Today’s hike was kind of a short day – Kirk had the day off but needed to be back early to babysit the grandkids. We decided to do a trail I haven’t done in a few years – the Corral Springs trail. It seemed to fit the bill for the day – not too far, not too long. It is an interesting trail that drops down to the Roaring River (which is always an interesting destination).

We headed out at our normal time. When we left the house it was cloudy but otherwise clear – as we got higher, it got increasingly foggy. There were places where we couldn’t see 20 feet in front of us! It was a bit of a slow drive part of the way to the trailhead. Thankfully, the fog got less dense as we got higher, but it was still foggy when got to the trailhead at the old Lookout Springs campground. We parked, suited up and headed down the trail.

The beginning of the trail is VERY wide – ATVs have used (abused) this trail in the past and it shows. Once you hit the junction with the Huxley Springs trail it gets a bit narrower but it is still a really good trail. After about a mile, you being the initial descent into the canyon. This part is very well graded. After about a half mile of a light grade downhill, you start the descent into the canyon in earnest. The beginning is very well graded, with several proper switchbacks and good trail, with a few short sections being difficult (usually slid down the hill for a few feet).

At one point not too far from the top there is an open area where you get a good view of Indian Ridge from the trail – on the way down the clouds were still burning off:

As you head down, there is a rockslide to the south of the trail. You don’t see a whole lot of it, but you can see it thru the trees. We continued down the trail – as you go lower the trail gets a little less distinct but isn’t too bad. Generally speaking, the lower down the trail you go, the steeper it gets and the brushier the trail gets. Here is a segment about 2/3rds of the way down. Still completely followable but a big change from what it is up higher:

Shortly after that, there is a neat creek crossing, which is below the rockslide that we passed earlier:

As you get closer to the River, the trail gets increasingly steep. The last couple hundred yards is very steep – more climbing than hiking and it is pretty rough – but soon, it puts you out at the Roaring River:

Here is a video I took of the river – it has an appropriate name – it is VERY loud:

We stopped at the river and ate lunch. The dogs cooled off in the river. We soaked up the beauty of the river but soon realized we needed to start the climb back out of the canyon. It is quite a climb and if we were to get back on time we needed to head back up.

We slowly made our way back up the canyon – it is quite the climb. As we were headed up, I took a picture of this cool little grove near the bottom – I just liked the feeling in here:

As we were heading up, Kirk got ahead of me – I was trying to keep my pulse below 150 – when we got near the rockslide, he took a side trip to the rockslide and I unknowingly passed him. We stopped at one point and Thor kept looking down the trail. I was wondering if I had passed Kirk but didn’t think I had. At one point, Thor started doing his “yippy” barks when our group gets separated and then I heard Kirk say something down lower. We stopped and waited for him to catch up. Soon, Ollie came lumbering up the trail, and shortly after, Kirk arrived.

A bit after we caught up with each other, we passed a section that had quite a bit of white iris growing in it:

As we were going up, I told Kirk I thought there was an access trail to the rockslide – but I wasn’t quite sure if I was confusing it with another trail or not. A bit farther up the trail, we got our answer – on a switchback there is a user trail that heads out to the top of the rockslide. We got our best view of the day from here – Looking over to Indian Ridge:

And then looking a bit farther east – up the Roaring river to Linney Butte:

After spending a few minutes enjoying the view from the top of the rockslide (and resting a bit), we continued up the hill. From this point on, the grade lessened quite a bit. It felt like we just continued to go up (which we did) but the grade was a lot easier to manage. Once we got up higher, there is an interesting little meadow – I thought at one point I had heard there was a cabin here:

We continued up and at some point FINALLY got up on top where the trail gets pretty flat. From that point on, it was an easy hike back to the truck. While it had cleared up quite a bit from the morning, it was still a bit foggy at the trailhead.

After packing up, we drove up the 4610 road a little bit to check out the log decks – Zack was curious if they were still there – the 3 we saw were pretty well cut out.

After doing the recon for the log decks, we headed back down the road – as we got lower the fog started to lift. I’m not exactly sure when the sun came out but it was down the road several miles. We ended up getting home in time for Kirk to get back to babysit the grandkids – and I was able to go to the Mt Angel Oktoberfest with my wife and daughter.

All in all, a great day in the woods. This is a very underappreciated trail – it is difficult to climb back out of the canyon, but it goes thru a variety of ecosystems and the Roaring River at the bottom is always a treat.