Indian Point loop

Herman Creek. Herman Creek is a hiking destination for locals, a place to escape from the crowds of the bigger, more grandiose hikes that clog up with tourists. It's not a flashy place. This was my first time here, and despite it being a great day for a hike there were never more than 10 cars in the small parking lot, where as most of the more popular hikes will fill up with 30+ depending on the size of the lot. Dog Mountain gets hundreds on a weekend.

The reason for this I would assume is that none of the hikes in the area are terribly scenic with can't miss views, or they aren't easy hikes, and all of the area is covered in trees. It's a place to walk through the woods and reflect. You wouldn't take your visiting family/friends here. You'd come here to get the hell away from them.

Indian Point is the one exception to the lack of viewpoints. But you gotta earn it. It's a big rock pillar/spine of Basalt on the bend of the river across from Carson, Washington. Honestly I don't know if I've ever seen it from the ground or from across the river. I mean, it was in view from Dog and Wind mountains, but I didn't know what I was looking at when I was up there.

Taken from lower Dog Mountain. I think Indian Point is the exposed jut on the cliff from the river bend on the Oregon Side,

The trail to Indian Point follows the Gorton Creek trail. You start in the Herman Creek trail head across from Herman Camp and follow the Herman Creek trail. After a short and steep .3 of a mile you cross under the power lines, and the climb begins to level out and follow an old logging road. There is a junction that goes down to Herman Creek itself, and to the PCT, but you are going up. After about 1.5 miles, you come to the real Herman Camp in a large open canopy area. From here there are 3 ways to go. Right goes up Nick Eaton ridge and up Herman Creek. Straight is the Gorton Creek trail, which is what you want. Hard left is gorge trail 400 along the freeway to Wyeth. From here, you are now climbing about 2300 feet steadily in 2.6 miles along the front of the ridge to the top. The hike is all enclosed, nothing but trees and quiet around you, and no views. The trail goes up at a very steady pace. There are no dips or steeper sections, it's just an incredibly steady climb. Enough to make you sweat and feel the burn, but not really enough to make you stop and need a break. Finally, when you do start to get annoyed and tired, you are suddenly there! A junction at the top of a hill points to the ridge trail up Nick Eaton Ridge while a small path goes straight. You go straight for 100 feet, and you quickly see a small user path off to the left. Climb down this .3 miles of knee agonizing steep and you emerge out on Indian Point's spine, and all is made worth it.

View east from 2600 feet, atop Indian Point

A sailboat on the Columbia over 2000 feet below us

The barge coming up the Columbia. In view: Wind, Dog (behind wind) and Shellrock mountain (Across from wind). Mitchell point is the small and final cliff in view on the Oregon Side

enjoying the view

Indian Point itself. Don't climb the knob, but everything else is easy to reach.

Indian Point faces east, and you get a phenomenal view of Wind Mountain, Dog Mountain, Mitchell Point, and the Maryhill area. If the day had been nicer and less overcast, we would have been able to see Mount Adams as well, but alas.

Indian Point is a rock spine that juts out from the cliff wall, and off to either side is a drop to death. Luckily the spine itself is wider than anything Munra Point forces on you, and unless you are stupid and try to climb the point itself at the end, you'll be fine. Someone (maybe Native Americans? Maybe just some hikers?) built a sort of wind shield out of rocks facing east, and it's easy to chill there, eat some food and enjoy the view. We had the place to ourselves the entire 30 minutes we hung out. We only ran into 5 other groups the entire 3 hours we were out there.

For the way back you can go straight the way you came, but we elected to go up the ridge cutoff trail and hook up with the Nick Eaton trail. The Nick Eaton trail is the masochist way to the top, despite going to the same place Nick Eaton decided to grace his trail with switchbacks for a grueling 2 miles. But, it makes a loop. I heard going down was horrible on your knees, but the people who write the guides I use are older than I am so I think it hurt me less. I got a massive quad workout though and my feet hurt by the bottom. I think it's how long the switchbacks go on that gets you, not the steepness itself. There is one viewpoint on Nick Eaton facing west, but outside that it's more of the same. It's worth it though, especially at the top where things are more spread out, it's everything you want in a nice quiet forest walk.

