Here are a few pictures taken in early October by a tiny mouse that snuck in behind the threatening "Trail Closed" signs. He wants the pictures shared, be he's a little timid to admit he was hiking a closed trail.
Most of the damage seems to be on the Wahkeena end. There was a slide area that escaped the mouse's camera just east of the Wahkeena Trail. Then about 1/4 mile in is the staircase. This was the only part that really was a bit spooky. Here's a piece of trail that's just gone.
The bottom of the stairs:
The mouse was actually chicken to climb these stairs, so he walked all the way around in a torrential rain and came back to the top of the stairs from the Multnomah end a week later.
With the rain easing a bit, the mouse grabbed a few more pictures on the way back. Here are a few shots of overgrown railroad tie stairs. There was quite a bit of blowdown here as well, although nothing a good chainsaw couldn't quickly clear.
The tattered guidebook in the mouse's pocket (next to his pocketwatch) said that there were three side trails to viewpoints, but he only found one, with a view east to Multnomah Falls.
There was a mysterious scarf tied quite close to the ledge. It seemed good news that someone else had ventured on to the closed trail, but foreboding that he tied his scarf on the way to the cliff edge and didn't return to retrieve it.
Back on the main trail, our mouse found a shelter or a hideout. It seemed sized for a human, but styled for a mouse, hidden beneath an overhanging cliff of basalt.
Next he came to Shady Creek Bridge, which seemed really solid. At least it supported the mouse OK, and to be honest, he's not all that tiny.
Nearing Multnomah Falls, the mouse came to a what looks like a dry falls with some pretty serious rockwork.
Finally, his feeling of being alone was shattered when he came across a bunch of animals of the species tourist. The tourists, being naive in nature, didn't even realize the mouse was there.
Silently, our mouse crept by the gaggle and approach the Larch Mountain Trail. Sliding past the threatening signs, he once again joined the throngs of public hikers.
Looking back, the mouse feels that most of the trail is completely hikeable now and that a trail clearing gang could have most of it in shape in a few days. The difficult part would be the staircase and the slide at the Wahkeena end. Hopefully, there will be some way to repair and reopen it.
| 
Sore Feet: