Table Rock

Last year Keeley saw a post made by the US Department of the Interior on Instagram (The best Instagram account out there, frankly) featuring a beautiful mysterious image of a place called "Table Rock Wildnerness, Oregon". I'd never heard of it. She wanted to see it. I figured okay. We never made it out there last year, and with this year coming we figured this would be a good time to check it out. We were just a touch late for the fall colors, sadly, but the hike didn't disappoint at all. In fact it was better than I expected.

Table Rock is a big basalt slab in the cascade mountains about 50 miles southeast of Portland in the Table Rock Wilderness, a 6,000 acre area. It's considered part of The Old Cascades. Table Rock itself is 4,881 feet high. The area has diverse plant life and rhododendrons are everywhere. I'll have to come back when they are in bloom. The area is supposedly semi-popular but we saw only 1 other couple the entire time we were out during peak hours on saturday. Of course, the forecast was bad and it was already wet, so take that with a grain of salt.

Table rock isn't the easiest place to access. It's not near any major roads, you pretty much leave the Salem area, travel through some farm towns, then take winding backroads through river valleys till you reach the Molalla River recreation area, then drive on a beautiful park road following signs till you reach the final 3 miles, which are on a well maintained gravel road. Despite being 50 miles from Portland it takes just over 90 minutes to reach. The trailhead is a small wide spot on the road with an outhouse and a signboard.

From here you are on the trail, but for the next mile and a half you are actually still on the road. The road beyond the trailhead suffered a lot of washouts during a storm in '96, so the trailhead was moved back. The trail is mostly flat with the occasional stream crossing and one section in the woods to avoid a major washout.

The old road

Finally the trail reaches the original trailhead and plunges up into the woods. From here the trail gets kinda steep as it travels through a nice open area under the big evergreens. Surprisingly little undergrowth. You get little views to the north from time to time, and twice the trail passes by at the bottom of a big old former landslide area with big basalt rocks up at the top. You climb up and walk along the side of one of these big rock slabs and then you reach the top of the steepest climb, right behind one of these rocks. A scramble trail leads up the rock and is very much worth checking out as a quality break point. The view is stellar and we got hints of a rainbow.

Sitting on Little Table Rock

Hiking is fun

This is why we do it

Panorama from Little Table Rock

Rainbow to the north

facing north

Table Rock summit from Little Table rock

From "little table rock", as I called the spot, you can see the summit looming depressingly far above you. It's only 500 or so feet in elevation higher, but it looks way worse. You've actually done the hardest part to get to little table rock. From here the trail goes back into the forest for a brief stretch with mild climbing until all of a sudden the trees open up and you are at the foot of the massive columnar basalt walls in an amazing ampitheatre. It also gives a good echo. Keeley took a vine:




You travel along the landslide, actually going downhill to get around the biggest wall. At one point the trail has a small fresh landslide that must be extremely recent because each step resulted in a slide and nothing had settled yet. Pass that, look at the cool notch in the walls, and then you pass around the wall and begin to climb the backside of the rock. The trail gets a bit steeper and climbs for a while till you reach a campsite.

Rock Walls in the mist

Table rock columnar basalt wall in the mist

Large notch in the basalt

Landslide on the trail

From the campsite you have several options. Turn immediately left and you see a sign for the Table Rock summit trail. Turn immediately right, and climb up a short steep rocky climb to a must see little viewpoint of Table Rock itself. Go straight and right and you are on the saddle trail which goes a mile or two south to Chicken Rock, a future hike plan for us. We headed up the summit.

The saddle campsite junction

Sign is pretty fresh

Seen on the way back down, view from saddle viewpoint

Table rock from the short path from the saddle campsite

Table rock facing north

Heading up Table Rock

One switchback and some medium steep and all of a sudden the world opens up and you are on the exposed top of Table rock. A quick jaunt to the north and you are at the top. The clouds were closing in but we could see the bottom of both Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson. We settled in, ate a cliff bar, and that's when the rain hit. The stellar view of 5 minutes ago was now completely gone as the cloud settled in on us and the drizzle heated up. We tried to wait it out under some trees at the summit campsite, but it didn't look to be getting better so we headed back, hitting the campsite viewpoint on the way. The trail was now covered in mist and cloud and it was really neat, we felt extremely lucky because it never stopped raining for the rest of the day and it was clear we beat the rain to the top by mere minutes. Any later and we wouldn't have had nearly the same experience. The Hike was about 7.5 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain.

