Badger Creek

[OregonianRager]

Badger Creek to Badger Lake 5/4-5/6

Seems like alot of people wanna know the full trail, well here it is folks! In a nutshell once you hit about the Gumjuwac area it starts getting splotchy on the trail with snow. It definitely is almost 2inches to a foot of snow for the last 2 miles or so. The lake itself is pretty snow free, pretty decent availability to lay out tents, but I honestly will say after day hiking up from Pine Creek only, it was a slog and my group was plenty fine with using the vaulted toilet, eating a small lunch and heading back to the Creek.

We hiked in Friday, got to Badger Creek TH via the Tygh Valley Route, first time doing that and it was amazing. There were only 2 cars at the TH, which kinda bummed me out because I really wanted to camp at Pine Creek this time around. Any hoot, as we were heading up the trail a huge group of maybe 12 or so older hikers came down and said they only went a few miles up, but they had some van rentals at Bonnies Crossing. The trail is in pretty good shape, with no real major blow down before Post Camp Trail, well atleast nothing that seemed new to me from last year. Some maintenance has been done on the major blowout of gravel about 2 miles in or so as well. Either way it was smooth sailing all the way to Pine Creek. We passed a friendly group of 3 tents that were setup by that old dam site, and then another group just before Pine Creek. Doing the math I was pumped, we had the creek!

The next day we took our time as we were base camping at the creek, loaded up the pup pack, and some day packs and we hit the trail. There are definitely some larger trees that have fallen, i did some due diligence with my machete to make some things not so ridiculous, but the trail defienitely needs some love up near the Gumjuwac area. We got passed the two bridges with fairly little effort, and then we started hitting the snow. It was relatively warm by that time and the sun was shining, making the snow pretty tough trekking. Id be very very cautious, as we had a few people sink into their hips, especially near downed trees. The last mile or 2 to the lake definitely wore on everyone. Hard. It was a tough grind, everyone was swamped, and in my own head, i knew the lake was kinda lackluster, even more so it was snowed in. I dunno, maybe it's just me but of all the alpine lakes, Badger is my least favorite. It's just dusty, ant-ridden, and bare. The spillway I think really ruins it for me. Personal beef i guess.

Either way, the lake finally appeared and morale was lifted. We got down to the spillway and my girlfriend and I just ate before the crossing as it's not really put together yet with logs, and theres a large snow bank, you can cross lower as well. Either way we ate lunch, and unfortunately forgot sunscreen, so being exposed, we headed back down the trail. We only saw one other pair of hikers near the Post Camptrail on the way down, and I kinda in a sense gave them the yeah, you can goto the lake, but at the time of day it was i recommended the spot by Post Camp, it's definitely one of the nicer spots on the trail.

Anyway, I figure that's the info alot of people were pining for. I never posted something here before, but I've used this resource alot, and alot of the reason i even went was this thread, so hope someone finds use of this. Hope to see you guys on the trails!

[Waffle Stomper]

Thanks for the update.

[drm]

Yeah, thanks for the update. Sounds like snowshoes would have been helpful for that last part. Badger Lake is not the prettiest alpine lake, and isn't really even alpine. But it's the first backpackable lake that melts out around here.

[retired jerry]

and it's not really a lake, but a reservoir

thanks for the update, ought to be better in a couple weeks