Oregon Hikers

Road was passable all the way up to the trailhead, some snow towards the end. Got started at about 4pm, lots of slush/water on trail from fresh snow melt, but feet stayed dry in gore tex ankle highs. Dirt turned to snow after about half an hour, and by 6pm and approx 7500 feet the snow was pretty deep but gaiters/crampons/snowshoes unneeded thanks to many footprints before me and careful foot placement. Got back to car at about 730, temp was about 40.

Two questions, at bathroom a bit down the road from the 2nd highest campground (Morrison maybe?) I heard what sounded like stock movie sound bite of cows mooing, did not investigate. Is it possible those were cows up there? Something else?

Surprised you were able to drive that high.

Many years ago, I encountered livestock on the round-the-mountain trail. It was pre-dawn, so I didn't see them until they were in headlamp range (i.e. pretty darn close). Imagine my shock at realizing my wilderness trail was blocked by cattle!

It's been a huge problem this year. Forest Service and Yakama Nation are responsible for maintaining the fence to keep grazing cattle out. They have a permit to graze below but the permit-holder is not the one responsible for maintaining the fences. This year those who were responsible for that (they need to be re-erected every year when the snow melts) didn't get it done. They were especially bad up at Bird Creek Meadows. I can only imagine how those flowers taste to a cow.

I wonder how much it costs to put up the fence, vs the money made from the grazing

how did the FS and yakima nation basically get stuck with having to change the diapers when someone else had a kid? could wilderness watch or someone sue for FS for defrauding the public by not doing their job? I don't know what the legal term is but that's inexcusable. If they don't have enough money to pay for the resources AFTER they're getting paid to have their land grazed, maybe it isn't worth letting the land be grazed.

There were lots of cows when I was in that area three weeks ago.

The FS could be sued but the Yakama have to put up a fence too and I don't know how they could be forced. Of course they have done it before. The Friends of Mt Adams (I'm on the board of directors) has made this an ongoing project. Lawsuits have been considered in the past, but we have generally found that we have gotten results by coaxing. A couple of years ago new fences were put up that were the best in a long time. Then everything burned down in the Cougar Ck fire, making all those gains moot.

I would assume that if we could get a response, the Yakama would say that dealing with the results of that huge fire is why they didn't get to the fence. For me the real solution is that the permittee should be responsible for their animals, and I don't know how the permit got written as it is or if that is normal or not.

Chip Down wrote:Surprised you were able to drive that high.

Many years ago, I encountered livestock on the round-the-mountain trail. It was pre-dawn, so I didn't see them until they were in headlamp range (i.e. pretty darn close). Imagine my shock at realizing my wilderness trail was blocked by cattle!

Me too! I was in my 20 year old sedan with 4.5" clearance, proud to say it did not scrape bottom once, but it was very very slow going. That said I probably wouldn't have made it a day or two earlier before snow tracks had been laid, it's front engined with RWD so even with snow tires it's awful in snow.

Very surprised that actually was cattle, thought people would say it was a moose or something, usually don't think of them being at elevation that high. Didn't know they let them roam into somewhat wild places like that, would think they would lose a lot to predation.

The cows will go where there is green grass. As the stuff lower down gets eaten or dries up, they go higher. They have been seen up near Hellroaring View at times. In normal times - when a fence is up but maybe has a few holes in it, the owner is called and comes and gets the cattle and takes them down. But with no fence up now, they are refusing to do anything as the cows just go right back up.

The predation question is an interesting one. I guess there just aren't that many predators on Mt Adams capable of taking down an animal of that size. Or maybe some were lost - we wouldn't really know.