Not wanting to leave my vehicle alone at the end of some forest road, I paid the $5 and parked at the Kinnikinnick (Laurance Lake) Day Use Area just so I wouldn't be thinking about it while hiking. I crossed the Clear Branch Dam and headed north up the well graded but many-switched-back Laurance Lake High Loop Trail - don't ask me why the 'Loop' part is in there, maybe there was a larger plan at one time. It is nice trail and maintained by the FS per their info page on this trail (last time was in 2012). There are nice views on the way up like this one of Hood - no solid blue sky on this day and a bit hazy:
A long way off was my bonus feature for the day, The Pinnacle:
The trail is in excellent shape, some minor blow down once on the ridge above Laurance Lake.
Once on the ridge lots and lots of huckleberries made for a luscious treat - some were really huge, like store bought blueberries.
I traveled on to the end of the trail, did the short road walk to the end of road and the easy, well flagged bushwhack to the foundations of the old Red Hill guard station. From here it was on to the Old Vista Ridge Trail - in most excellent shape and from the looks of footprints seeing some action. Wouldn't it be nice if the Laurance Lake High Loop and the Old Vista Ridge Trails were connected and some trail built to return to Laurance Lake.
Views along Old Vista Ridge Tr are really nice - along with Owl Pt (which I skipped this trip) and the Rockpile there are others just off trail. I can't believe the FS wanted to abandon this piece of trail - especially since it forms the wilderness boundary. A piece of the Old Vista Ridge Trail:
Along the way are signs indicating the wilderness boundary, with additional blaze(?). Seems like every tree that had a sign also had blaze - I would guess the blaze is to indicate the presence of a sign tree were the actual sign to go missing.
I admired the new signage on the trail, hope it lasts. At the intersection of Vista Ridge there was a FS work party doing work on signs and the wilderness registration box.
I marched through the burned area and shortly arrived at Wy'East Basin - never been there before, pretty place, lots of flowers.
Glacier Lilies are going to seed but there are still patches.
Lots and lots of flowers:
Why is the paintbrush on Mt Hood so brilliantly red?
I hung around the basin for a while and gulped gallons of icy snow melt bubbling from the ground and admired the views close up and far away. Moving on, I headed down Pinnacle Ridge trail, past the boggy swamp part and headed for The Pinnacle. I don't recall reading any information or trip reports out there about The Pinnacle - so I had no clue what to expect. I decided to approach from the south through a tangle of burned out brush and trees. Was not a bad bushwhack to get there. Here's my first good look - seemed daunting at the time:
On the way there it started to sprinkle from the darkening clouds overhead - the weather report had said something about possible thunderstorms so I'd basically be a lightening rod once on top if something like that were to happen. Since I did not see any lightening nor hear any thunder I dropped my pack at the base and did a short scramble to get on a ledge of the Pinnacle. From there I just went from ledge to ledge around the west side and soon found myself at the top - not hard at all, rock is solid, still a little scary for me.
Looking back toward Hood from The Pinnacle:
Off to the north - the rock is a nice reddish color.
Lots of huge boulders - some VW sized - have fallen off this thing. Here's a look back:
I made my way off on a slightly different route than I took going up - likely there are several routes. The way down to the north is steep and dusty but brush free.
I made my way back to the Pinnacle Ridge TH and did the 1.2 mile road walk to the ridge above the Kinnikinnick Day Use Area and my rig. The way off the ridge is clear but very steep with a loose talus slope to negotiate just before the road.
Nice day and loop, made better time than I expected and could have gone up Barrett Spur for some extra EG. The Pinnacle was a lot of fun.
~16 miles, ~3900' cumulative EG, ~8.5 hours.
