September 2022 Hiking….

November 16, 2022 / margaretquilts / 1 Comment

I went on three hikes in September, in Portland, Mt Adams and Indian Heaven.

9/14 – Macleay Park to Pittock Mansion: Finishing the Wildwood Trail, Portland, OR

During the early pandemic in the spring of 2020, travel was restricted. Many parks and trails were closed. We tried long neighborhood walks, but concrete is hard on the feet! I missed the dirt trails and nature. When local trails reopened, we turned to the Wildwood Trail in nearby Forest Park to keep our hiking habit going. We had hiked parts of Forest Park over the years, but usually prefer further destinations with views, waterfalls or mountain tops. The Forest Park trails are fine for nearby forest hikes, but are often crowded with trail runners and neighborhood hikers, and there aren’t many views. Nevertheless, we set a goal to try to hike the full 30 mile length of the Wildwood Trail in sections – especially after the realization set in that the pandemic restrictions were going to last longer than we first imagined. As of this month, there was one section left (not counting the section between miles 14 and 15 that is closed for repair). Early September had been too hot and/or smoky in our usual destinations to hike much, but after a day of rain we found time to hike this last section.

Upper Macleay Park Trailhead

Pittock Mansion

The views were limited on this overcast day, but the seasonal flowerbeds provided some bright colors.

Views to downtown Portland from Pittock mansion

Seasonal flower beds

We returned to our starting place, then added to our mileage by hiking a few of the trails on the nearby Audubon reserve – again a bit nondescript on this between seasons day – too late for summer flowers, too early for fall colors. Our total for the day was about 4 miles, and 700 feet.

Trail map for the Bird Sanctuary

Muddy trails

Douglas Fir deck

9/20 – Bird Creek Meadows, Mt Adams, WA

This area has been mostly closed since the 2015 Cougar Creek Fire. The Yakama people have opened the hiking trails for the month of September the last two years, and we finally made it out there this year. Our pre-fire hikes in the area were during peak wildflower season in a place where the bloom is as fine as any in the Cascades. We saw the beginnings of fall color on our hike today, while appreciating the repairs that have been made to the fire damaged trails. It was beautiful!

Our GPS track – 7 miles, 1350 feet

Bird Lake Trailhead, Mt Adams

Up toward Bluff Lake through the 2015 burn zone.

Green undergrowth

View to Mt Hood through the haze.

Bluff Lake, Mt Adams through the trees on the left.

Huckleberry foliage

Staircase Falls

Mt Adams

Hellebore, huckleberry

We reached the Hellroaring Viewpoint, then continued upward on the Climber Trail for a short way:

Hellroaring Viewpoint

Hellroaring Falls

Mt Adams Glaciers

Glacier View

Moraine and ridge toward the Climbers’ trail

Higher meadows

View east – Little Mt Adams and Heart Lake

Our turnaround point, looking north…

and looking east.

Our return hike circled through the western meadows, past Crooked Creek Falls, and then down through the burn zone again, to Bird Lake.

Gentian blooming in the huckleberry patches

Late season meadows

Crooked Creek Falls

Back down into the burn zone

Crooked Creek

Back to Bird Lake

Lookback photos from 2013 compared to 2022, looking south from the below Hellroaring Viewpoint –

August 2013

September 2022

And one of the wildflower meadows of summer 2013:

Bird Creek Meadows, Mt Adams, August 2013

9/27 – Indian Heaven Wilderness – Cultus Campground to Wapiki Lake Overlook

GPS track – about 8 miles, 1700 feet.

We had also hiked this trail before. Again, we caught the beginnings of the fall colors in the higher elevations, and in the more open meadows and huckleberry fields.

Trailhead

Panorama looking north from the shoulder of Bird Mountain

Sawtooth Mountain and Mt Rainier

Mt Adams

We passed Cultus Lake on our way to the Wapiki Lake overlook:

Cultus lake

Lemei Rock

Huckleberry foliage

A very few late huckleberries

Wapiki Lake Overlook

Mt Adams

Wapiki Lake

On our return hike, the smoke had blown in from a nearby fire, obscuring the mountain views we had enjoyed earlier…..

