Zack wanted to get out and do a short hike today – he had something later in the day so we decided to do the Rimrock trail to the overlook and start early so we could get back in plenty of time. This is one of my favorite trails, especially on a nice day like today so I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, the track got a bit messed up at the beginning, but sorted itself out later.

We headed out early and got to the trailhead about 9:15. We packed up and headed down the trail. We soon got to the burned area, which has a lot of blowdown in it, it relatively easy to follow the trail in now. For quite some time, it was difficult to follow the trail thru the burned area. With a bit of foot traffic, and cut logs, it is now relatively easy to follow the trail thru the cut area.

Once thru the cut area, we got back into the old growth – this segment of trail is just so beautiful – nothing terribly significant, but just a beautiful segment of old trail. At some point along the way, I noticed a spider web that was gleaming in the sunlight. I tried to take a picture of it, but it didn’t turn out all that great – it was a lot better in person:

We continued up the trail, making really good time and got to the overlook for an early lunch. We enjoyed the views, the breeze and the sun from the overlook. Here is a shot of Olallie and Mt Jefferson:

And looking north, Mt Hood from the rimrock overlook:

And a wider shot showing Mt Adams and Mt Hood:

We stayed on up on the point for probably at least a half hour – I could spend all day up there – the views are incredible and even in the sun it is usually very pleasant due to the breeze.

We made our way down and Zack wanted to check out Good Spring – as we went down we were looking for the side trail but I think we started looking a bit too late (too far west). We ended up making a big loop and eventually found the faint trail down to the spring, which is effectively the very top of one of the feeder creeks to Canyon Creek. When we looked at the spot where the trail met the creek, it was dry. Looking down a bit, Thor was able to find some slowly running water:

I’d guess that this will probably dry up in the next few weeks – it would be interesting to come up here in August to see if it still has any water in it.

After that interesting side trip, we headed back to the trail. It didn’t take long to get back to the trail, and once on the trail, it was a pretty short trip back to the truck.

It was a relatively short day, but it was really nice to be able to spend some time up at the overlook and just have a relaxed day on the trail – no objectives, no trailwork – just enjoying the beauty of a very old trail.