Monday, June 29, 2009

Exploring the Santiam State Forest 6-28-09

Once upon a time, I was driving around some mountain roads outside Scotts Mills in what turned out to be the Santiam State Forest and found this uber-sweet viewpoint along a ridgeline that looked all the way back to Portland and up to Mt Hood. After driving to se Portland to pick up a pool ladder yesterday, I decided I wanted to drive out there and check out the view again. Fortunately, just days earlier I'd plugged the coordinates into my GPS so all I had to do was go where the arrow told me. Mostly...
My route took me from Clackamas down through Oregon City and out hwy 213 through Mulino and into Molalla. After stopping to top off my fuel, I headed up Sawtell Road for about 12 miles before turning up an unnamed road that travels East along South Gawley Ridge. The road I ended up taking didn't actually show up on my GPS and the road it told me to take was blocked off at the top, good thing I kinda knew where I was going...
Though temperatures were hitting close to 80 in the Portland area, up here in the mountains they were barely touching 70 in the sun and it was in the mid-60's down in the dark canyons. It was a reminder that spring and summer start a bit later when you're at 3,000 feet. As such, there were plenty of flowers blooming up in the higher elevations including rhododendrons.

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I made it up to the view point, which is actually about a quarter-mile from Dog Rock, which is inaccessible by vehicle. There were some people already there so I wasn't able to drive my Jeep out to the edge for a shot of it looking over the valley. The rock in the center of the picture is at the edge of an approx. 400 foot cliff. On a clearer day you can see Mt Hood and I suspect Adams as well.

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Coming back down to the main road, I noticed one section where there were young firs growing right down next to the road, not something usually seen along a logging road.

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From there I wanted to explore a small road that heads down toward Butte Creek that I'd briefly driven on during a PNWBA tour a few months earlier. While driving down it, I spotted some more flowers to photograph. There were a ton of butterflies flittering around them.

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Including this guy who was on a flower right next to me.

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I turned down another side road which I hoped would take me down toward Butte Creek Falls. It quickly became pretty overgrown and with the pool ladder on my roof, I was having trouble getting through in a few places. Eventually I found a wide enough spot to turn around and did so. Shortly after, I got this shot at one of the wider/more open spots along the road.

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My next goal was Rhody Lake, which is accessed via a maze of logging roads at about the 3,500 foot level. Not sure if there are many fish in this lake though I'm told it has lots of rough skinned newts in it. There's a small unimproved campground on the far side of the lake, it even has a pit toilet and trash can...

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From there I continued up toward Hellcat Rock. I'd driven almost to it once before but the road gets pretty rough and I only manage to get up there while driving by myself and it is not a high traffic area. This time I decided to walk the last half mile to the rock to check out the view. The water seen in the lower center/left is Butte Lakes and the water toward the right (near one of the tree branches) is Copper Lake, neither of which I've had the opportunity to visit. Yet.

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There is also a nice view of Mt Hood from there, along with some other peaks, none of which I can identify...

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At this point it was nearly six o'clock and I really wanted to get out of there before it got any darker. I decided to drop down into Gawley Creek and come out along the Molalla River and follow it out to civilization. The crossing of Gawley creek is rather unusual. For whatever reason, instead of building a bridge or putting in a culvert for the road to go over the creek, it was chosen to pave across the creek and just let the creek run over the road. The road is in remarkable condition, no sign of being worn down by the water running over it at all. It makes a nice water crossing too :)

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Gotta love that sweet ladder on the roof :D

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These were my last pictures of the day as my goal was to just get out of there and go home but there were several spurs off the road between there and the Molalla river that begged for exploration that I'm going to have to go back and explore.
-Ryan

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Goat Mountain Christmas Tree Run December 13th 2008

Good evening!
In a tradition started in 2007, I once again organized a Christmas tree run with NAXJA and the PNW Backroad Drivers to take place in the Goat Mountain area of the Mt Hood National Forest on a nice Saturday in December. For those of you with calendars and a good memory, this was the day before the snow started falling in Portland.
The plan was to meet in the parking lot of the Estacada Ranger Station at 9am. Slowly the numbers added up until we had 12 rigs, mostly Cherokees with a few other makes tossed in for good measure. The most notable thing from there was NAXJA member Torx's fancy new tires, brand new 35" BFGoodrich KM2's, which put my stock 28" tires to shame.

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Shortly after nine, we hit the road, first going south on hwy 211 then east and up Hillock Burn road. We stopped about the 1800 foot level to air down our tire to make driving on the snow easier.

