Lower Metolius River 1/17/2021

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retired jerry
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Lower Metolius River 1/17/2021

Post by retired jerry » January 27th, 2021, 8:42 am

I spent a couple nights on the lower Metolius River

Most of it is a road walk, but there are no cars:
20210121_113644.jpg
For a few miles it's a typical trail, sometimes close to the river:
20210119_133544.jpg
There's a couple nice campgrounds, Perry South and Monty. They're "closed" but you can still camp there. Unfortunately, the only outhouse that's open is the one at Perry South closest to the lake.

There's a gate between Perry South and Monty but it hasn't been closed the last couple years.

Being low elevation, east of Cascades, there is much less rain there. Sometimes there's snow on the ground which makes it difficult to drive there. It got down to 25 F when I was there, it can get colder than that.

I saw a few cars driving. I saw a couple walkers at Monty. Otherwise no people.

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drm
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Location: The Dalles, OR
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Re: Lower Metolius River 1/17/2021

Post by drm » February 4th, 2021, 8:27 am

Never been here yet. I don't backpack this time of year, but the time to start is coming soon and this looks like a good early season destination. Not sure about the relative pros and cons of lower vs middle. I don't mind walking on closed dirt roads now and then, especially if I get a nice campsite next to the river. I like the feel of those drier eastern forests - still forested, but not so crowded. Looks like a 3 hour drive to the trailhead though, so got to make it worth that.

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retired jerry
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Re: Lower Metolius River 1/17/2021

Post by retired jerry » February 4th, 2021, 10:48 am

don't you live in The Dalles? It's not that far from there.

drive to Madras, then another 30 minutes

there's about 5 miles on closed road, but it's pretty nice

then 2 miles on trail to one of the best campsites along the river

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