Foxglove Recon 12/9/18
Posted: December 9th, 2018, 3:14 pm
After a simple out-and-back from Wahkeena to Devil's Rest last weekend, I wanted to make a loop today and check out some of the unofficial trails in the area. Since parking was tight last weekend, I arrived at 8 am to find that the lower parking area was open! So I could have slept a bit more. Oh well. I started up the paved switchbacks, moving fast to warm up in the roaring wind, then hit a thin layer of slippery snow just past the first viewpoint. Argh, I hadn't thought to bring microspikes. But I hoped the snow would turn to powder at a higher elevation. Between Fairy Falls and the Vista Point junction, I met a guy coming back down who said he went as far as the junction before giving up. We wished each other luck and I proceeded on, and then I felt bad for him, because just past that junction the snow did turn to powder and was no problem to walk on!
I turned west on the Angel's Rest trail, where I started catching more wind. This section of trail has many areas where the trees are burned all the way to the top, so they don't provide much shelter, and my ears were tuned for the sound of breaking branches. I stopped at the spot where the Primrose Path heads up to Devil's Rest, but I couldn't see the path among the fire debris and new undergrowth. Then I passed the first junction with the Foxglove network. I followed it up 10 yards or so, but it was pretty overgrown and not easy to see the path. Then I went back to the main trail and continued on to the final Foxglove junction, just above Angel's Rest.
Beyond some debris right at the junction, this trail was clear and easy to follow. I passed the first junction of another Foxglove heading east; this didn't seem too bad but was marked with an arrow made of logs directing people coming down from Devil's Rest to avoid it. Then I reached the old forest road that heads south to Palmer Mill Road, which I had wanted to take, but which has been aggressively decommissioned. So I continued toward the second Foxglove junction, in that low swampy area. In retrospect, I should have added a marking like the log arrow there, because its sign pointing to Wahkeena could lead someone into more of a mess than they want to deal with. I'm afraid these trails are in better condition at the top end, and progressively get worse as they pass down into the more fire-damaged areas. So if I were to try one of these, I'd start from the bottom.
I continued up the final, steep section to Devil's Rest, and took a few photos of the beautiful, frosty trees before continuing east toward the connector trail to Multnomah Basin Road. I wanted to see what shape Palmer Mill Road was in before heading home. There were fresh vehicle tracks in the snow, so I knew it must be clear east to Larch Mountain Road. But as I approached that junction, I saw more decommissioning work on the old east-west road grade that I'd walked a couple times in the past, and when I reached Palmer Mill I was surprised to find an excavator parked next to a new earth and stone barricade, emphatically closing off Palmer Mill to the west. Beyond the barricade, the road was torn up and covered with trees and branches. To be clear, this is not destruction from the fire, which hardly affected this area -- this is activity since the fire, apparently meant to fully end the use of these roads.
With mixed feelings, I sat down for a quick lunch, but the temperature was only 25 up here and I didn't want to sit still for long. The water was freezing in my water bottle, and the "smoothie filled" Clif Bar I ate was actually frozen like a smoothie! So I headed back up Multnomah Basin Road, back to the Devil's Rest Trail, and back down to Wahkeena.
On the way back, the roaring wind finally stopped, but was soon replaced by large sleet pellets. And the slippery section below the Vista Point junction was even worse going down, as I expected. I just took my time and used my trekking poles to shuffle down. When I returned to the trailhead at 1:00, the lower parking area was closed again, and the upper parking was only 2/3 full ... so I guess most people had the sense to stay home on this cold and windy day. But I had a good time and was happy to get a look at some of these areas for the first time since the fire.
I turned west on the Angel's Rest trail, where I started catching more wind. This section of trail has many areas where the trees are burned all the way to the top, so they don't provide much shelter, and my ears were tuned for the sound of breaking branches. I stopped at the spot where the Primrose Path heads up to Devil's Rest, but I couldn't see the path among the fire debris and new undergrowth. Then I passed the first junction with the Foxglove network. I followed it up 10 yards or so, but it was pretty overgrown and not easy to see the path. Then I went back to the main trail and continued on to the final Foxglove junction, just above Angel's Rest.
Beyond some debris right at the junction, this trail was clear and easy to follow. I passed the first junction of another Foxglove heading east; this didn't seem too bad but was marked with an arrow made of logs directing people coming down from Devil's Rest to avoid it. Then I reached the old forest road that heads south to Palmer Mill Road, which I had wanted to take, but which has been aggressively decommissioned. So I continued toward the second Foxglove junction, in that low swampy area. In retrospect, I should have added a marking like the log arrow there, because its sign pointing to Wahkeena could lead someone into more of a mess than they want to deal with. I'm afraid these trails are in better condition at the top end, and progressively get worse as they pass down into the more fire-damaged areas. So if I were to try one of these, I'd start from the bottom.
I continued up the final, steep section to Devil's Rest, and took a few photos of the beautiful, frosty trees before continuing east toward the connector trail to Multnomah Basin Road. I wanted to see what shape Palmer Mill Road was in before heading home. There were fresh vehicle tracks in the snow, so I knew it must be clear east to Larch Mountain Road. But as I approached that junction, I saw more decommissioning work on the old east-west road grade that I'd walked a couple times in the past, and when I reached Palmer Mill I was surprised to find an excavator parked next to a new earth and stone barricade, emphatically closing off Palmer Mill to the west. Beyond the barricade, the road was torn up and covered with trees and branches. To be clear, this is not destruction from the fire, which hardly affected this area -- this is activity since the fire, apparently meant to fully end the use of these roads.
With mixed feelings, I sat down for a quick lunch, but the temperature was only 25 up here and I didn't want to sit still for long. The water was freezing in my water bottle, and the "smoothie filled" Clif Bar I ate was actually frozen like a smoothie! So I headed back up Multnomah Basin Road, back to the Devil's Rest Trail, and back down to Wahkeena.
On the way back, the roaring wind finally stopped, but was soon replaced by large sleet pellets. And the slippery section below the Vista Point junction was even worse going down, as I expected. I just took my time and used my trekking poles to shuffle down. When I returned to the trailhead at 1:00, the lower parking area was closed again, and the upper parking was only 2/3 full ... so I guess most people had the sense to stay home on this cold and windy day. But I had a good time and was happy to get a look at some of these areas for the first time since the fire.