Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/17

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daver
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Joined: March 3rd, 2012, 10:06 am

Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/17

Post by daver » May 28th, 2017, 7:41 am

Got the invite from a friend at work that grew up in Enterprise to come up for a hike in the Wallowas. I headed out at 6 AM from Pendleton and thankfully had few RV's to contend with as a reward for my early departure. Crossing the Blue Mountains over Tollgate, I was suprised at how much snow there was still. It reminded me more of a Cascade crossing this time of year. Crystal blue skies and the peak green of May made for a wonderful drive through the Wallowa Valley with it's Mountain backdrop. While it takes me two hours, it was a a trip I would have been happy to drive for 12 hours.

We were a little worried about how accessible things would be and had already thrown out a hike up McCully Creek Trail because of the need to ford the creek and the fact that this might not be real safe right now. So we opted for Hurricane Creek and we decided to just see how far we could get. There were only two other cars in the trailhead lot, as we headed out. We crossed through a few burned areas lower on the trail which reminded me that fire had been here a couple of times in the last few years. It was not a huge detractor as it seemed very patchy, and will probably make for some great wild flowers later. Here are a few shots of early on the trail with Sacajawea in the background.
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hurricane_1.jpg
As I said there was lots of water coming down. This made the slickrock area dramatic and made for some nice water falls scattered everywhere along the side of the valley. At one point we could see a little basin over a rise that looked like it might have four waterfalls going into it. That has been made a future off trail target. Time to break out the google earth and figure out where.
cataracts_1.jpg
falls_1.jpg
slickrock_1.jpg
We encountered quite a few wildflowers already in the lower section, but you can tell that the peak bloom is still a ways out. The upper sections that had just recently become snow free were pretty devoid of flowers
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As we climbed higher and passed Sacajaweja we started to encounter snow on the trail a couple feet deep, but it generally supported our weight. The trail crossed Hurricane Creek from west to east as we got near Sacajawea and Matterhorn, but it was running too high to cross. We managed to find logs out to an island and then another across and continued on. Eventually we reached the base of Matterhorn and decided to call it good. This was about six miles in, so twelve for the day. Things are melting out fast, and I imagine the next week will open up some more terrain.
matterhorn_1.jpg
sidesofmatternorn_1.jpg

Aimless
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Re: Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/1

Post by Aimless » May 30th, 2017, 9:14 am

This may be our first report out of the Wallowas in 2017. Thanks! I am always personally interested in the snow situation there and how it is progressing, since this is my favorite area to hike in, bar none.

Runnerinblack
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Re: Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/1

Post by Runnerinblack » May 30th, 2017, 10:07 am

Thank you so much for the great report! I can't wait to get out that way....seems like I will be waiting a little while longer.

maryannpdx
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Re: Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/1

Post by maryannpdx » June 1st, 2017, 12:54 pm

I was over there, too, over the Memorial Day Weekend. I did Hurricane Creek like you guys, but turned back where the trail crosses the creek (I could not find an easy way to pass). I attempted Ice Lake - got about 6 miles down the trail (and 6800ft elevation) before the snow made finding the trail difficult. I also attempted Aneroid Lake, but only got 3 miles down the East Fork trail before the deep snow made the going pretty inefficient.
MaryannPDX

daver
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Re: Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/1

Post by daver » June 3rd, 2017, 5:51 am

Aimless wrote:This may be our first report out of the Wallowas in 2017. Thanks! I am always personally interested in the snow situation there and how it is progressing, since this is my favorite area to hike in, bar none.
Yeah things may be a little slow to clear this year. Glad I could give you something to look forward too :)

daver
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Re: Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/1

Post by daver » June 3rd, 2017, 5:53 am

Runnerinblack wrote:Thank you so much for the great report! I can't wait to get out that way....seems like I will be waiting a little while longer.
My boss did Mule Peak to 8700 ft on the same weekend with snow shoes. Pretty stout. I will wait for the melt myself.

daver
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Re: Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/1

Post by daver » June 3rd, 2017, 5:56 am

maryannpdx wrote:I was over there, too, over the Memorial Day Weekend. I did Hurricane Creek like you guys, but turned back where the trail crosses the creek (I could not find an easy way to pass). I attempted Ice Lake - got about 6 miles down the trail (and 6800ft elevation) before the snow made finding the trail difficult. I also attempted Aneroid Lake, but only got 3 miles down the East Fork trail before the deep snow made the going pretty inefficient.
Yeah it took a while to find a way across. We had a small dog with us too. She made it across a big log, but one bad step for any of us would not have been good. The amount of snow increased pretty quick beyond the creek, so it was a bit of work just to get another 1-1.5 miles. I was wondering about Aneroid. Snow hangs in there pretty long. I think the Mt. Howard SNOTEL lost a foot this week though.

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drm
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Re: Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/1

Post by drm » June 4th, 2017, 6:30 am

Aneroid Lake snotel still has 43 " of snow. The comparison plot for snow water level says it is about 33% above average, but it's been dropping fast.

daver
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Re: Wallowas - Hurricane Creek to foot of Matterhorn 05/27/1

Post by daver » June 4th, 2017, 10:24 am

drm wrote:Aneroid Lake snotel still has 43 " of snow. The comparison plot for snow water level says it is about 33% above average, but it's been dropping fast.
Sound like maybe a bit slower than Mt. Howard. Not too surprising I guess. One of those places that hangs on to it. Going to do some off trail exploring next weekend back up Hurricane to an old mining claim if weather allows. We will see how it goes. I take care of weather data for an ag research station near the foothills of the Blues, and were about 135 to 140% ahead for the year. It will be interesting to see how the mosquitoes are up there this year.

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