Mirror Lake TDH Loop - Nov 8, 2018

[pablo]

This report is more about the engineering that went into the new trail head and connector. Some money was spent doing all this.

I've never done Mirror Lake before - too many people - but a day off with sunshine and a post on the Portlandhikers FB group about the loop around TDH got me interested. Well worth the visit for this day. As a testament to the weekend madness this trail must generate, a ton of engineering has gone into the new trail head and connector to the old trail. I lost count of the number of bridges across even insignificant creeks. Trees to make room for the trail were not cut down with saws but uprooted rootball and all and tossed aside. A place where saws were used is at the junction of the decommissioned section of old trail leading to the old trail head and several trees were dropped to discourage folks wanting to use the old section.

New parking lot right next to the Ski Bowl parking lot

DSCN0471 by pauljess999, on Flickr

Deluxe accommodations

DSCN0474 by pauljess999, on Flickr

First bit is paved and a structure in place to prevent short-cutting.

DSCN0483 by pauljess999, on Flickr

One of the 8 or so new bridges across anything that looked like it might have water in it at sometime.

DSCN0500 by pauljess999, on Flickr

In the new section trees in the corridor were not cut with saws but uprooted with intact rootball and pushed aside to clear the way.

DSCN0503 by pauljess999, on Flickr

A real attempt has been made to discourage use of the decommed segment. Dropped several not-small trees to block the old trail.

DSCN0527 by pauljess999, on Flickr

I did the loop around the lake and experienced the boardwalk but a slight breeze cheated me out of the mirror part of Mirror Lake. The hike across the TDH ridge was fun. I was pleased to find nice trail all along there - I guess most folks do it as an out and back as there were only a couple of tracks in the inch or so of snow beyond the end of maintained trail. BTW, what is the order of Tom Dick and Harry in the 3 peaks of TDH?

A taste of winter

DSCN0710 by pauljess999, on Flickr

Jefferson

DSCN0682 by pauljess999, on Flickr

Nice views of the usual Cascade volcanoes. I finished the loop on a mountain bike trail that was just barely hikeable - I can't imagine myself riding a bike down what I traveled but I guess people do this, and for fun.

Here's a map, 1700' 6-7 miles and I was pleased to find that the loop through Ski Bowl finished so nicely near the new trail head.

MirrorLakeTDHLoop by pauljess999, on Flickr

edits for grammar...

[adamschneider]

Do you have a GPS track you can share?

[Chip Down]

Oh, I hadn't even heard about this. Seems a bit disneyfied. Mirror lake is so over-rated. Which reminds me, I passed by Ramona Falls yesterday. Didn't see a soul.

[retired jerry]

Haven't there been fatal car crashes there? Good to re-route to a safe parking area.

Nice to have a citified trail for those people that are into that. They will go there and leave Ramona Falls alone.

Which is an attempt at humor when you consider how crowded Ramona Falls trailhead can be:

[pablo]

Do you have a GPS track you can share?

Here you go:

Current.gpx

Raw GPS track for TDH hike

(155.91 KiB) Downloaded 268 times

--Paul

[bobcat]

Paul,

Thanks for this first report on the new trail route to Mirror Lake. It looks like it has almost doubled the distance to the lake over the old trail?

[adamschneider]

It looks like it has almost doubled the distance to the lake over the old trail?

It was about 1.5 miles before. It's about 2 miles now.

[ghsmith76]

I spent the night on Tom, Dick & Harry on November 7th. Here is my Blog Post: https://adventurecontinues.org/2018/11/ ... r-lake-th/
I was also very surprised by the new Trailhead.

[miah66]

Coming back past ski-bowl on Sunday, there were dozens of cars parked at the "old" spot and about 10-12 groups walking on the side of the highway.

[Crusak]

Coming back past ski-bowl on Sunday, there were dozens of cars parked at the "old" spot and about 10-12 groups walking on the side of the highway.

Yeah! Wayne aka Koda and I saw those cars on Sunday, parked along the road. Seems they didn't get the memo.