Today’s hike was another in the “enjoy the fruits of your labor” series. I recently completed cutting out all the logs on this trail, both below the 280 spur and above it, as well as doing quite a bit of lopping and treadwork above the 280 spur. While it was still accessible (the snow seems to be coming early this year), I wanted to hike the whole trail in one shot. Originally, Oliver was going to join me since he has never seen the trail before, but he had some logistics issues that prevented him from coming. Dave decided to join so it wasn’t just Thor and I.

We got a bit of a late start – this was my third day of hiking in a row, so I was a bit tired. Dave drove himself up and he said he would just start hiking and we could catch up to him on the trail. We got to the trailhead about 10:30, suited up and headed out.

I didn’t take a lot of photos as I was just enjoying hiking the trail. This was my 36th time hiking at least portions of this trail (this includes work days), so I have a lot of pictures of it. Today I was just enjoying hiking the trail with minimal impediments.

We made it thru the first cut, past where we went yesterday doing work on the old Dickey Creek trail. Into the first glorious old growth area and then into the second cut. Went thru the second cut and into the second glorious old growth area. Then into the weird area along the ridge – this appears to be a small piece of the cut below the 280 spur before it goes back into the old growth for a bit, takes a turn (switchback) and then heads into the cut below the 280 spur. Along this very straight section of trail, we saw the first snow of the day at about 3700′

Somewhere along this segment, I tried to get a view but it was still kind of foggy:

We made it up to the 280 spur, crossed the road, and we met Dave. He had just started down the trail after taking a break at the crossing. We talked a bit and then continued up the trail, continuing to enjoy all the logs we didn’t have to step, trip or crawl over.

As we got further south, and higher up, we kept seeing more evidence of snow. On the 024 spur, it was starting to accumulate a bit. Thor was having a lot of fun in the snow – this always cracks me up:

We continued up from the 024 spur, up the ridge to the “real” trail (where you can actually see blazes) that kind of hugs the wilderness boundary. We got to the “chute” which I cut out a month or so ago and then continued south. When we got to the “extension” that Dave found past the old landing, the snow got deeper in places:

We followed this segment of trail (which hasn’t really been worked too much as of yet) out to where the road took the trail out. We headed down to the road and found a sunny spot and ate some lunch. It was kind of chilly, even with the sun, so lunch was pretty quick. My hands got kind of cold while eating lunch so I donned my gloves for the trip back.

The return trip was pretty uneventful – I did stop along the trail below the 280 spur – there is at least one spot where oyu can get a glimpse of Mt Hood on a clear day. On the way back down it cleared up enough to be able to see at least part of it:

After that short stop, we pretty much just headed down the trail. We got back to the trucks about 3:00. We said our goodbyes and headed out.

It was a beautiful day on a beautiful old trail – I am so glad I was able to enjoy the whole length of this trail before the snow flies. I look forward to continuing to refine this trail and keep it passable. I don’t want it to get lost for another 60+ years!