Devils Rest from Wahkeena Spring

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Chip Down
Posts: 3037
Joined: November 8th, 2014, 8:41 pm

Devils Rest from Wahkeena Spring

Post by Chip Down » June 25th, 2017, 9:31 am

On the hottest weekend of the year so far, I needed something quick and easy, with a short drive. I decided it was time to follow the enticing open ridgecrest that runs up into the Wahkeena bowl, and when the ridge ends I could hopefully bushwhack over to the edge of the bowl to continue up towards Devils Rest.

Hiking up the paved trail to Lemmon's VP, I wondered what I'd gotten myself into. It was already warm. I was sweating, and it wasn't even light yet. But I was at Lemmon's soon, and my spirits soared when I got off asphalt, and the Wahkeena Canyon was cool, as it usually is. I arrived at Wahkeena spring a little early, so sat and relaxed and filtered some water (maybe not necessary, it now occurs to me) and waited about 10 minutes until it started to get a little light.

I followed the westbound trail towards Angels Rest for just a couple minutes until I saw the ridgecrest ahead. The trail eventually crosses the ridge and continues on the other side, but it drops on the way, and the eastern slope of the ridge is remarkably open and not too steep, so up I went. At the crest I was disappointed. It's not as crisp or as open as it appears from the east. I had to bushwhack and wind around a bit until the ridge faded. Bummer.

Headed west from the end of the ridge, as planned. Very brushy. Followed clear spots until I saw a big talus field ahead. I could see it split up above, with a brushy zone separating the east lobe and the west lobe. I stayed east. I later discovered the west lobe runs right into the Angels Rest trail, near the Primrose junction, so good thing I took the east lobe. At the top (1680'), I schwacked a bit to connect to another little talus field, and at the top of that (1800') I decided it looked most clear to the west.

Tragically, when I hit the top of a gentle little ridge, I could see nothing but dense brush in all directions. This was devastating, but before I even had time to ponder options, I noticed a game trail! But then a few seconds later I realize this was no game trail. It had to be Primrose. Well, trail hiking wasn't on my agenda, but it seemed the best option, so up I went, intending to take it to Devils Rest. After maybe 2 minutes, I arrived at the open rocky area, and a couple more minutes after that I saw an opening to the east. I thanked Primrose for her help, and struck off to see what was over there.

Immediately, I saw cliffs and possible viewpoints above to the east, and started fighting my way through dense brush (thankfully it was flexible and thorn free so I could get through with brute force). With astounding luck, I found myself at the bottom of a boulder field (2050'), with boulders so big that it took some routefinding and easy scrambling to get up them. This was slow, but lots of fun.

Around 2180' things were getting brushy and steep. I had three options: Straight up through a series of sketchy breaches, or bushwhack right and up, or follow the brushy base of a cliff to the east. Option three won. The bushwhacking was steep and miserable, but after just a few minutes I spotted a narrow brushy crack angling back to the west. The crack was maybe two feet wide, so I wedged in and worked my way up. There was little in the way of handholds. The bush helped a little, but it wasn't all that sturdy, and I wondered if it was more help or hindrance. When I got to the thorny stuff, I knew I'd be better off without it. I dreaded the possibility of coming back down this crack, but the top looked pretty open, and sure enough, I popped out into a relatively flat open area at 2260'. From here I was confident I wouldn't have to go back down Satan's Asscrack.

This elevation put me level with the rim of the Wahkeena bowl, so I headed east, hoping to run into that spur trail that Devils Rest hikers can take to their right, leading to a viewpoint. It was just too brushy though, so I headed up towards Devils Rest following clear spots as much as possible. Lots of Devils Club, and it eventually dawned on me how appropriate that was. I didn't know exactly where I was, but I knew I was penned in by trails, so any direction would work. I met the DR trail at 2365', just about a hundred below the top. Although I was happy to see the trail, it would have been more fun if I had ended up at the top without ever hitting either trail. I headed down to the viewpoint to get an overview of my route, but I think most of it must have actually been west of the bowl rim. That's fine, I think my intended route would have been mostly brushy and viewless, so I'm happy with how things turned out. I backtracked and continued to the top of DR. Disappointed to see the grotto was devoid of the little nick-nack collection.

