most grueling day hike near Eugene

[buckwheat]

Howdy -

I didn't get a chance to hike today, so I couldn't do anything overnight this weekend, which means tomorrow is all I have.

I'm hoping to do a 5-20 mile hike tomorrow within about 1 hours drive of Eugene. Whats the most difficult trail I can find? Something with lots of elevation gain and loss? Switchbacks? Bad terrain? Great views?

My car doesn't have the best snow traction, so I can't go too far into the Cascades. Rain isn't an issue, but I'd rather avoid snow if possible, even though I asked for a difficult hike, I don't want just to posthole into 4 feet of snow, as much as that would satisfy the criteria.

I haven't explored too much near Eugene, most of my summer hiking has been more up in the Cascades than down by the lakes and reservoirs and hills and trails closer to town.

[kaltbluter]

Are you familiar with the trail system on the ridge South of Lookout Reservoir? Cascade Single Track has a pretty good map.

Eula Ridge is one of the trails and I think it is the steepest trail near Eugene. It gains more than 3000', in less than four miles. The Hardesty summit is 4200' so right now I'm sure there's some snow on top, but I'm not sure how much.

Eula doesn't have any views other than forest and a kinda cool rock arch.
IMG_7496

You can make the Eula Ridge hike into a 15 mile loop by returning via Hardesty and South Willamette Trails.

Here is a TR from a fairly grueling hike I did out there a couple years back.

An option that should avoid snow would be doing Eagles Rest From Hardesty TH. About 13 miles and 2500' gain.

Kentucky Falls is a little more than an hour from Eugene but you can do a pretty long out and back on that trail. Here is a TR where the kids and I hiked the whole trail one way then returned on bikes.

[kaltbluter]

Here is a caltopo map of the Hardesty area. It is a mix of gps tracks and traced routes with a few notes added here and there. It's a mess but maybe it'll be useful to you.

[buckwheat]

It wasn't quite Ruckel Creek or Starvation Ridge. But it was pretty good.

I ended up hiking up the Hardesty Trailhead with plans of doing the Eula-Hardesty loop.

Unfortunately after about 3 miles in, there was 2 inches of snow, and it added about 2 inches every mile after that, so by the time I got to the presumably top of Hardesty, I was in about 8 inches, and couldn't make out any trails or junctions beyond the one I was on, so I had to hike back down without any loop. I'll post a trip report after work today.

[kaltbluter]

The junction of Hardesty and Eula Ridge is marked with this cut into a tree. Sorry, I don't have a better photo that puts it in context with the trail.
If you're heading uphill on Hardesty you'd see this on the left side of the trail at about 3900'. Eula Ridge heads off to the East from there.

[kaltbluter]

This picture is a little better. This is looking uphill on Hardesty Trail while standing in the junction with Eula Ridge Trail.

Hardesty Trail is the one shown on the right of the Trees. Eula Ridge is just barely out of the frame but it goes downhill just to the left of the Trees.

[BigBear]

With the snow level being so low (e.g. Valley floor on Monday), I'm assuming that snow isn't a factor if lots of elevation gain is what you seek.

I would say that Middle Sister is the most-grueling day hike close to Eugene (since North Sister is technical and thus a climb). Another option would be Diamond Peak from Willamette Pass. Neither of these options are appropriate due to the snow conditions, but then again, I'm not sure if you can even do a B hike without running into snow drifts.