Mark O. Hatfield Trail - 11 to 14 June 2016

[CMH]

I hiked the Mark O. Hatfield Trail 11 to 14 June 2016 from Starvation Creek Trailhead to the Multnomah Falls Trailhead. Google Earth says my GPS track is 53.7 miles long and I gained 17,131 ft and lost 17,145 ft. The distance seems a tad short and the elevation a tad high, but that's what the track says.

I started at the Starvation Creek Trailhead and headed West, whereas most people seem to hike the trail West to East. If you're hiking in 2016 heading West may be the best option since the Starvation Creek Trailhead is only open during weekends when restoration of the old historic highway is paused. Either that or leave earlier in the week such that you will come out at Starvation Creek on the weekend. Or dodge heavy construction equipment and the ire of rangers and workers.

I hiked 4 days and 3 nights camping at these locations:

Night 1: Noble Camp
Night 2: Tanner Spring (water flow was low, but plenty to fill water bottles easily enough)
Night 3: Horsetail Creek (unmarked camp site)

I took minor side trips to see:
* North Lake
* Tomlike Mt. (recommended)
* Mt. Chinidere

As far as the trail quality, there aren't any showstoppers. I would mention these notes:
* Poison oak - I did see several patches near the bottom of the Tanner Creek Cutoff Trail (448), one bush was hanging well into the trail (see photo). It tended to be on the lower switchbacks, near the rock slide areas.
* Yellow Jackets - several previous trip reports mentioned yellow jackets or other stinging insects on the Tanner Cutoff Trail (448). I didn't encounter these guys at all. Granted, I was going downhill fairly fast, whereas the other trip reports were traveling the other direction, heading more slowly uphill.
* Creek Crossings - For Eagle Creek and Tanner Creek, I ended up wading across. It might be possible to boulder hop if you were ambitious, but there wasn't a clear, safe option that I saw. The crossings were uneventful (see photos)
* Downed Trees - There are plenty of downed trees, but most are a quick hop. There might be about 6 to 8 downed trees that require more than a simple hop (e.g. detouring 10 to 30 ft. through forest, carefully climbing over).
* Brush - Especially in the more remote areas the brush encroaches on the trail enough that if it has any dew or rain on the leaves, you'll quickly get soaked.
* Trailfinding - Although the trail grows faint in areas or is covered by brush I think it would be difficult to actually lose the trail for more than 10 feet.
* Other trail quality - the Tanner Creek Cutoff is the trail section in the worst condition. The worst part being lots of loose dirt caving in on the hillsides.
* Von Ahm Rim Camp - I checked this place out and couldn't find an actual camp. The side trail is also heavily overgrown with rhododendrons. I wouldn't recommend planning on camping here, despite this being a marked campground on maps.

I read a few trip reports in preparation, so I thought I'd give back by posting what I saw on the Mark O. Hatfield Trail.
northridge: TransGorge (Hatfield Trail) Backpack: June 18-21, 2015
Sean Thomas: Hatfield Trail - Angels Rest thru Starvation: 6/30 - 7/1
ajbinder: Hatfield Wilderness (Larch Mountain to Stravation Creek) 8/7
Thum: Multnomah Falls - Starvation Cr.(Hatfield Trail) 8/9 - 8/13

[Splintercat]

Thanks for the detailed report -- and an excellent first trip report, too! Welcome! Great to see a new report on the route.

Tom

[jglo]

Dear Splintercat,
How was the weather while you were out there?
Thanks for the detailed report; I found it very helpful!
Julie

[CMH]

How was the weather while you were out there?

The forecast showed 50Fs and 60Fs mostly with ~25% chance of rain.

Day 1 (Sat 6/11) was in the 60s and cloudy. Rain the previous night kept the brush wet on the trail, especially after getting south of the Defiance summit.

Day 2 (Sun 6/12) was sunny and near 70F. The nicest day on the trail in terms of weather. Crystal-clear 5-mountain-views (Rainier, Helens, Adams, Hood, Jefferson) from Tomlike and Chinidere.

Day 3 (Mon 6/13) the morning was cloudy and near 60F. In the afternoon it started raining and didn't stop all night.

Day 4 (Tue 6/14) the drizzle continued through the night. It was in the 40s at night and 50s during the day. I was hailed-on South of Larch Mountain, and again on the paved Multnomah Falls trail.

I'm happy to answer any other questions.

[aiwetir]

Using a more updated mapset, it measures out at 56 miles. Computer map routing if somewhat accurate will always be shorter than real life as it's hard to get every twist and turn onto a digital map. My stuff says 15,400 or 16,300 ft. no idea how accurate the EG might be though.

[Maka Mani]

The more TR's I read about the MHT the more inspired I am to go out and do it. Thanks for sharing your experience! We really do need an official Trans-Gorge trail traversing the beautiful interior wilderness. Maybe with more public support and political intervention it will be realized one day.