Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

This forum is used to share your experiences out on the trails.
Post Reply
datura
Posts: 29
Joined: March 13th, 2014, 10:09 am

Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by datura » August 8th, 2022, 9:05 am

These trails are WAY up the Molalla River drainage, past the Table Rock wilderness area, on BLM land. I don't know how long the area has been open, but the various maps we looked at (from late July) do not show it as being closed. We've been exploring up there this year, going farther into the area as the snow melted and gates started to be unlocked.

Most of the forest up there is unburned. There definitely are burned areas, of course, ranging from minor ground-fire charring and underbrush-clearing to total stand-kills. The bigleaf maples and some of the other deciduous trees are re-sprouting vigorously from their bases, and underbrush is rapidly re-growing.

The trailheads are unmarked, but their locations are sufficiently well described in the Field Guide on this website. The gravel roads to get there are in pretty decent shape -- a few potholes and washboards, but no major issues. It's a fairly long drive from the start of the Molalla River Recreation Corridor.

Joyce Lake is a small lake with a short trail, less than a mile around. It's a nice stop to get out and walk around for a few minutes. There's a campsite of sorts where the lake trail meets the little connector from the road. It's a decent sized spot with a lovely (or not) toilet paper garden nearby, sigh. The trailhead has some large rocks at the road and a bit of a pullout on the other side. Once you know it's there, it's relatively easy to find.

The forest surrounding the lake is surprisingly nice. The lake is small but cute. We did not try the other trails that seemed to connect to the lake trail. Nor did we take the unmarked trail that seemed to go to another tiny lake a little ways down the road. Someday...

trail to joyce lake.jpg
joyce lake.jpg

At the very end of that BLM road is the trailhead for Nasty Rock. It's quite pretty there, with lovely views all around and wildflowers growing on and alongside the road.

flowers at nasty rock trailhead.jpg

We found the Nasty Rock trail and walked it all the way to Nasty Rock and back. It's a fairly short trail, less than 3 miles round trip. There's not a lot of elevation gain, maybe 500 feet or so. Most of it is in the first quarter mile and the last quarter mile. Those sections are steep, especially the final approach to Nasty Rock. The rest is much more moderate, with occasional ups and downs.

The trail is rather bushy and overgrown and narrow in spots, but it's usually pretty straightforward to see the tread. Once we hit the ridgeline, it was harder to follow in some areas but it's not like there are a lot of ways to go straight up the ridge! There's a small scramble to get to the top of Nasty Rock itself. I think the trail at the base continues along the ridgeline as a user/deer trail towards Not Nasty Rock and thence down to the USFS Nasty Rock trailhead. We didn't continue past Nasty Rock.

nasty rock trail through brushy area.jpg

In addition to the trail being somewhat overgrown, there are about a half-dozen or so large trees that have fallen across the trail. It's not too difficult to climb over or under them or go around them. These are after the switchbacks but before one crosses the ridge.

tree on nasty rock trail.jpg

The mosquitos were out but not overwhelmingly so as long as we kept moving, though we did break down and put on bug spray after a while. If there were biting flies, they left us alone.

Most of the early season flowers are done, but the mid to late season flowers were blooming. Bees and butterflies were happily exploring them.

early gentian on nasty rock trail.jpg

The forest was lovely. I was in the mood for old growth and it delivered. There are a few burned stretches along the trail, but those sections consist of charred tree trunks and sparse undergrowth in those areas, with almost all the trees still alive.

burned area on nasty rock trail.jpg

The views from the trail and from Nasty Rock are expansive. Much of the forest we could see has survived. You can see the burned areas, but to me, it seemed to blend into the clearcuts (also burned) and actually made the vistas seem more wild. There was little or no sign of human activity. The mountains were out from Mt. Hood through Three Sisters, but increasing smoke during the day reduced the clarity and visibility.

burned areas from nasty rock.jpg
more views from nasty rock.jpg
forest view from nasty rock trail.jpg


We saw no one else on the trail at all, nor anyone at the trailhead, though in some of our past explorations, we did see people camping at the end of the road. We saw indistinct prints on the trail every now then, though we couldn't tell if it was from a person or an animal.

I hope to continue exploring the other trails and trail fragments in the area, as well as exploring from the access points on the other side as they continue to slowly open up. I love this area and am very glad I finally had a chance to see some of what's out here.

User avatar
adamschneider
Posts: 3711
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

Re: Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by adamschneider » August 8th, 2022, 9:28 am

I did that trail the summer before the fires, and it was brushy/overgrown then too. (It had rained the day before, and my legs and shoes got SOAKED.) I guess it's just not a popular destination.

