Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake

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drm
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Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake

Post by drm » May 26th, 2023, 8:01 am

Prior to the Eagle Creek Fire, I had an annual tradition of camping in the upper canyon and then strolling up to the lake on the remaining snow. It was time to renew this tradition, and just maybe the snow would be melted enough to camp at the lake? Nope.

Note that the middle section is burned and now brushy. In particular, the almost two mile section between the Eagle-Tanner junction and turning the ridge, sometimes called a lookout, is particularly brushy. And this makes it a tick heaven. Since I live in The Dalles, I hike the eastern Gorge grasslands a lot. I have not pulled this many ticks off me in years. And it isn't really possible to do a proper tick check on a solo trip in the backcountry. I did learn from the ones I found at home yesterday that when tossed in the toilet, they cannot swim. :cry:

Lots of logs down above Tunnel Falls, but they are all cleaned of branches and mostly easy stepovers. Just one pair up high that requires crawling under.
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Punchbowl Falls
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High Bridge
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Tunnel Falls
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Twister Falls
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High intensity burn near 7.5 Mile Camp. Note that the creekside camp itself is in green trees
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the start of Eagle Tanner - not much there
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tick heaven, maybe a quarter mile below the ridge corner
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are these rhododendrons? Near the Indian Springs junction
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the end of brush and ticks - in Oregon forest again - so nice
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still snowy
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the outlet camp is not ready
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the lake itself is melting out
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I backtracked a mile to camp

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mountainkat
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Re: Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake

Post by mountainkat » May 26th, 2023, 7:43 pm

Our PCTA crew was out a couple of weeks ago for a three day, two night work party and we cleared the hard to get around logs and debris. We cleaned up and left the step-over logs due to lack of time and the amount of debris that had fallen over the winter.

The plan is to get another crew going for that brush up there at some point. Also, any remaining logs that are tough will be taken care of once we can gain access from the top. Not sure if the step over logs that we left will be dealt with this year.

The ticks are bad! We had many on us during the three days of work.

Thanks for your report. I'm planning to hike from the Eagle TH to Indian Mountain for a long day sometime soon.

AlpenGlowHiker
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Re: Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake

Post by AlpenGlowHiker » May 27th, 2023, 5:33 am

Mountainkat, just to clarify, the PCTA crew cleared Eagle Cr? I understand it's a popular alternate, but wasn't aware official PCTA crews cleared it.

Also, thank you very much for the time and effort!

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drm
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Re: Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake

Post by drm » May 27th, 2023, 7:26 am

There was a PCTA group clearing Eagle Creek, camped at 7.5 Mile, last year when I backpacked up there. PCTA also clears the Herman Bridge Trail that connects the PCT to Herman Creek Trail.

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mountainkat
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Re: Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake

Post by mountainkat » May 28th, 2023, 10:43 am

AlpenGlowHiker wrote:
May 27th, 2023, 5:33 am
Mountainkat, just to clarify, the PCTA crew cleared Eagle Cr? I understand it's a popular alternate, but wasn't aware official PCTA crews cleared it.

Also, thank you very much for the time and effort!
AlpenGlowHiker, yes, Eagle Creek is a PCT alternate and is probably hiked more by PCT thru hikers than the official PCT from Wahtum Lake. We do trail work on the PCT, alternates, and, more rarely, some trails "touching" the PCT.

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