Dome Rock, Tumble Lake from Detroit Lake 5/27/12

This forum is used to share your experiences out on the trails.
Post Reply
User avatar
stewvg
Posts: 65
Joined: April 30th, 2012, 2:05 pm
Location: Keizer, OR

Dome Rock, Tumble Lake from Detroit Lake 5/27/12

Post by stewvg » May 28th, 2012, 12:09 pm

I've been wanting to do Dome Rock for a while and after reading jessbee's TR a couple weeks ago I wondered if it might be tricky.

After having breakfast with some friends in Aumsville I got to the Tumble Ridge trailhead (Trail 3380, el. 1570) at a leisurely 9am. The trailhead is directly off highway 22, 1 mile after the boat ramp, no forest pass required.
IMG_0298.jpg
Trailhead
The start on a gated access road (to what?) and in less the 1/2 mile the real trail starts. The trail is in nice condition, climbing steadily. At about 3,000 ft el. the trail switches at the edge of the canyon with a first view of Elephant Rock. A bit further up the trial has some open area with view back to detroit lake and up to Elephant Rock with some early Indian Paintbrush starting to bloom. Even though it was mostly overcast the sun was poking through nicely...
IMG_0312.jpg
Indian Paintbrush
The meadow where jessbee fell through was mostly melted off the trail and quickly got to the forrest service road with the sign saying 4.5 miles back to the lake (I think more like 3.5).
IMG_0325.jpg
Meadow with first snow
IMG_0328.jpg
Sign at old forest service road
Unfortunately I forgot to start my GPS, but it certainly doesn't seem like that far. It had to look around for a minute to find where the trail crossed and I placed the old sign where the trail continues to make it more clear.
IMG_0329.jpg
Cross trail marker
Within a ~200 ft gain the snow began and it can be a bit hard to follow the trail before some tracks are laid. Just look for the pink spray paint mark every 100-200 yards or sometimes there was piece of yellow tape.
IMG_0333_edited-1.jpg
Snow on trail
After the trail levels out a bit it gets more sun and is mostly clear until the Dome Rock turn-off. The turn-off is easy to miss with the old sign growing into a tree so I built a small rock cairn to help. There were no visible track to the top from here, but once you get up to the ridge just follow it up and the rocky trail the last bit will present itself where the rock outcrop goes vertical.
IMG_0352.jpg
Trail to sumit
When I reached the top of Dome Rock I found the USGS Bench Mark with the elevation never inscribed (should be 4859 ft I think). The obvious remains of the old lookout including foundation, lots of broken glass, nails and steal cable still litter the area, but the view is great. Unfortunately Mt. Jefferson was hidden by cloud cover. Looking West toward Tumble Lake I could see that it was still mostly iced over, that was my next stop. I packed a little extra so I could have a cup of coffee in my Jetboil.
IMG_0361.jpg
Frozen Humble Lake
IMG_0364.jpg
Dome Rock toward Detroit Lake
IMG_0370.jpg
Coffee and lunch
After my coffee, water and food I continued back down to the main trail and proceeded toward Tumble Lake which adds about 3 miles to the hike. The trail is almost flat with some snow remaining until the Tumble Lake access trail which is also easy to miss if it wasn't for small stick with a piece of wood (no text) tied to it. The trail down to the lake is fairly steep (~800 ft) and snowy and it took some time to find the trail a few times until I finally lost it for good with complete snow cover near the lake. The lake are indeed mostly frozen still.
IMG_0378_edited-1.jpg
Tumble Lake
Now, remember where I parked the car... following my tracks in, the trip out went much faster as I tromped back through the now slushier warmed up snow. Back at the meadow with the first snow I saw the first 2 people of the day and shortly after that the 2nd and last people.

- Statistics -
Estimated mile: 13.5
Estimated elevation gain: 4200
Time with breaks: 7 hrs
Last edited by stewvg on May 29th, 2012, 6:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Stew
More of my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/stewvg

User avatar
Crusak
Posts: 3617
Joined: August 6th, 2009, 7:33 pm
Location: Oregon

Re: Dome Rock, Tumble Lake from Detroit Lake

Post by Crusak » May 28th, 2012, 12:55 pm

Fun and challenging day of hiking. That's a cool shot of the snow and ice on Tumble Lake. Great view of Detroit Lake from the top too.

Great report. It looks like things have melted off a bit since jessbee was up there.
Jim's Hikes

Solvitur Ambulando

User avatar
stewvg
Posts: 65
Joined: April 30th, 2012, 2:05 pm
Location: Keizer, OR

Re: Dome Rock, Tumble Lake from Detroit Lake

Post by stewvg » May 28th, 2012, 7:11 pm

Thanks Jim. I like your goal spreadsheet :), that's a good idea.

I wish the photos turned out better, I borrowed my wife's point and shoot instead of bringing my SLR. Next time I'll bring my SLR.
Stew
More of my photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/stewvg

User avatar
mileagemike25000
Posts: 475
Joined: February 8th, 2012, 7:40 pm
Location: Vancouver, WA

Re: Dome Rock, Tumble Lake from Detroit Lake

Post by mileagemike25000 » May 29th, 2012, 4:58 am

Stew - Great first TR and pictures! :) It does look like a great hike and unfortunately it's probably just beyond my day hike driving distance range. :( I was also looking at the nice spreadsheet that Jim has and will probably add something similar to my signature soon.

User avatar
Crusak
Posts: 3617
Joined: August 6th, 2009, 7:33 pm
Location: Oregon

Re: Dome Rock, Tumble Lake from Detroit Lake

Post by Crusak » May 29th, 2012, 5:20 am

Thanks guys. Last year I racked up a lot more hiking miles than this year. I've had a setback or two in 2012. The spreadsheet is something I uploaded to Google Docs. Once I figured out that I could share it as a web page I decided to add the link to my signature.
Jim's Hikes

Solvitur Ambulando

Post Reply