Devil's Half Acre-Palmateer Point Hike, 10/2/2022

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pdxalex
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Joined: July 26th, 2016, 4:04 pm

Devil's Half Acre-Palmateer Point Hike, 10/2/2022

Post by pdxalex » October 3rd, 2022, 6:34 am

My wife and I opted for another hike that hasn't had a trip report since 2014. This trail is fairly close in, just an hour from Happy Valley. It was a beautiful day for a hike, clear and warm with a light breeze.

The hike begins at the Barlow Road trailhead off of Hwy 35. It seems to have been developed a bit more since the FG trailhead description was written. It now has a permanent bathroom structure. There were 3 other cars in the paved lot and one was going to leave soon since 2 backpackers were loading up their car. This is a loop that uses multiple trails. We started off down the Barlow Road, curious to see of we could have driven down it. It is open to vehicles but there are a couple of points which might be tricky for one with low clearance. An older Jeep Wagoneer was parked at the meadow below. At this point we turned off the road to head up the Devil's Half Acre trail. There is a sign at the start of the trail but it is worn and not easily noticed. This trail was in good shape although it can be a little hard to see in a few spots because of shrubs. It has had some recent maintenance with piles of fresh sawdust where blowdowns had been cut and a few drainage sumps had been scrapped out. After almost a mile, you reach a junction with the Palmateer Trail which is what will take you to Upper Twin Lake. While the tread was excellent, tree clearance on this trail was mixed. There were perhaps a dozen blowdowns that were easy to go over. Someone was kind enough to trim off branches to open up paths over some of these logs. In a couple of cases, they cut & removed trees that were under 3-4 inches diameter. Later though, there were larger logs, 18+ inches that had been recently removed. The detour up Palmateer Point is worth the modest effort. It provides the only view of Mt. Hood as well as Barlow Butte.
Mt Hood and Barlow Butte.jpg
About 1 1/4 miles past the Palmateer Point turn off, you reach Upper Twin Lake. It is a very pretty spot. It doesn't have "official" campsites but there are 10-12 spots that have seen recent use. There's been some horse traffic as well. After circling the lake, you turn onto the Twin Lakes trail that takes you to the PCT which takes you back to the trailhead.
upper twin lake.jpg
While the trails see some traffic, it isn't heavy. We saw one other hiker with a dog at Palmateer Point. She started from Frog Lake. Later we saw 2 trail runners coming down the Twin Lakes trail from the PCT. We heard a couple of voices by the Devil's Half Acre campground. Otherwise, not a soul. We encountered no wildlife other than a few irritated chipmunks. We saw one pile of elk scat and three piles of feline scat complete with large clumps of animal hair on the trail.

There were only a couple of small flowers in bloom. No insects. The huckleberries were long gone but if you like them this would be a great place to explore. Huckleberries lined perhaps 5 of the 8 miles of trail. Foliage is just starting to turn. In a few places, you could see maples turning red. On Barlow Butte, across from Palmateer Point, you could see shrubs that had turned red.
fall foliage.jpg
This hike is a fun one for history buffs. There are a number of historical markers along Barlow Road and there are stretches of the old wagon trail that can be hiked.
wagon trail.jpg

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