Jones Creek to King’s Junior, Nov 14th

Also known as the Lester Creek Trail, this trail is actually a section of the Wilson River trail in the Tillamook Forest. What makes it appealing though is that this is the only section of the 30+ miles of the Wilson River trail that doesn’t run next to the river or highway 6 as it has to go around some private property. Since it was only three of us, we decided to start from the Jones Creek trail head rather than Diamond Mill. Not only it added a bit of distance to our hike but also, it was easier and faster to reach. The first part of the hike, going towards Diamond Mill was a nice walk thru dense, fern covered, coastal forest. Along the trail we could hear the North Fork of the Wilson River until we got close to it and spotted a small waterfall. We found a side trail to a view point right across the river with a clear view. There was a way to get closer but with the wet terrain and mud, it would have ended with us falling in the river. Around the corner from that point is the famous (or so they say) hanging bridge over the Wilson River. In season it’s easy to spot Salmon as they swim against the current. After the bridge, we started climbing thru more dense forests and very limited views due to the weather. We found a spot that probably has some impressive views of the Lester Creek Valley but, as you’ll notice in the pictures, we only saw clouds. As this spot was not good for a rest stop, we continued up on the muddy trail until we got to the next opening. From there we could barely see a huge rock formation which I believe is the Lester Pinnacles. My original intention was to just make it up to that point and then turn back, but since it was so anti-climatic, we decided to continue on for a while. In the map I had, there was a short trail connecting the Wilson River trail and the King’s Mountain Trail that went over King’s Junior Mountain starting from one of the ridges. We started looking for the trail as we went over the ridge and were not able to see it on the first pass. Noticing that we were already heading down on the other side and that we had missed the junction, we turned around and headed back. This time, we did notice a very faint path going steeply up the ridge. We took the turn and started heading up. This section was not long but it was definitely steep, so much that at the top we found a sign naming the trail the Coronary Ridge. Obviously we didn’t get the views although I bet they are fantastic which is why I will have to try this again. After a short lunch we turned around and hiked back the same way.



You can check the pictures here

Twin Lakes from Barlow Pass, Nov 13th

First snowshoe of the season so I guess winter is here. This was kind of last minute hike that I decided to join and ended up leading it. This event was originally posted by Susan but since she was feeling a bit sick, I took over. The original plan was actually to do the lakes look from Frog Lake but I was a bit distracted while driving so we ended up in Barlow Pass which gave us access to the same trail but from the north end. The first part of the trail was an up and down roller coaster ride thru the dense forest without a lot of views. Part of it was because we didn’t have the best of weather. In fact, my camera was in my backpack at the time. The snow wasn’t great either as temperature was still a bit high so snow was melting fast so it was more of a slushy mix than anything. We got to the fork that heads to the lakes and continued to them doing the whole loop around Upper Twin Lake and then continued to Lower Twin Lake. We thought about doing the entire loop reaching the second fork with the PCT to head back up to Barlow but with the weather and lack of scenery, we decided to head back the way we went. As you’ll see in the few pictures I was able to take, there’s already a winter feeling despite the fall colors around the lake. It was still inspiring



You can check the pictures here

Cripple Creek and Serene Lake Loop, Nov 6th

With all the crazy weather around here, I started looking for something further south to go explore and found this very nice loop in the Roaring River Wilderness. This hike combines several trails to form a double loop that climbs up via Cripple Creek, then goes around Serene Lake and the trails to the Rock Lakes and then comes back down on a different trail to the starting point. What all that means is that this trail offers a wide variety of scenery and features. The drive there was kind of tricky as this trail is not at the end of a road with a well marked parking spot, in fact, as we were driving we spotted a trail sign between the trees which made us stop, get out of the car and go check it out. So after getting ready for our 11 mile journey, we started meandering thru the forest and passing by a couple of open meadows with shallow lakes. A bit after that, we came to the much bigger Cripple Creek Lake which gave us the first fall color display of the hike. After circling one side of this lake, we continued up to a bigger meadow where a second faint trail joined our trail and then seemed to disappear. The meadow was an interesting sight with lone trees and islands of shrubs on a yellow grass field. From the guide, I knew we had to just continue straight, thru the bushes to find a campsite which is on the Serene Loop Trail. Not only we found the campsite but also the tree eating the trail sign!

Hungry tree


At that point, we had the option to go clockwise or counter clockwise. We opted for the clockwise as that would give us better views along the way. We hiked up thru a dense forest for a while until we reached a clearing and a fork. There was no indication of which way we needed to go so we kept straight as that went out into the clear. That was not the trail, but it was the viewpoint that offers the best view of Serene Lake down bellow. Even with a cloudy weather, the view was fantastic. We then traced back to the fork and took the other route which started descending on the back side of the ridge towards the North end of Serene Lake. Once there, we explored a couple of campsites and then continued North to the end of the lake where a small creek comes off. Then we started climbing again on the other ridge and passed thru several almost flooded areas and small pools that eventually took us to a four way fork where you can veer off to any of the Rock Lakes. We decided there to go check at least one of these so we headed off trail towards Middle Rock Lake which, in my opinion, was a lot more scenic than Serene. Once there, we took a break and explored around for a while before heading back to the main trail.

View of Middle Rock Lake and the pyramidal rock


The trail then continues up until it ends at the other entry point for this loop at Frazier Camp. That spot was a bit disappointing not only for the rutted trails and roads but also because the next couple of miles were on an old service road. At some point the road becomes a trail again and we you least expect it, you start getting a familiar scenery as you approach the Cache Meadow on that faint trail we saw on the way up. We did some fooling around in the area (that you can see in the rest of the pictures) and then continued down on a different uneventful trail back to the car.



