It was another unseasonably nice day in the Eugene area, so I tackled the
Lawler and
Patterson Mountain trails. This was easily the best hike I've been on in quite some time, and I feel like I got very lucky with timing. The recent spate of warm weather and rain has washed away most of the snow we got a few weeks ago, but we're not in mountain biking season yet. There were spots I wouldn't want to tackle with substantial snow on the trail (off-camber, steep, rocky portions) or with mountain bikers whizzing down the hill (narrow, steep hillsides) but I didn't have to deal with either of those things today.
There's a lot of storm debris down on the trail, but only 3 spots where I had to bushwhack slightly around large deadfalls. I saw tracks from one crazy biker that were a few days old, but mine were the only bootprints on the trail.
I decided that I didn't want to park right on Hwy 58, so I headed up FR 5840. This is signed as Patterson Mountain Road at the highway intersection. If you're coming out from Eugene and you get to the CFN station, you've gone a bit too far; turn around and take the first road up the hill. After a short uphill, the first left is FR 531. Follow this a bit less than a mile to the crossing of Duval Creek, right after a prominent trail sign, where there's a parking area big enough for 3 or 4 cars. Theoretically you can continue up 531 to 535 to the
Lawler Trailhead, but the Forest Service notes that the access road is blocked by a slide. The lower part of the trail is officially the Lawler Trail extension, I guess.
- Duval Creek parking
Elevation at this point is around 1200'. Duval Creek, by the way, is probably the last reliable water on the trail. There were a few trickles further up, but I doubt any of them are year-round. So plan to carry whatever you need for the day. It was nippy when I parked just after dawn, and I walked back to the trailhead I just passed, which headed pretty quickly uphill before leveling out for a bit of gently sloping mossy forest walk. After about a mile I came out to a paved road. A bit of puzzling over the map revealed that I'd actually taken the trail back down towards the Eula Ridge trailhead on Hwy 58, even though it was headed uphill for this first mile. Oops. I turned around and went back to where I'd parked. It had warmed up a bit by this time, so I left a layer in the car and crossed Duval Creek to find the actual trail I wanted. Well, an extra two miles never hurt anyone.
The trail switchbacks up the steep hill to the east of Duval Creek. It's steep enough you can get glimpses of the creek for the first 3 or 4 switchbacks.
- Climbing up from Duval Creek
After a sustained uphill portion, the trail crosses over the ridge and dips into a small valley before climbing back up a bit to the start of the Lawler Trail proper, about two miles from where I parked. This section has been re-routed from what's shown on the
Adventure Maps Oakridge map, which is otherwise pretty accurate for the whole trail. It's super-easy to follow though, so no chance of getting lost. Where it meets with the main Lawler trail, you can turn left to find the official trailhead (somewhere....I went a hundred yards that way to investigate without finding anything other than trail), or to the right to keep going up, which is what I did.
- FR535 intersection. Trail I came up to the left, trailhead somewhere ahead.
Here is starts becoming obvious that a lot of this trail is designed with downhill biking in mind. All of the switchbacks are heavily banked, there are some jumps built-in, and even some fun little meanders that don't really make sense if you're on foot. Nothing I really minded, but a good reminder that there are other trail users (and I'm sure those users have done a lot of the trail-building here, so I am thankful for them).
- I'm sure the bikers enjoy this
The trail continues its uphill climb, with some steep sections and some very mild inclines. After a while it crosses a line of moss-covered cliffs and heads up the ridgeline.
- Coming up to the cliff line
Another few miles from the trailhead I came out into the sun on the other side of the ridge.
- About to come into the sun
Which put me at a meadow just down from 3200' Rock Knob (the meadow is just a short side trail to the left from the main trail).
- Meadow at Rock Knob
And here was the first payoff for the miles of uphill: a gorgeous view of the surrounding views and Lookout Point Reservoir. I stopped for quite a while here to enjoy the view and take a bunch of photos. The temperature had dropped notably and the breeze was stronger here, so even though I was in the sun I also put a layer back on.
- View from Rock Knob. The most prominent point here is Hardesty Mountain
From Rock Knob, the trail continues up the ridgeline, mostly at a pretty gentle incline. Along the way there are several other opportunities for great clifftop views. There's also a small burn scar in this section, but it was quickly crossed and most of the trees were still standing.
- Another Lookout Point Reservoir view
Around 3700' the trail crosses a gravel road, I think FR 217. At this point there started being patches of frozen ground and 3-4" deep hard snow. I put on microspikes though honestly I probably would have been fine without them, though there were a couple of icy stretches where I was glad I had them on.
- Frosty ground and fungus
After another short steep portion of switchbacks, the Lawler trail goes over a small rise and ends at the Patterson Mountain trail. Here I turned right and followed it a short distance to the Lone Wolf shelter, elevation 4268', which is in good shape and made a nice spot for lunch.
- Lone Wolf shelter
Following the trail from here takes you to the top of 4885' Mount Patterson (or at least close enough that you can hit the top with a thrown rock). It's evident that this high point in the area gets the brunt of some storms - the trail winds between a dozen large trees that came down a few years ago.
- Old storm damage
The trail ends at the western summit, where there's a memorial bench to Roland Vilett: "Mountain Biker, Trail Builder, Friend." I never met the man, but if he's partially responsible for this trail I'm grateful to him.
- Memorial bench
And as you might expect there were more great views back up the Middle Fork from here. I was glad I'd made the entire climb.
- View from the top
Of course, by this time it was 1:30 in the afternoon, so I was glad there was nothing more to do than turn around and retrace my steps to the car. I was in deepening shade for most of the hike down, but moving fast enough that I didn't get chilly (though my knees did complain after a bit). Overall, counting the unplanned side trip, I did about 21 miles today. If I ever get a similar late winter weather opening, I'll certainly hit this hike again.
