The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

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Guy
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The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by Guy » April 20th, 2014, 7:58 pm

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Opening Pic

Easter Sunday & we had a hankering for some Sun & Flowers so headed East for the Coyote Wall / Catherine Creek area. This time we decided to explore the area between the two by starting out on the Labyrinth Trail which was new to all of us.

We started out from the Coyote Wall TH end & walked the old highway to the trailhead, after just a few minutes on the trail we passed this...

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Couldn't pass it up with venturing inside!

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There was a small seep or spring at the end of it.

Onwards through the Labyrinth...

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We really enjoyed this trail.

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Making our way higher..

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After about 3 miles the Labyrinth trail meets an East / West cross trail. Here we found what we think was an old homestead. Just below the junction there is the remains of an old structure. Just above the trail junction we found 2 pear trees...

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Garden Iris...

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& even a few daffodils...

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From here we followed the trail East to the overlook of Catherine Creek. We then headed North on the power line road with the idea of finding our way West to Coyote Wall!

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After about 3 quarters of a mile on the powerline road we found an old road on our left heading west & so we took it.

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This old road brought us to an older clearing

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Here we found some trees that had been ring barked we assume to provide insect habitat.

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We continued making our way West on game trails. Looking at our track on our return it seems that we crossed a parcel of private land but did not see any no trespassing signs. On our way across this parcel we found this old abandoned pop up camping trailer.

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We continued heading west on game trails & finally came to the end an old road where we found another pile of old wood. It didn't look like an old building but the wood had been milled.

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From here we realized that to continue going West we would have to go a fair way North to cross the next drainage. Instead we decided to head South West down the hill to intersect the trail where it crossed the creek.

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After crossing the creek our progress West was again impeded by the best "No Trespassing" sign we have ever seen ;)

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We fully intend to take these folks up on their offer though & return in the near future with Wine & Cheese. For today it looked like we were again heading South West again!

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We finally made it over to Coyote Wall.

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Rather than head straight down Coyote Wall we headed a little East again to take the Maui Trail back down to the old Highway. I have to say that hiking these bike trails was a bit of a chore! The huge winding switchbacks made the PCT seem remarkably straight by comparison ;) We checked out this cool little pond on the way down.

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Our hike came in at 9.6 miles with about 2200' of EG.

A few more pics of the day can be found here & a map below.

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hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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chiefWright
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by chiefWright » April 21st, 2014, 6:41 am

Nice ramble! Yep, I think you did traverse one of the two private "islands" east of Coyote, though they seem quite abandoned, and with no viable road access. Here's a good resource to identify property ownership in the area.
http://imap.klickitatcounty.org/

The girdled tree was weird. Looks like it's on NFS land, but it also looked pretty old. And with all the bark beetle infestations, seems like there's plenty of standing deadwood for bug habitat...

Don't ya love the Burns Farm sign? I gotta wonder what their wine cellar looks like.

Great pix of the two osprey on smugmug!

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kepPNW
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by kepPNW » April 21st, 2014, 8:49 am

chiefWright wrote:Here's a good resource to identify property ownership in the area.
http://imap.klickitatcounty.org/
Do you know if there's a shapefile resource for property ownership over there? I need to build a better map for use in the field. Thanks!
Karl
Back on the trail, again...

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Guy
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by Guy » April 21st, 2014, 5:53 pm

Don't ya love the Burns Farm sign? I gotta wonder what their wine cellar looks like.
Yeah, we are definitely going back, we'll plan a big loop arriving at their place in time for lunch with said Cheese & Wine :) ..

I'll report back on how it goes!
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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chiefWright
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by chiefWright » April 21st, 2014, 9:51 pm

kepPNW wrote:
chiefWright wrote:Here's a good resource to identify property ownership in the area.
http://imap.klickitatcounty.org/
Do you know if there's a shapefile resource for property ownership over there? I need to build a better map for use in the field. Thanks!
I wish I knew, @kepPNW. Near as I can tell, the basemap on @guy's track had the private parcels properly identified, so I assume there's something out there that's slurped up current ownership data from the county? You might try e-mailing Klickitat GIS...

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kepPNW
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by kepPNW » April 21st, 2014, 10:30 pm

chiefWright wrote:
kepPNW wrote:
chiefWright wrote:Here's a good resource to identify property ownership in the area. http://imap.klickitatcounty.org/
Do you know if there's a shapefile resource for property ownership over there? I need to build a better map for use in the field. Thanks!
I wish I knew, @kepPNW. Near as I can tell, the basemap on @guy's track had the private parcels properly identified, so I assume there's something out there that's slurped up current ownership data from the county? You might try e-mailing Klickitat GIS...
Lots of those lines are on 1950's topo maps too - as national forest boundaries. Might have to try a direct data request. Would be nice, and I wouldn't be after PII, just a public/private attribute.
Karl
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Guy
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by Guy » April 22nd, 2014, 9:19 am

I wish I knew, @kepPNW. Near as I can tell, the basemap on @guy's track had the private parcels properly identified, so I assume there's something out there that's slurped up current ownership data from the county? You might try e-mailing Klickitat GIS...
Re my base map, it's a beta version of EP's Gorge Mapset Plus. It does identify private land very well now.
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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kepPNW
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by kepPNW » April 22nd, 2014, 9:45 am

Guy wrote:
I wish I knew, @kepPNW. Near as I can tell, the basemap on @guy's track had the private parcels properly identified, so I assume there's something out there that's slurped up current ownership data from the county? You might try e-mailing Klickitat GIS...
Re my base map, it's a beta version of EP's Gorge Mapset Plus. It does identify private land very well now.
Ah-ha! I knew I'd seen that one before!
Karl
Back on the trail, again...

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forestriver
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by forestriver » April 22nd, 2014, 6:11 pm

Totally beautiful photos—what a unique environment! I really want to check it out soon. Thanks for sharing.

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Rustygoat
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Re: The Labyrinth & Beyond! 2014/04/20

Post by Rustygoat » April 22nd, 2014, 8:03 pm

Very cool Guy! I too have explored the vast cavern you came across. I only have been up to the falls but it looks like there is plenty more to see past that. Thanks for sharing :)
Tim

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