View west from Nick Eaton ridge

View back south into Herman Creek's watershed. Benson Plateau is covered in cloud. 

We rejoined the main trail at Herman Camp and walked the 1.5 miles home, tired and happy. Indian Point and the Herman Creek area isn't flashy, and you don't get a lot of bang for your buck here, but if you need some quality alone time it's certainly got that, with one really special view to make you feel good.

Buck Point, Ruckel Overlook and Wachella

After the pile of sad that was our weekend outing to Hardy Ridge (too hot to hike) and Lacamas Park (too smelly), I was hankering to get back out there and cleanse my palette. Keeley is out on ANOTHER business trip, so time for a solo excursion. This time I wasn't going to do something fancy, I just wanted to check out a small hike I hadn't done yet and explore a hike I hadn't done for a year. 

Buck Point
.9 Miles to point
570 feet elevation gain

Buck Point isn't really a point, or much of an overlook. It's a section of the Ruckel Ridge trail off the entrance to Eagle creek that is exposed underneath the power lines, kind of like Wauna Viewpoint, but with less views. It's easy to get to however, so it's not like it isn't worth it. I parked next to the fish hatchery and walked up the campground road trail to Eagle Creek campground. Why there is a campground here I have no idea, it's just a flat plateau area overlooking the freeway, with car noise buzzing past. Why would you camp here? I thought camping was supposed to happen in the woods.

At the far edge of the camp there is a sign for Buck Point. The 3/4ths mile from this sign to Buck point has 12 switchbacks. 12. There are more switchbacks in this mile than anywhere else I've been. Luckily since you are only climbing about 300 feet from the camp, the switchbacks make the trail pretty easy instead of steeply climbing a ridge straight up for no reason other than being difficult. I barely broke a sweat and I was moving pretty quickly. You reach Buck Point, and soak in the so-so views.

Buck Point would be more interesting if half the trees in front of you were missing. You get obscured views in all directions outside the west, and looking west all you see is Wauna VP, a bit of Munra, and some of the river. To the East you can sort of see the Bridge of the Gods, maybe Augsperger in the distance, the tip of Mt Adams, and power lines. Again, half blocked by trees. Walking up to the treeline past the Power lines you finally get a view of Table Mountain and Greenleaf mountain. I got lucky early morning ambiance, this view is probably lamer in later day lighting.

The beautiful view west. You can see Wauna Viewpoint, the edge of Munra Point, and lots of power lines.

Wauna Viewpoint and Munra Point being cheeky behind it

The view Northeast. The lighting makes this picture worth it, and take note, I had to photoshop out a power line from this image, so this isn't even what you see. 

Embrace the Power lines

Probably the best picture I took on the trip

Table Mountain! With special guest, obnoxious power lines. 

Ruckel OverlookAdd another half mile or so and 400 feet of elevation from Buck Point

Ruckel Ridge has a bit of a reputation on PortlandHikers.org. It's spoken about in hushed tones. Everything you see suggests NOT FOR BEGINNERS. THIS HIKE IS CRAZY TREACHEROUS OH MY GOD. I'm not sure how deserved the reputation is, but from the small bit I got, it's certainly not for first timers. it also looked really damn fun. But I only got a small taste. Northwest Hiker pointed out that there is an overlook half a mile past Buck, so I figured I'd get some fitness and a better view.

As soon as you pass Buck the trail takes on a different vibe. Gone is the gentle dirt slope, it's go time baby. You go down a short hill and end up at the bottom of a massive talus slope (read: old rockslide). The trail goes up the slope in switchbacks, you never have solid footing, and it's super fun and open. A couple bits are steep and this hike is probably a bad idea when wet, but it was dry and I was fine. After crossing up the talus slope you reach the ridge going up to the big rock cliffs above and the trail takes on a Munra Point type quality.