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After airing down, we headed straight for the towers atop Goat Mountain, though we briefly stopped at a former gravel pit while we waited for some stragglers to catch up. A few members of our party took the opportunity to play around on the snow covered hillside.

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From here on, I was breaking trail through the snow.

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We stopped at another wide spot to let the group gather together again after a short slick section when another group of NAXJA members caught up with us including KarlVP in his nicely built XJ

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The final push to the summit has a short steep section on it that proved to be too difficult for some. Only the right mix of throttle and control could successfully get you up the slope. Fortunately, I was one of the few with that correct mix on this particular day so I was able to make it up to the towers.

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Karl was another of those lucky few.

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From the summit you look down on Clear Lake a small alpine lake which is itself accessible via other roads in the area.

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And another member of the alternate party playing around on the difficult back slope to access the towers.

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Once we got back down to the main road (FS 45) most of the group headed for town but there were a few of us who had the goal of getting a Christmas Tree so after saying goodbye to the others we headed off in search of a stand of trees I'd seen on a scouting trip a few weeks earlier. As the afternoon progressed, the snow started falling heavier and heavier until visibility was down to less than a tenth of a mile. As we pulled into a quarry in the area of the small stand of Christmas trees, I was able to snap this picture of my friend JuniorXJ.

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And another of JuniorXJ having fun in the fresh deep snow.

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And PNWBDA member Pudding99

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And 88manche taking his own turn

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Once we'd gotten our trees we decided to head back the way we came. We'd originally planned to keep going but the snow was falling so fast we weren't confident of our ability to keep going. Heading back, our tracks were already mostly obliterated.

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We stopped at a small wide area to talk for a few before heading down the hill and I was able to get this shot of our group stopped there.

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L to R, Nick, his girlfriend and Terry

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And one final shot of my Jeep shortly before we stopped to air our tires back up (and when I discovered my compressor no longer worked)

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I know I had a lot of fun and though my tree was a bit small, I was glad to have it and it came with a story, unlike something bought in a lot. Next year I'm going to scout out a tree ahead of time so I know what to get when I'm there and I can spend more time having fun.
-Ryan

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day

Just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. Hope your kids appreciate you, I know I appreciate mine.

A little fly fishing on the Wilson River a few weeks ago.

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-Ryan

Niagara Falls Trail June 20th, 2009

Greetings!
So while browsing the Northwest Waterfall Survey, I was reminded of a waterfall I'd visited in January '08, Niagara Falls. Now this Niagara Falls doesn't have nearly the oomph of the famous falls of the same name. Its actually not even the main attraction on the Niagara Falls trail. Actually, its not even on Niagara creek, which is in the same area but without any major waterfalls. Today, I made the trip with my Mom and little brother Keegan, who were in town for the weekend.
Anyway, the waterfall is located in the Nestucca River drainage near Blaine, OR. The trail starts off at a small parking area on an unmapped road, heading down several small stream drainages.

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As you follow along the trail, it crosses up and over a few small ridges as it follows a couple small streams, most of which are dry this time of year, down towards Pheasant Creek. The trail switch-backs a few time as you go down before the trail starts heading up Pheasant creek, maybe 100 feet above the stream. Your first sight is actually of Pheasant Creek falls, which is where the trail ends up at.

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First though, you go around a corner and the trail immediatly crosses DIRECTLY in front of Niagara Falls, which is actually on an unnamed stream.

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Picture by Keegan Mishler, shared with permission.

Next the trail wraps around another corner and you arrive at a picnic table and the end of the official trail. There is also a small trail that continues down into and across the creek and to the base of Pheasant Creek Falls. The falls bends like that because of a slight occasional breeze in the canyon.

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I headed for the base too and ended up clowning for the camera a bit.

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Picture by Linner Mishler, shared with permission

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Picture by Linner Mishler, shared with permission

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Picture by Linner Mishler, shared with permission

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Picture by Linner Mishler, shared with permission

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One last view of the falls as we headed out..

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As we were headed back out, we decided to take the long route and headed up I believe Elk Creek to Boundary road which slowly dropped back down to the Nestucca River road and then back into town. Along the way, we stopped and walked out a grassy ridge that appears to be an old landing site for a logging crew. I think the end would make a GREAT campsite too..

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And for reference, this is what it looked like in last winter when I was here.

Niagara Falls

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Pheasant Creek Falls

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