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.

You can see the rest of the pictures here

Interactive map

To see the full map, click here

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

You can see the rest of the pictures here

Interactive map

To see the full map, click here

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.

You can see the rest of the pictures here

Interactive map

To see the full map, click here