Devil's Rest / Primrose Trail 15-Jan-2010
Posted: January 15th, 2010, 1:34 pm
With rain not forecast until Friday afternoon, I thought there might be time to get in a dry hike to North Lake to take advantage of the current low-snow conditions in the Gorge. But when the early morning forecast changed arrival of the rain to around 10am, I opted for an early and quick hike to Devil’s Rest via Wahkeena Falls. “Early” meant pre-dawn, where the darkness gave the lower paved portion of the Wahkeena trail a “long, lonesome highway” quality.
Early on it was cloudy but not raining and, after the sun rose, there was a pretty decent view down the Gorge to the East.
From the good view point off the Devil’s Rest trail near the survey stakes and marker, I got an OK view across to Silver Star – which was now even more bereft of snow than just a week ago. I also noticed that rain had begun to obscure the peaks to the east of Silver Star and knew that dryness was about to depart my hike.
From Devil’s Rest, I returned to the trailhead via the “Primrose Trail,” which I first came across in the 1988 (2nd) edition of the Lowe’s “35 Hiking Trails – Columbia River Gorge.” I had posted a question about the current condition of this legacy trail and Don Nelsen responded with a great GPS track of his many travels in and around Devil’s Rest http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... =10&t=3804, including this trail. Basically, you go around the right side of the top of Devil’s Rest (faint trail) and then head due north down the ridge (fainter to no trail). Near the top I found an old trail marker, but no others later on.
After the old trail marker, it was generally a bushwhack (although it was me and not the bushes who was getting whacked), with two short traverses to the west, a bit of very old logging road, and a stone cairn, until finally an intersection with the 415/400 trail right where it traverses an open boulder field at 1600’. It had been spitting rain as I thrashed down the Primrose, got a little more serious as I headed down past Wahkeena Falls, but didn’t really start pouring until after I was snug in my car. The Primrose Trail leaves something to be desired as a “trail” but following it was a fun alternative to the usual ways off Devil’s Rest.
Early on it was cloudy but not raining and, after the sun rose, there was a pretty decent view down the Gorge to the East.
From the good view point off the Devil’s Rest trail near the survey stakes and marker, I got an OK view across to Silver Star – which was now even more bereft of snow than just a week ago. I also noticed that rain had begun to obscure the peaks to the east of Silver Star and knew that dryness was about to depart my hike.
From Devil’s Rest, I returned to the trailhead via the “Primrose Trail,” which I first came across in the 1988 (2nd) edition of the Lowe’s “35 Hiking Trails – Columbia River Gorge.” I had posted a question about the current condition of this legacy trail and Don Nelsen responded with a great GPS track of his many travels in and around Devil’s Rest http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... =10&t=3804, including this trail. Basically, you go around the right side of the top of Devil’s Rest (faint trail) and then head due north down the ridge (fainter to no trail). Near the top I found an old trail marker, but no others later on.
After the old trail marker, it was generally a bushwhack (although it was me and not the bushes who was getting whacked), with two short traverses to the west, a bit of very old logging road, and a stone cairn, until finally an intersection with the 415/400 trail right where it traverses an open boulder field at 1600’. It had been spitting rain as I thrashed down the Primrose, got a little more serious as I headed down past Wahkeena Falls, but didn’t really start pouring until after I was snug in my car. The Primrose Trail leaves something to be desired as a “trail” but following it was a fun alternative to the usual ways off Devil’s Rest.
