After doing two back to back to back trail work days, I decided I needed a fun day in the woods. I looked at options and realized I haven’t hiked the Rimrock trail from the west end trailhead for quite a while – Many times I come up the MP3 trail and head up to the overlook. Today I decided to go up the 4635 road to the trailhead on the west end and head up from there.

We headed out at our usual time. When we got to the 4635 road we headed up. Up to the MP3 trail the road isn’t too bad, but beyond that, it is pretty rough in places. In the burn areas there is lots of logs across the road, many of which were not cut out well. There are also rocks to be avoided and in some areas that are not burnt, the road is getting very brushy and narrow. Other areas have developed large potholes. The road has degraded significantly since the 2020 fires. It did not use to be this bad before the fires.

It was slow driving up the road – I did not want to puncture ANOTHER tire (like last week). We eventually got up to the trailhead. When we got out of the truck, the bugs started swarming – not terrible, but enough to be annoying. It was mostly mosquitoes with a few big black flies thrown in for good measure. I fired up my Thermocell and clipped it to my pack. I’m not sure how much good it did, but I wasn’t really bothered by bugs all day – until I got back to the truck at the end of the day.

We packed up and headed up the trail. Other than a log at the very beginning of the trail, there were no downed logs until we got into the burned area. It wasn’t long before we got to the outflow crossing – a little over a year ago, I was here and there was over a foot of water in here. I got wet doing the crossing. Today there was no water flowing:

Shortly after the outflow crossing, you enter the burned area. The trail thru here gets a little clearer each year as it gets more logs cut (which help define the path) and more use kind of re-establishes the tread a bit. I remember coming thru there right after the fires and you couldn’t tell where the trail went at all.

Once the trail gets up and follows the edge of the bluff, the blowdown got worse – I expect that winds come up the hill and hit all the fire killed trees and they topple. The going in this area was a bit rougher but not terrible. While in this area, I noticed a bunch of these flowers which were really pretty. I think it is a Columbia Lily:

Continuing on, we soon got to the end of the burn – but there was this ugly mess of 5 logs on the edge of the burned area:

We continued up the trail. Once back in the unburned area, the trail is as it used to be – it was in pretty good shape with only a few downed logs – mostly in areas where the burn got close to the trail. We headed up, enjoying the beautiful day – it wasn’t too warm which was nice.

We got to the junction with the overlook trail and headed out to the overlook. The trail was in pretty good shape in here, although there are a few areas that could benefit from some brushing. When we got close to the top, we encountered this tangle of blowdown:

I ended up cutting the smaller log in the middle with my handsaw – it made it a little easier to get thru that mess. It wasn’t too long before we were at the top of the overlook. We headed out to the point and had some lunch. It was warm in the sun, but there was a slight breeze which made it feel almost perfect out there. The view today was pretty amazing – very clear. We got good views north and south. To the north, Mt Adams and Mt Hood:

And to the south, Olallie Butte, Mt Jefferson and the Three Sisters:

I could have stayed there for much longer but I knew we needed to get back, so after about a half hour at the overlook, we packed up. While we were about ready to leave, a really cool thing happened. A large bird – I think it was a red tailed hawk – flew over the point. I didn’t get a picture of him until he was flying away – you probably can’t even see him in this – but it was really cool to see him:

After that, we headed out. As we were going out, I decided to do a bit of trimming on the route out to the point – just to make it a bit easier. It was getting kind of brushed in.

Once back to the first downed log, I started counting logs – and I also was trying to be more observant about phone line insulators. I haven’t seen too many insulators on this trail, so I was making a concerted effort to see if I could find more insulators along the trail.

The rest of the trip back was pretty uneventful – I was just soaking up the beautiful forest on this beautiful day and being thankful I was there to experience it. When we got back to the truck, I had counted about 105 logs on the trail and 6 insulators – 5 of which I had never seen before. I’m sure there are more. Its funny – once you see them you wonder how you ever missed them – but they are easy to miss.

We packed up and headed back down the road – it was a slow trip back down the hill.

It was a fantastic low key day in the woods – this trail continues to be one of my favorites – it is a beautiful trail with amazing views on a clear day. The only thing that could have made it better is if I had brought my drone. Today would have been a PERFECT day to fly – there was very little wind and the visibility was amazing.