Dollar Lake Fire

General discussions on hiking in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest
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Stevefromdodge
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Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by Stevefromdodge » August 30th, 2011, 7:36 am

We were on the Vista Ridge Trail, on our way to Elk Cove on Sunday, when I noticed the fire. We headed back down and it wound up being kind of lucky. Our alternator died and we wound up dead on the side of the road near Sandy. That was easier to deal with at 2, than after dark.

andrew
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Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by andrew » August 30th, 2011, 8:31 am

**Edit**

As of 8/30/11, McNeil Point is not one of the closed trails.
Last edited by andrew on August 30th, 2011, 9:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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guernica
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Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by guernica » August 30th, 2011, 9:10 am

andrew wrote:Well balls. Guess I better go onto Plan B.
Well said. My thoughts exactly. Starting to think the Timberline Trail plan for me might be out this year. :evil:
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Trail Log: http://myroadstraveled.blogspot.com/

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bellaj1018
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Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by bellaj1018 » August 30th, 2011, 9:20 am

Map posted as of 9am: http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsint ... &%20Events

Trying to figure out if I should relocate my Cairn Basin via Top Spur hike I'm leading on Saturday. Looks like it includes Vista Ridge, Wy-East Basin and parts of Eden Park:(

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ErinL
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Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by ErinL » August 30th, 2011, 11:29 am

I spent the night near Elk Cove Saturday night, and ran into the same firefighters as Romann (as well as Romann and his family - nice to meet you!). The fire was so small Saturday night. The smoke from it looked like that from a campfire. Now, I'm watching the news and seeing how huge the plumes of smoke are. It's kind of crazy. :shock:

Steve - I thought I recognized you near the trailhead Sunday. Should have said something!

runnerwalkeroregon
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Location: This beautiful state.

Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by runnerwalkeroregon » August 30th, 2011, 7:51 pm

So I ended up hiking mcneil today. Called the FS headquarters and was told the trail was open (Andrew, not sure about what that rep told you, but McNeil isn't in the closure area on the posted map. Just got your message, thank you for your concern :)). No problems on the trail, the fire looked like it was on the other side of a ridge. It did make me nervous, but that's only because I'm a baby about those things lol. Met some people on the timberline trail who knew about the fire but not the closures so I gave them fair warning. I sure hope they're okay up there. I hope this isn't the last day of the McNeil we've grown to love...
Will be posting a trail report soon!

andrew
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Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by andrew » August 30th, 2011, 9:12 pm

Glad to hear that you were able to hike McNeil today! Was it crazy smokey over there? I ended up just going up to Elk Meadows for the day and it was really, really hazy, which just got worse as the day progressed.

I hope that my earlier post didn't mess up anyone's plans for McNeil today (I've since edited my original post to reflect that the trail is still open).

I did feel a tad worried when talking to the MH rep as to whether or not he knew what he was talking about -- he didn't know where McNeil Point was on the map and took awhile trying to locate it, but when he found it he gave me such a definitive answer that I figured he had more current information than the website, with its update lag-time, had. Sorry!

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romann
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Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by romann » August 30th, 2011, 9:18 pm

ErinL wrote:I spent the night near Elk Cove Saturday night, and ran into the same firefighters as Romann (as well as Romann and his family - nice to meet you!). The fire was so small Saturday night. The smoke from it looked like that from a campfire. Now, I'm watching the news and seeing how huge the plumes of smoke are. It's kind of crazy.
It was nice to meet you Erin!

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romann
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Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by romann » August 30th, 2011, 9:19 pm

Now, I hate to bring bad news, but this is the shot on Monday from near Timberline Lodge, looking in the direction of Mt. Jefferson :?
JeffersonWildfires.jpg
Btw hiked to Paradise Park and the flowers are fantastic, should be even better in the next couple of weeks.
Last edited by romann on August 30th, 2011, 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

runnerwalkeroregon
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Joined: June 14th, 2011, 5:50 pm
Location: This beautiful state.

Re: Fire closure near Elk Cove, Mt. Hood

Post by runnerwalkeroregon » August 30th, 2011, 9:26 pm

It wasn't smokey over there. You couldn't even smell it, but you could see some of the plume over the ridge. I think the wind is blowing it towards Cloud Cap.
I've had a kind of distrust for the knowledge of forest service workers due to hearing one's life story about surgery and the temptation to eat mcdonalds. She hadn't even hiked around Trillium lake and keeps recommending ramona falls and mirror lake to me. I don't even go in that place anymore. Based on experiences and the update time of their website, they seem to be needing a little direction for their unorganized state of affairs. /rant
Wish I could've told you it was open this morning. I left home at 7:15 and called on my way there.

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