Doing Thru Hike Of Chinook Trail - Need Help From Wahtum Lake To Troutdale

[reverbhiker]

I am set to start my thru-hike of the Chinook Trail starting October 1st - do you have any suggestions on how to hike from Wahtum Lake to McMenamins Edgefield? My proposed route was to take trails and forest roads outside the fire closure area (south of it), but I just discovered that my route would be in the Bull Run watershed, which is off limits. I may have to take the PCT from Wahtum Lake through Cascade locks and into the WA side, and go back the way I came from there to Lucia Falls Park. Any ideas, suggestions or people who might have some advice?

Thanks

Sean

[retired jerry]

The Columbia Gorge Express goes from Cascade Locks to Gateway Transit Center. You can get from there to Troutdale on TriMet. Not what you were thinking about.

Lucia Falls is far from Troutdale.

[reverbhiker]

Thank you, but I am looking to do a thru hike in the 270-300 mile range without using public transportation, hitches, etc. The Chinook Trail isn't a set route, but basically the goal of it is to do a loop, or close to it, that starts in Vancouver, WA and ends in Portland, OR. Lucia Falls is my start point, and if I can't figure out a way to hike on the OR side from Wahtum Lake to Troutdale, then I will just take the PCT from Wahtum Lake to the WA side, and then complete the loop by hiking back to Lucia Falls from there. My wife will then pick me up there - the idea is to basically celebrate the end of the hike with a couple of days at McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, before going back to work after that...

Sean

[retired jerry]

ahhh...

too bad the trail is closed because of the fire

[Webfoot]

I like reading about project such as this. I went over to GraphHopper to see what that utility might do with the route, and after making a couple of tweaks for my own liking I got this:

GraphHopper option 1

That route puts you on power line roads (which I've never been on) instead of Barlow Trail Road; if the latter is selected:

GraphHopper option 2

Of course either of these involve plenty of road hiking, but I don't see how you were ever going to get around that and Marmot and Lusted roads can be pleasant places which is why I made sure it routed through those.

[retired jerry]

Maybe some day they'll connect Springwater trail to Mt Hood trails, then you could walk from downtown

[reverbhiker]

Wow! Thank you so much for working on these routes - these are a viable option, and surprisingly, are only 4-5 miles longer than my original route plan. Maybe others can chime in on how those power line roads might be. However, I think I'd be leaning towards your option which avoids powerlines altogether. Otherwise it does look like a lot of road walking, but it is nice to have one night camping on the PCT (maybe with a killer view of Mt Hood), and perhaps the next night somewhere near Sandy (either hotel, air bnb, RV park or campground.

And geez, I was actually kinda happy with the plan I came up with last night, which was to take the PCT north into Cascade Locks, uber from there west to where there is open road/trail to continue hiking west, and go from there to Troutdale. With this plan I believe it'd still be considered a thru-hike, as I would be using the uber due to a fire closure, but I would definitely come back at some point in the future when most or all of the trails in the closure area are open, east to west from Wahtum Lake to Angel's Rest.

What I may do is just bring several route options with me, and see how I'm doing timewise and how my body's holding up, and decide at that point.

Thank you again though - I really like how it takes in a nice chunk of the PCT, and is a viable option around the watershed.

Thanks!

Sean

I like reading about project such as this. I went over to GraphHopper to see what that utility might do with the route, and after making a couple of tweaks for my own liking I got this:

GraphHopper option 1

That route puts you on power line roads (which I've never been on) instead of Barlow Trail Road; if the latter is selected:

GraphHopper option 2

Of course either of these involve plenty of road hiking, but I don't see how you were ever going to get around that and Marmot and Lusted roads can be pleasant places which is why I made sure it routed through those.

[reverbhiker]

With the help of Webfoot I have updated my intended route - it's now at 301 miles according to Gaia. Once on the trail I may still end up heading north at the PCT at Wahtum Lake if I'm just wiped or out of time, but right now I'm liking this 300+ mile route! Here's what it looks like:

[retired jerry]

That should be a great trip.

It will be interesting to get feedback after you're done. Like what's the trail like on the eastern most parts in Washington and Oregon. Are those mostly road walks? Are there good places to camp?

[reverbhiker]

I will be writing for thetrek.co - probably a few pre-hike posts (prep, gear, etc) and will definitely give a shout out to all of you that are helping me here at oregonhikers.org! I haven't decided if I'll do daily trail reports, or if it'll be a few reports and then a summary report. Once I return I'll post links to the reports here.