The route at the start heading for the Herman Cr. Trail:
I saw only one group of hikers the whole day, passing them at about 3 miles up the Herman Creek trail. Not a soul on the trail after that. The Herman trail is in good shape but overgrown in a few sports and a couple of spots with unavoidable poison oak. (Long pants a good idea!) I wasn’t counting downed trees yet but remember a couple of them down at about 2 miles above the junction with 400 and Gorton Cr. Tr.]
Overgrown part of the Herman Cr. Trail:
A couple of the logs across the Herman Cr. Trail:
I’d not been past the edge of the burn zone on Herman for a decade or more so really enjoyed the great views as I entered the unburned old growth area. Taking a turn left at Cedar Swamp, a trail I’d not been on for about 25 years, I marveled at how beautiful this trail segment is. An abundance of huge old growth firs and cedars on this section and a well-made trail, though in much need of work the higher I went.
The start of the route east out of Cedar Swamp:
The trail:
About 25 or 30 trees down across the 2 ¼ mile segment from cedar Swamp to the four-way junction on the saddle where the Anthill Trail, the Rainy -Wahtum and the trail up to Green Point Mt. all come together. Only one is too big to get over but there’s an awkward work-around so not too big a deal. Near the top, the brush is getting really bad so this needs some serious maintenance.
3 1/2 to 4 foot diameter tree across the trail:
The upper part of the trail before it got brushy:
Once at the saddle, I headed up to Green Point and enjoyed the view. This section could use some brushing too, but not nearly as bad as what I’d just hiked. Only about a half dozen smallish trees down on this part. Continuing on, there’s another half dozen trees down between the summit and the Plateau Cutoff Tr. that heads west to the connection with Nick Eaton and Ridge camp. Only one is fairly big, about 15” dia. (6 trees down across the Cut-Off Tr.) A little past that the fun really started!
Green Point Mt. Views:
The trail across Green Point ridge:
The Gorton Cr. Tr. starts out fine but quickly degenerates. I counted over a dozen trees down a foot or more in diameter, and over 50 smaller ones. In the brushier section, the problem is you can’t see some of them until you you’ve already tripped over them. Aside from that, with some care, you can follow the trail fairly easily, though it really slowed me down and I was running out of daylight fast.
The "good" part of the Gorton Cr. Trail:
The trail crosses a couple big boulder fields and the trail across the boulders is great but on either side of the crossings, the brush is epic and the footing is terrible. I’d hate to cross through this area with much of a pack!
In one of the worst sections I managed to slip and fall, quickly grabbing the nearest bit of foliage to stay upright. Bad idea – it was devils club and I instantly realized my error, let go, causing me to fall over backwards off the trail. So, here I am, on my back, head down at about a 45 degree angle and nothing to pull myself upright but devils club and some other very stickery bushes. My hat had gone flying off but I managed to reach back and find it so used it as a glove to grab the devils club etc. and got upright. One of my most ungraceful fails ever!
Anyway, once upright and massaging a few bruises I was back on the trail, now even shorter on time.
The trail then heads down a long ridge before it drops down into Deadwood Camp and this section is covered in waist-high foliage. The route can be discerned but it takes some patience.
The trail on the first set of switchbacks:
The trail as it crosses the ridge to the final switchbacks:
The trail is here but it takes care to stay on it:
Once at Deadwood, I could finally make some good time and it was now getting late indeed. About 8 or ten small trees across the trail between Deadwood and Indian Point but nothing that can’t be easily stepped over. I hit Indian point at a quarter to nine and the Herman junction 50 minutes later. I noted only one tree down on this segment, about a mile west of Indian point.
The only tree across the trail I noted past Indian point: Sundown, only 3 miles to go!
There was good alpen-glow lighting my way and I didn’t need a light until the last ¾ mile so mission accomplished!
21 miles and 5,257’ EG, 9 hours, 18 minutes.
Now the not-so-fun part: What I didn’t realize when I fell was that those bushes I fell into managed to pull the zipper on my fanny pack open – just a bit – but enough so my car keys must have fallen out. At least that was what I think may have happened.
10:05 PM on a Friday night – who to call? Kelly didn’t pick up and neither did my next couple of calls. I finally managed to reach my son in Beaverton and he graciously agreed to go to my house, get my spare keys and come save my sorry butt. I walked back on the frontage road to the Herman Creek TR road and he drove me from there to my car. I got home at a quarter past one. The next day I rested!
Upon reflection, I decided that there was a small chance I had inadvertently pulled my keys out of my pack when I pulled out my lunch as I hiked past the Green Point summit so went back on Sunday to hike that part of the trail to see if I could find them. No luck, but I did a nice figure 8 loop and the scenery was great. Report coming later for that one.
DN
PS, the map:
Last time I was up that way it was all under snow - things do seem to be leafing out quite extensively as a result of the burn, and my god the poison oak is huge at Herman Creek! I actually almost would have run into you out there - I started from Herman TH (after waiting 10 mins for a parking space!) around noon and went up the PCT to the Benson to do the Chinidere-Tomlike loop, but developed a weird heel pain and had to retreat, getting back around 6-ish. There is some nice flower action out there right now, though I think it's tapering off. The lowest elevation beargrass blooms have already lost their tops.
