This has been a remarkable month for weather in the gorge and I've been fortunate to have been able to take full advantage of it. The ice has been very slowly melting off and the temperatures have been decidedly on the cool side with the cold air holding firm in the gorge. My prediction is that there will still be ice and snow in places well into the spring and in a few spots, perhaps even into late May or even June based on what I've seen in past years. Most of the lower elevation trails, though, will be fine in a month or two, IMO.
That being said, Eagle Creek is absolutely hammered for the time being:
We hiked just a little more that a half mile up the trail today when I realized I had left my GPS sitting on the bench at the TH and had to go back to get it before someone else found it. We felt lucky to have survived that first half mile of trail and did not to want to repeat it stretching our luck. Anyway, our main goal was accomplished so we were happy with what we managed to do. Only two or three sets of tracks above where we turned around.
A video:
https://youtu.be/9JhLpkkl4Is
A few photos:
The start of the trail:
This is not a landslide, just a few inches of dirt and mud atop ice.
This section was awkward:
Kelly took it with aplomb:
Even after the first cliffy section, it was not much easier:
A fresh partial cliff collapse a few feet south of the first little bridge has exposed some new partially fossilized wood:
Here's a close-up of some of it. Looks more charcoalized than fossilized though.
The road is plowed but taped off 4/10 mile north of here. No appreciable melting in the past 8 days:
-Don
