East Zigzag Mtn, summer edition

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Chip Down
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Joined: November 8th, 2014, 8:41 pm

East Zigzag Mtn, summer edition

Post by Chip Down » June 18th, 2021, 11:36 am

I noticed our field guide shows July-November. Oh yeah! That's right, I had forgotten it can be done in the summer. I did that once, decades ago. Let's go look! Okay, true, it's not July yet. Whatever, close enough.

Up US26 past Rhododendron, up Rd27 to the southern Burnt Lake TH, and up to the Devils Tie junction. When I reached Devils Meadow Campground, I was perplexed. I didn't see the bottom of Devil's Tie. But eventually I realized my error: The Devils Tie junction and Devils Campground are not the same place. Continuing on, I came to the junction. For the first time, I decided to use the main Burnt Lake Trail instead of the cutoff. I almost never read reports on other sites, but I did happen to spot this elsewhere, just a few days prior: "so overgrown, unmarked, and difficult that even gps didn't help, and we elected to just hike directly up towards the Ridge through fairly thick, thorny overgrowth". Sounds like my kind of adventure! An hour later, popping out at the Zigzag Mtn Trail was fantastic, a sunny view-packed reward.

It was still early, so headed east towards Paradise Park. I've never gone that far east on the ZZ trail. It was more fun than expected. Lots of snow, enough to make routefinding challenging at times, but lots of bare stretches too. The snow was never steep enough to be dangerous.

Eventually it became impossible to follow the trail, so I just went up in no particular direction, knowing I would reach the point where the trail plunges down the east extent of the Rhododendron Rhombus on a crisp ridge. Well, heck, I ended up way off trail, but even so, I ended up on the rim, and went looking for the trail where it drops. No luck. So I dropped east down the steep slope, and traversed around the slope until I found the trail on ridgecrest. What a horrible paragraph. Cripes, I did the hike, and I can't even follow that description. I'll put up a map below. I followed the ridgecrest trail down a bit. It really wasn't bad, kinda scenic, but not worth the return ascent, and a fair bit of blowdown, so after 350ish feet of descending, I turned back and climbed to the snowy rim.

On the way back down towards East Zigzag Mtn, I tried again to find the trail in the highest segment, to no avail. That was fun, but eventually it wore thin. Actually, it also literally wore thin, or I guess I should say melted thin, and as I descended I was able to find the trail again. Back to the Burnt Lake junctions (there are two because Burnt Lake Trails jogs a bit when it crosses ZZ trail) and up the bare east side of East Zigzag. It was fun to see this all sunny and bare and flowery, unlike my winter visits.

At the top, I noticed signs of a lookout, presumably: concrete, and what appeared to be anchors. On my last couple visits, it was cloudy, but it sure didn't look like this spot would provide good views. Indeed, on this visit, it wasn't at all like the vague memory of my one summer visit, maybe 30ish years ago. Is my memory that far off? Have trees grown up and obscured the view of Hood? I thought I remembered more beargrass, less conifers. Anyway, the ridge trails, both east and west, are scenic, and the summit was a nice place to linger and snack and drink beer in the shade of a tree.

I headed down the western trail, then a little ways on the Cast Creek trail, where I laughed at myself for thinking this was the Cast Lake trail. I guess I trusted memory too much, saw Cast Creek on the sign, and figured this was it. I had forgotten there was a Cast Creek Trail and Cast Lake Trail. I also laughed at seeing beargrass and views in a place that had been snow and swirling clouds before. I remembered wanting to sit on my last visit, but it was deep soft snow. So it was a nice luxury this time to sit in the grass and enjoy the view. Then it was on to Cast Lake trail, the real one this time. I wanted to see Cast Lake, because on my winter trip it didn't look right, not like I remembered it. Now I see what I did wrong. I was way off route on that winter visit, and ended up on the wrong shore. Google shows the trail headed towards the SW side of the lake, but with bare ground this time I could see it really goes NE.

