I began at the parking area just off Highway 126. The Mossy Maple Trail begins in an old apple orchard, now a meadow with recent plantings of oak, alder, and ash. The trail soon begins a gradual 600-foot ascent of a forested slope on packed gravel. This is an uphill track for bikers as well, and there are at least 27 curving switchbacks. A lot of older folks were walking the lower section of the trail as a morning constitutional. Along with mossy maples, the forest was a pleasant mix of Douglas-fir, oak, incense cedar, grand fir, hemlock, and red cedar. Poison oak, now turning red, was climbing 60 feet up some of the Douglas-firs. There are large stumps, but some of the current canopy is probably over 80 years old.
The Mossy Maple Trail then makes a 1½ mile traverse on a rocky old road bed under a dense forest canopy. This section of trail is currently being laid with gravel from the west end. From a grassy oak savanna saddle, I took the short Camas Crest Trail along a slope of madrone to reach an old quarry which had been mined for its massive columns of basalt. I got the first good views south across the Middle Fork Willamette to the Pleasant Hill area.
The Basalt Rim Trail runs as a loop around the basalt knoll. A lollipop loop switchbacks up to circle the crest of the 1400-foot prominence. This is the highlight of the trip. The flat summit area is forest, but I had lunch at one of several clifftop viewpoints. Under blue skies in the shade of a madrone, I got a pleasant view over the Middle Fork to Mt. Pisgah, with Spencer Butte beyond.
The Basalt Rim Trail then loops around the north side of the knoll below spectacular crags and cliffs. Then I returned the way I came, taking a shortcut connector down a gravel access road to cut out some of the switchbacks on the Mossy Maple Trail.
The trip was 7.8 miles, with a high point of almost 1400 feet.