Toward Sawtooth and Mt Rainier

Toward Mt Adams

We were too early for full fall color. We passed this same pond near Cultus Lake last year, in early October, after there had been rain. I remember spending a lot of time here marveling at the colors. This year, late September, only a little color and no pond yet.

Pond near Cultus Lake, October 8, 2021

Same pond area, September 27, 2022

It is lovely to see these places in different seasons!

I am catching up on blog posts – on to October…

Three Fall Hikes near Mt Adams, WA Oct. 6-8, 2021

October 26, 2021 / margaretquilts / 3 Comments

We stayed two nights in Trout Lake, Washington, to be closer to some far flung trailheads in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The distance may not be far, in miles, but the nature of the roads requires slow and patient driving. The trails were beautiful, in their fall colors, despite a a bit of rain and early snow.

Trail location map

Lewis River Falls – October 6th

Knowing it would probably rain, we chose a waterfall hike through the forest. This area is extremely popular in summer. However, on this rainy fall day, we had the trail entirely to ourselves beyond the Lower Falls Overlooks near the campground.

Lower Falls: We looked from above, then from one of the downstream side trails.

Lower Falls from the overlook

Closer view of the holes in the rocky platform

Fallen leaves near the downstream viewpoint

The Lower Falls were mesmerizing:

Lower Lewis River Falls

We walked back upstream along the Lewis River for about three miles, toward the Upper Falls. We passed the Lower Falls again:

Lower Falls with a bit of fall color

We found a beach during a pause in the rain for our lunch break.

Lunch rock

Rock hopper nearby

We continued upstream to the Middle Falls:

Rainy trail – the trees sheltered us much of the time.

Middle Lewis River Falls

The main channel cuts into the rocky bench below the falls.

We passed Copper Creek Falls, a tributary to the Lewis River:

Copper Creek Falls

We paused for a rest at the Upper Falls lower viewpoint:

Upper Lewis River Falls

From here we turned back, retracing our steps through the woods, quite satisfied that we have seen most of the Lewis River Falls.

Sun breaking through on the return hike.

We drove on various Gifford Pinchot National Forest roads to our lodging in Trout Lake. These roads were very slow going, shifting from paved to gravel and extremely potholed!

Killen Creek Meadows, Mt Adams – October 7th

We woke to a glorious blue sky day! The mountain was out, and we looked forward to our hike to Killen Creek Meadows on the northwest flanks of Mt Adams.

Mt Adams from Trout Lake

The Killen Creek Meadows to High Camp trail begins in the forest, then emerges into tiers of meadows. We started at about 4500 feet elevation, ascending to about 6000 feet on the 12,281 foot tall stratovolcano.

Lots of red huckleberry bushes along the trail.

Fresh snow from yesterday’s storm began at about 5200 feet.

In one forest opening we could see Mt Rainier to the north.

The open meadows provide great views of Mt Adams:

We reached the junction of the Pacific Crest Trail and the High Camp trail at lunch time, after hiking 3.5 miles. The snow was getting deeper, so we decided this would be our turnaround point. We did meet one northbound hiker, Tortoise, while we rested there.

Trail junction/lunch stop

High Camp is somewhere up on this ridge

Sparkling snow

We made our way back, admiring the views and the foliage.

Clouds forming in the afternoon

Huckleberries in the snow

Killen Creek Meadows are known for summer wildflowers, and we plan to return for a future summer adventure.

Takhlakh Lake is not far from the Killen Creek Trailhead. We stopped by for the iconic view on our way back to Trout Lake.

Mt Adams from Takhlakh Lake

Glacier close ups

Northern flank

An ice cave?

Adams Glacier

Hummocky topography on the south flank

Bird Mountain Loop, Indian Heaven Wilderness – October 8th

We chose this hike on the northeast side of Indian Heaven Wilderness for our last day. Clouds were coming in, but we had excellent conditions for seeing lots of lovely fall foliage around the meadows and lakes. The trail begins in the forest, and heads up hill to the flanks of Bird Mountain.

Once again, our trail leads through red huckleberry foliage.

From the shoulder of Bird Mountain, we got views of surrounding peaks, near and far.

