Cabin Creek Canyon + upper Cabin Creek Ridge
Posted: January 5th, 2019, 9:05 pm
A few days ago I was in the upper Cabin Creek Canyon. Charming. Wanted to go back and explore it all. Ugh, it was a horrible bushwhack, from the Starvation Ridge trail at 600', up to about 1800'-2000'. Then it started getting a little more fun, opened up, terrain became more interesting. Overall, wasn't worth it, especially on a chilly soggy day.
I was surprised at how often the creek went underground and then reappeared. Made for easy walking through the dry creekbed, compared to the steep brushy banks.
The canyon came to quite an abrupt end as the creek spilled out of the basin at 2700'ish, just west of the Starvation Ridge trail. I followed the creek upstream to verify my prediction that the creek just oozed from a marshy area, not a distinct spring. Turned out it was also a mess of thorns.
From the head of Cabin Creek, I ascended and veered right/west to see if I could meet up with the Cabin Creek Ridge, and follow it to the plateau at 3800', where I could look for the trail to Warren Lake. Cabin Creek Ridge is very poorly defined briefly around 2800'-3100', approximately. This is where I've stopped on my previous visits. But above that it's a cluster of geological wonders, steep and rocky and complex. Bosterson told me about the Twin Pillars of Pablo, and I was shocked when I found them. I thought it was a needle/haystack situation, because there's a bunch of rocky areas here, and I had no idea which way was standard. Above the pillars, the ridge is gentle for a very short stretch before it melds into the plateau.
I thought it would be easy to find the trail to Warren Lake, but I looked at the map and realized I had to go quite a ways down to the south to catch it, or follow the edge of the plateau west until I caught the trail. I was already very tight on time (the brushfest of the lower Cabin Creek Canyon took far longer than expected), so I retreated down and east to catch Starvation Trail around 2700', and followed it down to the starvation trailhead. I don't feel too bad about missing out on Warren Lake and the Warren Rockgarden again. We've lost a lot of snow in the last few days, and I bet those destinations wouldn't have looked all that great. Probably would have been similar to how I've seen them before, but with a light coating of slushy snow.
The predicted rain started as I was driving west, a little before I hit Cascade Locks.
I was surprised at how often the creek went underground and then reappeared. Made for easy walking through the dry creekbed, compared to the steep brushy banks.
The canyon came to quite an abrupt end as the creek spilled out of the basin at 2700'ish, just west of the Starvation Ridge trail. I followed the creek upstream to verify my prediction that the creek just oozed from a marshy area, not a distinct spring. Turned out it was also a mess of thorns.
From the head of Cabin Creek, I ascended and veered right/west to see if I could meet up with the Cabin Creek Ridge, and follow it to the plateau at 3800', where I could look for the trail to Warren Lake. Cabin Creek Ridge is very poorly defined briefly around 2800'-3100', approximately. This is where I've stopped on my previous visits. But above that it's a cluster of geological wonders, steep and rocky and complex. Bosterson told me about the Twin Pillars of Pablo, and I was shocked when I found them. I thought it was a needle/haystack situation, because there's a bunch of rocky areas here, and I had no idea which way was standard. Above the pillars, the ridge is gentle for a very short stretch before it melds into the plateau.
I thought it would be easy to find the trail to Warren Lake, but I looked at the map and realized I had to go quite a ways down to the south to catch it, or follow the edge of the plateau west until I caught the trail. I was already very tight on time (the brushfest of the lower Cabin Creek Canyon took far longer than expected), so I retreated down and east to catch Starvation Trail around 2700', and followed it down to the starvation trailhead. I don't feel too bad about missing out on Warren Lake and the Warren Rockgarden again. We've lost a lot of snow in the last few days, and I bet those destinations wouldn't have looked all that great. Probably would have been similar to how I've seen them before, but with a light coating of slushy snow.
The predicted rain started as I was driving west, a little before I hit Cascade Locks.