A Nice Fillet Of Salmon River Trail

This hasn't been a good year for hikes so far. Haven't gotten out most weekends, and the hikes that I have done haven't been incredible. I got snowed out while attempted Table Rock several weeks ago. The only true hike of the season at this point has been Warrior Point, which is 8 miles of flat. Spencer Butte in Eugene, while cool, was like 2 miles long.

I think after Sunday I finally got 2018's first genuine notch in the belt.

Keeley was out of town and after a few weeks indoors recovering from some shin splints obtained during a rompus in the park for work, I finally got stir crazy enough to get back out there and just get lost in the woods. I settled in on something I've had my eye on for months: The Salmon River Trail.

THE GOAL:
The Salmon River Trail overlook

THE PLAN:
Drive out, see how far up the trail I can get, do my best to reach the overlook meadows, go home. Pretty simple.

THE TRIP
The Salmon River Trail is incredibly easy to access. Take 26 out to Zig Zag like you are going to Mt. Hood, but then turn up - get this- Salmon River Road. This barely two-lane road follows the river for a while until it ends, with several trailheads on the way. Most are for the "Old Salmon River Trail", a roughly 2 mile stretch of trail directly on the river. Then the road hit the Salmon River West trailhead, and if you cross the bridge you can drive up the gravel to the Salmon Butte trail.

The Salmon River West trailhead is the spot. There is ample parking all along the road but I can still see this place filling up on summer weekends pretty fast. I got there at 11 on a beautiful day, and it was mostly full.

The trail starts on the left bank right before the bridge. Everything is well signed.

The trail for the first mile is kinda rocky, kinda Eagle creek-esque, with various cliffside spots where you are about 10 feet above the river. The river isn't really wide, but it is very pretty. The trail steps back from the river after about half a mile and for the next mile it meanders through the woods roughly 20 yards or so from the river. This is so the ample camping spots have a little bit of privacy.

Seriously for the first two miles the trail averages about 1 camp for every 100 yards. If you want an easy camping location, this is it. Other than that, the trail itself isn't terribly remarkable, it's mostly a nice flat romp through the woods and you can detour to the river through a camp whenever the mood strikes you.

After the entrance to the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness sign hits, the trail begins to climb for mile 3. The next mile is a reasonable but irritating climb and the path slowly rises away from the river and goes up the ridges. You'll cross two creeks, and soon after the second one salvation is nearly at hand.

When you see this, you know you made it.

You'll feel the trees spreading out and feel the addition of sky right before the actual view hits. And it's a great view! The trail enters a steep, exposed grassy meadow and offers views of the Salmon River canyon. It's not a set the world on fire kinda viewpoint, but it's more than a worthy payoff for the medium amount of work to get here. You get a great view down the canyon to spots on the river, and the mighty exposed cliffs of the more southern ridge offer some drama.

The Salmon River canyon, looking south

Check out the river in the bottom right

Flowers on the exposed meadow ridge

The Salmon River

Pano from the viewpoint

Close up pf the mighty cliffs on the opposite side

The trail ascends back into the woods

From the edge of the woods, person for scale

A short and kinda sketchy scramble trail from the main grassy knob offers a slightly better view, but I wouldn't recommend it for dogs, kids, or height weenies.

This is pretty much it for the basics. The trail skirts out of the meadow and back up to join the "official" trail immediately (The official trail is just a shortcut that avoids the meadows and keeps going). I was curious though, if one could actually get out on the southern cliff ridge safely for another view.

You can!

Here is a photo comparison from the two spots.

A short distance along the main trail and another spur to a viewpoint presents itself. The viewpoint is on a grassy knob and sucks, you can't see shit, and the more enticing ridge-line below seems inaccessible. However, my keen eyes for danger spotted what looks like a faint side trail off to the right of the knob. It looks like just an alternate path back to the main trail, but it rounds a tree and down it goes.

It's clearly not well used and kinda sketchy, but I've done far more dangerous off-trail romps. It quickly descends onto the ridge and soon you have a wonderful view back north. I could see people on the other viewpoint and wondered if they were watching me in my very bright day-glo yellow shirt wander down the ridge.

