It was warm at the Larch Mountain parking area, with only a couple of cars in the lot (I saw two other hikers the whole day). I took the Larch Mountain Trail down past the junction with Multnomah Creek Way and entered the fire zone. I also entered a cold and dense bank of cloud that was hovering at about the 3,000 foot level. The ghostly snags of large trees consumed by crown fire stood sentinel in the mists. One of my favorite trees, the big Douglas-fir at the top of the talus slope, had been a casualty of the fire. There’s some lushness near the confluence of the two forks of Multnomah Creek before you get into the fire zone again and reach the Franklin Ridge Trail, now without signage.
On trail crews, I had worked or hiked the complete length of the Franklin Ridge Trail about three years ago when it was still closed. Crown fire had scorched almost the entire length of the trail, and I was curious to see how it was doing. One obstacle trail crews faced was that the dense shrubbery was rooted in scree disguised by a very thin organic layer, making it impossible to dig out the roots. I found the first few hundred yards had been recently brushed out, but after that the tall shrubs closed in (fireweed, thimbleberry, Scouler’s willow, wild cherry, elderberry, bracken, blackcap raspberry). Luckily, the trail has been hiked often enough that the tread itself is hardened and easily followed. On trail work, we had lost the original route in places and thus created new approximations, mostly closer to the edge of the Oneonta rim to get more views. Being socked in the clouds, I got no vistas but for old time’s sake had lunch at the rock outcropping from which one would normally admire Mt. Adams. There were a few trees down on the trail above the outcropping and then the vegetation became more forgiving and soon I was walking in an open understory, in one spot through a dense new carpet of one-inch hemlocks, until I joined the Oneonta Trail.
After taking the Multnomah Spur, I rock-hopped the East Fork of Multnomah Creek (the previous week I had had to ford it because the water was high). Then I headed up Multnomah Creek Way into the Larch Mountain crater. Sure enough, at about 3,000 feet, I found myself looking up at patches of blue sky, it felt about 20 degrees warmer, and I could make out the silhouette of Sherrard Point. I walked out the old logging railroad grade, and then made the brief passage on the Oneonta Trail to finish the hike.