It's steeper and harder than Munra for sure, but without the exposure. There are many trees to help get you up the climb, and make no mistake you are practically climbing. It's not rock climbing, but each step is about a foot higher than the last, going up root staircases. You climb up the backside of the rock cliff and boom, overlook. You get a great view of Wauna VP, Bonneville dam, and back into Eagle Creek.

The view west

Beacon Rock is having a sad day

Hamilton Mountain

Munra and Wauna

Back into Eagle Creek

6 things I have summited in ONE PICTURE, now with labels

A closer view of the Hamilton area with labels on previous hikes

I also saw a Bald Eagle but wasn't fast enough with my camera to capture it. I guess I know why it's called Eagle creek now. Sadly you get no views to the north or east, even if the view west is far better than Buck. It wasn't a great overlook, but it was a nice break spot and I'd imagine a great reward for those beginning the rough journey up Ruckel ridge. One day, Ruckel, I'll take you on. But not today.

I walked back to the car, then remembered there is an overlook near Eagle Creek's mouth you can drive to. I drove to the parking lot, explored the mouth of the creek under the freeway, but didn't get to explore the overlook because apparently it's a campground that was infected with rednecks. The one who was awake gave me the stink eye so I left. Got a few pictures though.

Pink Flower

Under the Freeway, do do dooo do do

Table mtn. and Greenleaf peak.

Table you sexy beast you

Munra looms over the river

Artsy crap taken under I-84

Wachella Falls 2.0
2 miles, 300 feet elevation gain

I hadn't been to Wachella since last summer, and it was a rainy, misty day. I also didn't explore the canyon as much as I wanted to. Wachella is such an easy stroll and I've already described the hike in an earlier post, so this will just detail the one change I made. In the open area when you get near the falls you can admire the old 70's landslide, where the entire western hillside kinda fell off into the creek. Huge boulders are scattered around. You can climb up the landslide to the cliff wall, and there is a big giant rock there with an easy access point which allows you to climb up and sit there, and it's the best seat in the house.

Lacamas Park

In Scott Cook's "Curious Gorge" guidebook, his first sentence for the entry for Lacamas Park is

"Lacamas Park is gonna surprise you"

I'll add

"With how crappy it is"

It was probably the most disappointing excursion I've had in the gorge so far. I wanted to do Hardy Ridge again, this time with Girlfriend in tow. Sadly, the day proved to be 82 degrees by 10am. The humidity was up, there was no wind, and a mile into Hardy Ridge was gave up. It was awful. I had sweat so much and we hadn't even reached the hard part. So we turned around, and on the way back decided to try Lacamas Park, which I remembered from Mr. Cook's book. We drove into Camas and admired the fantastic conservative small town-ness. Somewhere Obama was burned in effigy.

Anyway Lacamas Park is around a small lake created by a dam. It has 6 miles worth of trails in it. I see it billed as Camas's version of Portland's own Forest Park. It kind of is, if you add a smelly lake, a smelly paper mill nearby, lots of algae, beer bottles strewn about in various nooks and crannies, and remove any charm. Camas is a small town with few people. PDX is a big city with lots of people. Somehow Forest Park has way better atmosphere. I didn't even bother taking pictures because they would have been poopy. We walked down to pothole falls, admired the stash of bud lights on a nearby log, and turned around.

Maybe I just had the wrong mindset going in and expected something more peaceful. This must be a party park, which is not the reason I go outside to the gorge area. I go for solitude and beauty, not fat guys with too small bikes farting and drinking booze in the river.

On our way back from Hardy we did stop at lower Beacon Rock and admired the view from the river level.

Beacon Rock from the river, Hamilton Mountain says hello from the back.

Better angle of Hamilton Mountain looming to the northeast.