Bushwackin’

The really great thing about this area is that there are places to go that are not really on the map; no signs, no parking lot, no visitors center, if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll miss it. I went to one of those places today. Not very far away, right down the road actually, it’s just that most people go right by it on their way to a place with signs, a visitors center and a big parking lot. Here’s what the trail looks like right around the corner from the parking lot

Easy to see why this trail is not well known, it is a tough uphill climb right from the start. This is not a maintained trail, a lot of the beautiful green foliage along the trail is poison oak, best to stay on the trail. The initial steep climb led to a deep, dark forest

Near the midpoint of the mountain, there was a bit of a clearing, you could get a good view of the main trail. Semi trucks hauling timber used this trail, can you see it?

Needless to say, you have to be cautious when you are “exploring”. Easy to get lost around here, happens all the time. Should have brought my GPS like I usually do when I head off into the woods alone, but since this is an area I know pretty well, I left it at home this time. I knew where I was when I got to this clear cut area, pretty hard to miss

Logging is an ugly industry, but we all need wood. If we play it right, we can have the wood we need and let the trees grow back. This clear cut on such a steep slope is probably not going to go down in the books as sustainable logging. Probably see significant erosion, maybe even landslides here when the rainy season hits.
Anyhoo, I was looking for a way to the top of the ridge, here is an old motorcycle trail that probably went up there, I’ll check it out next time

There was also this trail that looked like it might lead up to the top

There was this trail that led downhill towards the Columbia River, but there are a lot of sheer cliffs on the way, I didn’t want to go down a couple miles, wind up on the top of a cliff and have to come back up. Maybe next time we’ll have a look..

Looked around for awhile, made some plans for the next ride and headed home. Mostly downhill, yay!

Much more riding potential there but I could go for somebody to go with me next time. Pretty sure I can find somebody, we’ll take the GPS, too.

More good news; I’ve heard the road up to the high country lakes is clear of snow, we will be headed up there for some kayak fishing as soon as possible.