VanMarmot’s report on the
Gumjuwac-Gunsight Ridge-Badger Lake Loop reminded me that I had a long-standing date with one of the more remote areas of the Mt. Hood National Forest.
I parked at the Boulder Lake Trailhead and hiked the opposite direction to 99.9% of the visitors there (although on that day I was the only car at the trailhead). The bottom half-mile of the Boulder Lake Trail drops down to Boulder Creek and crosses the stream on a solid footbridge. From there, I reached the many-signed junction with the Boulder Creek Trail.
There’s the old sign which commemorates the former name of the trail – Crane Creek – and then two newer signs (c. 1980 or so), about six feet apart, that offer competing takes on distances to the next destinations – the Forest Service allows a democratic choice here.
The bowl here has never been cut and there are some impressive trees, including many groves of large Engelmann spruce. I passed a massive 220-foot Douglas-fir lying on its side next to the trail, and then posed at a gnarly, but living, monster. Larch were lighting up the slopes coming down from Grasshopper Point and in some places the forest floor was carpeted with the fine golden fur of their needles. There was only one tree down on the trail: the area is now mainly used by mountain bikers and they have kept it clear.
Eventually, I ended up at Crane Prairie, a series of small meadows that are even smaller now than in the days that livestock were herded up the creek to graze here. There is rapid encroachment on the ‘prairie’ by lodgepole pine and noble and silver fir. I passed two posts which formerly held a gate at the stock fence and came to the junction with the Crane Prairie Trail. The old junction sign lies rotting in the dirt.
The last section of the Boulder Creek Trail rises more steeply through old growth to the FR 4860 road. Across the way is the upper trailhead for the Badger Creek Trail. I took up the Camp Windy Trail, which runs up the ridge crest on the southern edge of the Badger Lake bowl. There’s a view across to Lookout Mountain and then you’re in the trees until the Bennett Pass Road (FR 3550). Here, I crossed at the Camp Windy Spring, did the short jaunt up to the Gunsight Trail and made a left. I think this is the junction VanMarmot missed and it was indeed obscured by debris, so I rearranged things to make it a little more obvious.
I walked out on the Gunsight to the Bennett Pass Road at its junction with FR 4891. Then I hiked about a quarter mile up the latter to the Crane Prairie Trailhead. This is not so easy to find, but I’ve been here a few times before so walked in and picked up the tread heading down the slope into a lush bowl. The Crane Prairie Trail was much easier to follow than in the summer, when the bushes, mainly huckleberries and white rhododendrons, are fully leafed out out. It seems others wanted to make it even simpler to find and, in addition to the old ax blazes, the trail is now obscenely decorated with yards of flagging and paint stripes, spots, and arrows. I wish those who had taken the time to do all of this had simply clipped back the encroaching brush instead. I had actually brought pruners, and spent a goodly amount of time cutting back all the brushy spots in this upper bowl, something that had not been done in about 15 years. I didn’t deal with the blowdown, which is fairly simple to negotiate (if you’re a hiker, not a biker).
Once at Boulder Creek, there was yet more startling flagging, this time strung across the trail on both sides of the creek – I have no idea what the purpose is here, except perhaps to warn bikers not to attempt the Crane Prairie Trail. By this time, I was gathering flagging that was littering the ground and came out of the hike with a soccer-sized ball of the stuff. The bog here is also easier to wind through at this time of year – in the summer, the skunk-cabbage and other leafy plants carpet the area and obscure any tread.
Then it was back down the Boulder Creek Trail and back to the trailhead. Driving back and ,not having had an expansive view all day, I pulled off where everyone does below Barlow Pass, and snapped Mt. Hood in the late afternoon light.
The Boulder Creek Trail (from the junction with the Boulder Lake Trail), Camp Windy Trail, and Gunsight Trail are all in excellent shape. Crane Prairie needs a fair bit of logging done, but I dealt with the brushy spots for the time being and it serves as a good connector for a couple of loops.