Add caption

Mt. Hood looms under the low clouds

facing southeast

foothills of the cascades

Technically Mt. Jefferson is in this picture if you can see it

Looking down at little table rock

Panorama from the top

Keeley as the rain begins to hit

5 minutes after reaching the summit everything is in clouds and visibility is zero

heading back during a brief cloud break

on the way back

There are to more meaningful hikes in the area. One is going to Chicken Rock/Rooster Rock from the Table campsite, which is a 10 mile out and back. If you get there early and have plenty of supplies, a third option is a 14 mile loop that comes in from further east and hits both spots. Maybe one day.

The Wygant Trail

Two weeks ago, Keeley's parents came to town and we went to Triple falls. because I'm an idiot, I left my camera battery charging at home so my camera was useless and I got no pictures. The following week a friend came to town, and we took him to Cape Horn. It was late and kinda rainy out, so we just did the 4 mile out and back to the major farm viewpoint.

This week Keeley had a half marathon in Hood River, the Columbia Gorge Half Marathon. We drove out there early morning to get her ready, then she gave me permission to bail and do my own thing for the expected 2 hours and thirty minutes she would be running. That was her estimate. I estimated closer to 3 hours, because she hadn't been training and we ate like crap the day before. I figured I'd have plenty of time, so I went back to Mitchell Point, but not actually Mitchell Point. My goal this time was to investigate the Wygant trail.

The Wygant trail is an overlooked trail on an already overlooked trailhead. Despite being an official trail, the Wygant trail has a bit of a reputation around hiking sites and books as being neglected and very very poison oak-y. Every place I read about it brings up the extraordinary amount of Poison Oak. There are supposed to be a few nice viewpoints on the hike (though nothing on the top of Wygant peak) so I figured I'd explore and risk myself instead of the both of us. I got to the trailhead at 9:15am. She started running at 9:30. I figured I had till 12:15 to hike, so I got started.

First thing I did was climb up a short rocky path on the Mitchell Point lower rock outcrop just to see what it offered.

Then it was down to the parking lot and off along the Wygant trail. For the first half a mile the Wygant trail isn't a trail, but a section of the old historic highway. You're walking on history. After that the actual trail appears, cutting up to the left. A short 100 foot switchback scramble puts you about 200 feet above the freeway and the trail takes on the personality of Gorge trail 400. The highway noise is never far away. The trail goes for a while through the woods, then hits a junction. To the left is the Chetwoot trail, a pedestrian made trail that loops back onto Wygant peak, and is apparently very overgrown and busted up from a storm in 2011. I decided to stay on the Wygant trail. 10 yards past the Chetwood junction is another junction. The right leads to a viewpoint and the left is the main trail. I went to the viewpoint.

The first of many, many blowdowns

The "Viewpoint"

The viewpoint may have been a viewpoint 30 years or more ago, but it is not one anymore and I almost tore the sign down for how utterly false the advertising was. I headed down the trail to the bridge. Up until this point the trail has been in good shape, but when I reached the creek, it finally became clear how ignored this trail is. This is what the Perham Creek Bridge is supposed to look like:

And this is how it looks now:

Now it's 3 bridges for the price of 1! The trail from here goes up and briefly crosses the power lines, stays level for a while then comes out on a nice low open space called the Lower Wygant Viewpoint. You get a great panoramic view from a lower angle in the gorge. I could see rain coming from the west.

Trail under the power lines

Markers for the trail near the low viewpoint

Mitchell Point looms to the east

Mitchell point

Looking ominous to the west

Backtrack a bit to a previously passed junction marked with pink spots on the trees and you cross under the power lines again and begin the Wygant peak ascent in earnest. Also at this point the trail begins to deteriorate. There has been no real maintenance since the 2011 storms, and so many trees have fallen across the path that it would take ages to saw them all apart. Thankfully someone nice at least carved notches into each one for easy footing when stepping over.

The trail switchbacks up the hill for a while, and at one point you can reach middle Wygant viewpoint. Shortly after that, the trail encounters the other side of the Chetwoot loop and continues climbing at a nice manageable incline. Finally you come out on a little spur and you are at Upper Wygant Viewpoint, the last thing of note on the trail.

 It was 11am when I hit this point, so instead of continuing the final 1.5 miles to the viewless peak, I headed back to make sure Keeley wouldn't be waiting a long time. I had 30 minutes till I reached the car and I get a text. Keeley had picked today of all runs to get a personal best half marathon time (just over 2 hours). So now I was running back to the car to look less terrible as a boyfriend.

On the way back the trail gave way under my foot 3 times, and on the first one I slid several feet down the hill. It's not in that bad a shape, but it's getting to a point where no maintenance soon will make this trail into a "former" trail that only local adventurers in the know would even know about it.