You can check the pictures here

Tom, Dick and Harry and beyond, Oct 31st

Tom, Dick and Harry is a hike I’ve done a couple of times both in the winter and in the summer. On a clear day, this hike is fantastic as it offers one of the best views you can get of Mt Hood as it towers up right in front of you. This hike also passes via Mirror Lake which, also on clear days, reflects the mountain on its waters. To spice this hike a little bit, I studied the map and noticed an old trail behind the ridge of Tom, Dick and Harry with two lakes. IN the map they show up as Slide Lake so I wasn’t sure which one was it. My idea was to hike the ridge, find these lakes and then head back out. With three other brave souls, we started our hike early in the morning and at a very brisk pace. We got to Mirror Lake almost in record time and were surprised to see that the weatherman had been a bit wrong predicting the weather. Originally it seemed it was going to be cloudy and maybe even rainy, but once in the lake, we were welcomed to patches of blue sky and sun. Since James had not seen the lake before, instead of taking the quick route that meets the trail to the summit, we did the loop around the lake and then continued up. As I remembered from past trips, the hike up is just that. A trail that circles the mountain with several nice views of the valley and the highway down bellow until it switches back on the ridge and continues to the summit.

View of Mt Hood and Mirror Lake from the summit


After a quick lunch, we continued, traveling east on the rocky ridge of Tom, Dick and Harry. This portion of the trail was all new to me so I was pretty amazed with the views of the mountain, the rock walls and the ridge itself. While traversing the ridge, I noticed a small valley down bellow with several frozen lakelets that I didn’t know about. According to the map, a creek starts from there but the lakes are just tiny blue dots. We continued on the ridge until we got to the top of one of the Ski Bowl ski lifts. In a map nearby I learned that those lakes and the basin it’s known as the five lake basin which made wonder if there was a way to hike thru there on our way back. We continued for a short while on the back side of the ridge and at some point decided to veer off and start navigating towards the lakes. At some point we discussed turning back as we were not having any luck in finding the lakes and we were descending quite a bit. Just when we were about to do that, I noticed an opening in behind some trees and there it was, Slide Lake. This was probably one of the most beautiful scenes I’ve seen as the lake was not completely frozen but had a snow cover. That gave the lake a flat grey color that was just amazing.

Slide Lake


From there, we started circling the lake looking for an easier way up back to the ridge. Coincidentally, that travel route was roughly in the same direction to the second lake so we almost stumped on it. This time though, we were not able to get close to it so we continued our way up to the ridge. After a while we finally made it back to the top of the lift and, as we were hiking back started looking at the Five Lake Basin with the same idea I had earlier in the day. We studied the map a little and decided to go off trail again towards the lakes and the cut to the west to head back towards Mirror Lake. All that sounded really good in paper so we just started heading down. That’s where the hard part of the day started. First we had to go down on a very steep, snow covered, rocky slope that eventually got us to the lake basin. On that slope we managed to sink in almost every single posthole there was, so it was not easy going. Finally at the basin we walked thru these lakes admiring the beauty of the area.

One of the lakes in the Five Lake Basin


We then continued descending thinking we were going to find an easy path towards Mirror Lake, wishful thinking. At some point we found ourselves looking down on a very steep drop off so we had to turn back and retrace part of our steps moving farther west which in turn made us go to another abrupt edge with a big drop off. By then it was already getting a bit late and the sun was quickly moving down. To make it worse, there were some menacing grey clouds moving in the area as well. So our best bet was to just bushwhack down towards the highway thinking that our worst case scenario was a long walk on the road. So after figuring out a good direction, we opted for the one that offered better chances for us to grab to something, which meant going down slopes covered in Rhododendrons. I have to say that we got to love those trees. They are flexible yet very strong and don’t snap back at you that bad. Still, a machete would have been a good thing to have for a change. We finally made it to the lower forest and taller trees which made moving much easier and quicker. By then it was almost dark so we shoot a straight line towards the creek that runs alongside highway 26 and followed that back to the car. We finally got out of our adventure with enough light to get in the car and just minutes before the rain started. That’s what I call an awesome day!



You can check the pictures here

Siouxon Creek, Oct 30th

With a rainy day on the forecast, I started looking for a good forested hike and decided to visit the Siouxon Creek up in Washington. I already knew the area a bit as I hiked a portion of this trail when I did the Huffman Peak hike a while back, but back then, it was already dark and we were on our way out from a very long day. This trail, instead of doing the hard climb to either ridge on the side of the creek, just follows it for pretty much as long as you want to follow it. Wanting to do a somewhat easy hike, we started from the middle trailhead that quickly descend thru the forest and gets to the creek. This part of the hike was thru a very dense and dark forest full of ferns and the smell of wet wood. Being a gloomy day, it gave this area that eerie look that was very nice. Once we got to the creek, we started following it upstream and getting only small glimpses of it. As we meandered thru the forest, we got some nice views of the creek and some of the waterfalls but not that turquoise color you usually get on sunny days. That was compensated by the immense variety of mushrooms on the trail though. My initial plan was to head up and find a bridge to cross the creek and then continue towards Wildcat Falls to stop for lunch but we never found that bridge. After exploring possible routes to take and finding that any would have required fording the creek, we decided to turn back, stop in one of the campsites for lunch and then head back to the cars.



You can check the pictures here