Trail – wanderingyuncks

Due to the number of wildfires and corresponding smoke this summer we have been waiting until the day or two before a hike to decide where we will be going. A favorable forecast for the Cascade Crest led us back to the mountains. Our destination for the day was Bobby Lake, located two and a quarter miles east of the Waldo Lake Road (Forest Road 5897).

A 4.5-mile hike isn’t quite long enough to warrant a 2:30 drive to the trailhead so I had come up with a loop incorporating several trails in the area including the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) which passes within a quarter mile of Bobby Lake.

We’d visited Bobby Lake in 2019 after hiking up The Twins (post). We’d started that hike from the Twin Peak Trailhead. For today’s hike we had planned to start at the Bobby Lake Trailhead however there didn’t appear to be any open spaces so we parked across the road at the Betty Lake Trailhead (Betty Lake 2024 ).

The Bobby Lake Trailhead across Waldo Lake Road from the Betty Lake Trailhead.

Trailhead ambassador (Canada jay).

We crossed the road and picked up the Bobby Lake Trail.

We followed this trail for 0.4-miles to a 4-way junction with the Gold Lake Trail.

Coming up on the junction.

From the 4-way junction loops are possible in either direction. On our previous visit to the lake we’d headed north on the Gold Lake Trail to return to the Twin Peak Trailhead. Today’s loop would be incorporating the southern portion of the Gold Lake Trail. We had decided to save the visit to Bobby Lake for later in the day, so we turned right onto the Gold Lake Trail and followed it downhill 1.7 forested miles to a junction with the Mount Ray Trail.

Aster

Sickletop lousewort

Trail sign ahead on the right for the Mount Ray Trail.

Up to this point the hike had been on new trail for us with the exception of the Bobby Lake/Gold Lake Trail junction. In 2025 I had been to this junction during my Mount Ray/Island Lakes loop (post) so the next 1.7-miles were new only to Heather. This section of the Gold Lake Trail crosses Ray Creek then passes along Gold Lake Bog and Gold Lake before reaching a junction with the Fuji Mountain Trail.

Entering the Gold Lake Bog Natural Research Area.

Ray Creek

Aster

Mushroom

Fireweed

Monkshood

Skunk cabbage

Gold Lake Bog from the trail.

The northern end of Gold Lake through the trees.

The only blooming lupine we spotted.

Bunchberry

The Fuji Mountain Trail junction.

It was 0.2-miles from the Fuji Mountain Trail junction to the end of the Gold Lake Trail at Gold Lake Campground.

We’d been here in 2024 when we visited the Gold Lake Shelter and Marilyn Lakes (post).

We walked up Gold Lake Road (FR 500) for 0.6-miles to the Maiden Peak Trailhead.

Crossing Salt Creek, the outlet of Gold Lake.

Looking toward Gold Lake from the bridge.

Salt Creek

Gold Lake Shelter

Leaving the campground.

The Maiden Peak Trailhead. There was room for a small number of cars on the opposite side of the road.

We turned up the Maiden Peak Trail and followed it uphill a total of 2.4-miles to the Pacific Crest Trail. The trail gained a total of 650′ and was mostly well graded. It did steepen over the last quarter of a mile where it gained 200 of the 650′.

Like most of the trails in this area it passed through a mature forest which limited views.

Fuji Mountain to the left and Mount Ray to the right through the trees.

The Merlin app says Hammond’s flycatcher.

Skyline Creek

Just beyond Skyline Creek we passed a junction with the Skyline Trail.

Signs at the Skyline Trail junction. The area is a popular area for cross-country skiing.

Chipmunk

Canada jay

The Pacific Crest Trail junction.

The PCT junction was another junction that we’d been to before. In 2016 we had come down the Maiden Peak Trail to the junction after summiting Maiden Peak and turned south onto the PCT (post). Today, after a short break to recover from the final steep climb, we turned north. It was 2.3 gradual downhill miles to the Bobby Lake Trail. Again, the trail passed through a lovely forest which provided a peaceful hike but no views to speak of.

This snake was the only other trail user we passed on the PCT.

This may have been the chillest snake we’ve come across. It never moved as we passed around it.

The Bobby Lake Trail junction.

We turned right onto the Bobby Lake Trail and followed it a quarter of a mile to the lake.

There is a large rock outcropping on the lake shore approximately 0.2-miles to the south of where the trail arrives at the lake while the Moore Creek Trail continues east along the northern end of the lake. Our previous visit had been in September, and we’d had the rock outcrop to ourselves. Today there were already several people on the outcrop, so we took the Moore Creek Trail and found a different spot for a break.

