2012 Edition
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This is my final pre-geezer hike. I will turn 65 tomorrow....
GETTING THERE: From Portland: Drive east on Interstate 84 to Exit 58, and a sign
pointing to the Mitchell Point Overlook.
We were out to
Mitchell Point last year.
According to all the reports I've read, the Wygant and Chetwoot trails are in
impassible condition and have been for a couple of years. So my expectations
that we will get very far are not good. The Wygant Trail is operated by the
Forest Service so I suppose they will eventually get around to cleaning things
up there. The Chetwoot Loop was conceived and built by the Mazamas so the chances
of near term improvements there are slim at best. Depending on what I find Saturday
I may volunteer to lead a Mazama work project to get this stretch back in shape.
Of course nothing is going to happen until the Wygant Trail gets fixed first.
Time permitting, we will probably do the Mosier Twin Tunnel hike if the Wygant attempt
turns out to be a total bust. Past hikes of this one can be found
HERE , HERE and
HERE.
Here's the "viewpoint". Pretty impressive, huh? That's what we thought too...
The Perham Creek bridge has seen better days although it's an easy rock hop across
the creek. You are just a little over one mile from the trailhead at this point and
just past the fork to the Chetwoot Trail. This is a well signed trail and easy to
follow, at least to this point.
The Chetwoot trail starts off pretty good. It obviously sees a lot of hiker traffic,
at least on this first segment.
Soon you will come out to a clearing and a service road. Where to go from here is
unclear. I looked around and found the trail continuation way to the right of where
you would expect it to be. This next segment is MUCH less well traveled.. I'm guessing
because a lot of people couldn't find it and turned back. I put a LONG piece of
flagging tape at the entrance which hopefully will help.
The next bit isn't too bad until you get about half way across the ridge.
Then, you start seeing some major blowdowns, huge, uprooted trees, washouts and so on.
The trail is still seeing activity but is MUCH more faint. Anyone with decent
navigation ability isn't going to have much problem but given that this is a remote,
seldom traveled trail, if you get lost, break a leg or something like that, you
could have a problem. We got VERY close to where the Chetwoot rejoins the Wygant
trail... but it was getting late and we were tired so decided to come back and
complete this another day.
There's a nice little falls on the very end/beginning of this hike.
We did Mitchell Point first... those pictures follow.
Cold, blustery, overcast.... the weather isn't much better today than it was the
last time we visited the Mitchell Point Overlook.
The view of Mitchell Point from Little Mitchell.
The view west from Little Mitchell.
The view east from Little Mitchell.
The view west from Mitchell Point.
The view east from Mitchell Point.
Hiked/climbed a total of ten miles. Had a nice kung pao lunch at my favorite
Chinese place. This is my last meal as a pre-geezer...
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