Mt Adams to the east

Goat Rocks to the northeast

Sawtooth Mtn, with Mt Rainier in the distance

Scree slope beneath Bird Mountain, near our return trail this afternoon.

Continuing south, we would pass near Lemei Rock.

Beautiful foliage, mushrooms, small lakes appeared in the meadows along our trail.

Mountain Ash

Small lake

Mushroom

We stopped by this small unnamed lake to eat lunch and admire the reflections and colors.

We took the side trail to Deep Lake, passing the Cultus Lake outlet on the way.

Cultus Lake from the Deep Lake Trail

Deep Lake

Back on the main trail, we passed Cultus Lake before taking the junction toward the Pacific Crest Trail and Clear Lake.

Cultus Lake

Clear Lake

Back on the Pacific Crest Trail, northbound

One of the scree slopes on the west side of Bird Mountain.

Another unnamed lake by the trail.

We crossed back over the northern shoulder of Bird Mountain, where we could see some views again, before descending through the scree slopes back to the trailhead. Lots of late blooming flowers and seedheads in this area.

Sawtooth Mountain, from Bird Mountain

Mt Adams

Descending the scree slope – rougher trail in here

Seedheads

The very last lupine of summer.

This was a very successful trip – three new trails for us, and more added to our list for the future. We’d hiked more than 22 miles, and 4000 feet elevation, and fully immersed ourselves in the autumn foliage.

Eleven Lakes and a bear in Indian Heaven Wilderness, and more pandemic knitting

September 4, 2020 / margaretquilts / 1 Comment

We took two hikes in Indian Heaven Wilderness, a beautiful patch of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest between Mt Adams and Mt St Helens in southern Washington. A few small volcanic peaks rise above the rolling forested landscape that is also spotted with dozens of lakes, and covered with ripe huckleberry bushes in August.

August 20, 2020 – Indian Racetrack Lake and Red Mountain

Trailhead into the forest

Racetrack Lake – the only lake on this hike

Looking Across Racetrack Meadow to Red Mountain

View of Mt Adams on the way up to Red Mountain

Closer view of Mt Adams,

And closer.

Nearing the top of Red Mountain

Views from the top:

Mt Hood beyond Red Mountain Lookout

We climbed up to the viewing platform on the lookout.

Some other hikers pointed out a bear cub down on the other side of the mountain, eating huckleberries.

Looking back east at Mt Adams – clouds now covering the top

Mt St Helens to the north

And starting down again, we can see our trail dropping into the woods, and beyond we see the spine of Indian Heaven Wilderness: Berry Mountain, Gifford Peak, burned East Crater, and Lemei Rock.

Some details along the trail:

ripe huckleberries

aster

pyrola

red knotweed

Lily pads and grass, Racetrack Lake

Falls Creek

Hike #57, 6.8 miles, 1500 feet

August 28, 2020 – Thomas Lake trailhead to Junction Lake

The other ten lakes were seen on this hike.

Once again we enter the forested wilderness…

Thomas Lake

Heather Lake

Dee Lake

Eunice Lake

Nuha Lake

Rock Lakes

Unnamed lake beyond Rock Lakes

View of burnt East Crater from the Old Cascade Crest trail segment

A glimpse of Mt St Helens as we cross the shoulder of East Crater

Unnamed lake near the trail junction

Junction Lake, our turnaround point

Some details along the trail:

Reflections in the lakes…

Huckleberry bushes turning red

Mountain ash berries

Hellebore

Most likely the last beargrass bloom of summer

And another view of Mt St Helens above Eunice Lake on the descent.

Hike #58, 6.8 miles, 630 feet.

Meanwhile, we are floating along through more days of pandemia – some days we see no one at all, only virtual connections to the outside world. Our neighbors leave us tomatoes. We leave them apples and plums and wave across the rose bushes. Downtown is still burning up with civil unrest while I go on placidly through the days of late summer, of pandemia, of this administration… I virtually hold my breath, knock on wood, pray, cast spells, wish for a begin to a return to ‘normalcy’; hope for a late summer without a local fire season, hope for a scientifically tested efficacious vaccine, and hope for a fair election that will allow us to emerge from impending climate change, covid and facism. And I knit…