On Saturday, the snow began falling, and I drove to the trailhead for the Bonanza Trail in Welches, chained my bike to a tree, and then motored back to the Wildwood Recreation Area to park outside the closed gate. It was relatively balmy as I began, but this was not to last for long. I strolled down the road into the Wildwood area and then took the big footbridge over the Salmon River.
To head up the slope, I kept right along the river to the beginning of the Boulder Ridge Trail. The forest is mostly coniferous (hemlock, Douglas-fir, red-cedar) but with big-leaf maples and alders in gullies near watercourses. The tread switchbacks before reaching an old road bed, which carries the trail for a while before it switchbacks up to a rocky viewpoint of Mt. Hood. By this time, however, the weather had rolled in and the light snowfall that was to accompany me all day had started to fall. Thus, there were no views on a trail with a number of good panoramas. The trail travels below a ridge crest before reaching the junction with the Plaza Trail.
The Plaza Trail leads right up to the crest of Huckleberry Mountain (Left would take you down on the old tread of the Plaza, which intersects with the Arrah Wanna Trail; both of these abandoned sections begin on private land and are no longer easily accessible). Gusts of 40 mph were blasting snow across the several openings on Huckleberry Mountain’s ridge. The old lookout telephone wire lies alongside the trail and in the openings there were snowdrifts of up to 30 inches. Under the trees, however, there was only the morning’s slight accumulation. Tracks of snowshoe hare were the only signs of warm-blooded occupancy. After passing over Huckleberry’s 4,300’ summit, I dropped down along the ridge to the junction with the Bonanza Trail.
The Bonanza Trail traverses down and descends a ridge, passing mossy outcrops and delivering occasional views across the valley on a good day. In a gully, one reaches the 100-foot adit of the Bonanza Mine. This venture was one of the 100 or so claims staked in the Chena Mining District around the turn of the 20th century. Gold was what drew the miners, this being its northernmost occurrence in the Cascades; copper, lead, and zinc were also found, the largest mine in the district being near the confluence of the Salmon and Sandy Rivers. However the cost of providing access to the rugged country far outweighed the take, and the activity was abandoned in less than five years.
The Bonanza continues its descent and fetches up above Cheeney (formerly Chena) Creek, undulating along among mossy old growth hemlocks, cedars, and Douglas-firs. Eventually, one reaches an old road bed, fords a wide creek and continues, along a soggy avenue of alders, to the junction with the old Bonanza. To take the current Bonanza, you have to switchback up to the left on another road bed and then drop to where it joins East Grove Lane in Welches.
I unlocked my bicycle and rode out, eventually turning into the headwind that was bringing in the weather. As a final joy, I experienced the giddy pleasure of sleet peppering my cheeks like buckshot and sliding down my collar as I pedaled down Highway 26 back to Wildwood.
Notes:
1. Trails were generally in good condition. On the Plaza between Huckleberry’s summit and the Bonanza junction, there were parts getting overgrown with rhododendrons. The top half mile of the Bonanza is being colonized by bear-grass and sliding down the slope, but on the rest of the trail, the trail bench has been restored with some extensive maintenance being done in the past year.
2. Parking at the Bonanza Trailhead right in front of the cable-blocked road bed seems to be no problem. At the old Bonanza Trailhead (closer to Cheeney Creek), there are No Trespassing signs.
3. These trails are a splendor of blooming rhododendrons in early July.
