Oregon Hikers

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October 3 to 9 - Oregon and Washington above normal precip


https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/ ... rchill.php

October - Oregon normal precipitation, Washington above normal

November - Southwest Oregon and Northwest California below normal precipitation, Washington normal

I have camping permits for Mt. Margaret Backcountry next weekend... it looks to be interesting at the very least! I wonder if we will get any snow?!?!?!? The last thing I want to do is attempt Whittier Ridge with a full pack in the snow, haha.

One of my favorite weather resources is Cliff Mass, a professor at the University of Washington. He has a discussion of weekend weather on his blog--very cold but no snow in Western Washington. It is worth a look if you are thinking of going out. cliffmass.blogspot.com

Heads up, snow this morning on Bald Butte and surveyors ridge. That's quite a bit lower than the predicted pass levels.

Okay, today it is snowing at my house.

It's not even October yet, but the snow level in the Gorge right now is 3000 ft. I did the Casey Creek > Nick Eaton loop (side note, the upper 1500 ft of Casey Creek are basically gone, aside from the last few hundred feet when I happened back upon the trail and then lost it in the snow - first time I've been up there since the fire) and the rain hitting me turned to snow at 2800 ft and the trees started to be flocked at 3000 ft. By the time I hit the Nick Eaton Trail up at 4000 ft, there were a few inches of actual snow covering everything.

Flocking at 3000 ft



The upper 1500 ft of Casey Creek are basically gone, as far as I can tell, though I happened upon it a few hundred feet below the top. Partway up that, it disappeared in the snow, so I gave up and just went OT straight up the hill. Snow level at the top was a few inches of wet fluffy new snow, covering and sticking to everything. It felt like December.



Weirdest September ever....

I was on a TKO work party on Franklin Ridge yesterday (the 28th). Rain/snow mix at the gate to Palmer Mill Road (but mostly rain) at the beginning and end of the day and very cold in the morning! (By the way, we blasted through and finished up the entire track for Franklin Ridge through two years of overgrowth, including dense thickets of thimbleberry. TKO and the Forest Service started on Franklin in August; hopefully, they will open it soon.)

Bosterson wrote: ↑

September 29th, 2019, 8:27 pm

side note, the upper 1500 ft of Casey Creek are basically gone

In the summer, I found the trail reasonably easy to follow except for a couple of spots, one quite low and one near the ridge crest (I came from Herman Creek). The long upper traverse off the ridge and up to Nick Eaton didn't present any problems.

bobcat wrote: ↑

September 30th, 2019, 10:08 am

Bosterson wrote: ↑

September 29th, 2019, 8:27 pm

side note, the upper 1500 ft of Casey Creek are basically gone

In the summer, I found the trail reasonably easy to follow except for a couple of spots, one quite low and one near the ridge crest (I came from Herman Creek). The long upper traverse off the ridge and up to Nick Eaton didn't present any problems.

I may have just lost the trail in brush at 2500 ft. My GPS was saying I was on the trail, but when I compared my track to the OSM trail line in Caltopo, it looks like the trail jogged a little east at that point and then continued up on that side of the ridge, so maybe I was just off the trail there. I regained it a few hundred feet below the top before losing it in the snow.

Good to hear Franklin Ridge may reopen soon! Maybe since you're involved with some of the repair work, you can parse the USFS closure language for me? In the Aug 2019 closure list, some trails are listed as "closed full length with no timeline for reopening" (eg, Horsetail Creek, Tanner Butte) whereas others are listed as "closed indefinitely" (eg, Nesmith). Franklin Ridge is actually listed as "closed indefinitely" but it sounds like they're actively working on it and it may reopen soon? So what is the difference between these two designations? Does one indicate the trail is too destroyed and they have no plans to fix it? Or am I reading too much into verbiage? (In other words, which trails is the FS abandoning completely?)

September snow on Casey Creek trail?! What a hoot! I decided to stay home. The deciding factor was I remembered how miserable it is to hike right after snowfall, when it's sloughing off, and everything you brush against releases its load. I'll wait a few days.

Casey Creek is hard enough to follow in summer conditions. With snow, I guess you just give up and pick your own route. Well, unless you cheat and GPS it.

This is the third year in a row we've had snow in September. I wanted to explore NW parts of Sandy Glacier when the seasonal snow was gone. Guess it will be 2020? I had one other alpine hike planned for October. Hoping it melts out. A few warm days will strip away enough that there will be some bare spots, if I get lucky.

I just remembered something: We had an unusual snowdump in June. Which means in 2019 there were only 2 months in which fresh snow didn't impact OR/WA hikers: July and August. If we were getting heavy snowpacks that contributed to glacier health, I wouldn't mind. But this is just nuisance snow, not enough to make things better, just enough to be a hassle. Another 3"-7" expected tonight, but up high, above the trails. At least it will be windy, so maybe it will be packed tight and easy to walk on.

Anyway, the weekend forecast looks good, so I'm thinking I'll see if I can get up to Vista Ridge TH. I shouldn't be wondering that on 10/3. My Plan B: McGee/TopSpur, which is a bit lower. My Plan C: screw this, I'm moving to California.