Took Primrose down. It was much easier than when I descended it in Feb 2016. It was overgrown in spots, but I never questioned where to go. Strangely, I arrived at Angels Rest trail never having seen the point where Primrose leaves the old roadbed at the modern sign that somebody mounted to a tree. How odd. Maybe this time of year the brush is dense enough that it's easy to overlook such things.

Just below the end of Primrose, as I was heading back towards Wahkeena on the AR trail, I crossed the top of a talus slope descending eastward, and surmised this must be the top of the western lobe I wisely eschewed earlier. I considered dropping, taking a shortcut that would also hopefully be enlightening and interesting, but I dreaded a descent on unstable rocks (the eastern ascent had been a little sketchy in spots) and I didn't particularly relish the bushwhack at the bottom, so I stuck to the trail. But first, I stopped for a long break on a shady rock. It was warm, but as predicted it was also windy, as it had been since I left the trail at dawn back at Wahkeena Spring, so it was comfortable. In fact, at this point in my hike the worst heat I had experienced was probably that miserable asphalt ascent to the Lemmon memorial. After a chance to air out my feet and refuel and linger, I headed down the trail.

The next goal was a descent of Pablo's Gully, between Mist Falls and Wahkeena. I was going to look for a spring below the trail between Wahkeena and Mist, and see if I could follow the creek down if it didn't get too brushy. I didn't remember exactly where it was. When I reached that point where eastbound hikers can see the creek below Wahkeena Spring off in the distance, I knew I had gone too far. I backtracked until the trail crested the ridge I had ascended at the start of my hike, just west of Wahkeena Spring, and continued just a little further west until I realized why I missed my no-name spring: The wind was drowning out the sound of the splashing creek. I realized the spring was much further east than I hoped. Its gully was steep and brushy, and my map showed it must drain into Wahkeena, so that was pointless. Scrapping my Pablo's Gully plans, I decided to descend my ridge below the AR trail. It was a bit brushy, but there were clear spots too, and it looked promising, but soon it took an abrupt dive. Because I couldn't get a clear sense of where it was going, I decided to abort. A bypass around the step would have been ugly, with no promise of good things ahead. Rather than returning on my ridge back the way I came, I traversed towards Wahkeena Creek. It was arduous, but not completely miserable. I kept getting forced up, and eventually I came to my senses when I hit a wall of Devil's Club, so gave up and ascended straight up to the trail. On the far side of Wahkeena Creek I explored a bit. It's so open up there, one has to wonder if it would be possible to find something worthwhile. A northbound trail looked promising, but soon faded in the brush, so I gave up and whacked eastish until I ran into Wahkeena trail, and back to TH.

On the way home, I stopped at Latourell to go behind the falls. I've done that when there was a huge snow crater, and it was fun to see how it looks in the summer. I actually didn't expect to get a parking space, but I spotted a nice opening on the safely-wide shoulder across the highway.

Also stopped at Vista House for my first-ever visit. They've never been open when I drove through. Nice. I spotted a misidentified pic, I think. Looked like it must have been near Roweena Plateau, but was captioned as being on the west end of the gorge. Saw some mispellings and grammar errors too. Neat spot though, es expected. Interesting to compare the dedication photo vs the restoration ceremony. Many more people in attendance for the 1917 (?) event. ("Fake news!")

Flipflop rant one: It was slightly congested at Fairy Falls, so I didn't dawdle, and crossed the bridge quickly when I had an opportunity. It's not a difficult crossing, but it requires a modicum of attentiveness to avoid slipping on the log crossing, so my eyes were down. When I was back on ground and curving around to the left to follow the trail, I had to do a little jig to avoid stumbling over a tripod and camera! Wow! I wasn't upset about it being there as much as I was amazed it wasn't attended by somebody watching for inattentive hikers. I bet its owner was getting a self portrait. That's the only sensible explanation.

