Three Fingered Jack East Canyon Meadows July 3rd

[BurnsideBob]

July 3rd we day hiked into Three Fingered Jack's East Canyon from the Jack Lake trailhead. With our unusually warm and dry spring, we hoped to hit the flower flush just right. But conditions have remained cool enough at this altitude that the best flowers are yet to come.

July 3rd we found that flowers were just coming on at the lower meadow trail junction. We started up to the upper meadow but soon stopped because the mosquitos were voracious and bloom hadn't started. Snow banks remained on the meadow floor in shady areas and run off water filled the trail tread.

With the new permit system in place, the parking lot was just full--not at all like last year when we found the lot over full with cars double parked and people parked along both sides of the access road. We saw few hikers during our hike and while there were three USFS rigs in the parking lot, we did not encounter any personnel, much less be asked for our permits.


So if you are interested in visiting this magnificent place, the best is yet to come.

Near Lower Meadow Trail Junction

Shooting Stars

Lupine

Painted Lady--Millions of 'em.

My trail runneth over.

Butterfly?

Broke Bridge Below Trail Junction

Someone got hot feet and had to be carried!

Sorry about the sideways photos.

Happy Trails,

Burnside

[Chip Down]

Sorry about the sideways photos.

Occasionally when I open a pic on this site, it rotates a quarter turn. And we all know that pics here sometimes appear rotated a quarter turn. Your report here is the first time I've seen those quirks appear together, which means your images appear upside down when I open them! I think you deserve some kind of prize for that.

Is this the hike that goes by the name Canyon Creek Meadows, or is that something different?

[BurnsideBob]

Hi Chip:

You are correct, Sullivan calls this hike Canyon Creek Meadows, hike #27 in his "100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades", 1991 edition.

For those interested, there were several Cascade (Washington) lilies about to bloom at the very first trail junction you come to at 0.3 miles from Jack Lake.

As for photos, I normally use the photo editor in MS Office and all the photos display correctly. Clearly they do not on this site, so I've used a different photo editor to rotate the photos and well see how that works:

Near Lower Meadow Trail Junction

My Trail Runneth Over

Broken Bridge on way down Canyon Creek trail.

Someone got hot feet and had to be carried.

Looks like this works!

Burnside

[McChaix]

I was in the area Friday July 9, but did not have a pass. I thought I'd sneak in the back way from Bear Valley via Wasco Lake but found out the trail is no longer maintained. The salal and ironwood have completely grown over the tread. And given the name Bear Valley it's perfect terrain in which to surprise a bear in chest high brush.

I think this is deliberate because there is a nice new sign pointing to the Windigo Metolius trail at an intersection and no signage at all pointing out the Wasco Lake trail.

So heads up everyone - that trail is gone.

[BurnsideBob]

Sorry to hear you had a major bush whack. I'm assuming you are referring to Trail 4006 as marked on this map.

A number of trails on the east side of the crest around Jeff seem to have been let go. The trail to Wasco Lake was open and clear August 2020. Anyone do Sugar Pine Ridge recently? Anyhow, in 2019 johnspeth posted this:

We also have a loss in the area: The Bear Valley trail (trail 4006) from Bear Valley to Minto Pass is posted as closed/unmaintained. It had quite a bit of brush obscuring the trail. I followed it for a quarter mile and figured it wasn't worth the effort to continue after my Rockpile Lake hike. The trail was faint and I personally would not attempt it unless I had plenty of time. I have no idea what to expect past the quarter mile.

in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=28287

Trail 4006 was subject to a fire closure in 2012, so it must have been let go since then:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/deschute ... RDB5391998


Burnside

[McChaix]

Yep, that's the one.

[Aimless]

Anyone do Sugar Pine Ridge recently?

No one in their right mind would travel the Sugar Pine Ridge trail its full length in its current condition. It's choked with snow brush and deadfall. The Jefferson Lake trail, just to the north has been largely rehabilitated lately by a dedicated group of volunteers - but I don't know if they've cleared it all the way up to Patsy Lake, yet.

There is one hiker who has been trying to get permission from the Deschutes Forest to bring back the Bear Valley trail, but he doesn't want to push ahead without some assurance the FS will sanction the effort, maybe providing sawyer crews to augment the brushing out done by volunteers. I last heard from him in 2019. I live too far away to be much help as a volunteer, but I hope he succeeds eventually. The east side of Mt. Jefferson is a great area and needs to get its trails back.

[BurnsideBob]

To me Sugar Pine Ridge is an enigmatic evocative name that promises an unusual experience of the most magnificent of pines, the Sugar Pine. Fire has taken that possibility from us.

Unfortunately, Sugar Pine Ridge, a trail not heavily used, and now subject to both the annual deadfall of fire killed trees and encroachment by brush not checked by overstory shade, is easy to eliminate from the maintenance budget.

Study of satellite imagery, toggling back and forth between image and topo, shows traces of the trail yet remain. I wish I had walked that trail before the B & B fire came. The trail not taken.

Burnside Bob

[Chip Down]

No one in their right mind would travel the Sugar Pine Ridge trail its full length in its current condition.

impassable
- USFS

I'm so tempted!

[kelkev]

Jefferson Lake Trail is clear to Patsy Lake, thanks to those volunteers who've painstakingly reopened this trail the past few years. Sugarpine Ridge....I attempted to follow it for a bit on the upper end where it intersects the Cabot Lake Trail last year, no problem for a bit but I could see that it was lost in a sea of Ceanothus and deadfalls. The FS has been VERY resistant to offers to reopen other east side Mt. Jeff trails. Not sure why but it's frankly ridiculous.