Trapper Creek 6/15/2008

[FoPo Brett]

I hiked a small loop in the Trapper Creek Wilderness area last Sunday for the first time. We hiked the small loop (~ 6.2 miles) consisting of Trapper Creek Trail... Observation Peak Trail... Trail #195 (don't know the name) and back to the Trapper Creek Trail. See rough map here. It was a beautiful day and we had the trails mostly to ourselves. We only made it to the 2,600' elevation mark, so I'm not sure of the conditions all the way around the larger loop. The highlights of the hike are the massive old growth forest and beautiful Trapper Creek.









Love the new site! Thanks for the great work everyone!

[OneSpeed]

What did you see in the way of campsites up there? I was thinking about backpacking there next weekend, but I haven't been up in a while.

Great photos!

[FoPo Brett]

I only hiked a small portion of the trail network in the area and didn't see any campsites, although I'm guessing there are some up there. Let me know what you find if you try to find camping spots in the area. The larger loop would make for a nice backpack around Observation Peak.

[baker9903]

Chris and I went up there for Memorial weekend and hit major snow on the Big Hollow Trail (#158). I'm not sure what our elevation was (guessing above 3200) but we ended up turning back because we were stumbling on 6 feet of snow and only had about 4 hours of light left. We weren't sure if we would hit a camp-able spot before dark. Our original intent was to push through skipping past Observation Point and camping somwhere on the Trapper Creek Trail. But traveling on that kind of snow is really slow going.
We did find a fantastic little camping spot on the Dry Creek Trail (194) at the Bourbon Creek crossing (just above the trail). Lots of blowdown on Dry Creek Trail (nothing unmanageable) and also on Big Hollow. In fact, I had a scary 4 seconds when a log went skidding downhill just as I had straddled it to cross. Luckily it stopped just a couple feet down. I would post photos, but I haven't figured that out yet.
Since our trip was almost three weeks ago, I would hope that most of the snow would have melted by now, but I kind of doubt it since I was in the Badger Creek Wilderness on the east side Hood just this past weekend and hit major snow there too.
If you decide to go, make sure you post about the current conditions. I would like to go back and complete the loop.

[drm]

There are a number of places to camp low down near Trapper Creek. There is a site on the Soda Peaks Trail just below where it splits off from the Trapper Creek trail. That's about 45 minutes to an hour in. Another half hour, just past the split between Trapper Creek and the Deer cutoff trail, there is a larger area called Terrace Camp, where two or three groups could camp. I think there are some much smaller sites farther up Trapper Creek.

[The C-Ws]

When I backpacked there, I found a nice spot just beyond Terrace Camp with easy creek access. It wouldn't be suiable for large groups, but I hiked as far as Trapper Creek Falls and never saw a better site.

Also, where is that waterfall in one of the pictures?

[FoPo Brett]

That waterfall is on the Observation Peak Trail portion of the loop I did, a little bit before we took trail #195. It is actually not very big, but interesting enough for a picture.