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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