Rock Of Ages Loop - How many creeks can one trail cross?

Keeley and I haven't done a full, official D&K hike (tm) since our week in the Wallowas a month ago. Thanks to some busy wedding plans and such, we simply haven't had the time. Well thanks to Labor Day we finally did have the time, and we went for an arduous but excellent Labor Day 2015 hike to the gorge.

We wanted a big one. No lame-ass hikes. Football season starts this weekend, so it would be our last big hike before she has to fight for my attention. The goal this time was the Rock of Ages extended loop, a roughly 10 mile excursion through lesser traveled areas. This hike has been on my radar for a while as a challenge. Last year I did a very brief solo trek up to the Rock of Ages arch that, while kind of a disaster on my part, led to some of the coolest pictures I've ever taken.

Rock of Ages in the mist

Ponytail Falls

View from the arch

View from the Arch

Cool shit

This time would be different. I knew what to expect getting to the arch, and I was going to be smarter about it. Then we would climb further up the ridge to the Devil's Backbone, another viewpoint. Then if we felt good, we'd keep going up the ridge to the upper plateau past the gorge walls, hook up with the horsetail creek trail, take a nice jaunt through the woods down to the Oneonta creek trail and come back via the trail to Triple Falls, which I hadn't seen in over 2 years. We did the whole thing. The final stats? 10 miles in 6 hours, almost 4000 ft of elevation gained. Very, very sore legs.

Here is Keeley's strava data for the hike

It was a great hike. The Rock of Ages loop has a lot of variety. You have lung busting climbs, scramble sections up cliffs, great viewpoints, solitary forest, grueling switchbacks, glorious waterfalls, and about 10 billion creek crossings (slight exaggeration). However for most of at least 8 miles, we were alone, which is rare out here and makes this hike all the more special.

Of course, we were alone because your average tourist or joe casual hiker has absolutely no chance of making it up the first two miles of this hike. Make no mistake, this is a hike for experienced hikers who know what they are doing, which I would consider myself at this point. You need good boots and strong legs.

The Rock Of Ages loop starts right next to Ponytail falls. From the Horsetail falls parking lot you climb up moderate switchbacks for maybe 300 feet until you turn a corner and face Ponytail falls. To your left is a big tree with exposed roots and a faint trail going up. Climb up, and get get ready to scramble and monkey climb up another 500 feet on a tiny, barely there trail surrounded by Poison Oak. The trail is unmaintained, so it's loose rocks, poor footing, and you frequently have to hold onto things to climb. It's about as steep as anything I've ever done, even slightly worse than Elk Mountain. However, scrambling is fun, so while it was a challenge it was also very enjoyable.

The very first junction comes after 100 feet, and goes 50 feet back down to the top of Ponytail falls for a unique view most don't see. Then after another 300 feet the trail splits. One continues up and to the right, the other sideways to the left. I took the left path last time, and it was a mistake. The final ascent on the left path to the arch is a nightmare. This time we took the right path, which kept going up till it hit the cliff line, where it split again. This time you DO take a left and travel a quick .1 mile to the Rock of Ages arch.

The view here is simply spectacular and a unique perspective in the gorge. It's the only viewpoint of St. Peters Dome and the Dodson/Ainsworth area in the gorge, and the arch itself provides a beautiful picture. We hung out for a bit, took photos, and went back to the trail split.

Looks pretty cool even without the clouds

Sweet

Keeley in the arch

Arch

Arch

I bet she's on her phone

Looking east

Bruce Springsteening it

Looking east

One more

If you liked the scramble climb to the arch, get ready for more. Another several hundred feet up the trail you go, including one or two very sketchy sections. Soon you stop climbing the wall, and you are actually on top of the ridgeline. Things get slightly easier, and very shortly after that you hit the Devil's Backbone, a long, exposed rocky spine with sudden death on one side and probably death on the other. The trail and spine are both wide enough to sit and enjoy the views without much worry, though.

Looking northwest. St. Helens is supposed to be visible on clearer days

The Backbone

Keeley on the backbone

Scary perspective

At this point we'd gone just over a mile and it took us an hour. We'd climbed about 1000 feet in that mile. But the climbing was kinda fun. Past Devil's Backbone, things get less fun. The next mile will test your resolve. The trail plunges into the trees and resumes climbing, but at a slightly more mild incline than before. This is actually a bad thing, because the trail previously required some hand over hand work, this grade is just enough that going hand over hand is overkill, but it's still so steep that your legs are getting murdered. I call it: Elk Mountain Steep. Bullshit Steep. Not steep enough to be fun, just steep enough to make you mad. Certainly enough to make girlfriends angry.

The trail takes on a very "Starvation Ridge" feel to it. It's slightly level, then a lung busting climb, then slightly level, then lung busting climb, then slightly level again, then lung busting climb. After you top the third climb, you keep waiting for the next climb...and it never does. Congrats! You've done all the hard work this hike requires. RoA front-loads all the bullshit. It took us 2 hours to go 2 miles, but now, things get better.

You travel along a mostly flat, beautiful forest trail for half a mile after the climb stops. No views, even though you can see the cliffs nearby to your left. Then the trail terminates at a T-junction, which is the Horsetail Creek trail. If you go left, another mile puts you at Nesmith Point. We went right. For the next several miles the trail goes through serene forest gently downhill. It also crosses what seems like every stream in existence. There are 3 major creek crossings and about 7-8 smaller crossings of about 2 foot wide streams. None have bridges. It wasn't a problem thanks to the dry summer, but it would be if you did this trail in spring.

There are points when the trail is very overgrown and I walked through about 20 spiderwebs, and had to flick multiple spiders off of me. Spiders don't bug me so it wasn't a big deal. Spiders very much bug Keeley, which is even stranger when she'll stop to look at a big gross slug and comment on how cute it is.

After a while on the gentle downhill over the mostly flat plateau (passing, at one point, the bell creek trail), you reach the Oneonta watershed area, and the switchbacks begin. Down Down Down you go. This might be the longest section of switchbacks in the gorge. The switchbacks aren't steep and are very long, but it feels like they never stop. Eventually, after crossing yet more streams, you reach the bottom, and now you've got to cross the huge Oneonta creek. We stopped for a final snack then kept moving. Past the creek we hit the Oneonta/franklin ridge junction, and began the trip down Oneonta creek towards triple falls. Eventually, we reached Triple Falls, and our glorious solitude, enjoyed since Ponytail falls, was broken.

Stream crossing #12 on the switchbacks

Oneonta creek

Oneonta Creek. Perspective is bad but that waterfall is about 2 feet tall

Vertical Pano of Triple falls

Look near the top between the first and second falls to see a person, which gives you scale

After a quick stop to admire Triple Falls we took the 2 mile trail home, through the newly restored but still unstable landslide area, past dumb tourists wearing flip flops and dress boots, feeling like bad-asses for what we had just accomplished. Tired, tired badasses.