I'm surprised the burn wasn't more severe; I wonder how Not Nasty Rock fared.

datura
Posts: 29
Joined: March 13th, 2014, 10:09 am

Re: Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by datura » August 8th, 2022, 9:48 am

The BLM calls the Nasty Rock Trail a historic trail, so maybe they don't plan to do maintenance on it. I'm glad it's not very popular while also being a trail that most hikers can do without needing to be uber-buff long-distance trekkers who own heavy-duty off-road-capable vehicles. I mean, popular places are popular for a reason, and I love those, too, but sometimes I just want to do a relatively straightforward trail without a lot of other people. And no slam against very remote and/or long and/or rough trails that are hard to reach, because I love them, too, even though I can't easily get to a lot of them and some are beyond my physical capabilities.

Not Nasty looked pretty reasonable, at least from our view. Not 100% unscathed, but the ridgeline had plenty of unburned areas.

I think these three photos show the view towards the ridgeline with Not Nasty. I'm pretty sure (though not 100% certain) that Not Nasty is the small prominence on the left along the ridge in the first two photos and on the right in the third.

not nasty 1.jpg
not nasty 2.jpg
not nasty 3.jpg

I too was very happy to see so much forest remaining after the burns of the past few years, especially old growth forest. Fingers crossed that this section remains in good shape for a while.

User avatar
BigBear
Posts: 1836
Joined: October 1st, 2009, 11:54 am

Re: Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by BigBear » August 8th, 2022, 10:32 am

I believe your royal blue flower is gentian which is a summer bloomer.

datura
Posts: 29
Joined: March 13th, 2014, 10:09 am

Re: Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by datura » August 8th, 2022, 11:16 am

I believe you're right! Thank you for the confirmation! The gentians were just starting to bloom, I believe. The rhododendrons and beargrass had finished. We saw penstemons, sedum, scarlet gilia, a lot of daisy-like flowers of various colors, Indian paintbrush at the trailhead, the beginnings of fireweed at the trailhead, a few bleeding hearts and columbine, and other flowers that are typical of mid-summer and starting-to-be-late-summer. Some huckleberries were starting to look ripe though most were green. There weren't a lot of berries.

The trail tops out at about 4500', so that tells you a bit about what's currently blooming at the 4000-5000' elevation in this part of the Cascades.

User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Re: Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by bobcat » August 8th, 2022, 12:43 pm

Excellent! Great to get a report from this area and see the trail conditions!

JBG
Posts: 32
Joined: June 21st, 2021, 7:01 pm

Re: Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by JBG » August 8th, 2022, 2:18 pm

Thanks for the report! I'll keep this in mind for a little later this year.

User avatar
adamschneider
Posts: 3711
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

Re: Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by adamschneider » August 8th, 2022, 2:25 pm

datura wrote:
August 8th, 2022, 9:48 am
I think these three photos show the view towards the ridgeline with Not Nasty. I'm pretty sure (though not 100% certain) that Not Nasty is the small prominence on the left along the ridge in the first two photos and on the right in the third.
Yeah, that's it. NNR doesn't look like much from the Nasty Rock area, but it's a lot more imposing when you get up close. More of a multi-peaked fin than a single lump. There are no nearby vantage points from which you can get a true sense of it, so here's a Google Earth view:
Not Nasty Rock (GE).jpg

A photo taken from below the far end, looking northeast:
Not Nasty Rock.jpg

The high point of Not Nasty Rock, taken from not-the-high-point on the crest:
NNR crest.jpg
(The scramble up the west side to get there was... well, pretty Nasty.)

datura
Posts: 29
Joined: March 13th, 2014, 10:09 am

Re: Nasty Rock (BLM) and Joyce Lake

Post by datura » August 8th, 2022, 8:32 pm

Here's a closer look at Not Nasty Rock, cropped from one of the cellphone photos above. I'm not much of a photographer, sorry. If you'd prefer, I can send you a copy of the entire photo rather than this small crop. The photo seems to show that there's a mix of burned and unburned sections. Alas, I have no idea what the other side of the ridge looks like.

I hope that at least some of the trees around Not Nasty Rock survived, and ditto for the trail that goes down to the USFS Nasty Rock trailhead.

Your photos of NNR are pretty amazing! Someday I'll get out there, though I'm unlikely to do any scrambles that are too nasty. Thank you for your information about the area from the pre-fire days.

not nasty c4.jpg

Post Reply