Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

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Don Nelsen
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Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by Don Nelsen » July 28th, 2017, 12:26 pm

I've had Snagtooth and Hat on the agenda for over a year and finally got the chance yesterday (July 27th). My new biking workaround for roads closed due to washouts and rockslides saved much time and effort. I rode the bike a total of 5.7 miles RT and after a long and difficult hike, that effortless 20 MPH coast back to the car and refreshing cool breeze did a lot to re-energize me for the long drive back home.

The route to the TH is via road 90/93/9341 and is paved all the way to the TH. Lots of encroaching alder will scratch up the car on the last mile so be prepared. 2.8 miles from the TH is a huge rockslide but it is easily crossed on a bike and the road slopes gently uphill gaining a little over 600' elevation. The trail is rough and steep in places but easily followed to the east ridge of Snagtooth Mountain where an obvious use trail takes you another quarter mile to the summit. Total distance to Snagtooth's summit one way is about 1 1/2 miles.

The bike route part with Snagtooth in the distance:
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Goat Rocks from a saddle along the way:
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The pointy one is Sunrise Peak and the one on the right is Jumbo Peak:
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Dark Mountain:
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Craggy Peak and Kirk Rock:
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I could see Mt. Hood, Jefferson, St. Helens, Rainier and Adams:
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After bagging cfm's new cache atop Snagtooth, I was off for Hat Rock:
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McCoy Peak on the left with Mt. Rainier in the background:
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Cliffs on the NW ridge of Hat Rock:
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Kelly Wagner gave me advice on doing Hat Rock but I wasn't too keen on the perilous exposure on the south face. I decided to take a chance on finding a route up the north side. The cliffage as I made my way to my intended route made me wonder if I was doing the right thing!:
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Arriving at the north ridge I was happy to find a brushy but even grade unobstructed by cliffs or other serious impediments. About halfway to the summit the ridge gives way to some delightfully open meadows criss-crossed by faint game trails all the way up.
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Summit of Hat Rock:
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I did a little exploring to add to the adventure and the day ended up being 5.6 miles bike, 10.0 miles hike and 4,143' EG.

-dn
Last edited by Don Nelsen on December 29th, 2018, 5:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

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pablo
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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by pablo » July 28th, 2017, 7:16 pm

I could really do with some Dark Divide hiking, I've never been there so thx for posting and nice photos. Got a map? You should put a motor on that bike.

--Paul
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Don Nelsen
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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by Don Nelsen » July 29th, 2017, 9:01 am

pablo wrote:I could really do with some Dark Divide hiking, I've never been there so thx for posting and nice photos. Got a map? You should put a motor on that bike.

--Paul
Hi Paul,

Here is an overview and a detailed map of the route I took - without my misc. wanderings.

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Hmmm... a motor for the bike? If the road access gets much worse I'll have to do that!

dn
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"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by K.Wagner » July 30th, 2017, 2:47 pm

Don,

A great report. Your pictures sure show the scenery up there.

Your route was definitely "more saner" than mine, although considerably longer. And, it sounds like it lacked that essential pucker factor required for a certified adventure.

Yet another route to add, "As suggested by Don Nelsen"

Oh, does the trail make the odd climb up the north ridge that the maps show, or does it drop down the ridge line where you turned up? I am guessing that since you used a dotted line there, it drops.
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Don Nelsen
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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by Don Nelsen » July 30th, 2017, 8:31 pm

K.Wagner wrote:Don,



Oh, does the trail make the odd climb up the north ridge that the maps show, or does it drop down the ridge line where you turned up? I am guessing that since you used a dotted line there, it drops.
The trail appeared to drop very slightly and then turned directly to the north and did not do what the map says. The map is off by quite a bit in places as you can see from the rest of the track. I think I'll go back in a few days and continue on to P 5021 and also Holdaway Butte. It is a beautiful area almost entirely old-growth and high enough to hopefully let me escape the coming heat wave!

