I did my first non-snow camping of the year on Saturday/Sunday. I was going to go Friday to the east side of Badger Creek, but the weather forecast kind of sucked pretty much everywhere, so I decided to do an overnight nearer (to Portland).
I decided to try for something around the Sandy River near Ramona Falls. I wanted some solitude, and looking at the map I saw a couple of places along the Sandy and Muddy Fork that looked like they could have views of Mt. Hood and be off the beaten track. Drove to the Ramona Falls parking area on Saturday and started out with my 35 pounds of pack (I had gear I wanted to test, and I didn't expect to be hiking far).
There was a family with kids crossing at the usual spot and it looked like they were going to take a while, so I started up the south side of the Sandy to see what possibilities there were for camping. I got less than a mile upstream from the crossing point and decided the answer was "not much," and went back to the crossing, which is pretty easy right now, especially if you aren't too short.
I headed cross-country up the Muddy Fork. This was do-able, but involved a mile of bushwhacking – or more like treewhacking. This is a forest of small, closely spaced trees in a marshy area, interspersed with patches of devil's club.
If I didn't have gaiters and my probably-should-be-patented pole mitts on I think I would have given up. I suspect that this will become really unpleasant in a couple of months when the trees and devil's club leaf. And I imagine that all the marshy ground will mean hoards of mosquitoes at some point.
Once I got through it, my reward was an open, rocky spot along the Muddy Fork south and slightly west of Bald Mountain with lovely views up and down the canyon. Unlike around the Sandy, I saw no sign of people, and only a couple of piles of elk (?) droppings.
The view above is looking west. The slope on the right/south side is the northwest side of Yokum Ridge.
Sunset was lovely.
A peaceful night led to a beautiful Sunday, starting with some clouds and then becoming very sunny.
Bald Mountain
I really wanted to get across the river to get better Mt. Hood views, but I couldn't find a place to cross that I was willing to risk alone. So I just spent some time just hangin' in the hammock.
Eventually it was time to go home. I decided to try hugging the bottom of Yokum Ridge in hopes of avoiding the worst of the small tree forest. This worked to some extent, but involved climbing over a good deal of big tree blowdown and some significant devil's club patches. I suspect there is just no easy way to get through that mile, which must be why my chosen camping area seemed pretty pristine, given that it is less than a mile and a half from the main trail.
I was almost back to the trail when I saw my first big patches of snow. Prior to that, the biggest patches I saw were maybe 20 feet long, with most less than 10 feet. The trail itself had the biggest patches of snow. In fact, if I had come on the trail rather than going cross-country, I may have expected more snow and not tried to get to my chosen destination. Ah, luck.
Night Below Bald Mountain
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