And better things there were! A fresh stack of paper maps to take with you at the park and ride, no need for any of our various trail passes, and a trail that's in great shape and has unexpected views all along the way.
Heading up, we had fun with the views off the backside, over farm country to the Silver Star range and Three corners rock. In the summer I suspect most of these would be obscured from the foliage. Lots of good swtichbacks in this section, which makes the grade very moderate. A few icy patches on the trail started at about 800 feet, but nothing you couldn't negotiate in sneakers, so far.
We did a map check at an unsigned junction near the top. The map said "keep left for views" so we did, and they were astounding. If you don't like cliffs, keep to the right, because the left loop skirts the very edges of some good dropoffs, and with wet or icy rock (not to mention the usual howling wind) this would not be for the faint of heart, unsure of foot, or hyper pups. But we had more fabulous views all along here and had fun looking *at* all the Oregon-side landmarks that we're usually looking out *from*.
After "Tipping-tree point", my camera battery died, which was *killing* me because I'm pretty sure Saturday had the absolute best view conditions of 2011. The cliffy path joined back up with the main route and we kept left at a partially signed junction to continue to the top. This took us out of the wind on nice old dirt roads and up to some pastures on top of the bluff. Looking west across the pastures, we could see all the way to the Coast Range.
We passed the new (to me anyway) parking area by the trail on Strunk Road and then on to the gorgeous Nancy Russell overlook. I am always happy to find viewpoints that my elderly mom can make it to when she visits, and this one now qualifies. It's good mostly level gravel to the viewpoint from Strunk Road, and you could bring someone in a wheelchair or stroller on this part.
Then on down the hill where we ducked in and out of the wind and actually ran across a WTA trail crew. THANK YOU!! Based on my mileage this year, I owe about 4 days. (I promise I'm good for it!) They were getting ready for a ribbon cutting on the spiffy new tunnel under Hwy 14.
Once past the tunnel we took a sunny and only occassionally wind-blasted break on a river overlook near a tiny stream cascade. The lower part of the trail is really delightful, especially on a day like Saturday when the sun was bright and the river was turqoise. The falls was running strong and sported a full-arch rainbow. The tread is more narrow and rocky and crosses lots of old landslides, so this is not a section I'd want to do when icy, but it was great last weekend.
We headed back up the road section and saw a pair of hikers ahead of us duck into yet another spiffy new pedestrian tunnel under Hwy 14. This one didn't yet have the last bit of connector trail, but we couldn't resist checking it out anyway.
So, Cape Horn is awesome and getting even better. Part of the lower trail closes beginning February 1 until July, so if you want to do the full loop, get in there while you can. Sorry my camera died before we reached a lot of the magical places... you'll just have to see them in person.
- The aptly named Tipping Tree point.
- heading up...
- Three-corner rock
- Silver Star
