Big Hollow Trail

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drm
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Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: The Dalles, OR
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Big Hollow Trail

Post by drm » October 31st, 2021, 8:45 am

I don't think there has been report on this trail since it reopened last summer, so Brad and I went up to check it out. The large fire in the area was named after Big Hollow Creek so I always assumed it was affected a lot, and that was true. The burn starts almost as soon as you start climbing. Pretty soon it is a high intensity burn with all trees killed for some distance. Eventually you get into mixed intensities, with lots of trees singed low down but where the crowns were not burned. But you don't really get past the burn until the trail angles left and heads up the final valley towards it's junction with the Observation Trail. That entire little valley was not burned.

I would add that hiking the trail from it's own trailhead off of Road 64 requires getting across Big Hollow Creek, which is running quite high and fast now. It would be a major and deep ford to cross right where the trail is, but we found a pretty good log a little ways downstream, which connects to the last few yards of the Dry Creek trail. The Big Hollow trail itself was in excellent condition. The Forest Service team cleared the trail early in the summer and very few logs have fallen since then. We only went as far as Berry Camp at the Observation Trail junction. We had thought of going to Sister Rocks, but it was cold (mid 30s) and windy up there.
bh1.jpg
A few remaining remnants of vine maple
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high intensity burn
bh3.jpg
we saw many of these insulator pieces, apparently a wire went up along this trail to the old lookout on Obs. Pk.
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medium intensity burn higher up
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looking across at Paradise Hills, hard hit
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Brad crossing Big Hollow Creek

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