On the way back from Cast Lake to ZZ trail, I lost my way in the snow. After walking for a while, I was back at a distinctive fallen tree with sign. Wow. Well, it's a weird feeling to realize you just walked a big circle, but at least I was staged for a re-do. So I struck off again and lost my way again, and ended up at that tree/sign again. Huh. That can't happen just by chance; there had to be something about the topography that was messing me up. I tried again, and ended up walking essentially the same circle again. Then a fourth time. Okay, this was fun, but damn. I realized there were only two ways out: Pick a direction, and compass my way out, ignoring my gut. Or CPS (cheater's positioning system) my way out. I chose the latter, and discovered how close I had come to the trail on my previous circuits. It's amazing I didn't run into it by chance.

Back on ZZ trail, I headed south to complete my loop to the Burnt Lake Trail where I came up in the morning, and along the way I lost the trail in snow. Such is the risk of a loop hike. No big deal. I was partly annoyed, partly amused, 0% terrified. On an earlier trip (I say that a lot, don't I?) I lost my way in that area in deep snow and sub-freezing temps, with not a lot of daylight left. So losing the trail on a summery day is nothing in comparison. Trudged around in the snow a bit, plunged in a couple times on tiny creeks and soaked my feet. Found my way and continued to the bottom of the Devils Tie trail, at Burnt Lake Trail. I stopped to change socks, but was swarmed by mosquitoes, the only ones I saw all day. So I ran back down the trail/road with squishy feet.
Attachments
1b.jpg
Make me! Western Burnt/ZZ junction.
2.jpg
The eastern Burnt/ZZ junction. I nearly missed that sign!
3.jpg
Can't recall ever seeing a benchmark with shade and grass. Top of East Zigzag.
4.JPG
Detail map of the route from ZZ to Paradise.

Webfoot
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Re: East Zigzag Mtn, summer edition

Post by Webfoot » June 20th, 2021, 7:59 am

I may have asked this before but what kind of clothing do you wear for these thorny adventures of yours?

Since you're carrying CPS now you really should record a track some time. I would love to see the trace of where you went, four loops and all!
Last edited by Webfoot on June 20th, 2021, 4:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Chip Down
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Re: East Zigzag Mtn, summer edition

Post by Chip Down » June 20th, 2021, 9:22 am

I too would like to see my four loops. That would be interesting. To make it even more enlightening, you'd want to track my blood-alcohol concentration through the same time period. ;)

People would laugh if they could see how I dress. Actually, come to think of it, they have. I always wear pants (mosquitoes, ticks, poison oak, sunburn, thorns, etc.....nature is nasty). But of course, as lightweight as possible. Close fitting to avoid the flag-flap phenomenon in high wind, but stretchy enough to allow good mobility. I always start early, so by the time it gets warm, I'm coming downhill, and I never really regret wearing pants. Same above the waist: I carry a long-sleeve quarter-zip with high neck, sprayed with permethrin. I try to wear gloves as much as possible; I'd rather not, but my hands get really scratched up and desiccated if they're exposed all day. I hate wearing a hat, but I do, for protection from brush and sun. It's always a great relief to take my hat off when I can, as long as bugs aren't a problem. I just had a funny thought. You've seen a bee-keeper outfit, right? That's my hiking kit. :lol: One thing I'm getting less fussy about is gaiters. I've worn gaiters less this year than any previous season.

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teachpdx
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Re: East Zigzag Mtn, summer edition

Post by teachpdx » June 22nd, 2021, 7:18 am

The topography between Cast Lake and the ZZ Mtn trail is quite counterintuitive. The last time I did that one in the snow (probably 8 or 9 years ago now) I remember glancing at the GPS multiple times to make sure we were on course. It's just a weird one because the ZZ/Cast Lake trail junction is essentially the same elevation as Cast Lake, but there's a +/- 120' soft ridge to cross between them. I completely understand how easy it was to do four unintended loops in that area!
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