We're having a sunny stretch around Eugene, so I got out to do some more hiking in the hills north of Lookout Point Reservoir. I started out at
Eugene to Crest Trailhead #1, which is not signed on the ground apart from a tiny little "Trail" arrow by the road. But the Forest Service map is accurate and it wasn't too hard to find - just keep going a couple miles past the (currently closed) Ivan Oaks Campground on the well-maintained gravel road until shortly after hitting National Forest land. There's no real designated parking for the trailhead, but the road to the south of FR 5821 is blocked off and there's room for perhaps 3 cars there.
The actual Eugene To Crest Trail takes off a few yards up the gravel road to the north. This is the last place I actually saw a sign with a trail name or trail number for the entire day, though there were a few more of the "Eugene to Pacific Crest Trail" badges along the way. I don't think the trails on this side of the reservoir get nearly the traffic that the ones from the Hardesty Trailhead across the way do.
- Starting out on the Eugene to Crest Trail
Traffic or no, the trail is decently-maintained singletrack. It's not nearly as improved as some of the more mountain-bike-designed trails I've been on lately; the switchbacks just switch without berms, there are no little extra jumps or hills, not every stream has a bridge. Tracks in the muddy spots showed that a few bikers had been through recently, but mine were the first bootprints in a while. There were also some large canid tracks, but I'm pretty sure those were coyote.
- Heading up the hill
The first mile or two of this trail heads steadily but not steeply up the hill. There are a few glimpses down to the reservoir or across to Hardesty Mountain, but for the most part this is a forest hike rather than a viewpoint one. This is younger forest, with trees no more than 18 inches for the most part, and the trail edges up to adjacent clearcuts at a few points. It also passes a meadow or two, and eventually flattens out and then trends a bit downhill to the first road crossing at FR 104.
- First road crossing
This road crossing had the same signage as all the others I hit today: A single "TRAIL" sign at each side where the trail leaves the road. What's missing is any arrow showing where the next part of the trail is - which is fine when it's right across the road, and slightly challenging when it's a ways in one direction or the other, or where there's a road-walk segment (of which there were several). A map is certainly useful, perhaps necessary - I found the
Adventure Maps Oakridge map to be accurate for the trails I was on today.
I hit a little bit of patchy snow on the longest road-walk segment of FR 108 at about 2300'. My high point for the day was only around 2500' though so this didn't really matter.
- A few patches of snow
Shortly after leaving the road, I turned off on the Winberry Divide Trail. This intersection is pretty much completely unmarked. Well, there is a sign on the tree. It says "FS." Anyhow, it's Eugene to Crest Trail to the right, Winberry Divide Trail to the left. Or to be more precise, it's what Adventure Maps marks as the Winberry Divide Trail. It's NOT what the Forest Service shows on the
Winberry Divide Trail page (which is now a segment of the Eugene to Crest Trail).
- Pick a trail, any trail.
After going over a little saddle, this trail heads down to Winberry Creek. It's much steeper than the trail up was, and as far as I could tell has had no significant traffic lately. Lots of debris down on the trail, including one blowdown on a steep hillside that required some care to climb over. There are also some longish off-camber sections and some areas where the greenery is encroaching. Despite this, I wouldn't call this an abandoned trail, even if it doesn't show up on the Forest Service web site anywhere.
- Blowdown time
This Winberry Divide Trail skirts along some rocky minor cliffs for a while, before deciding to get serious about switchbacking down the hill. Along the way it briefly follows a few road segments as well. Eventually it ends at a road with an unmarked trailhead and a short walk downhill to a bridge over Winberry Creek.
- Blowdown time
My plan from here was to walk a mile down FR 150 to check out the Winberry campground and then climb up the
Station Butte Trail. Well, the walking part of the plan worked. It looks like the campground no longer exists (though someone has a long-term camp full of blue tarps, trash, and cut firewood set up here - I gave them a wide berth), and the trail was too overgrown and unmaintained even for me. The walk wasn't wasted, because there was some creek access and some nice little falls and cascades in the creek to admire.
- Winberry Creek
This seemed like a good time to turn around, especially since the mile of paved road walk was harder on my knees than all the trail miles up to that point. When I got back to the start of the trail back up the mountain, I noted a large turnaround across the road, and stopped here for a bit of a snack. There are several well-established trails heading off from this turnaround that don't show on any map I can find. Might be worth exploring some other day.
- Trail to ... somewhere
All told, another pleasant ramble. It was below freezing when I started out, and almost 60 degrees when I got back to the car, so my daypack was full of shed layers at that point. I think this is probably a point from which a hike all the way through to the PCT would be feasible without any scary road-walking (though I need to scout out the couple of backroad miles from Westfir to Oakridge to be sure of that).
