Post
by Aimless » July 29th, 2020, 6:08 pm
I have just returned from six days on the Elkhorn Crest trail (July23-28). It is seeing a big increase in population compared to my earlier trips there back in 2009 and 2011, but back then I saw almost no one at all so a "big increase" amounts to seeing about ten different assemblages of backpackers, scaling from two large groups of about ten or twelve on down to one other solo backpacker.
I saw no motorcyclists, but instead saw several mountain bikers where the trail was not in wilderness. This is a big improvement over the dirt bikers and MBers do not go fast on that trail (they couldn't!) and tend not to stay overnight or compete for campsites.
I saw dozens upon dozens of trail runners, maybe 60 total (!) but almost all of them were on the trail for an organized event on Saturday the 25th. There was an Aid Station set up on Cracker Saddle and the course did not run through the wilderness, but came up the Summit Lake trail from below and turned south on the Elkhorn Crest.
There is a line in my copy of Willam Sullivan's "100 Hiking Trails in Eastern Oregon" that describes Summit Lake as "rarely visited". Not last weekend!
Btw, the mountain goats are everywhere now and you don't need to go look for them. They will absolutely come to visit you, looking for urine. They are very aware of humans, and seem to think of us only as visiting pee dispensers. I had to use my voice of command frequently to keep them out of my campsite, as they were very persistent, especially at Twin Lakes. This is the sort of thing that finally led the National Park Service to remove the goats from the Olympics.