Pink on the precipice of death

The exposed ridge looks lovely as you scramble down

Looking north-northwestish, upriver

The second viewpoint ridge actually splits into two distinct ridges. A small detour that was hard to spot got me over to the other one, further south. This is also when I found the waterfalls! Tucked away in an almost impossible place to see well, three very substantial waterfalls linger just out of good view. To get a good view would require significant danger, as the grassy exposed ridges are mostly just loose talus held together by moss. It is not structurally sound.

Cool tree at the end of the second, lower, more dangerous ridge to the south

Climbing down towards the cool tree south ridge

The best "view" you can get of the waterfalls. Starts in the upper left corner. 

After getting my fill of what I could tolerate of danger, I had to sweat and swear my way back up the ridge, and then I went home fairly uneventfully. It was a worthy trip.

THE RESULT
8.18 miles
1600 feet elevation gain

This is a good trail. Good tread, good amount of work, good payoff, lots of recreational options for the mildly or intensely inclined alike. A solid B. Nobody's favorite, but unlikely to disappoint in any way.

Selfies!

Eugene Wanderings

This weekend some friends were in town to run a marathon. Some people like running. I hate it. But I do love a good wander.

The marathon in question was in Eugene, a few hours south. I'd driven through Eugene a few times and even visited for a few hours once, but I'd never really gotten a chance to see the city. Even though I was not to be running the marathon (or the half marathon (or any race ever)) I still wanted to tag along to see the place and maybe explore while my wife and two friends made themselves miserable.

It started on Saturday. The 3 running amigos decided to do a little morning fun run then go and get showered for lunch. As a not runner, I decided to take this time frame to explore. We parked up in Alton Baker Park. They ran Pre's Trail. I walked across the river and up Skinner Butte, which is a random dollop of a hill right on the river. The top offered a great view of the town to the south. There was a classic college acoustic guitar douchebag at the top strumming love songs to the wind.

I then walked back down to the river, across back into Day Island, then along the water, occasionally veering off on side paths to the river and to meadows with views of Autzen Stadium. Quack.

I then crossed back over the river and loafed around the University of Oregon campus. They have a cemetery like, right in the middle. It's weird. I found a can of spam. It was nice to walk around an actual pretty campus. RIT was a truck stop of a place. I ended up at about 6 miles worth of wandering.

We then went and saw Avengers: Infinity War. As a non-Marvel fan who has lost interest slowly over the years, it did nothing for me and actively annoyed me half the time. I just don't think I'm the audience for them anymore.

The next day we were up at 5 because runners are the worst people and hate adequate REM sleep. For the race that started at 7 I dropped them off at the starting line at 5:30. I took advantage of my sleep deprived delirium to drive to Spencer Butte for the sunrise.

Spencer butte is a big round hill south of the city. It looms pretty recognizably on the horizon in most of Eugene. It has a small trail system around it, and a couple of short routes to the top. The shortest route is about .6 miles and 800 steep feet of bullshit. But I started at 6am and by 6:24 I was at the top. I was alone. Total solitude. I didn't have much of a view thanks to heavy fog, but the serenity and atmosphere of being all alone at the top made it worth it.

 

I took a bunch of fog photos then went back down the longer, easier east side. I got back to the car before 8 had even hit. I decided to try to do a double summit and drive to Mt. Pisgah, the other nice big hill in the surrounding area. Sadly, due to the marathon route blocking the only easy access road to the area, I was shit outta luck. Runners: the actual worst? Quite possibly.

With my route blocked and at least an hour and a half before I was needed to return, I drove back to Spencer Butte and climbed it all over again because well, why not? Same route, slightly different explorations, got done just in time. Still didn't get any views thanks to fog.

With both climbs combined I got about 4.50 miles and 1800 elevation gain. Twas a good weekend for a workout. With the stress of the walks, the driving around, and the long trip home with maybe one good night sleep over the previous 4 nights, by the time I reached my home I crashed hard. But it was a good weekend.