

Even now we were still seeing different flowers.
Dwarf yellow fleabane

Blue dicks

Maybe it was simply due to the fact that this was our fourth staight day of hiking and it was early in our hiking season but this loop despite being only 2 miles long didn’t feel easy. The deer that we spotted bounding up and over the hill ahead of use didn’t seem to think it was too difficult though.

Looking back down the draw.

Back on top we were headed ESE and could see the Seven Devils and Harsin Butte on the horizon.

The Wallowas were still visible too behind Harsin Butte and the two Findley Buttes (from left to right).

With the completion of the Horned Lake Trail our total milage for the three hikes came to 6.9 miles. It would have been a bit less had we not followed a couple of wrong paths. Harsin Butte was the most difficult with the 700′ elevation gain followed by the Horned Lark Trail with the easiest being Patti’s Trail. The Canyon Vista Trail which we skipped would have been about 3.6 miles round trip and possibly around 500′ of elevation gain. It was a beautiful place to visit and I guess we have a good reason to go back with one trail left undone.

As we were driving back toward Enterprise we encountered a vehicle stopped in the road. They flagged us down and let us know that they thought there was a golden eagle sitting on a rock on the hillside. Between the distance and the angle of the sun it was hard to tell but then the bird flew and it looked awfully small for a golden eagle. It landed on a telephone pole allowing us to see that it was indeed only a hawk, but it was a nice scene regardless.

We said goodbye to the Wallowas and drove into Pendleton for the night where, after having been threatened by their possibility all weekend we finally got a thunderstorm. Luckily we had already walked back from our dinner at OMG! Burgers and Brew where we had another excellent meal. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Zumwalt Prairie

Tags Camp Creek, Canyon Vista Trail, Cusick's Indian Paintbrush, deer, elk, enterprise, Findley Buttes, Harsin Butte, Harsin Butte Trail, hiking, Horned Lark Trail, OMG! Burgers and Brew, Oregon, Patti's Trail, Pine Creek, wildflowers, Wilson's snipe, Zumwalt Prairie