Explore S/SE Portion Silver Falls Sat May 3rd

[MultnomahVet]

Hey All,

So, with this next week, we are heading into some absolutely perfect hiking weather. I had an idea a while back to head out to Silver Falls State Park but instead of concentrate on the "Trail of Ten Falls" in the North area, explore the seemingly remote and less visited Southern/South Eastern portion of the park. From what I can tell from maps, this is the majority area of the parks 9000 acres and never have a seen any field reports on it's beauty and mysteries (other water falls? awesome groves of trees?? Who knows but let's find out). With Spring going into full bloom I also did not want to venture into this area without at least a small group due to the bears and other critters awakening from their slumber to fill their empty bellies from a long sleep. Anyhow, always better to hike in numbers and make some friends.
So what do you guys think? We could carpool to keep gas prices down if needed.

Regards,
Mulnomahvet

[kepPNW]

I think I'm stuck in the office, darn it. But if you'd like to get a sense of some of the backcountry there, Mileage Mike has charted much of it...

http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/sea ... mit=Search

Have fun!

[pdxgene]

One of Sullivan's older books describes it (assuming you're talking about the same section of park).. "The most remote portion of the park is the lower 2.5 miles of Silver Creek Canyon, a trailless gorge with four rarely visited waterfalls."
I've thought about looking for them but I'm working for sure next Saturday. Love to see pictures if you get them.

[MultnomahVet]

Thanks for the feedback and tips on both Mileage Mike's adventures and about Sullivan's. Seeing those trip reports from Mike just makes me want to venture out their even more. I do have a question on maybe finding one of Sullivan's older books. Do you have any idea on perhaps edition number or title or year (thought I might be able to google/amazon web search it or their is always the possibility of Powell's in DT.

Anyhow, thanks for the help and I will definitely let you know what I find. Jm may be heading out with me so a team is slowly emerging

Regards,
Multnomahvet

[pdxgene]

The one I was quoting was Exploring Oregon's Wild Areas 2nd edition A guide for Hikers, Backpackers, Climbers, X-C Skiers & Paddlers.
Looks like 1999 is the edition I have. I picked it up for $1 at the used book sale the library has a couple times a year. Kinda nice it covers the entire state.

[sprengers4jc]

We have hiked the lower section from the Conference Center to Smith Creek to Buck Mountain Loop to Howard Creek Loop and back to the conference center. That was about 5 miles, I think. The Buck Mountain section was boot-sucking muddy almost its whole length because of all the horses that use it (and that was in July, when it's driest!). Smith Creek was very nice, as was Howard Creek.

[MultnomahVet]

Thanks Again to pdxgene and sprengers for your feedback. I am definitely heading out that way for Saturday and very much looking forward to the adventure

Regards,
Multnomahvet