Wauna Point Direct and Dublin Lake

About a month ago I did Franklin Ridge all by myself and temporarily went nuts. But the day I did that, I originally had a different idea. Wauna Point direct. I decided against it because it is supposed to be steep and perilous and I didn't want to do that in the rain. WELL THIS WEEKEND IT WASN'T RAINING.

Keeley was in Cleveland doing wedding related stuff so I was Han Solo Hiking. Probably a good thing, I never would have heard the end of it during the Tanner Cutoff section, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The "right" way to Wauna Point is going up service road 777 until the old Tanner Trailhead, taking the Tanner Butte trail up to the campsite, and taking the unmaintained trail down to the point. Well last time I did that, we met a couple of dudes coming up from a different way once we passed the campsite. They told me they came up via the service road, and that it was hard. File > Save > "Possible Wauna option for later" Save File? Yes. Now I have a couple of neurons dedicated to that fact.

So I had two goals. Climb up the Wauna direct trail, and see if I could get to Dublin Lake. If I could get to Dublin Lake I'd take the Tanner Cutoff trail back down for a loop. Spoiler alert: Success.

15 miles
Somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 elevation gain
6:21 hours.
2 Water Bottles and a Granola Bar consumed

Not as fast as my Franklin Ridge masterpiece but I wasn't in a rush this time.

I started at Toothrock Trailhead to give myself more variety on ascent (Started at Wachella last time). After a short walk along the historic highway a small trail labeled "Tanner Butte" heads up to the right. This leads up to the Tanner Service road 777. From here I walked roughly a mile. But before the Tanner trailhead, there is a noticeable service road leading up and to the left. Here we go!

On the right you can see the power line service road heading up off off 777

The road is switchback hell. I lost count at 7. It just kept going. Up and back, up and back, I thought it would never end, but then it did, under a powerline tower. I listened to the electricity hum and then kept going. The road ended, but from here the path leads up the ridge, with no ambiguity (the ridge is 10 feet wide with certain injury on each side).

Powerline Meadow flowers at the top of the road

The trail gets hard now

It sucks, but it feels manageable. You do very steep ascents in spurts. Climb bullshit hard section, reach a crest, take a breather, pass through a small saddle, go up again. You do this roughly 4 times. It's not too bad if you take it on in short bursts, and there are some views along the way. Honestly it was a pretty good trail if you can handle the work. After the 4th or so steep section (Through a boulder climb) the trail starts to level out a bit as you reach the plateau. This is where the challenge becomes "Where the fuck is the trail". After things level out the trail just sort of vanishes, and it took me a couple of minutes to train my eyes to find it, but once I did, it was okay. I had to look for depressions in the plants since the trail is overgrown. Once I knew what to look for, I was fine. A quarter mile later, and I hit the Wauna Point trail. I skipped Wauna point, I didn't want to descend 600 feet and then climb it again.

View of Mt. Adams from the Wauna Direct trail

The Wauna Direct trail at the junction with Wauna Point trail. It's barely there, but it's easier to spot in person.

Table and Greenleaf peak from Wauna Direct

Made it to the campsite and set off up the Tanner Butte trail. For the next two miles you slowly climb from boring jungle to less boring alpine territory (The undergrowth is thick, then fades away, and next thing you know it's alpine grass and dirt). Just when I was getting sick of walking, I hit the junction with Tanner Cutoff. One tenth of a mile past that is the Dublin Lake junction. Why they didn't just make them meet at the same spot who knows.

The Tanner trail from the campsite starts in gorge jungle like this

And slowly over 2 miles turns into alpine forest like this

The sign at the Tanner Cutoff junction

Dublin Lake

Dublin Lake is a quick 400 foot bullshit slope to a small, beautiful pristine lake. I had it all to myself. Ate some granola, watched the salamanders float around the lake. I decided to perimeter walk the lake. Near the backside, where the lake feeds the stream, a short descent found me in a rocky opening with a view towards my previous week's conquest, Chinidere Mountain.

Dublin Lake

Salamander

Bird

Close up Salamander

Rhododendron Flower

Chinidere Mountain from below Dublin Lake

The lake was full of Salamanders

One last look at Dublin Lake

Then I climbed back up those stupid 400 feet, made my way back to the Tanner Cutoff junction, and headed down.

The Tanner Cutoff trail is a nightmare. It drops (or climbs, if you hate yourself even more and go uphill instead) 2500 feet of elevation in 3 miles. And the trail is not well maintained. In fact it was closer to forgotten than real. From the top, it starts out fine, heads down a ridge for a mile at stupidly steep levels, then takes a hard cut south and the switchbacks start. Roughly 18 switchbacks. The trail is very close to gone, easy to lose, and kinda dangerous. The switchback section has loose ground. The bottom 3rd of the trail is the worst for navigation. It's completely overgrown in parts, and I had to crouch to see under the mid-growth to find it. All around you are poison oak, stinging nettles, blackberry bushes, and Devils Club, making it a thorny hell.

Devils Club branches look like this

You cross a creek near the bottom as things level out. Then you hit the junction with the Moffett Creek trail heading southwest, hop the same creek again, and you hit the 777 service road. And the road, for the next 2 miles, is mostly a gentle uphill, because fuck you.

On the way back I saw a deer, who was kind enough to pose for me.

Service Road 777

Deer

The old Tanner tralhead on 777

After I finally got back to the early junctions, I took a brief detour on the 400 to link up a section of trail on my map, then took the 777 road all the way back to my car. I drank the water bottle which had been waiting for me, now very hot after sitting in the car all day.

I don't feel any worse than I did after Franklin Ridge (In fact I feel better) so that's pretty rad. This is the longest day hike I have ever done.