This past Sunday, I hiked the full Franklin Ridge Loop hike. I had hiked nearly to the top of Franklin Ridge the weekend before via Triple Falls, and encountered minimal snow. There was some excitement involved at the idea of being able to do a legit loop hike, something I haven't done since December. The potential of postholing far back into the loop added some level of spiciness. I'm new to the area, and had never hiked in the area other than viewing the falls from below. (Note: I did the loop clockwise)
I arrived at the I 84 Multnomah Falls parking at 8:30. The lot was wide open, and I had my choice of spots. I made it up the paved switchbacks through minimal crowds. Was impressive to see some really small kids making it up there and having fun doing it.
After leaving asphalt and heading towards Wiesendanger Falls, the crowds thinned out as anticipated.
Continuing on up the trail, I started to enter patches of intact forest, passing a beautiful creek confluence in the vicinity of the high water bypass.
Then on up to the franklin ridge junction, and a more severely burned area. Here there where still some live trees overhead, and alot of branches over the trail, but no notable blowdown. Making the turn at the big switchback and entering the top of the bridge, as most of you know, all the trees where burned. There was no significant blowdown along this section, just finer debris, branches etc. Most of the way looked like this:
Caught this cool view along the way, thanks to the fire I'm guessing.
Up towards the summit of the ridge, I encountered maybe a 1/4 mile or so of bad blowdown, where care was needed to stay on the trail. This area is marked on the east with a purple waypoint on my gps track shown below. I took a little detour to the broad summit and didn't catch any real views, but found a thick carpet of baby Western Hemlocks regenerating the forest.
After joining the Oneonta trail, I soon encountered large drifts of snow. They where firm and I could hike nicely on top. aA little before joining the Multnomah spur trail, I was hiking on continuous snow pack. I began seriously wondering how far I would be able to go before becoming mired in postholing or losing the trail, but there where some recent tracks coming from the other direction, so I knew someone had made it through. I kept going and managed to stay on top of firm snow and easily follow the trail. This is a snapshot along the way, portions further toward the larch mtn junction where much deeper but still relatively easy travel.
Some cool effects where previous prints hardened and stood out higher than untouched snow:
I reached the larch mountain trail junction, ate a couple apples, and turned right.
I anticipated the snowpack to be gone where I reentered the burn, but the snow was still there and deep.
Then I got to the crux of the hike, right where the trail crosses to the east bank of Multnomah Creek. A lot of blowdown came into effect, and there was high potential for punching deeply through the snow into a hole of death. I walked a bit past where the buried trail switchbacks to cross the bridge. Fortunately realized it pretty fast and backtracked to cross at the bridge. Shortly after the crossing, the snowpack and heavy blowdown dissipated. I cruised down smoothly to the Franklin Ridge junction, completing the loop. A little ways down from where the road comes in, I encountered a couple hikers. They asked me a bunch of questions about what lay ahead, then turned around. This was the furthest up I saw any other hikers.
I continued on down and witnessed the impressive show of people heading up the asphalt switchbacks. Straight up impressive amounts of obvious non hikers making it up there. Also some super sketchy strollers being pushed high up, driving over rocks, tipping everywhere, it was dicey. How they got across the logs over the trail is anybody's guess.
It was a great hike with many miles of solitude and a good adventure factor with the snow. Thanks for the parking beta and field guide info here.
The snow is variable out there, seems to depend alot on aspect and microclimate. I wouldn't have wanted to go any higher in elevation though. I think snow is laid in there pretty well. I had microspikes but did not use them.
Purple points mark areas of heavy blowdown. White points mark beginning and or end of snow. Yellow was the furthest up person I encountered.
