Girl Scout Basin

Discussions and Trip Reports for off-trail adventures and rediscovering lost trails
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Chip Down
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Girl Scout Basin

Post by Chip Down » September 7th, 2021, 4:18 pm

This TR turned out longer than intended. I'll post an annotated map. That, combined with pics, will serve the tldr crowd.

Between Wind Mountain and Dog Mountain is a large relatively-flat basin, featuring a fecundity of little lakes, creeks, and what appears to be an old rockslide that sheared off a peak at the north edge of the basin. There's a network of roads and trails, but it's not well mapped to my knowledge, and I won't be helping with that, as I don't GPS.

Access is a little tricky, due to private property and trails/roads that fade out. I'm aware of three access points: A road that connects Girl Scout Road to Dog Mtn Trail can be accessed from either end (although Girl Scout Road cannot be accessed from the bottom, so you have to use another route to connect with it higher up, and then drop to the junction), or you can drop in from the power lines above the basin, to the north (these power lines are met when hiking from Dog to Augspurger, but can also be accessed to the west, closer to Wind). This is all very fuzzy, partly because there's a labyrinth of unmapped (or poorly mapped) roads

I chose to start at the middle access, dropping down a road I had wondered about on previous explorations up higher. The road starts out grassy, so I wondered if it might fade into nothing, but it cleared up nicely. After losing a few hundred feet of elevation, the forest really cleared out, and the immediate scenery was lovely.

I came to a tee junction, which I eventually learned is the road that connects Dog Mtn to Girl Scout Road. I turned down/right/west, which led to (in addition to Girl Scout Road) a network of undulating meandering roads and trails, creeks and small lakes, ridges and valleys. I hadn't expected this to take so long, so I had left my food with my bike way up at the powerlines where I dropped in. Fortunately, there were berries, and I snacked as I hiked.

Finished with my lower/western explorations, I headed back to the tee junction, where I could return to the powerline road where I dropped my bike, or I could go explore the uphill/eastern end of the main road. Well, I missed the junction. I started to suspect as much, but when I reached a distinctive washed out culvert, I knew I had gone too far. In for a penny, in for a pound, I continued up/east, wondering where I would end up. I knew this road didn't connect to the powerlines, because I've done that road a couple times. I figured it wouldn't dead end, as it was a very clear wide road, so I figured it had to go somewhere. I wondered if it was the road one encounters on the dog-to-aug hike, and indeed, it was. I continued to the end, was tempted to loop around and walk the powerline road back, but the notion of walking a bare rocky road facing the hot summer sun persuaded me to return the way I came.

Heading back down/west, I once again missed the junction of the road that would take me back to my bike. What the heck? It was very faint, so I knew I would have to watch for it, but I couldn't fathom how I could miss it twice. Although I don't keep GPS tracks, I do sometimes drop a pin on my map, and I was really wishing I had pinned my junction. I could go all the back west to Girl Scout Road, up that road, and work my way back to my bike. But I had never done that stretch of road, and didn't feel comfortable trusting my map. Besides, that would be a brutal death march in footwear that was selected for more biking than hiking. So instead I bushwhacked to the mossy slide, which I wanted to fit into my day anyway, so that was a nice consolation.

After poking around the slide a bit, I headed west to meet the road that would take me back to my bike. Oops! I assumed that road was west of the slide, but as I continued higher and wester, I lost hope of that panning out, realized the road has to run east of the slide. If I had paid any attention at all when I dropped my bike, I would have known that, but I was blithely unaware. At the time, it hadn't really mattered, because I wasn't in bushwhacking mode yet. By the time I realized my mistake, I was committed. It wouldn't make sense to turn back. So I continued up/west until I met the main powerline road, which I then had to trudge back, up and down in the hot sun, to retrieve my bike.

This is the umpteeth time I've been "lost" on roads/trails. I've hiked offtrail in snow and fog, in alpine zones, without map or compass, and consistently fared better than I have on trails. I suppose it comes down to overconfidence. I only get lost in places where it's impossible to get lost.

I returned a couple days later, partly to figure out why I couldn't find the bottom end of the road that would take my back to my bike, and also to explore the lower reaches of the mossy slide. From above (where I gained the slide on my bushwhack) it looked charming down there, so I wanted to see more of it. I realized where I went wrong: I remembered the junction being just uphill from a particular landmark, but it was actually slightly uphill from a different landmark. So I was looking for it in the wrong stretch of road.
Attachments
map.jpg
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This is typical of the lakes I found.
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Outlet from lake pictured above.
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At a road junction just south of the slide.
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Approaching top of Mossy Halfdome.
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View west from top of Mossy Halfdome.
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Can was mine, bottle was found. When it all goes to hades in a handbasket, these underground utility vaults will come in handy.