Flipflop rant two: We all know the agony of getting caught behind dawdlers, but the guy in front of me stopped at a narrow spot where half the trail had collapsed. He turned to talk to his partner, who was behind me. So there I was, sandwiched between them, because he couldn't be bothered to stop 5 feet sooner or 5 feet later.

Flipflop rant three: As I was exiting Vista House, a couple in front of me stopped right in the doorway. She exclaimed "views don't get better than that". The accuracy of her statement aside, I really wanted to entice her by saying "if you take one step forward and then one step to the right, the view is even better." Because, you know, that would be so much nicer than saying "get the hell out of my way, you're standing right in a doorway".

Flipflop rant four: You've probably seen people stop on the highway to enjoy the view...but have you ever seen them do that when miraculous luck granted them a parking space right where they're blocking the highway? All they have to do is pull over into this amazing parking space that just happened to open up seconds before they arrived, but no, no need for that when you can just park in the lane of travel. Those people backed up behind you? They don't matter. Nope, not one bit.

Flipflop rant 5 through 87: No, I better not. Let it go, Chip, let it go.
Attachments
0.jpg
The Wahkeena Bench is missing.
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Lost and found. If this is yours, send me a PM and I'll respond with coordinates so you can go retrieve it. You're welcome.
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Notice the black chunks of asphalt from the trail above.
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The first break from bushwhacking after I left the ridgecrest west of Wahkeena Spring. Felt great to be able to sit on a rock and enjoy scenery for the first time.
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Surprised to see this. Very much out of the way.
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Top of a talus slope, looking down my route. The illuminated ridgecrest must be the one I took up from Wahkeena Spring. Behind it, that clear spot on the ridge overlooking the Columbia, must be Memorial Viewpoint (not Lemmon's, but the closed VP to the east of Lemmon Point)
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Looks like I'm cliff-edge, but nope, I'm on the top of a big-ass boulder, one of many that I got to scramble up just before Satan's Asscrack. Across the river, just barely at the edge of frame, is Archer Falls (don't look for it, it's barely a trickle this time of year). To the left of that is the curvy ridge and cliffs of St Cloud.
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Still no pox.
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Looks like it's about to pull out, right? Nope, parked there, front end slightly on the very-narrow HCRH.
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On a scorching summer day, nothing as quite as refreshing as a barleywine. Well, except maybe a pilsner or a IPA or a oud bruin or a heffe or ...

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acorn woodpecker
Posts: 240
Joined: January 4th, 2013, 8:35 pm

Re: Devils Rest from Wahkeena Spring

Post by acorn woodpecker » June 25th, 2017, 5:24 pm

Good you didn't go down "Pablo's Gully" this time of year, unless you like a triumvirate of steep wetness, loose soil, and chest-high spring growth to obscure your every footstep. However, you would have avoided some of your flip-flopper rants had you survived the descent to your vehicle!

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Bosterson
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Joined: May 18th, 2009, 3:17 pm
Location: Portland

Re: Devils Rest from Wahkeena Spring

Post by Bosterson » June 26th, 2017, 8:33 am

So you went up this ridge, as seen from just east of Wahkeena Springs? It looked neat, too bad it sounds like it's not super interesting.

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I went up the gully in question the previous weekend, and going down it is not recommended unless you have Lurch on speed dial. Chest high brush in the lower part:

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And everything is super wet and loose in the upper part (one of your batman-ing trees is poking out to the left of the falls). The ground slides under your feet and all the plants are weak summer growth, not strong enough to grab. (Ever have ferns break on you? These ones are all bright green, not woody yet.)

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Chip Down
Posts: 3037
Joined: November 8th, 2014, 8:41 pm

Re: Devils Rest from Wahkeena Spring

Post by Chip Down » June 26th, 2017, 8:13 pm

Damn! :shock:
For comparison, here's an earlier pic of approximately where Bosterson's last pic was taken. Maybe I'll try it next winter.
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amphitheater.jpg

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