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  • Reading is good, but hiking is better.

    I tend to do most of my reading in the winter months. Not to knock reading, for reading is good and more people need to read. But when the weather is good, like right now, put the book down and get out there and hike. Your body, soul, and spirit will thank you for it.

    I don't care if you hike the CRT, that's the acronym for the Clackamas River Trail, or you bushwhack crosscountry using only a compass and a topo map, or a GPS unit to get from point A to point B, but get out there and explore. Don't just read about the exploits of others, as on this website, or in books, but go out there and do your own exploration at whatever level that you are able.

    This district is blessed with an abundance of trails that have been maintained recently by volunteers, or to those that haven't seen any maintenance for 30 years or more. I tend to hike and explore the old trails that have been off the map for a while, but that is my preference. You choose what level of excitement your body can endure and go for it. Just let us know what the condition the trail was, so we can deal with the maintenance issue. We are always happy to add more volunteers who wish to help maintain our trails. Checkout the "Get Involved" section of our website if you are interested.
    Reading is good, but hiking is better.
  • Re: Reading is good, but hiking is better. (#)
  • 7/26/09; 12:21:23 AM ¦ by Donald Presley
  • Sorry about the double post, but my mouse doesn't always seem to work, so I chick it more than once and stuff happens. I was on vacation this week and I worked on 3 different trails in 4 days, so when I feel I need to post something it just flows out of me.

    One of the trails I was on this week is the old Cougar Creek Trail that cuts across the "new" Roaring River Wilderness. It is not that the wilderness is new, for it has always been wild and so few people even wonder into it's depths, for the current maps don't show any trails otherthan on it's perimeter. One must look back into the older maps to see where the old trails will take one, if he is willing to take a chance.

    I have been trying to locate this trail to it's full length for two years, but have of yet to accomplish my task. I have wondered in a mile or two from both ends, but have yet to hike the 6-7 miles needed to reach it's full length.

    I could just hike across the wilderness on a compass bearing or follow a particular drainage or feature on a map, but I want to locate the old trail, and that takes a lot of wondering around and climbing upslope and down to find the old tread, that is really faint in places. I figure I have less than two miles left to locate. So it will either be this fall or sometime next year before I am able to locate the full length of the trail.

    So once I have it totally located and marked, will anybody hike on it? I know that I will, if nothing else than the views one gets from the trail, and the satisfaction that this trail won't disappear into the forest completely while their are others out there to enjoy it's path.
    • Re: Reading is good, but hiking is better. (#)
    • 7/26/09; 7:13:14 AM ¦ by Rob Williams
    • I'd love to hike this trail.  That area is unbelievably beautiful and unspoiled.  Although I keep trying to increase my skills finding/hiking old trails, my skills are pretty basic and I'll probably never be as skilled any many of you are.  I'm happy to follow in your footsteps.

      Can you post a map of where the trail is?  I think I've seen references to it, but I'm not sure exactly where it is...
      • Re: Reading is good, but hiking is better. (#)
      • 7/26/09; 10:42:27 PM ¦ by Donovan
      • Rob, in this case I think it would be best to have Don take you there. The trail is very faint and the country is real rough.

        Donovan
      • Re: Reading is good, but hiking is better. (#)
      • 7/27/09; 4:04:18 AM ¦ by Donald Presley
      • Rob, there is the 1946 map on this website that shows it. The south trailhead is accurate and is on the Frazer Turnaround road at a wide pulloff near Sinal Buttes. The northend, off of 4610 road is off a 1/4 mile or so, it should be more to the east. There is a pulloff here also, one of the few on this road, and a tree with metal tags and flagging marking where the trailhead is.

        This was a way trail, so grades are steeper and sometimes they didn't dig much tread at all. This area was all burnt, except for a few areas, so you could pretty much see where you had to go when it was made. That is not the case now. Trees with a foot in diameter or bigger are growing in the tread. Few if any blazes, for there weren't very many trees left or of any size to cut a blaze into.

        The mosquitoes about carried me out of there last week, so I am putting off going back in until the end of August or September.
          • Re: Reading is good, but hiking is better. (#)
          • 7/27/09; 4:15:41 PM ¦ by Donald Presley
          • Rob,

            I have a weeks vacation on the 17th of August and another on the 21st of September. I hope to go back out there for a couple of days on possibly both weeks. I will let you know when I am going when it gets closer to my time off. I have coaxed a couple of other people to join me on a couple of occasions in the past, but for the most part it is usually just me and my dog.

            There seems to be only a 3-4 month window in which you can access the trail for both trailheads are at 4500 ft and splunge down 2000 ft to the Roaring River. The steepness of the trail hasn't stopped me from coming back so far. It keeps drawing me back to walk it's path eventhough it only reveals only small segments each time I go.
            • Re: Reading is good, but hiking is better. (#)
            • 7/27/09; 8:58:52 PM ¦ by Rob Williams
            • That sounds good. 

              I took a look at the trail on the map, and I was going to say it looks like it must drop down quite a bit.   It looks like a beautiful area....