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by Don Nelsen » September 8th, 2021, 4:52 pm

Chip,

Great TR and I’m glad you’ve discovered the area. There are many old roads in there and lots to explore.

The entire area between Wind Mt. and Dog Mt. is one huge, slow moving landslide. It still moves, though more slowly than in past years. There are places where the trees are bent and even torn apart by the land movement. Small lakes change from year to year and some appear and disappear over time.

Info I’ve found published in papers by geologists tell the story: A short history: The railroads noted the land movement as early as 1907 as they saw their tracks slowly move south towards the river. There is, even today, an area set aside by the railroad along the tracks for stockpiling material to address problems due to land movement. The highway moves too, even now, and you can see the odd undulations in the road surface as you pass through the area between Wind and Dog.

At the intersection of Girl Scout Road and Bergen road is a house torn apart by the slide. There were several others but all have been removed as far as I know.

The powerline, according to info I’ve read, was surveyed in 1936 and built in 1941. It started moving south right away and by 1946, to keep the pylons from moving, engineers had to mount 16 of them on concrete skids to keep them in line. Periodic work was more or less continuous to haul them back into place. The concrete skids are still up there and can be found today moved as much as a quarter mile out of line. Some moved only 1 to 2 1/2’/year but some years, as much as 35’ of movement occurred.

By the middle fifties, it was evident that keeping the powerline lined up was hopeless and an expensive re-routing was done. You can see the original route and the current route on the following document.

I’ve explored the area extensively and a partial map of roads and tracks is here: Dashed lines are off-road or off-trail and solid blue lines are old road grades. Thicker blue lines are driveable gravel roads though most of those require 4WD or at least a death wish and good clearance.
Collins Point for Chip.jpg
Collins B.jpg
PS, If you go in from the south via Bergan road, take clippers - lots of blackberry vines at the start.
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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retired jerry
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by retired jerry » September 8th, 2021, 6:21 pm

I wonder if all that sliding is related to the big slide off Hamilton mountain that dammed the Columbia at Cascade Locks?

Will that happen again?

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Chip Down
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by Chip Down » September 8th, 2021, 7:42 pm

Clearly, I should have asked if Don had a map before I set out. Oh well, sometimes it's more fun to just go exploring.

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by Don Nelsen » September 8th, 2021, 7:52 pm

retired jerry wrote:
September 8th, 2021, 6:21 pm
I wonder if all that sliding is related to the big slide off Hamilton mountain that dammed the Columbia at Cascade Locks?

Will that happen again?
Jerry,

It's all the same basic geology. There are many areas in the gorge that have slid/are sliding. I suspect the major mechanism for major slide movement is the periodic mega quakes on the Cascade Subduction Zone. Should one of those quakes occur after a few very wet years, a major slide movement will happen. Other times, maybe not so much, but substantial.

dn
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by Don Nelsen » September 8th, 2021, 7:53 pm

Chip Down wrote:
September 8th, 2021, 7:42 pm
Clearly, I should have asked if Don had a map before I set out. Oh well, sometimes it's more fun to just go exploring.
Chip, agreed: more fun to just go exploring.
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

jtschanz
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by jtschanz » September 8th, 2021, 8:06 pm

This is fascinating! Thanks Chip & Don!

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retired jerry
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by retired jerry » September 9th, 2021, 5:55 am

"...Other times, maybe not so much..."

So maybe that area is still moving but nothing major

Maybe when we get a big quake - fortunately the big one off the coast is a distance away so that won't trigger it?

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pinecone
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by pinecone » September 9th, 2021, 7:53 am

Thanks for sharing! I was wondering what the terrain back there looked like. A while ago I was playing with lidar to look at old disappeared paths around Dog Mountain and was noticing how that whole area between Dog and Wind just looks like a creeping pile of molasses. I didn't use the data for the upper part of the slide area, but here's a view from the river of the snout that gives a great sense of how the whole valley is just a pile of debris inching toward the Columbia
Image

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retired jerry
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Re: Girl Scout Basin

Post by retired jerry » September 9th, 2021, 8:13 am

cool picture

hopefully it will just stay creeping along

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