Fish Creek Mountain, Feb 6th

This was a weird outing. Fish Creek Mountain is located near the Clackamas River near Estacada. Due to its elevation, this is a trail that should be done more towards the summer when the snow has melted but since we had a window of really warm weather, I thought there was a good chance of doing this without snowshoes. The other detail is that this trail was almost abandoned some time ago as the original access road was washed out back in 1996 leaving the trailhead completely inaccessible. In recent years an alternate route was opened from the east side of the mountain mixing part of the old trail and a new section. So we got there and our first surprise was that the road was covered in snow so we were not able to drive to the actual trailhead. After leaving the car, we hiked on the road for a while until we found a fork going in the direction we wanted to go. According to my map, the trail was supposed to be there and run parallel to a very old logging road. With the snow and overgrown branches we missed the trail and took the road. That ended up being a bit of a torture with tons of ups and downs, slippery rocks, postholes and a lot of branches in the way. After bushwhacking for a while, we actually got to a second road that looked much cleaner and with no snow which we took. After walking for a while, we found a trail marker that was actually the trail that we had missed so by then, at least we knew we had taken the wrong way but we were back on track. At the end of the road we finally found the original trailhead which is still, amazingly, clearly marked. From there it was very easy following the trail up the ridge as it climbed. We found a bare spot on the ridge that on a good day must have some impressive views where we stopped for lunch. From there we continued to the summit and I must say that it was rather disappointing. The area is basically covered with tress so there are some limited views of the valley below but more than that, you can’t really tell that you are at the highest point. Also, since we were in some deep snow, we were not able to see any trail markers indicating we were at the actual summit. After walking around for a couple of minutes, we started heading back and took a detour to go check High Lake. This lake is tucked in the forest in what seems to be a shelf. It was complete covered in snow but judging by the scenery around us, it must be a little gem I the summer. Then it was the return back to the car, this time on the actual trail that proved to be easier and faster than the road we took on the way up.