Maiden Peak and the rock outcrop from our break spot.

Maiden Peak. The rock outcrops on this peak make it one of the more identifiable peaks in the Cascades.

Damsel fly

After a good break we headed back to the Bobby Lake Trail and followed it 2.25-miles back to the Betty and Bobby Lakes trailheads. The 1.6-mile section between the PCT junction and the Gold Lake Trail junction seemed to be a continuous up and down.

This loop came in at 12.5-miles with approximately 1300′ of elevation gain.

This was an enjoyable loop despite the lack of any big views. It provided quite a bit of solitude and a lot of nice, unburned forest. Bobby Lake was obviously the highlight and is said to be one of the best swimming lakes in the Cascades.

There are no restrooms at either the Betty or Bobby Lake Trailheads, so we made a quick stop at Salt Creek Falls (post) on the way back to Eugene to use the facilities there and to give Heather a chance to see the falls since she wasn’t with me earlier this year when I’d visited.

Happy Trails!

Flickr: Bobby Lake

Weather permitting we like to get our January hike in on New Years Day. A series of Winter storms had passed over the Willamette Valley starting Christmas night but while temperatures had remained cold the precipitation had ceased and the forecast for New Years Day was for another dry day with a potential for sunny skies. The only issue presented by the forecast were the temperatures which promised to be in the low 20’s for our morning start. We had our sights set on Forest Park in Portland as it didn’t require us driving over any mountain passes and allowed us to sleep in a bit since it is only an hours drive from Salem. This would be our fourth hike in the park but our first time starting from an upper trailhead in the Tualatin Mountains. One of our goals was to visit the stone ruins, sometimes referred to as the Witch’s Castle, along Balch Creek which was one of two options for Sullivan’s Balch Creek featured hike. We had chosen to do his longer option in 2020 (post) which we used to check that featured hike off our to-do list but we wanted to tie up the loose end.

We decided to begin our hike at the NW 53rd Trailhead in order to add some distance and to check out some of the trails that we had not hiked on in 2020. While the snow had left the valley floor at 800′ some still remained and the 21 degree temperature had frozen everything.

From the trailhead we immediately turned right on the Keil Trail, one of the trails we had not been on before.

The trail ended in under a quarter mile at the Dogwood Trail where we turned left.

We followed this trail downhill for a little over half a mile to a junction with the Wildwood Trail.

A bank of clouds was sitting directly over Portland but we could see the edge in the distance. We hopped that the clouds would either burn off or move along.

We turned right on the Wildwood Trail. The next 0.6 miles to a junction with the Wild Cherry Trail was a section of trail that we had been on in 2020.

We stayed straight on the Wildwood Trail ignoring all side trails for 2.5 miles to the stone ruins along Balch Creek.

Junction with the Birch Trail.

A wren busy pecking at a log.

Junction with the Aspen Trail. As we descended we left most of the snow, and the icy conditions, behind.

Holman Lane Junction.

Balch Creek and the Lower Macleay Trail (Currently closed due to construction.)

Icicles over Balch Creek.

We continued beyond the Witch’s Castle another half a mile to the Macleay Park Trailhead crossing Balch Creek and climbing up a rather slick hill along the way.

Going uphill before it got really slick.

Wilwood Trail at Macleay Park Trailhead.

We left the Wildwood Trail at the trailhead turning right past some picnic tables and taking a path along NW Cornell Road to the Portland Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary.

A network of trails loop around the sanctuary.

We began our tour here by walking past the Wildlife Care Center where we think we witnessed an escape attempt.

Aristophanes, a common raven and long time resident at the sanctuary, was being visited by another pair of ravens with questionable intent :).

We took this raven to be the “lookout”.

Beyond the ravens the trail descended to Balch Creek where we took the short Creek Trail to a turnaround at a bench before returning to the Jay Trail.

Bench at the end of the Creek Trail.

We left the Jay Trail by taking a right on the Woodpecker Trail keeping right at junctions to meet up with the other end of the Jay Trail which we then returned on making a 0.7 mile loop.
Pond along the Jay Trail,

Junction with the Woodpecker Trail.

Big Douglas fir.

I continue to struggle to get a clear photo of a varied thrush.

Jay Trail junction with the Wren Trail.

Nearing the pond from the other side.

After completing this short loop we crossed NW Cornell Road and headed up the Al Miller Founders Trail.

