and headed S on it past the Surprise Lakes,
on what would be a dusty ATV trail for the next 7 mi.
Looking at my GPS track later, I could see it bore little relation to the mapped location of Tr 26. Maybe there is another Tr 26 - a real hiking trail - hidden back in the woods but I never saw it, even when I supposedly crossed it per the GPS. Trail 26 does cross several named creeks, like Cultus Ck,
and also sports several sturdy ATV/horse bridges.
Trail 26 just ends at Rd 24, a truly large gravel haul road through the forest. From the Tr 26/Rd 24 junction, I went NW to the Little Goose Forest Camp,
then thru that to the Filloon Tr (#102).
Up to this point, I hadn't smelled much smoke from the Cascade Creek fire, but that changed quickly from here on. It was never visibly smokey in the forest, but you could certainly smell it. The Filloon Trail connects with Tr 34, which heads uphill, gradually but steadily, toward Lemei Rock. Along the way, there were some intense burst of Fall colors.
Tr 34 crests a ridge above Lake Wapiki, which would have been a great view had it not been for the smoke, which was now pretty thick off toward Adams.
I had thought about summiting Lemei, but there seemed little point since there wasn't much of a view. So after a quick lunch at its base, I headed down Tr 34, through a delightful little meadow,
past Clear Lake,
to the PCT and then headed N. I decided to salvage some views by taking Tr 107 along the flanks of Sawtooth Mtn. This allowed me a well-smoked view W to St. Helens,
and S toward Lemei Rock and Bird Mtn.
However, it was the view toward Adams that was the truly shocking. The mountain looked like it was kicking up dust as it plowed through the forest, but that was a fire doing the plowing.
As I got closer, the fire line became clear. Not a pretty sight at all, considering what's being destroyed.
From Sawtooth, it was just a short trip to the TH and my car. Despite Tr 26 being a very sad excuse for a "trail", this was a good long (19 mi RT, 3400' EG) loop - the horrors of Tr 26 faded quickly once I started along the Filloon Trail. Would I do Tr 26 again? Maybe - it's a good loop. But it might be interesting to see if any of the "old" Tr 26 is still left.
