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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Almost Mt Margaret from Norway Pass, Oct 15th

The Boundary trail AKA Trail #1 in Washington is one of those long trails with multiple access points and destinations in between. It runs for over 50 miles and was originally designed as the limit or border between the Mt Rainier National Forest and the Columbia National Forest. Today it marks the southern border of the Cowlitz Valley District covering, for the most part, the southern side of Mt St Helens. On the western side, the trail starts at Norway Pass going uphill to the pass which opens to some of the most spectacular views of Mt St Helens and Spirit Lake. It then continues around connecting with the Johnson Ridge Observatory that looks straight into the volcano crater. I saw these views once before when I hiked this trail by myself several years ago and then ago when I backpacked the Mt Margaret Backcountry which uses a portion of this trail to close a loop. Thinking of the views and possible fall colors, I organized a hike there not expecting a big surprise. Being early winter I was expecting bright yellows and reds along the trail but what we were not expecting was snow. As we drove to the trailhead, we passed several patches on the road and found a thin layer at the trailhead. That didn’t stop us but made the hike a bit more interesting. Right from the start we were slipping and sliding on the snow making our progress a bit slower than expected. The colors were what I predicted, bright yellows and reds contrasting with deep blue and patches of white. It was almost a magical scenery as we gained elevation looking at Meta Lake and south towards Mt Hood. Then we reached Norway Pass which opened to this view

We had perfect weather with some clouds on the sky but no wind and generally warm. We continued on the trail getting our shoes and socks wet on the melting snow as we gained elevation. We made several short stops at different viewpoints to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. As we gained elevation, the snow got deeper so some of us put on traction devices to help with the sliding. Snow was a bit slushy but it still helped a bit. Towards the northern side of the route, where the trail climbs towards a saddle to the junction with the Whittier trail things got a bit more difficult and eventually we lost the trail. Instead of following the route to the saddle, we hiked up a small knob with great views of Mt Margaret and St Helens to one side and some of the lakes of the Mt Margaret Backcountry area on the other. We looked at the map and compared what we were seeing with the trail ahead and noticed nobody had gone that far so the snow was packed and heady going forwards. Closer to Mt Teragram, just before Mt Margaret, we could see the trail was not only covered in snow but it was also shinny indicating it was probably frozen solid. That area is slanted so falling from there was a risk we didn’t want to take so instead of continuing, we made that our stopping point and started heading back. We made a shot stop at a nearby ridge and walked a bit off-trail to a view point where we found some rocks to sit on and have lunch with a pretty decent view. The route back was the same retracing the same views which had only a minor change. With no wind, Spirit lake became completely calm reflecting the Mt St Helens on it. I don’t recall ever seeing this but clearly an image I wont forget.

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Coronary Ridge, Oct 8th

So I thought a short hard hike would be a good thing after a full day of trail work in Bend. The part that I didn’t consider was that Bend is three hours away from home. Ok, let me back up a second here. Some of you may know that after the Eagle Creek fire I heard my calling and I’ve been volunteering with Trails Keepers of Oregon. It’s a great organization that does trail stewardship. For the most part they organize work parties in the Gorge and around Mt Hood but are trying to expand statewide. Following this effort, they participated in a trail maintenance summit organized by the Mountain Biking Community so they had this event which included a morning with interesting lectures and the afternoon working on a trail in a nearby park that will be opening later this year. It was a great experience but to participate, I had to leave my house at 5AM on Saturday and didn’t get back until about 7PM. I was super tired and needed some sleep so went to bed early to wake up early again on Sunday for this hike. Fortunately, the drive to Kings Mountain is short and the hike is not that long – it’s just steep. Weather was not perfect but at least it wasn’t raining still, it made the lower part of the trail very eerie as we were walking through clouds. Once we got to the junction where you veer off to Coronary Ridge – which I was amazed to be able to recognize as soon as we got there, the skies cleared up a bit. We huffed and puffed up that mountain and got to the sign pretty quick Views were still magnificent even though we could not see that far. As we continued thru the ridge, we walked thru overgrown sections of the foot path collecting all the water from the leaves. By the end, when we got to the Kings Mountain trail my pants were drenched. I guess I should have thought about grabbing the gaiters that morning. I was pretty warm from the exercise so decided to just keep pushing uphill towards the summit of Kings. As I climbed my pants dried up completely so when we got to the picnic table, just below the summit, I was completely dry.

We made our last push to the signpost and signed the logbook before retracing our steps to the open meadow for a quick bite to eat. Once we started getting cold, we packed our stuff and headed back down, this time taking the Kings Mountain trail all the way to the car. Once down, we celebrated the achievement of the day with a picture and then stopped for well-deserved lunch and the corresponding beer. As you might guess, I crashed as soon as I got home and didn’t open my eyes until Monday morning.



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Two hikes in one day part II: Bunker Hill, Sep 30th

Once we got back to the trailhead from Falls Creek Falls, we took a short break to eat before jumping back in the car to drive from that railhead to the starting point of this hike. That drive took about half an hour as we missed one turn and then overshot the trailhead. Bunker Hill doesn’t have a real trailhead as I’s a short hike up a butte that veers of the PCT, so you can start from anywhere you can get on the PCT, even from Mexico or Canada if you wanted to do a long hike. If you wanted a trailhead with a bathroom, you could start from Trout Creek which adds a couple of miles to the hike. The way I had chosen to go in was just off NF-417 on the Old Bunker Hill road as it was the closest entry point to reach the hill. The reason we overshoot when we drove by is because, as I mentioned, there’s no trailhead. The PCT just crosses this road and that’s it. Once we saw the crossing, we had to backup and find a parking spot on the side of the road to leave the car. Once we did, we walked back to where we saw the crossing and got on the trail. Right from there you get a full view of Bunker Hill and I must say, if any hike can give you an idea of what it is before you get there is this one. When you read “Bunker Hill” what comes to mind? Probably something like this

The first part of the hike is pretty much crossing that field as you approach the hill. Once you get in the forested area, a trail sign indicated where you need to veer of and leave the PCT to start climbing. The hike itself is not very interesting as it doesn’t have views along the way on the numerous switchbacks you go thru. The top also has limited views but there’s a spot that is a must if you are doing this hike. Towards the top (there’s no sign, but you’ll know you are getting there) there’s one last switchback to the left. At the corner, there’s a user path to an opening that stands on top of a rock formation. Even if you don’t continue to the top, it’s ok. This is the reward for this hike as you can stand on top of the rocks and see the Wind River Valley to the north. We had a cloudy and rainy day so we couldn’t see any further, but I believe that, on clear days, you get a view of Mt Adams from that point.

We did reach the top where the only thig to see is the remnants of an old fire lookout tower (only the concrete pillars are left). From there, it was just retracing our step back down which we had to do at double time to beat the incoming rain – ad we did it just in time

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