Green Lakes Trail EAST of Fall Creek
Posted: August 13th, 2019, 7:43 pm
Greetings Hikers -
Just back from a trip to Green Lakes just east of South Sister. My companion and I were looking for an alternate route for the return. Her Apple GPS map and my MyTopo.com map both showed a trail that roughly parallels Fall Creek on the EAST side of the creek.
BEWARE: that trail was abandoned some time ago!
Many maps do not show it, and the Deschutes N.F. trail list does not list it, even though they do still list Jefferson Lake trail and a few others that do appear to be currently abandoned.
Our first clue, which we did not recognize at the time, was that there was no marked trail junction at Green Lake. There were so many little trails running around that we did not catch that little detail. We ended up starting up the Broken Top Trail, instead. But a GPS check about 15 minutes into our return showed that we were way too far east, so we descended, cross county, and easily picked up the trail. The top mile or so was pretty straight forward. Not many footprints on the trail, but there were a few, so we charged on.
The middle section started to become quite indistinct and we lost the trail a couple of times, ending up on some other, unknown trail, possibly the precursor to the one we were trying to use.
Then, the trail became more and more littered with logs. We had to frequently make detours around these log jams and lost the trail many times more. As we descended, the log situation got worse and worse and worse. Probably beetle kill as there was no evidence of fire.
The bottom end of the trail joins the Soda Creek Trail, and we were completely flying blind the last half mile or so, never again to pick up the trail we were trying to follow. We just ran into Soda Creek Trail, and sailed back to the trail head.
So, beware that trail, still marked on some maps. It used an incredible amount of energy in the lower 1/3. The only saving grace was a great view of Diamond Peak, off in the far distance, which we got no-where else.
Just back from a trip to Green Lakes just east of South Sister. My companion and I were looking for an alternate route for the return. Her Apple GPS map and my MyTopo.com map both showed a trail that roughly parallels Fall Creek on the EAST side of the creek.
BEWARE: that trail was abandoned some time ago!
Many maps do not show it, and the Deschutes N.F. trail list does not list it, even though they do still list Jefferson Lake trail and a few others that do appear to be currently abandoned.
Our first clue, which we did not recognize at the time, was that there was no marked trail junction at Green Lake. There were so many little trails running around that we did not catch that little detail. We ended up starting up the Broken Top Trail, instead. But a GPS check about 15 minutes into our return showed that we were way too far east, so we descended, cross county, and easily picked up the trail. The top mile or so was pretty straight forward. Not many footprints on the trail, but there were a few, so we charged on.
The middle section started to become quite indistinct and we lost the trail a couple of times, ending up on some other, unknown trail, possibly the precursor to the one we were trying to use.
Then, the trail became more and more littered with logs. We had to frequently make detours around these log jams and lost the trail many times more. As we descended, the log situation got worse and worse and worse. Probably beetle kill as there was no evidence of fire.
The bottom end of the trail joins the Soda Creek Trail, and we were completely flying blind the last half mile or so, never again to pick up the trail we were trying to follow. We just ran into Soda Creek Trail, and sailed back to the trail head.
So, beware that trail, still marked on some maps. It used an incredible amount of energy in the lower 1/3. The only saving grace was a great view of Diamond Peak, off in the far distance, which we got no-where else.