While we still wait for better weather, I picked up a hike that offered distance, elevation gain and somewhat good shelter from rain. This hike had all three which was good, but what I forgot to put was a bit of scenery. This hike is interesting but not very scenic. With gloomy weather, the few good views almost disappear leaving this hike as a pure exercise jaunt to the top of the hill. With five other brave souls, we met early in the morning and drove to the Roaring River Campground that is closed for the season. After leaving our cars almost in the middle of the road, we walked past the campground to the end where we found the trailhead. Without much anticipation or warming, we started climbing thru a dense and very foggy forest where the only interesting thing was the rushing water of a nearby creek. After several switchbacks we got to a point right on the ridge with a limited view of the Clackamas River valley. Unfortunately views were not that good but still it was impressive to see down bellow and gauge how much elevation we had gain so far. From that point on, the trail turns on the North side of the ridge into a valley limiting all views. We crossed a couple of seasonal creeks on the way until we got to Grouse Creek. For the size of it, I thought we would find a bridge but there was none. After exploring around for a while, we just used logs and rocks to hop to the other side. Further up we found a second creek with no name that was a bit easier to cross. Right after that, we found snow which I was expecting, so we stopped for a bit to put out snowshoes on and continue on up. The forest was very nice but nothing impressive which is why I don’t have a lot of pictures to show. As we were hiking in rain and wet snow, my boots gave up and my feet started to get wet. Obviously that made them get cold so we made a stop for lunch that I used to change into dry socks and put feet warmer insoles. By then it was already early in the afternoon so we continued until we got to the fork with the Grouse Point trail. Knowing that views were going to be very limited due to the weather and since some of the hikers needed to be back in town early, we opted for turning around and heading back. I can’t say it was a bad hike, at the very least we got a very good exercise out of it.
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