Oregon Hikers

I just got back from hiking the Boulder Ridge trail out of the Wildwood Recreation Area in the Salmon-Huckleberry wilderness.

There were small scraps of residual snow from the mid-March snow storms visible as low as 2200 ft., but they were of no importance and should be gone by Saturday. The residual and mostly consolidated snow from last February began at ~3000 ft. and the trail was entirely snow-covered from there on up, even though not all the ground was snowy at 3000 ft. I was not equipped or interested in slogging ahead on slanted snow and turned back at 3200 ft.

Oregon's snowpack: https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/da ... update.pdf

Dog Mountain (2,900ft in the mid-Gorge) is completely clear of snow as of 3/28.

Foot deep snow on the entire stretch of the Pioneer-Indian Trail up Mt Hebo the last half mile or so to the road crossing which would be more or less 2,500'. FAR more than would be expected.

CMH wrote:Dog Mountain (2,900ft in the mid-Gorge) is completely clear of snow as of 3/28.

Amazing how fast all that snow disappeared. I was up there today and even the drifts were gone except a very few small spots under trees well off the trail.

Here's a pic from last Sat., March 24th Temperature 29 at the top, 20+ MPH wind, wind chill ~ 15.


Today, small yellow flowers were starting to bloom where the trail first breaks out in to the open about 2,200'.

dn

On Table Mountain yesterday, Heartbreak Ridge was clear until above the boulder field, and Westway was clear below the biggest cairn. Couple-few feet of snow on the summit plateau.

• 
  Situation above the boulders, 3/29/18

CMH wrote:Dog Mountain (2,900ft in the mid-Gorge) is completely clear of snow as of 3/28.

Weird. Here's Augspurger Saddle at the same elevation, a bit east:

Below is the only photo I got showing any of the ground on Dog Mountain on 3/28. You can see a portion of the summit meadow without snow. It's possible there were small patches of snow tucked away in the trees, but you'd have to look pretty hard.

Someone else posted a trip report for Dog for that same day and they have a few more photos. https://www.oregonhikers.org/forum/view ... =8&t=26442

That's good to know for planning that other areas of the Gorge at similar elevations still have snow. Thanks. I'll head up Nestor Peak this week and see what it's like up there.

On Saturday the snow was pretty deep at 4960 ft on the Oregon side.

Looks like fun. Snowshoes required? I'm guessing above 4000ish.