Latourell Falls, Jan 7th

Some of you may know that, after the Eagle Creek fire this past summer, I got engaged with Trailkeepers of Oregon. This organization does trail stewardship and advocacy. With them I’ve gone on several work parties ranging from cleaning an existing trail to creating a new trail were there’s none. Since some of the activities also involved maintenance, there was a need to scout a couple of trails on the Gorge to identify needed work. When I saw that, I quickly signed up. The first trail I scouted was this short loop in Latourell Falls. I must confess that I had never done this loop before and part of it is because I tend to put aside trails that are too short as it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to spend more time driving than hiking. I must also say I was pleasantly surprised with this loop. It’s indeed short and doesn’t have a lot of elevation gain, but it goes by a couple of pretty impressive waterfalls. Most of the elevation gain happens in the first section as you quickly start climbing towards the upper fall. You can see the lower fall from the trail but soon you leave it behind. The trail meanders thru the forest always close enough to the creek as you get deeper into the canyon. Finally, the trail ends at the upper waterfall which is a sight ion its own.

From here, you cross to the other side of the canyon and the trail eventually takes you away from it, but it gives you some views of the Gorge. I found that a lot of people don’t take this route as there’s a foot path and log crossing that makes an even shorter lollipop loop just covering both falls, so I did find a bit of solitude on my way down. What I liked about this route though is you almost forget you still have the lower falls to visit and they do come at you quickly after a turn. The lower falls is far more impressive than the upper fall as the water plummets down a basalt formation. When I went by the wind was blowing from the falls and it was a bit rainy so taking a good picture was a bit of a challenge but in the end, I managed.
As far as the scouting report, I did find several minor drainage issues that need to be fixed plus one tree that fell on the trail blocking a double switchback and a root ball that’s resting on the side of the trail. I’m not sure when but I believe we will be fixing all these in the next couple of months.

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Drift Creek Falls, Dec 31st

We couldn’t finish the year without a hike and being down in Newport, we had a handful of choices. At first, we thought about doing the Thumb but with the recent rainy days, we thought it would be muddy and very slippery, so we opted for Drift Creek Falls which is always very rewarding. From Newport, the drive there is longer, or at least seems longer than is should be as it goes thru a vey windy road. I’ve always wondered about those roads asking myself is that is by design or just happens while following a natural feature like a river or canyon. Either way, once we got there, we took the main trail going down where we cross paths we a lot of other people with the same idea as us. The forest was lush and beautiful but cold. I thought I had enough layers but as we were hiking downhill, I quickly learned that I was wrong. I do remember shivering a bit and trying to warm up by walking a bit faster – it didn’t work. Once we got down to the bridge we were welcomed with a bit of sun. It was not enough to feel the temperature difference but at least it made us feel better. WE took some pictures from the bridge and then hiked down to the lower view point where I took a couple of long exposures. On Our return, Marci stayed on the main trail heading up back to the parking area while Cindy and I took the alternate high trail that goes up to the ridge to descend back to the main trail adding about half a mile and some variety to the hike. After that, we drove back towards Newport making a stop in Otter Bay where we said goodbye to 2017 with the most spectacular sunset I’ve seen in a long time

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Barlow Butte, Dec 10th

After a stretch of cold and rainy days, we finally got a couple of clear days. Taking advantage of the window I opted for one of my favorites route to go test the snow. From the start, we noticed that snow was actually pretty low and even nonexistent in parts to the point that, for most of the hike, I used my microspikes instead of the snowshoes. Still the route was rewarding as it always is. Going up the trail proved to be much easier that other times as the trail was clearly visible. It was still a good workout to get up there and with the very cold weather, we couldn’t stop for long. We were constantly battling between not getting to hot and sweaty while hiking and getting cold when we stopped. When we finally made the ridge, we found about a foot-deep snow although pretty firm. The view point was nice but very windy so we just made a quick pass by it and then continued into the forest just for the protection of trees. Fr our vantage point we could see that the city and probably the Gorge was under the cover of low hanging clouds. We had lucked out with clear blue skies. The back-country portion of the hike took us this time thru a meadow and a different approach back to Barlow Road. When we got to Barlow Road, we had to switch to snowshoes as snow not only was deeper and fluffier. Coming down started at a good pace but then we started noticing ice crystals the size of small maple leaves. I’ve seen and taken pictures of this before but this time, the ice crystals were even bigger.

