Gorge Loop: return route recommendation

Trip recommendations, current conditions, and other trail related Q&A
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matimeo
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Joined: October 16th, 2015, 8:33 pm

Gorge Loop: return route recommendation

Post by matimeo » August 30th, 2021, 9:12 am

We have five days to do a loop through the Gorge, and wanted to see if anyone could give a recommendation on our return route. It will be me and three very capable teenage children. We want to hike Eagle Creek (first time for my kids) to Wahtum Lake, then head up and make a stop at North Lake. My return route from that point is what I'm curious about. Backtracking to Herman Creek adds more mileage than I think we want. Wyeth appears to still be closed near the Gorge. We can grab Gorton Creek and then the Nick Eaton trail and follow it all the way back to Herman Creek near the Gorge, or even cut over to it via Casey Creek (which adds a mile or so but would be my preference). I know the Forest Service pages indicate that these can both be challenging trails, and that Nick Eaton in particular might be in bad shape in spots because of the 2017 fire. It's also a fairly long way without a water source, but cutting over to Herman Creek via Casey Creek would alleviate any of those concerns. We can handle a relatively rough trail, but didn't want to be in a spot where it was impassable or too difficult to find.
Has anyone hiked either of those routes recently that can comment on their condition, or is that going to be my next post? :D

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Bosterson
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Re: Gorge Loop: return route recommendation

Post by Bosterson » August 30th, 2021, 10:19 am

Casey Creek is decently burned and required routefinding and thrashing (I last did it almost two years ago but I doubt a good track has been really beaten in since then), so I would not recommend it if you're not familiar with it or don't want to effectively have to go offtrail and sidehill through burned rubble. Nick Eaton is totally fine but just has some overgrown brush crowding the trail in late season; depending on what your planned itinerary is (are you stopping for the night on the way back from North Lake?), I would only say that camping on Nick Eaton wouldn't be that great. I haven't done the upper portion of Gorton Creek (past Deadwood, before it reaches Nick Eaton ridge) since the fire and have heard that parts of that trail are damaged/overgrown/hard to follow, but that would be a direct way to get down from North Lake. (You can skip the rougher upper Gorton bits by connecting Nick Eaton to the Gorton Cutoff to Gorton at Indian Point.)

If you don't mind backtracking a little, you can go from North Lake back up to tag Green Point Mtn (it has a nice view of Defiance), then go down the Herman Creek Connector to reach Herman Creek. There's plenty of water and campsites and such down there, but Herman is also a very pleasantly graded descent and there are no routefinding issues. A quick Caltopo estimate of the North Lake > Nick Eaton > Gorton > Herman TH vs the route via Herman Cutoff and Herman shows the Herman Cutoff variation is only about 1/2 mi longer.
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bobcat
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Re: Gorge Loop: return route recommendation

Post by bobcat » August 30th, 2021, 12:21 pm

ditto . . . Casey Creek would be your most challenging route, especially if you've never done it before. I haven't seen it this year, so it could be much worse . . . or slightly better. There are two sections of Gorton Creek above Deadwood Camp that required a little poking around to stay on route, but they were both short. There's water at Deadwood Camp, but I wouldn't rely on anywhere else. Herman Creek has plenty of water, of course, with all the streams that the trail crosses.

matimeo
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Joined: October 16th, 2015, 8:33 pm

Re: Gorge Loop: return route recommendation

Post by matimeo » August 30th, 2021, 1:07 pm

Thanks all. I am definitely leaning towards just backtracking to Herman Creek for the return route. I really want to see North Lake again- I have fond memories of hiking there as a youth when we did a week long Scout camp at Rainy Lake and took a hike to North Lake one day. We filled a five gallon bucket with crawdads and had quite the feast that night.
My last attempt at checking out North Lake was about 12 years ago after finishing college and moving back to Oregon. Only mistake was trying to find Rainy Lake without GPS (got really lost on some washed out roads) and being there in early July. The mosquitos obliterated us and we abandoned our attempt at the short hike to North Lake shortly after it started. Hopefully this attempt will be memorable in a different way!

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drm
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Re: Gorge Loop: return route recommendation

Post by drm » August 30th, 2021, 6:39 pm

After this hot summer I think you may find North Lake to be kind of stagnant, maybe not quite what you remember from 12 years ago. But it's a pleasant Lake and has a fair number of camps.

It's really a shame that Wyeth is still closed as Wyeth to the Gorge Trail would be a great way to get back. Last I heard Herman Cutoff (Green Pt - Cedar Swamp) had a lot of trees down. This was late last year. But it's only 2.5 miles.

My inclination would be to go back towards Wahtum from North Lake and catch Anthill to Herman Creek.

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