Fall is a couple days away, time to get as much riding in as possible, especially rides in the higher elevations where it will soon be raining and, yes, snowing soon. Off to a part of the area that’s a little off the beaten path; Nestor Peak and Buck Creek Trail. Buck Creek Trail is a nice singletrack trail that winds through the Buck Creek watershed down towards the Little White Salmon River in Klickitat County in southwest Washington.
Most people shuttle this ride, but what fun is that? Starting at the Northwestern Lake parking lot, it’s up Forest Service roads towards Nestor Peak. It’s a pretty stiff climb nearly all the way.
It’s steep at the bottom, but it gets steeper the closer you get to the Buck Creek Trailhead. There are some sections that are really steep.
After about seven miles or so of climbing, you get to the Buck Creek Trailhead
The road goes up a little farther to a helipad that is used to ferry in firefighters to this remote location in case of forest fires. You can check it out if you want; usually at this stage of the ride you’ve had enough climbing. Off to the south in Oregon, you can see Mt. Hood. Today, you can see a bit of smoke from the still smoldering Dollar Lake fire which has been burning for weeks.
From here it’s downhill pretty much all of the way. Buck Creek Trail is a great singletrack ride through the woods, this time of year, the trail is hard with spots of moon dust so you have to be careful, it’s easy to lose traction.
Back down at Northwestern Lake, or what’s left of it, construction crews are reinforcing the Buck Creek Road bridge in preparation for the removal of the Condit hydroelectric dam a mile or so downstream. Northwest Lake will be gone, but salmon will be able to once again swim up the Little White Salmon River.
Hoping summer lasts a few more days…..