I explored a couple of ridges and did a snowshoe along decomissioned road 5410. I'd hoped to get higher up on the ridge than I did but the snow was too soft and wet for that sort of undertaking, I put snowshoes on around 3200' and never made it past 3400'. There were all sorts of interesting sights and the return on the Clackamas River Trail was a nice finish to the day.
I started from a ridge beginning just south of the Indian Henry Trailhead – I'd not done this before, it just looked good on the map. I had game trail all the way up and pretty interesting routing they did around the 3 cliff bands I encountered. Not a route for rookies as there is some heart pounding exposure in places.
At the start of the ridge was a red arrow pointing up, I don't doubt others have gone this way.
The going was pretty clear for the most part, no brush.
The last cliffband, the game trail zigzags up through the center of the picture.
From there the ridge leveled out, as reported above, I snowshoed up at 3200' the got on the road. The consistentcy of the snow made for slow travel so I abandoned my original plan to make the ridge. I located a ridge on the map that looked good for a return and headed down the road as the ridge I ascended was unsuitable for going down 'cause of the exposure.
The way forward:
The way back:
The ridge down was great, lots of old growth all the way to the Clackamas River Trail. There were a couple of easily bypassed cliffs – at the first one I got these great shots of Three Lynx – from where I was it seemed like I could have jumped off and landed in someone's backyard.
Here's a zoom – this must include the entire town:
I've never hiked the Clackamas River Trail, very nice – I like this little waterfall and the undercut trail, I guess that is natural.
There is a new bridge going in, sort of on top of the old bridge. How'd they get that big log in there? Helicopter?
The route around was much like what I'd just been doing off trail, steep, muddy, slick, covered with wet branches and fun. The flagging marks the route.
A great day, I'll be returning to finish up the Clackamas River Trail.
Great info, Paul. I was up in the same general area yesterday as well. Boy were there a lot of people there! When I came in, the fish creek parking lot for the CRT was empty, when I left at about 1:00, it was packed full. I hiked one of the old roads up fish creek.
So how long was the loop? Looks like a great trip, although it would be nice if the snow melted!
Rob Williams said:
Great info, Paul. I was up in the same general area yesterday as well. Boy were there a lot of people there! When I came in, the fish creek parking lot for the CRT was empty, when I left at about 1:00, it was packed full. I hiked one of the old roads up fish creek.
So how long was the loop? Looks like a great trip, although it would be nice if the snow melted!
Rob,
Which old road did you hike up? The loop I did was around 7-8 miles.
--Paul
It was the old 5420 (some people call it the Calico road). It is just past the closed road 54 that goes down Fish Creek.
Nice report Paul. So you went up Whale Creek and came down Cat Creek. Wow! Not something I would do now , maybe 10-20 years ago, but I do things now that a lot people wouldn't do either. Keep doing what seems right to you. I don't think that we are that far apart when it comes to exploring the Clackamas River area, for there is a lot of room to 'get lost' in.
Don