- Herman Creek drainage from Peak 3152
I've been trying to get out to the Herman Creek area, and finally did the Indian Point loop. A buddy and I gambled on the weather for Saturday, hoping for dry weather and possibly even some sun. We ended up with clouds, fog, rain, snow, and sun as the day progressed, in that order.
We got to the trailhead (frontage road, TH parking is closed) about 7:45am, and there was only one other car already there. We did the loop clockwise, taking Gorton Creek trail up to Indian Point. Snow patches on the Gorton Creek Trail started around 1800', about the same time we climbed up into the clouds. Snow was persistent above ~2400', but well packed down on the trail. Indian Point was completely socked in but we dipped down to it anyways.
- Indian Point and the majestic Columbia River Gorge
The Ridge connector to Nick Eaton had the most snow we encountered all day. There were enough tracks to follow that we were fine in just boots, although we did some occasional post-holing. It snowed on us for maybe 10 minutes in this stretch, and immediately after that the fog started the lighten enough to catch glimpses of blue sky. Passing through here felt surreal, the landscape was completely devoid of color with only white snow and blackened trees.
- Ridge Connector, looking back towards Indian Point
Nick Eaton at the junction had a fresh dusting of snow, and some patches of snow up to Peak 3152. We had the place to ourselves, and the clouds were putting on a show as they moved rapidly across the Herman Creek drainage spread out below. We ate some lunch and hung around for 45 minutes watching the show. Here is the companion shot to the Photo of the Day.
- Fog from Peak 3152
After lunch we did a bit of scouting further south on Nick Eaton. There were some very faint tracks to follow, but nothing recent or enough to pack down the snow. We went about a half mile along Nick Eaton before the snow got deeper than we wanted to deal with and we turned around. I had wanted to find the Deadwood trail but we weren't able to spot it. On our way back down Nick Eaton the dusting of snow around the Ridge cutoff trail junction was already melted off, but there were still a few more persistent patches down to about 2600'. Nick Eaton the rest of the way down was uneventful, and descending under clear blue skies was a pleasant change from our trip up Gorton in the fog.
- Columbia River from the Nick Eaton trail
We saw a handful of other hikers on the way down, and there were about a dozen cars when we got back to the trailhead around 3pm.
