Home  •   Field Guide  •   Forums  •   Unread Posts  •   Maps  •   Find a Hike!  •    Search  •  

Portland Hikers Archive

Return to Portland Hikers Archive

Bonanza Trail - Salmon Mtn Loop, July 28, 2007

Posted by pablo (2007-07-29)
A trip report by Paul about his Wildcat Mountain hike and Martell talking about the Plaza trail got me looking at the area for possible loop opportunities. I landed on a Bonanza Trail - Salmon Mtn loop as the distance and altitude gain looked right. The Bonanza Trail is described in Sullivan's 100 Hikes in NWO section on the Wildwood area and the Salmon Mtn trail is a hike in the Lowes' 50 Hiking Trails book. The Bonanza Trail is well described in the Sullivan book and I likely would not have found the trail head were it not for Sullivan's description of how to get there. I was fortunate to arrive with only a single vehicle parked so there was room for my little truck otherwise I'm not sure where you would park. Sullivan says on the other side of the bridge but I didn't see much space there. There is room for a couple, maybe three vehicles to park to the left of the trail head.

For the Salmon Mtn trail, the USFS Mt Hood site has some things in a pdf located here with the ominous warning, "Although the trail once extended the entire length of Salmon Mountain down to Cheeney Creek, that portion of the trail is entirely overgrown and should not be attempted unless a rugged, map and compass, bushwhacking experience is desired." In TOPO! the USGS topo used for this area dates back to 1973 and shows the trail going from the Plaza Trail all the way down the mountain. I should have listened to the USFS rather than USGS, well, at least the 1973 version. The Lowes' after describing the good parts of the Salmon Mtn trail, say "From the crest the trail, such as it is, continues for several miles through a jungle of rhododendrons and eventually dies in a clearcut". Assuming you don't die first.

In any case, I figured Salmon Mtn would be tough and I was not disappointed.

The Bonanza trail follows Cheeney Creek for about 1.5 miles before heading up a ridge off Huckleberry Mtn. Along the way was a mini waterfall and pretty pool 4-6' deep surrounded by some mega-boulders.



Also along Cheeney Creek was a solitary old-growth Doug fir worthy of a human-tree comparison. I'm guessing that as the trail goes along an old logging road for the first 3/4 mile that this section was logged and this tree was a remnant of the original stand.



Once the trail headed up the ridge, I spotted a side trail that I hoped was going to relieve me from having to do a big switchback. The side trail, while in good shape, deadended in a nice little campsite with what might have been an exploratory tunnel or maybe a natural cave. Not wanting to backtrack I bushwhacked up the hill to rejoin the trail just before the Bonanza Mine tunnel - I mention this as the track log will show the switchback as being skipped - it really is there. Made it to the Bonanza Mine - I'm not a big fan of tunnels as I can conjure up all kinds of nasty ways to expire in a tunnel so I only went back 30-40 feet and it was wet with a watery floor and supersaturated air holding a perpetual fog. I was thoroughly creeped out and couldn't get out of there fast enough. I can't image what they were looking for unless it was rocks.



The tunnel mouth.



The trail was nicely maintained (2006 according to USFS) up to the tunnel but from there the trail took a different character, easy to follow but overgrown in spots.



Nice and narrow in other places, I like trails like this.



The trail is pretty steep up until the connection with the Plaza trail on the ridgeline of Huckleberry Mtn. And here I found the reason for the mountain's name.



And even more...



As these were trail-side berries I figured not a lot of people travel this section of the Plaza Trail. I stopped and spent time berry picking until I had a half full baggy of berries that I'd planned to take home to my SO - events to come on Salmon Mtn would reduce the amount of berries that finally made it home. The trail is in fairly good shape, some minor blowdown but I had no problem following the trail to the Wildcat Mtn/Douglas Trail cutoff except in sections with a lots of sunlight, no canopy, and a rocky surface where grass had taken over.

From a viewpoint on the Plaza Trail I caught my first look at Hood and bits of where I had been and where I was going. Lower left is the ridge for Bonanza, the low cloud is covering the lower portion of Salmon Mtn, Hunchback Mtn just beyond and Zigzag Mtn beyond that.



Tracking along the Plaza Trail I came to Coffman Camp where the 1973 TOPO! USGS map shows a trail, the Coffman Camp trail, diving back down a ridge towards Cheeney Creek to join up with the lower portion of the Bonanza trail. I'd guess that this trail still exists although it is not mentioned anywhere on any USFS site - a lost trail adventure for another day.