The Founders Trail climbed up into increasingly snowy forest before traversing around a hillside to a junction with the North and South Collins Trails in 0.6 miles.

Stairs up to the trail junction.

The South Collins Trial offered a slightly shorter loop but we turned left on the North Collins Trail which climbed a little more before winding downhill and rejoining the South Collins Trail near NW Cornell Road.

Baseball sized jelly fungus, the largest we’ve seen.

Descending to the South Collins Trail.

More ice formations.

This was a 1.5 mile “almost loop” which required a 500′ road walk to return to the Founders Trail and the Wildlife Sanctuary.

We then made our way back to the Macleay Park Trailhead and the Wildwood Trail which we followed across NW Cornell Road.

Due to tunnel construction the road was closed just beyond the trailhead so we didn’t have to worry about traffic as we crossed. On the other side of the road we continued on the Wildwood Trail but soon found ourselves facing the slickest section of trail we’d encountered yet. Luckily we had brought our Kathoola micro spikes which we put on in order to get down the little hill.
We planned on returning via the Upper Macleay Trail.

Heather descending the slick section with a trail runner behind that had attempted to get up the hill but was turning back.

The trail runner had come up the Cumberland Trail which she said had been fine but above that trail things got slick fast.
Cumberland Trail junction.

The Wildwood Trail turned uphill at a junction with the Macleay Trail which is where things started to get really interesting.

Other than the one hill where we’d put on our spikes there had always been enough clear trail to find descent footing but now the trails were pretty much ice.

We held off putting the spikes back on though until the three way junction with the Upper Macleay Trail. We watched another trail runner slip and slide as they carefully made their way downhill and decided it was time to put the spikes back on.
The trail runner in blue.

With the spikes on we were able to confidently walk uphill, marching past a number of folks struggling to come down. We saw a few falls but luckily we didn’t see anyone get injured which was a real possibility. Besides us we only came across 4 other hikers with some sort of traction devices for their shoes.

Heather coming up behind me.

Arriving at the Pittock Mansion parking lot.

We had visited the mansion in 2018 (post) having come up from the other side on the Wildwood Trail and had hoped that this time we might get a view but alas the cloud cover had not moved on.
Pittock Mansion

A line of blue sky beyond the cloud cover.

Portland from Pittock Mansion.

Snowy foothills in the sunlight beyond the Columbia River.

Deprived of a mountain view we headed back to the Wildwood Trail where we put our microspikes back on and headed downhill.

With the spikes on we had no issues reaching the junction with the Upper Macleay Trail where we turned left.

The spikes stayed on until we had descended to Macleay Park and Heather re-donned hers again to descend to the Witch’s Castle.

Entering the Macleay Park Trailhead.

One last look at the Witch’s Castle.

When we reached Holman Lane we turned left and headed uphill. We followed Holman Lane just over three quarters of a mile to NW 53 Dr. where we turned right walking a short distance along the road to the Birch Trailhead. Here we picked up the Birch Trail which descended a quarter mile back to the Wildwood Trail. Going back this way not only let us experience a new trail but it cut a half mile off the distance to the Wildwood/Birch Trail junction.
Holman Lane started out snow and ice free.

Back to the snow and ice higher up.

NW 53rd Drive

Birch Trailhead

The microspikes went back on before descending the Birch Trail and stayed on for the remainder of the hike.

Sparrow foraging on the Birch Trail.

Back to the Wildwood Trail.

We turned left on the Wildwood Trail for 0.4 to the Wild Cherry Trail where we again turned uphill. This was another new section of trail for us and it was an additional three quarters of a mile shorter than returning via the Wildwood Trail.
Wild Cherry Trail junction.

Little snowman near the junction.

Is that a bit of blue in the sky finally?

Snowy mushrooms

The Wild Cherry Trail ended at the Dogwood Trail where we turned right for a short distance before reaching its junction with the Keil Trail.

A break in the clouds provided some blue sky above the Keil/Dogwood Trail junction.

We turned left on the Keil Trail retracing our steps from the morning to the NW 53rd Trailhead.

Woodpecker that wasn’t a bit concerned about my presence.

The Subaru waiting for us at the trailhead.

According to the GPS this was a 13 mile hike with around 2500′ of elevation gain.

Aside from not getting the views we’d hoped for this was a wonderful way to kick off the new year. There was good scenery, historical structures and a good deal of wildlife (even if most of it wouldn’t stay still long enough for photos). We hope everyone had a great holiday season and here is to a great 2022. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Forest Park – Stone House and Pittock Mansion