Opening picture: North Lake and turning trees.
I sort of missed autumn last year - an early wind storm took the color off the trees as soon as it showed up - so this year I wanted to head out as soon as things started to turn. It felt a little early, but I spent yesterday rambling around the Gorge hunting for color: from Herman Creek TH, I first followed the 400 to Wyeth, then took Wyeth up to North and Rainy Lakes, meandered around a little to see some trails I'd never seen, and took a quick hop up Green Point Mountain before taking Gorton Creek back to the trailhead.
I left home early: my knees have been a little sore since the JMT (viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22658), and I wasn't sure how fast I'd be walking.
This meant that I got to walk into the sunrise as I took the 400 east to Wyeth.
I'm not exactly sure how far it is from Herman to Wyeth, but it went quickly, and soon I was at the Gorton Creek bridge.
The junction - or: "junction" - here is a little confusing. At some point 400 becomes the Wyeth Trail (411), but the transition is, as best as I can tell, completely unsigned, and I wasn't sure I was on the right track for a while. I needn't have worried: there are no turn offs to worry about. But still.
A short while later, there was another creek (Harphan?), which was pretty, if a little low.
Then... up. Wyeth's not awful, but it's not all that gentle either - a bit under 4000' in a bit under 4 miles - and I slowly truffle shuffled for the next while.
A little ways up, there's an old water tank or something in a sort of improbable place. Not sure what's going on there (?).
Notice the graffiti: "Ed & Laurie / San Diego, CA... / God & Love (& Defacing History)"
A little ways further, there was a big log - the first significant blow down I'd seen - into which someone's carved a few very nice steps. I sat on one for breakfast.
From here, the trail just got better and better - first running along a small stream trickling through the tree roots, then into increasingly vivid fields of color.
Headwaters of Harphan Creek?
Oh, and there were views!
St. Helens, looking a little bald.
The trail passes a junction with the Green Point Ridge Trail then descends slightly, and views open up to Mount Defiance in the east.
It was maddeningly difficult to capture, but here the colors really came out too.
After crossing a dry Lindsey Creek, I walked up a hundred feet or so to the rock dam on the northeast shore of North Lake, where I had an early lunch and took several thousand pictures.
I meandered a bit on the way to Rainy Lake, but eventually found the famous privy.
The lake itself was perfectly pretty, though a little less spectacular than North Lake.
I rambled a bit more, tried and failed to find the Black Lake Trail (409A, see discussion here), and eventually ended up ascending toward Green Point Mountain. I loved the color framing the talus fields.
All the usual views from Green Point weren't so bad either. After spending so much of the summer away, it was nice to see the home team.
Adams
Hood
Defiance
Nice too to see the line between forest and desert so clearly. I don't think I'd ever noticed it before.
From Green Point, I took a sort of circuitous route part way down the Green Point Ridge Trail to the Ridge Cutoff Trail, then finally to Gorton Creek, which I followed all the way back. So much bear grass!
Self Portrait
A little ways down Gorton Creek, there was a massive, and massively beautiful, talus slope. At first, it was just lurking through the trees.
Then boom! The sun made it difficult to get good pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it: the thing was gorgeous. Or, better: go!
Adams, Overexposed.
Beyond the slope, things got a little hairy for a while with lots of brush and washouts. I get the impression this part of the trail doesn't get a lot of use.
The trail's in the bottom left.
The trail's in the center.
Even this, though, was interspersed with several smaller rock slopes, each lined with red and gold.
Eventually, past a couple junctions with trails coming down from Nick Eaton, the quality improved, and it was just easy, shady walking. I stopped for a late afternoon snack.
I dawdled enough on the way down that the sun was setting by the time I reached the trailhead. There's something nice about that, though: beginning and ending with the sun.
This trip marked the end of a project I've been vaguely working on for a few years, of trying to walk on every numbered trail on the Oregon side of the gorge (someone beat me to the punch: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20031). I won't say much here, because I take it that most people here have probably also walked on most of these trails, but, as I drove home, I kept thinking about how unthinkably lucky we are to have this place.
