Trailwork and Dayhikes May 24, 2022

I signed up for a work crew on Friday, carrying tools in to the middle section of Eagle Creek for a work party the following week. Susan, the crew leader, confirmed my doubts about Eagle Creek when she told us the work party had initially been scheduled for the previous week but the trail was blocked by a mudslide that it took her and two others a full day to clear. It was wet, stick, half liquid mud. There were also several small rock-falls, not enough to block the trail, and a couple of trees we had to move out of the way. The ground is saturated with water and clearly still unstable. A large group of day-hikers started a few minutes before us; we leap-frogged with them all morning; we would stop to clear a log off the trail and they would get ahead, then they’d stop for a rest and we’d get ahead. It was a beautiful day; we hiked 7 miles in, almost to 7 ½ mile camp, but cached the tools a half mile short because we were behind schedule because of the stops for tree removal. (Susan did get us back to the trailhead at 3:55, five minutes before the scheduled time.) She said the 4 day work party had a total of 16 down trees to clear that she knew of; given recent wind-storms and the unstable soil, there were probably more since the trail was scouted. On Tuesday I decided to see if the Hamilton Mountain loop is clear of snow (it is, though I saw a few patches of snow near the top of Phlox Point). I reached the trailhead at 7:20; no other cars in the parking lot: I didn’t see any other hikers until I reached the top of Phlox Point. On the way up to Hamilton Mountain and along the ridge beyond it I saw several patches of larkspur left) and phlox (above) as well as other wild-flowers, even a few early paintbrushes. I had already decided to do the entire loop, starting with Hamilton Mountain, then climbing Phlox point (seen from the ridge below Hamilton Mountain.) Usually we hike along the side of the ridge through the woods, then descend into the valley and climb back up on the far side. However, I’ve noticed an abandoned trail on the map, leading up to a “4WD” road that circles around the top of the drainage and passes behind Phox Point, so I decided to see what that is like. The trail we usually take is marked in green on the map: clearly the bushwhacking route is no shortcut. The trail leads along an abandoned road, which continues all the way to the ridge-line. However, the old trail has not been maintained, so large sections were overgrown with saplings and some bushes, including some small devil’s club (nasty sharp thorns all the way up the branches). At the top of the ridge the trail connects with a well-maintained gravel road (with several fallen trees and branches partially blocking it.) However, after it circled around to the Phlox Point ridge, the gravel road turned aside and it truly was “4WD,” except it was blocked, a hundred yards along, by a deep hole (probably bulldozed deliberately to block it). Still, aside from the occasional thicket of saplings or brush, it was pretty easy hiking until it reached the vicinity of Phlox Point itself, where the old road passes a couple hundred feet below the rocky outcropping that constitutes the point. Between the abandoned road and the ridge line is a series of thickets, saplings mixed with thorny bushes. I selected an area where this was the thinnest and scrambled up to a saddle from which I could climb along the relatively gentle slope of the ridge up to the highest point, Phlox Point, where the maintained trail ends. It was no surprise that I shed a little blood from scratches and gouges as I fought my way through all of this. It was just thick enough to be a challenge, and to require the occasional route-finding decision, so it took close to a half hour to scramble up the last half mile to the top. There I sat down for an early lunch (it was only 11) while enjoying the spectacular view of Mt. Hood, still fully covered in the heavy snow-falls we had in April. The weather forecast predicted wind, but there wasn’t any, so it turned out to be a great spring day. On the way down I saw two other hikers, then finally began to see groups of people when I got back to the waterfall.