Elk Mt. and Bluegrass Ridge

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Splintercat
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Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
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Re: Elk Mt. and Bluegrass Ridge

Post by Splintercat » July 8th, 2021, 3:48 pm

That's good to know, Don. There are TKO crews scheduled to work on the north side (Vista Ridge and Old Vista Ridge) this month doing crosscut work, but hopefully between volunteers and USFS crews we'll get Bluegrass Ridge logged out eventually, too.

I should have mentioned in my previous post that the fire crew work on the trail stopped at the edge of the fire zone, so roughly where the trail starts to drop from the high point on the ridge as you go north. As recently as the 1980s, there was still a footbridge over Cold Spring Creek that allowed for a nice loop from the Tamanawas and Polallie trailheads -- up Cold Spring Creek to Elk Meadows, up the cutoff and then down Bluegrass Ridge. Hoping to get that restored, as there are a lot of long-distance day hikers (you included!) looking for mega-loops with big views. A tougher effort will be to complete the Lamberson Spur trail to connect to the Timberline Trail -- another mega-loop that was envisioned in the 1970s, when the Lamberson trail was constructed, then abandoned (I think simply for budget reasons).

-Tom

squidvicious
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Joined: May 11th, 2015, 8:41 pm
Location: Troutdale

Re: Elk Mt. and Bluegrass Ridge

Post by squidvicious » July 14th, 2021, 6:09 pm

gallione11 wrote:
July 6th, 2021, 3:13 pm
I would suggest going counter clockwise if you're doing the loop. We did the joiner trail uphill last year and it was completely miserable. Wasn't nearly as bad going downhill.
Exactly, that was my experience as I described previously, and was again when I did it today.

First of all, who doesn't enjoy this sort of thing? It was just a lot of fun, hopping over stuff, having the whole trail to yourself. Sure, there was a lot of blowdown, but not real problem blowdown. Not in that stretch anyway. And the path was easy to spot most of the way (most). Both the trail and I are in better condition than several years ago, so I enjoyed it even more than before. I was a bit worried about difficulties again on the tie trail, but I spotted it pretty easily, followed it pretty easily, and didn't encounter any significant obstacles on the way down (definitely MUCH better than last time). I did eventually lose the trail proper once I got to the bottom. Not a problem since I just had to keep going straight until I intersected the Elk Meadows trail, but it would be a pain figuring where to go from the other direction.

Good experience, would hike again.

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