Mel and I headed out from Cascade Locks at around 8:15 am on the first rainy morning
of the month
, Justin bailed out with a sore toe, but Mel was up for what I assured him would be a painful day
. The PCT was fairly dry, but as soon as we cut off onto the Spur trail the brush was very wet. I was also disappointed to note that someone
had stolen the Four pointed circle Forest Service sign that used to be on a tree about
100 feet in on the trail. This was a unique sign, dating from the 40s or earlier. I've
never seen another sign like it and I've been hiking these trails since the 1960s (I'm
in my 50s).
I put some gaitors on, used my umbrella to poke the water off the brush and we proceeded
through the very wet undergrowth and blowdown up to the big slide, thinking we'd stop
there and decide whether or not to continue on - I was worried about traction on the
steep, wet trail. Neither of us were hungry so we pushed on, up the gully, past the hewed
tree with the footholds (I didn't know that was the signature feature of this hike
), then traversing over to the ridge. At that point I figured we were committed to finish
the route, I sure didn't want to go back down those shots with the wet trail. As we
headed up, the wind started whipping, pelting us with rain or water off the trees, it
was hard to tell which. We had to get our rain gear out, but at least with the cold
temps there were no issues with sweating under the gear. I've got pics of the nasty
weather and Mel in is truck stop poncho
.I was grateful for the ducks someone had set up on the rocks right where the game trail
heads off to the right. The first couple of times I hiked the Spur, we followed that
and lost the trail on a switchback due to windfall and ended up bushwhacking straight
up the mountain to the clearing above the 2700' view point (carefully noting the route in
case we had to back track). I was also pleased that there was a fresh route around a
significant section of blowdown adjacent to the nice meadow area just above the really
steep section, luckily I remembered where the trail went from previous trips (last one
wa 5 or 6 years ago) so we found it leaving the meadow the meadow without any problems.
An easy shot up to the view point at 2700', a little shelter from the wind behind the
little rock wall there, but no view - maybe a couple hundred yards of visibility. A
short lunch break as our fingers were starting to freeze, so we headed on up. I had
originally planned on bushwhacking up the ridge line - mostly because the one time
I followed the trail up the back side we ran into a wasps nest on the trail and I had
some painful souveneirs which made both of me feet swell up a couple of days later -
but given how wet the brush was we headed up the trail which veers off to the left here.
Interesting that Peder mentions in his report his preference for coming down this route,
I would voice the opposite opinion, that it's too steep to comfortably come down, but
not so bad going up. I would also be more worried about route finding on the way down,
mostly because the terrain expands giving more possibilities to come down the wrong
way - but to each his own
. This may be influenced by the fact that I have done extensive bushwacking on this route and feel comfortable whether I'm on the trail or
not.
As we proceeded up the more gentle upper part of the trail, Mel started getting some
cramps in his legs so we had to take a couple extra rest stops. This was actually good,
I was worried that with the cold weather I had packed my trumpet (a Jupiter Pocket
Trumpet) up here for nothing. So I broke it out and played some music for Mel and the
animals - some classical violin tunes I've adapted and some jazz standards and some
blues. I've got some pictures (and vids), but I'm not sure how to post to this site,
it looks like it takes an URL, but I don't have them online anywhere.
A fairly easy last section, the trail gets a bit faint is a few spots, but we didn't have
any problems. We were able to track the blazes (both old and the new paint spots) and the
occasional ribbon. Just as we came into view of the Ruckel Creek trail we ran into
a couple of hikers - the first people we'd seen all day. We headed up towards the creek
and ran into another hiker on the way - near where the old clearing is off the trail.
It's so easy to see how on my first attempt at this trail we missed the Ruckel Creek
trail and hit the PCT cut-off trail instead - all the while the Ruckel Creek trail
was about 50 - 100 yards to the right of where we went.
Another sandwhich and beer break at the top and we headed down the Ruckel Creek trail.
A fairly brutal downhill in its own right. In the past I've taken the PCT, but that is
much longer, although after walking from just East of Eagle Creek back to Cascade Locks
the PCT seems like a viable alternative - nicer hike for the most part, but really
looong switchbacks coming down
.We're planning on heading up again next year, both to drag Justin along with us and
to get some better weather, Mel didn't get to see anythiing from the viewpoint.
.Nice site by the way, this is my first posting here. Some friends and I also hiked into McCall
Basin in Goat Rocks a couple of times on an abandoned trail called the Army Trail (that's what
happens when you have maps that were printed in the 50s and 60s
. I haven't seen that on the forum (but havn't searched too deeply either).
