Hatfield Trail / High Gorge Traverse Trail Conditions

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RobinB
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Joined: September 9th, 2013, 11:29 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Hatfield Trail / High Gorge Traverse Trail Conditions

Post by RobinB » July 4th, 2017, 1:50 pm

Spent the weekend walking across the Gorge from Angel's Rest to Mount Defiance, rambling up the ten major named peaks - Angel's Rest, Devil's Rest, Larch, Nesmith Point, Tanner Butte, Indian Mountain, Chinidere, Tomlike, Greenpoint, and Defiance - on the way. I'll post a proper trip report in a bit, but in the meantime, I thought a "quick" update on trail conditions might be helpful.
  • Angel's Rest (415): Flip Flop Freeway. Easy walking, unless you get stuck behind an Instagram Meetup.
  • Foxglove, Angel's to Devil's: easy to follow, though slightly overgrown in places.
  • Larch Mountain (441), Multnomah Basin Rd to Larch Mountain: good tread, easy to follow.
  • Oneonta (424), Larch Mountain Road to Bell Creek: same as Larch Mountain - clear and easy.
  • Bell Creek (459), Oneonta to Horsetail: exceedingly overgrown with Devil's Club in the western half, from Bell Creek Camp to a bit after the crossing. If you’re in shorts, your legs will get cut up.
  • Horsetail Creek (425), Bell Creek to Road 222: generally pretty nice, though a tiny bit overgrown toward the end, near Yeon Mountain.
  • Moffett Creek Trail (430), Road 222 to Tanner Creek: overgrown but relatively easy to follow from Road 222 to the powerline crossing / Von Ahm RIm, then a little overgrown and eroded into the Tanner drainage. Essentially destroyed for the hundred feet just before the Tanner Creek crossing.
  • Tanner Creek crossing: easy, either wet (up to knee) or dry (across a couple logs. The only difficult part is finding the trail on the other side. Just look for flagging just north of the fallen logs.
  • Tanner Creek (431), upper crossing to Road 777: a bit of blowdown and brush, but generally much better than I remember it from a few years ago. Watch for wasps.
  • Tanner Creek Cutoff (448), Tanner Creek Tr. to Tanner Ridge: overgrown for the first half mile, then clear and easy to follow. As with Tanner Creek: watch for wasps, especially lower down.
  • Tanner Butte (401), Tanner Creek Cutoff to Eagle-Tanner: excellent and easy to follow all the way through. Note that the Tanner Butte turnoff is unmarked but for a large cairn on the left (east side) of the trail.
  • Eagle-Tanner (433), Tanner Ridge to Eagle Creek: generally good, though with quite a bit of blowdown just before the Eagle Creek crossing.
  • Upper Eagle Creek crossing: easy wet crossing (up to mid-shin) or dry rock hop.
  • Eagle Creek (440), Eagle-Tanner to Indian Springs: posh freeway.
  • Indian Springs (435), Eagle Creek to Indian Springs: steep as hell, but with no brush and only a couple easily navigable blowdowns.
  • PCT (2000), Indian Springs / Indian Mountain to Chinidere Mountain: clear, both of snow and brush / blowdown. Nicely graded.
  • Herman Creek (406), PCT to Anthill: a little snow, but only in small patches. Easy to follow.
  • Anthill (406B), Herman Creek to Rainy-Wahtum: like Herman, some snow, but nothing problematic.
  • Rainy-Wahtum (409), Anthill to Greenpoint: easy to follow (it's an old road)[/b], though with more blowdown than I remembered.
  • Gorton Creek (408), Rainy-Wahtum to North Lake Tr: clear, with only a couple blowdowns.
  • North Lake (423) and Rainy Lake (423A), Gorton Creek to Rainy Lake / Road 2820: clear, though a tiny bit brushy in the descent just after leaving 408.
  • Defiance (413), Road 2820 to Starvation TH: mostly clear, though steeper and more eroded on the descent than I remembered.
A few pictures:

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Brushy Bell Creek

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Brushy Moffett Creek

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Blowdown along Moffett Creek, near the Tanner Creek crossing

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Tanner Creek crossing

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Tanner Creek Cutoff, in reasonably nice condition

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Blowdown on the Eagle-Tanner

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Eagle Creek crossing

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MarkInTheDark
Posts: 220
Joined: August 11th, 2008, 3:58 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Re: Hatfield Trail / High Gorge Traverse Trail Conditions

Post by MarkInTheDark » July 5th, 2017, 8:45 am

thanks for the info, I'm goin' out Thursday!

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