School Canyon / Little Badger Loop - June 11, 2017

This forum is used to share your experiences out on the trails.
Post Reply
User avatar
mattisnotfrench
Posts: 1318
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

School Canyon / Little Badger Loop - June 11, 2017

Post by mattisnotfrench » July 24th, 2017, 9:20 pm

Over the past few years I've gone to work on my third guidebook, something I'm calling PDX Hiking 365, which will be out early next year. As I work on this book, I've felt the need to also revisit hikes I wrote about in my first book, Off the Beaten Trail, which I published in 2013. After all - you can never do a hike too many times, especially when you've shared the information with others.

With that in mind, I'd never connected Little Badger Creek with School Canyon. I've done both many times, but never together. It was time to change that. We piled into the car on a Sunday in June and made the long, long drive out to the eastern side of the Badger Creek Wilderness, one of my favorite places, to make this dream a reality. As we only have one shared day off, it had to be a day hike - even if it meant leaving the house at 7AM and getting home well after 7PM.

We finally arrived at the Little Badger Trailhead around 9:30. As always, I had to check on the condition of the extremely dilapidated toilet at the trailhead:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 003 small.jpg
It's seen better days. If you're using it, remember to bring your own TP, and to look for the spiders below the toilet seat... :shock:

Once we hit the trail, the challenge was finding the right place to head uphill towards the School Canyon Trailhead. After about 0.2 mile, we made a right turn and began heading uphill. I promptly chose the wrong line and put us off course, which necessitated a little more steep uphill than was planned. The views were great, though:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 009 small.jpg
As were the flowers:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 008 small.jpg
After some consternation and grumbling, we finally stumbled out onto the North-South Road, about 0.1 mile south of the School Canyon Trailhead. The promised 1/3 mile of off-trail was actually 0.9 mile. It felt like longer.

Once on the School Canyon Trail, we were finally on familiar terrain. Brush has begun to crowd the trail:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 014 small.jpg
The flowers were also mostly toast in June (they typically peak here during the middle of May). Once we arrived at the saddle below Ball Point and began to traverse the backside of the point, we were greeted with many more flowers, and views north to Pen Point and Tygh Creek:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 025 small.jpg
I'm always comforted by the sight of the seldom-used and absurdly steep Tygh Creek Trail on the opposite side of the ridge.

Beyond Ball Point, ceonothus crowds the trail in some spots, giving me uncomfortable memories of all the times I had to fight through the stuff while writing 101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region. There was a lot of it in the burned areas on this trail:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 028 small.jpg
Finally, at 4.9 miles we arrived at the helispot just past the Little Badger junction and sat down for a well-earned lunch of sandwiches, chips and juiceboxes. I never get tired of this spot, or the beaten-up sign that marks the spot:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 032 small.jpg
The other thing I needed to check off my Badger Bucket List was to visit the spring near the helispot. It took a few missteps and a bit of doubling back but finally we found it:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 034 small.jpg
It was such a lovely spot it was hard to leave. We then hoofed it back to the Little Badger junction and turned right to head downhill, towards Kinzel Cabin. I was reminded of a time that me and some friends found this sign on the ground, and spent 20 minutes rebuilding the cairn below the sign to make sure it stood upright. This time it was in good shape:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 036 small.jpg
The stretch of the Little Badger Trail from the School Canyon junction to Kinzel Cabin loses 900 feet in just 0.7 mile - and somehow, it doesn't really feel as steep as it should. As usual, the flowers and trees and views through here make you stop more than you would descending such a steep trail. There is much to see, such as junipers and rocky hoodoos:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 046 small.jpg
...and gracefully curving ponderosa pines:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 048 small.jpg
It's enough to make you smile while your knees take the punishment:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 043 small.jpg
Once we reached the bottom, Kinzel Cabin greeted us like an old friend:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 057 small.jpg
From the cabin, it was 3.8 miles of occasional uphills and long, gradual downhills through the ponderosas to the trailhead. We passed a lot of flowers, though most of them were past peak. We did find this lovely specimen of collomia somewhere along the way:
School Canyon-Little Badger Loop 070 small.jpg
But for the most part, it was a long and peaceful walk back to our car. What a day!

Hike notes:
* The drive is longer but easier via Tygh Valley; the stretch into and out of Badger Creek on the way to Little Badger is narrow, rocky and irritating
* The off-trail stretch is somewhere between 0.7 and 0.9 mile, long enough to make you really think about car shuttles. It's worth it, but I'd recommend a GPS, or map and compass, at least if you're heading uphill. If you do the off-trail stretch in reverse it's probably easier to navigate, but there are lots of small gullies and draws that could send you off-track.
* The School Canyon and Little Badger Trails could both use some maintenance. There aren't too many issues, but they are both brushy in spots with a few downed trees.
* Flowers peak here in May, as mentioned above. Come here after May and it's mostly brown, with a few late bloomers to add color.
* Little Badger Creek is not where it shows up on the map; sometime in the 90s it was rerouted well above the creek. The old alignment of the trail, still reflected on maps, stuck to the creek, crossing it EIGHT times. The rebuilt trail is lovely, even if it avoids the creek for a good stretch.
* The Little Badger Trail is featured in my first book Off the Beaten Trail, while School Canyon (at least) will be featured in PDX Hiking 365. The off-trail stretch combining the two will not appear in the new book, as it isn't something I would recommend to inexperienced hikers.
* 10 miles exactly, 2,500 feet of cumulative elevation gain, and a lot of driving. But oh, oh so beautiful...

As a closing shot, many years ago we camped near School Canyon in the fall, only to be greeted with the most amazing sunrise:

Image

Image

There's just something about the Badger Creek Wilderness that speaks to me. Visit and you'll see why. Just don't tell anybody. :D
Author of Extraordinary Oregon!, PDX Hiking 365, 101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region, and Off the Beaten Trail. Website: www.offthebeatentrailpdx.com

greenjello85
Posts: 554
Joined: July 31st, 2014, 1:31 pm

Re: School Canyon / Little Badger Loop - June 11, 2017

Post by greenjello85 » July 27th, 2017, 3:32 pm

mattisnotfrench wrote: There's just something about the Badger Creek Wilderness that speaks to me. Visit and you'll see why. Just don't tell anybody. :D
Agreed! I haven't made it to the east side of the wilderness yet but hopefully soon. Maybe next May :) Great sunrise shots

User avatar
retired jerry
Posts: 14398
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: School Canyon / Little Badger Loop - June 11, 2017

Post by retired jerry » July 27th, 2017, 5:11 pm

yeah, that is about the most dilapidated toilet I can think of :)

Post Reply