Traverse from McNeil Point to Yocum Ridge (8/9)

[alanecharlesworth]

I left Sellwood at 7:20, and drove 54 miles east on US-26 to the Top Spur trailhead, elevation 3960', on the west side of Mt Hood, above Zigzag. Started up at 9:04, sunny, 52°, with a westerly breeze. Followed the southbound Timberline trail around to the Bald Mountain meadows, with their fantastic view of the west side of Hood and the Muddy Fork valley. Then over the short use path to the eastbound Timberline trail, and past two more fine viewpoints. Got to the junction with the "goat path" at 5375' that goes up to McNeil Point at 10:51. Lots of flowers in the meadow that the path ascends, then steeply up with roots and branches for handholds to the Mc Neil Point stone shelter at 6050' at 11:28.

I ambled up the ridge above the hut to about 6200', and kept staring across the canyon at the prospective traverse route over to upper Yocum Ridge. which I had done 25 years ago in the reverse direction. Decided to do it, and made a descending traverse down a meadow slope to about 6000'. Then up and down over morainal rubble and snow fingers as I traversed across below the Sandy Glacier. Climbed up to 6450, then down on snow and up on snow to a 6650' flat area below the crest of Yocum Ridge. Then west down snowfields that lie on the north side of the ridge crest down to about 6045', and then up a meadow to meet the Yocum Ridge trail at 6170' -- where it turns the corner of the ridge. The traverse from dropping off the Mc Neil Point ridge to reaching the trail on Yocum Ridge took me about 3.75 hours, and was about 2.1 miles long. Earlier in the season would be easier, since there would be more snow, and less rubble to walkon.

I started the descent of the Yocum Ridge trail at 3:53. The tread of the trail is in great shape, but there are a number of blow-downs. The trail passes a fine viewpoint overlooking the Sandy River canyon at about 6000', and then switchbacks gradually down the slope through flower meadows and a fine forest to the Timberline Trail. Then south to Ramona Falls at 3450' at 6:10. Left the falls at 6:25, and followed the trail down the creek to the PCT at 2800' at 7:01. Then across a bridge over the Muddy Fork, and up the switchbacks to the ridge crest at 3880' at 8:06. Followed a faint use path that dropped down to the road, and walked the road a half mile to the car at 8:20. Got home at 9:55.

[retired jerry]

That is a great trip.

I went half way over from Yocum a couple days ago and didn't quite see how to get the rest of the way over to McNeil. It seemed too steep on slopes of loose rocks.

Now I'm going to have to go back up there, maybe from the McNeil side and try it again. Your picture helps.

[Guy]

Well done!! That's been on my wish list for soooo long but I've always chickened out!

[alanecharlesworth]

I took the traverse slowly, and no place seemed especially hazardous. Doing this alone, I am pretty cautious. The creeks could be rock hopped, or crossed on snow. I use trekking poles, both for traction on loose rubble, and for descending snow. The snow was a great consistency for plunge stepping down, and also for walking up. Earlier in the year, an ice axe would take any worry out of slipping on snow. About halfway across, the clouds descended towards me for about 15 minutes, and I got excited, but they lifted again. One definitely wants visibility for this traverse.

[dayhiker]

I have been on Yocum Ridge, and thought crossing might not be too bad, but that is easier to say than do.

Here is a bit of interesting history:

"This section beyond Ramona Falls and the trail that continues along the south side of the ridge were the original route of the Timberline Trail. It was to have climbed above timberline on Yocum Ridge then traversed north along the base of the Sandy Glacier. However , construction of the trail stopped 1.8 miles beyond Ramona Falls when engineers decided it wasn't feasible to build and maintain a trail across slopes that would be covered by snow most of the summer"

from 62 hiking trails Northern Oregon Cascades by Don & Roberta Lowe (copyright 1979)

Here is a photo of the area:

http://www.pbase.com/photos123/image/127721797/large

If not too much trouble I wonder if you could click on original , then click and drag it to your computer (688394 bytes) and mark on it your approximate route (if you have photo editing software)

[jeffstatt]

Great report. Big day!

Thanks so much for posting the route (the last image). Helps alot

[dayhiker]

I guess I missed the last photo, never mind about marking up mine

[adamschneider]

Traverse route (from left to right) across the Muddy Fork bowl from McNeil Point to Upper Yocum Ridge

Any chance you could re-do that Google Earth screen shot using the summer imagery?

[pcg]

I also did this traverse 25 years ago, with my wife and another friend. My wife and I went up Yocum Ridge as far as we could go last summer and I couldn't figure out how we had done this many years before. I plan to do it again this summer so I dug up some old photos and went and looked at Google Earth this afternoon and figured out what I thought our route must have been. I just now Googled "McNeil Point to Yocum Ridge", not expecting to find anything, but instead found confirmation for my route as I remember it. I'm guessing that the route is not as obvious when viewed from Yocum Ridge, so I will be doing it the way I did before, and the way the original poster did it, from McNeil to Yocum.

This was a memorable hike for me as it was the first time I had to rely on a compass to navigate my way out of a foggy whiteout. We were on McNeil Point figuring out how to get across when clouds moved in and the ceiling suddenly started coming down. When I realized what was happening I had less than a minute to pull out my compass and take a bearing on a point on Yocum Ridge. This was a good lesson for how one tends to go in circles without a reference because that is exactly what we wanted to do. Every few minutes I looked at the compass and couldn't believe that we could be that far off. It is hard to go in a direction that feels wrong, but we followed the compass and ended up spot on just as the ceiling lifted over Yocum. It was a bit unnerving having to do this while negotiating crevasses. This was also the first time I had been on a glacier and I learned that what appears to be fingers of dark rock in the first pic, absent of snow, is actually dirt over ice. It was strange to walk along, thinking you are walking on gravel over rock, and suddenly come across a crevasse.

We ended up reaching Yocum at dusk and hiked down to the car with headlamps. I think we did this in September, when all crevasses were open and easy to negotiate. I recall that we used a haul line to lower packs down the steep slopes from McNeil down to Sandy Glacier. We scrambled down steep scree, but I think this time I will bring a 30m x 8mm rope for rapping, just in case that feels safer. I thought we did this without crampons or axes, but I see from that pic that I at least had an axe. This summer I will bring both. Here's some pics from our 1986 traverse...

Looking from McNeil Point across Sandy Glacier as clouds move in.

Looking down Sandy River Gorge from Sandy Glacier.

[mayhem]

Great Report. I wish I could simulate it better! Do you have the GPS to send to gpsfly?