The trail starts at the French Pete Trailhead which is located across from the French Pete Campground on Road 19 (A mile beyond Cougar Reservoir). Road 19 or Aufderheide Rd runs between the McKenzie Hwy 126 and Hwy 58 near Oakridge.
The trail promptly enters the Three Sisters Wilderness passing through nice old growth and several access points to the creek.
After 1.8 miles of some up and down trail we arrived at the first crossing. There had been a bridge here years ago but now if you want to continue on you either ford the creek or attempt to cross on a log jam just downstream. We inspected the log jam but given the wet weather the logs were rather slick and we decided that it wasn't going to be the best option on this day.
As I mentioned the Third Edition of 100 hikes mentioned a possible third option to the ford or log jam, a rough 1.2 mile scramble trail along the north side of the creek. Where the trail turned down toward the creek there was indeed a rough trail leading further along the creek so we decided to try that option versus the ford.
I also mentioned that it was not mentioned in the Fourth Edition and we soon discovered why and I do not recommend attempting this route. The tread was very narrow with some blowdown and a few sketchy spots before when after about .4 miles we came to the spot of a slide about 15' above the creek. The path (and I use that term lightly) dove down the slide to the creek bank. I made it down but when I turned around I could tell my Wife was not going to be able to do the same. I managed to get back up to where she had gotten crossed up and helped her do a controlled slide in the dirt/mud down to a log that she was able to stop herself on. We wouldn't be going back that way so we sallied forth to the next big obstacle - a slanted rock shelf traverse.
We managed to find enough footholds to not slip into the creek which was quite deep in this section and then was stymied again by another big slide. While I was attempting to find a way around this new obstacle my Wife realized she lost her phone. We backtracked having to recross the rock shelf to the spot of her slide where I found the phone wedged against the log and covered in dirt. Luckily it was inside its case and undamaged. When we turned back to find the phone we had only covered about half the distance needed to rejoin the official trail and neither of us wanted to tempt fate with a third crossing of the rock shelf. From where we were we could tell by the GPS that the trail was just on the other side of the creek so across we went.
From the far side we had a pretty good look at the slide area that had started all the trouble.
We came up from the creek about 10' from the trail and continued on our way. The trail in this section was a bit overgrown but in pretty good shape given most hikers turn back at the first crossing.
We made it to the second creek crossing where a nice cedar log serves as a suitable bridge.
We had another 1.8 miles to go after the second crossing to reach the 5 mile marker. This section of trail was also fairly overgrown and narrow but there were no major obstacles along the way. The trail climbed up above the creek at times passing through a grassy meadow and past some nice rock formations.
It also provided some of the best views of French Pete Creek.
We returned via the official trail after reaching our goal.
We only ran into three other groups of hikers, all on the way back between the trailhead and first crossing making for a nice quiet hike.
