Oregon Hikers

I was on part of this in late September. I only went as far as the gate just past the viewpoint and returned how I came. I wanted to see how long it takes to get uphill before going down to Eureka Creek another time. Did you see whether the trail along the creek to Eureka Bar is passable? I read someone's post somewhere that they had had to turn back because it was too overgrown/difficult to find, but a waitress told me the night before I went that yes, you can make it all the way to the Snake on the old wagon road. That's a huge trek you did in one day, especially considering you had to find or make trails on the Cemetery Ridge portion. My impression of the access road to the TH was that there's no way to drive around that fallen tree, but your picture makes it look not as bad. This September the Eureka wagon road trail itself had felled trees blocking it in two places.

bxhell wrote: ↑

October 11th, 2021, 6:43 am

I was on part of this in late September. I only went as far as the gate just past the viewpoint and returned how I came. I wanted to see how long it takes to get uphill before going down to Eureka Creek another time. Did you see whether the trail along the creek to Eureka Bar is passable?

Once I crossed Eureka Creek near the cabin, I didn’t look too much at the continuation of the old wagon road down to the Snake River. Fred Barstad’s description says “Most maps show the trail going down the right (east) side of the creek. However, the old roadbed is washed out in places and is choked with brush. The current trail after getting to the cabin is on the west side of the creek (cabin side). Slightly more than 0.5 mile below the cabin, the route crosses the creek for the first of seven times. Right before crossing the creek for the last time, a poor path turns to the left and goes a short distance to Eureka Bar on Snake River.”

Sounds like an adventure!

bxhell wrote: ↑

October 11th, 2021, 6:43 am

That's a huge trek you did in one day, especially considering you had to find or make trails on the Cemetery Ridge portion.

Yes, it was a long day. However, at that time of year the days are long. Plus I started fairly early in the morning. Once back at the car, I had time to wash up, drive to Enterprise, get a meal, and drive to the Wallowa Lake TH to spend the night at Hotel Subaru.

bxhell wrote: ↑

October 11th, 2021, 6:43 am

My impression of the access road to the TH was that there's no way to drive around that fallen tree, but your picture makes it look not as bad. This September the Eureka wagon road trail itself had felled trees blocking it in two places.

I don’t recall any fallen tree. I didn’t start at the actual trailhead, but made a mental note to gauge if my Subaru could make it to the trailhead, and I think it could have.

I have photos of the fallen trees, but can't figure out how to insert them in a post. When I press the "insert image" tab it just puts some characters in the post. One is about five minutes below the junction with the Cemetery Ridge trail. The tree had been higher than the roadbed, and there is a big hole where its roots are/were. You have to scramble to get up and around it. The other, if my memory is right, is closer to the trailhead and is easier to walk around. That tree's trunk is not as thick, looks to have died quite some time ago, is chalky white/grey.

The img button inserts a pair of code tags. You need to have your photos hosted elsewhere (eg Google photos, Flickr, etc) and copy the URL for the photo and paste it between the tags. The code will then end up looking like this: {img}http://url.url.url{/img}
(I'm using the wrong type of bracket around the img tag so the forum will actually display the text.)

If you want to just upload pictures to the forum and insert them into your post, see here:
viewtopic.php?p=167#p167

First two photos are of the tree blocking the access road to the trailhead. People may be driving around it? The second two are of a log across the wagon/road trail early on, before the junction with the Cemetery Ridge trail. It's not too much of a foot detour, but the original roadbed is completely covered. The last three are on the trail past the junction with Cemetery Ridge trail. There's a hole where the roots were, and people had made a route around that hole, and it's a bit of a climb. I had the impression it had come uprooted recently. It was not something to step over.