King - Elk Mountain loop looks lush

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Openminded2
Posts: 28
Joined: July 6th, 2020, 4:45 pm
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King - Elk Mountain loop looks lush

Post by Openminded2 » July 5th, 2022, 10:02 am

ImageI did the https://www.oregonhikers.org/field_guid ... _Loop_Hike this past weekend and the challenge requires your toes be up to the task. The prior trip reports from fitter hikers remain pretty accurate. The rope continues to be well secured, the scrambles are just as scramble-y as ever.

I started at King's Mountain TH with the Wilson River Trail to warm up the legs for the first 3 plus miles. The trail is being seriously encroached by the plant life, so much so that this relatively flat bit would be quite annoying if I had pulled out the poles. Knowing the scrambles ahead of me, I was wondering if I would regret bringing them (more to come). Arriving at the turnoff for Elk Mountain, I knew what I was up for as I had done it twice before. Upon huffing and puffing, always when you get to the false tops, you think, "oh this is not yet the top", then again, "oh, this is not yet the top", then another wee saddle that the legs were arguing about "this better be the top!", but no. But hey, we've done this before, no?

The trail was fine (as fine as Elk Mountain ascent ever could be). What did someone call it? "as mundane as a bobsled track"...or something of the sort. A bobsled track with rocks, that is.

The top of Elk certainly leaves something to be desired after all that effort. While this trip brought the least wind of my three visits to here (yeah!) and the best weather, I also got the most bottleneck of hikers. 20 people at the top just do not fit, the open seating is scarce and you really are on top of each other scrambling for the view we all deserve. At best, there is a perch for a couple of people to sit in the gravel and enjoy the view with the ambitious ants but on that perch, you have people walking right in front of you in a small area so they can snap their shot. Alas, no tree has yet sacrificed itself to the purpose of giving weary hikers a rooftop viewpoint log. Bring a groundcloth and patience.

The descent from Elk is a cruel joke, up, down, up, down, up, a pretty high standard deviation for a "descent". The trail was in fine fetter, dry and awash with wildflowers enjoying the afternoon sun (yeah, I said "afternoon"...hey, don't judge). Truly spectacular even for a trail that is known more for its ability to build endurance than display wildflowers. After many ups and upward leaning switchbacks, I found myself at the King's Mountain crossroads. I've always stormed straight through to the monotonous track to Wilson River but with the car at King's Mountain TH and me having no interest in "adding" 3.5 more miles, I swung left to tackle King (can't be THAT hard, I saw a couple high school XC runners doing it, without water!).

Okay. Wrong.

The first bit of trail seems to have been well intention-ed as a ex-logging road, but then maybe the road fell off the mountain and someone had to get back. It is seriously intimidating getting to King's peak. I didn't mind the up down so much now as I used all my wits not to fall off the side knowing the struggle to get anywhere from there with even so much as a sprained ankle.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...once at King's peak, I came across all sorts of loud talkers who OBVIOUSLY were not as weakened as I. Having a bit of a break there, I started down. Well. Here is the first time in the day that I thanked the hiker fairy who had whispered, "bring your poles". My word. This is a crazy gravelly descent was nice and wide but it felt often like a log rolling event. Without poles, my stiff and complaining toes would have been awash with blisters. We ran into a couple small families without poles and they were really struggling to make forward progress down the mountain.

The sword ferns looked AMAZING, the long ago (1947?) burned trees looked stunning and we had no burning sun. It was a great descent, gravel be damned. Enjoy.
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aaburles
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Joined: September 29th, 2015, 8:33 am

Re: King - Elk Mountain loop looks lush

Post by aaburles » July 5th, 2022, 10:33 am

Love that loop. I did the same loop Friday midday and had Elk summit all to myself. It's harder and harder to find empty trails on the weekends.

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