I stopped several times both on Barlow Road and then no Mineral Jane to take some more pictures before tackling the uphill back to the cars.

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Labyrinth and Coyote Wall, Dec 3rd

Since there wasn’t a lot of snow yet up in the mountain and it looked like it was going to rain – again, I decided to once again go east towards dryer lands. Coincidentally (or not) it seems this time of year, when we are transitioning from Summer to fall to winter, hiking on the eastern side of the Gorge is the way to go. So, this is another variation to the old classic loop that includes parts of Catherine Creek and Coyote Wall. Rather than start from the Catherine Creek trailhead though, his loop starts from a trailhead right in the middle. There are a couple of advantages to this particular route as some of it is not used by mountain bikers so finding a parking spot is usually easier. The first part of the hike starts going west on the old Hwy 8 route. If you were to continue all the way around, you’d end up at the Coyote Wall trailhead but instead, less than half way thru, there’s a trail that goes up towards Hidden Canyon. This trail quickly ascends thru rock formations and enters a forest pocket that looks almost like a piece from a fairy tale. Before coming out on the other side, there’s a foot path heading towards a rock outcrop that it’s worth visiting as it opens the views to the eastern Gorge.

The trail continues up passing by a couple junctions before reaching the Atwood Road that connects Catherin Creek with Coyote Wall. At that point it was the normal route heading west towards the wall with magnificent views of the gorge to the side. The only piece of scenery missing was Mt Hood as it was hiding inside a huge cloud. Wind was howling and got stronger as we got closer to the Coyote Wall view point. It was cold but the wind certainly made it feel like it so we bundled up once we got there and before continuing up to the upper view point. I had thought we would be able to stop there for lunch but the wind didn’t let us so we got in the trees until we found a more sheltered spot to grab a bite before heading back down.

To head back, we took the Crybaby Trail that follows the Wal ledge about half way but then veered to one of the trails that connected with the Little Maui trail. Again, this is a trail that is not as busy with mountain bikers and descends a bit further east offering more shelter from the wind. It also makes the return route a bit shorter when it lands back down on the old HWY8 which you take all the way back to the car. All in all, another great day.


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Devil’s Peak, Oct 29th

So, I needed something short but not too short that would still give me a good workout. There are few hikes that meet these criteria so I picked Devil’s Peak from Cool Creek as it pretty much promises that plus wonderful views from the fire lookout. Since I posted the hike later in the week, I didn’t get to many takers but still got a pretty decent group of fast hikers. After the short drive and getting to the hidden trailhead in the forest, we started our slow climb to the ridge. The elevation gain is consistent the entire length so it doesn’t let you take a breather and for some reason, nobody in the group wanted to stop. Aside from that, there’s not that many views to talk about on the way up so we just huffed and puffed at a pretty speedy pace. The forest was dark and mysterious with sunshine rays filtering thru the trees. Then, we finally hit the upper section where you take a short detour to the fire lookout and there we were, in front of the immense view of Mt Hood right in front almost at arm’s length. Sun was bright above us giving us perfect temperature to stop for a byte before heading back down. I took the opportunity to check the southern end of the top which opens view to Mt Jefferson and Three sisters.
There was a bit of haze so colors were a bit strange. After that, we took our gear and retraced our steps back to the car taking advantage of the downhill. Once we got down and check the time, we noticed that it was just after 1PM so the hike did deliver – short but a good workout with the added bonus. Not bad for a Sunday.

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