Blue Bucket Springs Trail
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Wildthings
- Posts: 5
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Blue Bucket Springs Trail
Anyone found and hiked the Blue Bucket Springs trail in the Mt Hood National Forest nearly due east of the mountain itself. Stumbled on to it years ago while doing some bushwacking and would like to try and find it again. May have an impassible amount of blowdown over it by now.
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Splintercat
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Re: Blue Bucket Springs Trail
Which part are you thinking about? The bulk of it has been logged over on the west escarpment of Lookout Mountain, though I suppose there are intact pieces on top (on either side of the road). Funny that you mentioned this -- I've been working on a TKO concept for relocating the trail, beginning at the Little John parking area, and climbing past a couple viewpoints, en route to High Prairie.
Tom
Tom
Re: Blue Bucket Springs Trail
Looks like a neat trail. Might be fun to find the parts still there. From TOPO:
--Paul
The future's uncertain and the end is always near.
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Splintercat
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Re: Blue Bucket Springs Trail
From what I've looked at on the ground, the trail has not been logged east of the 5,000 contour (west of the Lookout Mountain Road) but downhill and west of that countour, it falls apart fast. Massive logging, and no sign of the trail from what I could find. I think the area east of the LOMR is inside The Dalles watershed, however, and thus closed to travel off road/trail.
There are some terrific viewpoints along the scarp that could be stitched together to make for a very interesting approach to Lookout Mountain, via High Prairie. One of the viewpoints can be accessed from LOMR by a dirt road that leads 1/4 mile to a primitive camp in trees, immediately adjacent to the viewpoint. You can spot this road on the topo sheets as a spur, just south of where the Blue Bucket Trail is located. Not sure of a local name, but I call it Mile High Bluff for self-explanatory reasons.
Tom
There are some terrific viewpoints along the scarp that could be stitched together to make for a very interesting approach to Lookout Mountain, via High Prairie. One of the viewpoints can be accessed from LOMR by a dirt road that leads 1/4 mile to a primitive camp in trees, immediately adjacent to the viewpoint. You can spot this road on the topo sheets as a spur, just south of where the Blue Bucket Trail is located. Not sure of a local name, but I call it Mile High Bluff for self-explanatory reasons.
Tom
Re: Blue Bucket Springs Trail
This area is one of the most interesting butterfly habitats on Mt. Hood. A new trail alignment would make for a showcase hike. I've been recording butterfly sightings in the area for several years now, and routinely run into other groups specifically visiting the area to do butterfly watching. What do we need to do to make this a priority?