It promised to rain almost all day, so I decided Trapper Creek was just the ticket. Most visitors to the Trapper Creek Wilderness hike one of the three main trails that take you to the major features of this small, wild area: the Trapper Creek Trail #192, the Soda Peaks Trail #133, or the Observation Trail #132. However, in the early 1980s, Mazamas crews, with permission from the Forest Service, designed a system of short connector trails designated as “primitive”: no wide trail benches, logs mostly left lying where they fell, and narrow rooty treads without switchbacks. I decided to do a loop that included three of the four Mazama trails with the user trail to Hidden Creek Falls thrown in.
One feature of Trapper Creek is the whimsical signage carved in his trademark font by Mazama Basil Clark when he was in his 70s (He has now passed away). Clark put up well-known signs for Devil’s Rest, Foxglove Way, and the Chetwood Loop, but at Trapper Creek he really went to town, and each of the primitive trails has its own little symbol that marks the way.
From the trailhead, it’s a lovely amble along the Trapper Creek Trail to pass the junctions with the Observation and Soda Peaks Trails. Big old growth is the theme here, and there are spectacular trees, especially Douglas-firs, throughout the wilderness. I passed the junction with the Big Slide Trail and came to the Deer Cutoff.
Deer Cutoff Trail #209
This trail cuts off a bend in the Trapper Creek Trail where the latter actually descends to Trapper Creek. I’ve always stuck to the main trail, so had never hiked this route before. It is in great shape and follows a contour, more or less, before dropping to a picturesque creek with series of small waterfalls tumbling through a narrow, rocky defile. The trail then rises and drops to meet up with the Trapper Creek Trail.
Hidden Creek Falls Trail
After rejoining the Trapper Creek Trail, I passed the junction with the Sunshine Trail and crossed Hidden Creek to hike up to a campsite on the ridge (The “new” footbridge over Hidden Creek is perched uselessly midstream). There are two Basil Clark signs for Hidden Creek Falls here, one of which has been gratuitously vandalized. This quarter-mile user trail (not an official primitive trail) swishes through the huckleberries, but there are several piles of blowdown along the way, so decent route-finding skills are necessary. You end up on the edge of a deep gully with Hidden Falls partially visible below. It’s a very steep scramble down to get a good view of the falls tucked into its atmospheric little grotto of an amphitheater. In the spring, they are a roaring plunge, but in early fall, they are reduced to a pretty trickle.
Sunshine Trail #198
The Sunshine Trail is a killer 1 ½ miles that ascends to Howe Ridge east of Observation Peak. The trail gains 1,750 feet in its first mile to meet the Rim Trail and then, after rising a little more, makes a descending traverse to join the Observation Trail. Signs warn that it is not maintained and there were a couple of spots where the fallen trees were so large I could not climb over them and had to make wide detours around to regain the trail. Aluminum diamonds and little Basil Clark suns mark the route every now and then. At one detour, I found an older tread of this trail, also marked by aluminum diamonds. For such a short trail, it is certainly quite grueling, but it is accumulating windfall by the year. On a ridge crest just above the junction with the Rim Trail, there’s a wonderful grove of ancient Douglas-firs that is worth contemplating.
Big Slide Trail #195
After the Sunshine, I hoofed it down the Observation Trail as a steady rain set in. I passed across a couple of talus slopes and admired more big trees before coming to the junction with the Big Slide Trail. This half-mile connector with the Trapper Creek Trail is in very good shape, but plunges rather steeply down the slope through maple-shaded clearings among mossy boulders, the remains of some ancient landslide. By that time, my camera was drenched, so all you get are a couple of watery snapshots.
Rim Trail #202
I hiked this trail last year as part of a loop that included Observation Peak and the upper half-mile of the Sunshine Trail (I did not post a trip report). At first, the Rim Trail follows a fairly obvious tread in and out of a creek valley before fetching up at one of the few viewpoints in the wilderness above a talus slope that gives refuge to a colony of pikas. From here, you can see to the twin summits of Soda Peaks. After the viewpoint, however, is where the Rim Trail gains its evil reputation. On a bench of springs and bogs, it becomes lost among the alder thickets and several times I had to walk in circles until I found a trail marker on a tree (The largest silver fir I have ever seen is here, though). Once you have left the bench, it’s only a short distance to the Trapper Creek Trail, but you want to make sure you stay high and don’t drop to the left, where you’ll plunge into a trailless bowl and be battling devil’s club for the next 24 hours (or for eternity).
Summary of the four designated primitive trails:
Deer Cutoff: short, good condition, pretty creek and waterfall
Sunshine: very steep, lost at times under windfall, big trees
Big Slide: short, easy to follow, mossy boulders and openings
Rim: Good viewpoint, trail completely disappears for a short spell near the west end, excellent route-finding skills required