I came to the signed junction with the Salmon Mtn trail.



The route to Salmon Mtn from the Plaza Trail begins with  a fairly steep uphill climb and follows a ridge line east for about a mile and a half before turning north onto Salmon Mtn. I made this turn north around 15:30 and I was getting concerned about time, water, and my condition as I left the trailhead at 8:00 and I was starting to feel a bit tired. The trail north was OK for a while and much like the Plaza Trail - USFS says the trail was maintained in July 2003 by American Hiking Society volunteers (never heard of them). Here's a look at a nice part of the trail.


I missed the lookout, there is a benchmark '4019' on the TOPO map, is that it? I pushed north following the ridge into what was now a full fledged bushwhack, making a couple of mistakes that cost dearly in terms of time and energy. The ridge goes up and down with rocky outcroppings that can be gone over sometimes or, worse, gone around. Criss-crossing the ridge became a pretty regular occurrence, mostly to avoid the dense thickets of rhododendrons. IMO, rhododendrons are the toughest bush to bushwhack I've encountered - they don't give, they grow in a tangly mess, they put branches close to the ground that makes footing difficult - vine maple, devil's club, give me anything but rhodies. After a couple of miles of battling rhodies, I came across a  burn that was obviously lightning caused. Due to the trees that had been cut with a power saw, the fire clearly got the attention of USFS which had to have sent in some smoke jumpers (at first I thought I'd stumbled into a clearcut in the Wilderness). Lots of rhodies were consumed in the blaze and I couldn't help but feel a bit of schadenfreude on seeing the burned out rhodie stems.

One interesting item I ran into, literally, was the old telegraph line to the lookout.  The line almost decapitated me as I was coming across the ridge as it was invisible and about neck high. I followed it for at least a mile or more, it would go high, then low and I would find it often mostly by tripping over it like 3-4 times.



And attached to a tree with an insulator



Due to the vicious bushwhacking my speed had dropped to less than a mile an hour, way too slow for me to make it off the hill by nightfall so I made it to a spot above Cheeney Creek where I knew the Bonanza trail was and dove off the mountain onto a ridge in the direction of the creek. I guessed it was easier to descend 1800' down the ridge than finish up the mountain. Worked out OK but it was steep in spots and by then I was completely exhausted and out of water - I ping-ponged from one tree to the next all the way down. I made it to the trailhead with a bit of light left, 12 hours on the trail, on at 8:00AM off at 8:00PM.

Before I left the hill, there was a nice view up the Salmon River to where I think the falls are.



A completed, maintained trail on Salmon Mtn would be very nice to have. The loop I attempted would be an attractive hike and although I was concerned more with getting off the hill than sightseeing, there are lots of viewing opportunities on Salmon Mtn. There seems to be some interest about expanding the trail system to include Salmon Mtn as seen on this link (I know nothing about this organization). One problem I can see with a Salmon Mtn trail and expanded use is parking at the trailhead - it might even be on private property, USFS seems to indicate this is the case.

On the way home, exhausted, dehydrated, legs cramping, and I'm going to be losing both toenails on my big toes, I said to myself, never again will I go hiking, it's back to running the sidewalk. But here it is a day later and I'm planning my next hike and it's going to be a barn burner.

Trip minutiae, track log, you can see where I gave up and dove off the hill:

Re: Bonanza Trail - Salmon Mtn Loop, July 28, 2007

Posted by retired jerry (2007-07-30)

Nice report!  I keep meaning to explore some of that area.  The bushwacking portion looked like a ****.

I want to backpack up there sometime.  Any drinking water anywhere?  Like at Coffman Camp?

I ran into a guy up there that put his bike where you started, then drove to Wildwood Recreation Site, walked up Boulder Ridge Trail to Huckleberry Mtn., then back down the trail you went up - a loop without bushwacking.

Another possible loop would be up Boulder Ridge Trail, then down the abandoned Arrah Wanna Trail, then along highway 26 one mile back to Wildwood.  Anyone ever been on the abandoned Arrah Wanna Trail?  I saw the bottom of it and it looked doable.

Return to Portland Hikers Archive

Disclaimer: Information found on PortlandHikers.org and PortlandHikersFieldGuide.org is provided by website visitors and volunteers and should be considered anecdotal. All trails and directions and subject to current conditions. Trails and roads can be rerouted due to natural events and the website is not able to provide current information for every hike. Please verify against two other sources before planning a trip. Outdoor activities present inherent risks. Portlandhikers.org, nor any of its members, accept liability for injuries relating to information found on this website.