Another thing: I know it's late season, but for all the poison oak reputation, I saw practically none of it. Maybe it's dead by late October. I saw more on my hike to Triple Falls two weeks ago than I did here. On the plus side, I saw nobody the whole time so if you need solitude, it's a good spot.

There are a few more things I'd like to investigate from the Mitchell Point trailhead before I'm completely satisfied. I'd like to make it all the way up Wygant next time, Apparently there is a nice meadow a bit past the summit down the other side. I'd like to hike the Chetwood trail too. There was a fire road coming off of the historic highway at one point, I'd like to check that out, and a few other side trails under the power lines up by Mitchell point itself. Then I can consider this place "done".

Mitchell Point again

Last time I was at Mitchell Point it was spring of 2014. I've wanted to go back a lot, but haven't gotten the chance. Mitchell point is a fairly short hike an hour from home right next to Hood River so it was hard to justify the drive. But Keeley was coming in from a business trip on Saturday at noon, and the airport is on the way to the gorge, so we decided I'd pick her up, she'd change in the car and we'd just go straight to hiking.

Well, her plane was delayed, but the plan was on. However the trip and travel issues took its toll on her, so halfway through the hike she decided to head back to the car but insisted I keep going so we didn't make the drive for nothing. I felt pretty bad but decided to go up anyway because we are never in the gorge in late hours and Mitchell Point is a great western viewpoint.

Last time I did this hike it kicked my ass, which was embarrassing. Mitchell Point is only 1200 feet up, and even if you do the little spur to lower Mitchell point you only gain about 1300 feet on the hike. However last time I wore jeans and long sleeves to protect against the Poison Oak, so I blamed it on that. Don't hike in jeans. This time I was determined to be smarter, so I wore my thin swishy pants that have served me well this summer. They are light and protect my legs from the overgrown underbrush. I also have a new trekking pole! 30 Bucks at REI got me a single solid trekking pole with a screw joint up top to make it a monopod for my camera. So I figured I'd make it up the hill no problem this time.

Mitchell still kicked my ass, maybe this hike is just deceptively hard. I'll chalk my failure this time up to not eating well prior to the hike, but still, this is a hard hike. I guess that it makes sense, while Mitchell is only 1200 feet up you gain that elevation in just over a mile, so that's about a 1 mile/1k feet ratio, which is hard no matter what.

Mitchell starts in a mostly abandoned parking lot. Nobody comes here, it's too far for Portlanders and it only has eastbound access so Hood river folks have to go past it and turn around. Far above the parking lot looms Mitchell's knife edge, similar to Wauna point but lower and more dramatic. The trail leads up from the parking lot gently, passes a few other trails (There are former trails here that lead to Wygant peak, but they have not been maintained and are overgrown with Poison Oak now. I want to hike them, but i'll need to take care that day and I'll probably do it alone).

The trail goes from 0 to 60 .1 miles in and the steepness doesn't relent for half a mile. a quarter mile in there is the Spur trail to lower Mitchell. This is where Keeley gave up, and she hung out in the sun in the grass as I continued on. The trail crosses a big open scree field that is very hard to walk on and the trail sorta vanishes thanks to frequent rock tumbles. After half a mile the trail settles into the forest for another quarter mile and gets easier, goes under the powerlines, then the final difficult climb on the open ridge up to the death point at the top of Mitchell point.

I was alone and was treated to a wonderful sunset. I was able to see the Parking lot and told Keeley (Now back at the car) to go out and look up. She was the size of an ant, but we saw each other from 1000 feet away. I snapped my photos and ran back down the hill to catch the sunset at a lower angle. She was sleeping in the car, so I snuck off to the remains of the old historic highway to snap more photos. Driving back in the darkness kinda sucked, but I never get good gorge sunset photos, so this was great and I don't regret it.

Looking west from the lower Mitchell Point viewpoint

Table Mountain way in the distance

Keeley lying in the grass

Keeley from the top of Mitchell Point, this is all the way zoomed in, she is the person on the little island of grass

The exact same view, no zoom. Better sense of distance and scale.

Looking east

North and Mitchell Point

Sun going down to the east

Left is Dog Mountain, Right is Cook Hill. The one named "hill" is actually taller.

Dog mountain and the west

West

Trail along the power lines

Mitchell Point's spine from the power lines

The trail

Sun from the parking lot level

The remains of the old Historic Highway, plus Dave shadow

Where the highway got blasted off

Facing west and the blasted section

Stonework from the historic highway still remains

Goodbye sun

Add caption

Sailing into the abyss

Mitchell Point from where Keeley was standing looking at me.

The trail up Mitchell