Don
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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by johnspeth » October 30th, 2017, 6:41 pm

Addendum, not the OP:

I did Don's Snagtooth/Hat Rock adventure just like it's written on Sunday Oct 29. His account saved me a lot of trouble and guesswork. It's very accurate. Thanks for the excellent work Don.

The hike was a real adventure, very high fun/effort ratio. The "problem" with hikes like this is the amount of time you can spend on exploring. By the time I arrived at the top of Hat Rock, I was out of time and needed to scoot back or else get caught in the dark. I underestimated the delaying effect of that crappy 9341 road and the time to ride my bike to the trail head.

The forest service obviously has a new and effective way of reducing the expense of our road inventory: neglect it and let Mother nature slowly reclaim the resource. Less cost and no effort. It's your NW forest pass dollars at work.

I was alarmed at the trail destruction done by motorcycle users in some spots. Some ruts were so deep that new ruts are necessarily being dug nearby. One very bad section is very steep and barely negotiable by any wheeled vehicle. Lot's of damage there. I thought about it all day: The motorcyclists do have a part in maintaining the trails but the tradeoff is destroyed sections. I wonder if the Forest Service is aware of the damage. Overall though, I found the ruts to be on the trails only. There was no sign of wanton abuse of the forest.

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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by ThePortlandeer » October 31st, 2017, 12:02 pm

or else get caught in the dark
No pun intended.

I remember reading the OP's post soon after it went up, and then sometime after that hearing an OPB piece interviewing Robert Michael Pyle who wrote a book "about bigfoot" and his exploration of the Dark Divide. The book is called "Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide." Despite its title, it reads more like a truly expanded trip report of an adventure in our own backyard than a cryptozoology thriller. He is a butterfly scientist and writer and gives some of the most detailed and beautiful plant and animal descriptions I've ever read, all framed in the context of the history of the area and the scientific rationale for the potential existence of a large, bipedal ape in our midst.

He talks at length not only about his own disdain for the motorcycles and ruts in the Dark Divide, but also the look the other way policy exhibited by the forest service.

I had a wonderful view of the Dark Divide from the Goat Rocks this summer and hope to explore the area soon when I have a chance.

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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by Webfoot » July 9th, 2018, 4:13 am

Do you know if the section of FR-9341 marked in green has been or is going to be made drivable again?

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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by drm » July 9th, 2018, 6:52 am

My experiences on the Dark Divide have been very negative due to motorcycles, but I think I need to set up a car camp on it's north side for a midweek trip that minimizes time on the Boundary Trail and bag a bunch of these peaks from that car camp. When the time comes to do that, I'm going to be searching oh.org trip reports for Don's maps!

And I'm sure the FS knows of the trail damage. But the motorcyclers are very good at removing down trees and there is a long history of them there, so the trail damage is just tolerated. My impression is that the access trails to these peaks are not so badly damaged, but I haven't hiked any of them. I've only hiked to the divide from a few places on the south side.

I would add that with continuing cuts on the Gifford Pinchot road budget and staffing, I doubt that remote roads are going to see much work. I mentioned in a different thread that the road staff was cut in half for the Mt Adams district this year. Even Road 90 is in terrible shape. Terrible potholes between Lower Falls and the 88 road junction, and some bad washouts above that make it a one lane road. And that section of gravel a couple miles below Lower Falls hasn't been paved in years and now has a very steep hill that some 2WD cars probably couldn't get up. The remoteness of the area greatly increases the cost of getting contractors out there.

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Snagtooth Mountain & Hat Rock- Dark divide adventures

Post by Don Nelsen » July 10th, 2018, 3:01 pm

Webfoot wrote:
July 9th, 2018, 4:13 am
Do you know if the section of FR-9341 marked in green has been or is going to be made drivable again?
Crews are supposed to start working on some of the roads on the north side of the divide in coming weeks but I've heard nothing about anything planned for the south side. You can bet those roads will be fixed if there is another timber sale where they need access though. The good with the bad!
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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