We drove up Palmer Mill Road from the Angel's rest parking area and parked on a pulloff near the junction with Brower Road. From there we hiked Palmer Mill until we came to an old brown gate, where we followed an old road. (I've been told some of these old roads were actually once railroad lines but in WWII the steel was pulled out to be melted down.)
Small dam on Bridal Veil Creek
The brown gate
On the old road, which often looked more like a trail now
What the heck is this???
This old road traverses the top of the plateau to eventually meet the Foxglove Trail, but I was curious to explore some other roads that took off from the left. Each of these roads, in turn, presented more junctions, so many opportunities to explore! It was hard to choose and we'll have to go back.
Orange markers on trees mark the junction where we took a left
We crossed several good streams. Nice to have water sources up here! We later found many good potential campsites as well. hmmm....
We followed one road which was marked on the map and it eventually led to a clearing which must have been an old homestead, where we found an old car. Or truck?
N45 33.087 W122 09.815
Ancient pioneer barbeque
That's the engine block (or transmission?) under the leaves and branches
I found this steering wheel maybe a quarter mile away
From here we followed another road which is not marked on any maps. This lead to numerous junctions and to many clearings that appeared to be old homesteads. We found the odd tire, liquor bottles, oil cans, anti-freeze... lots of rusting metal junk. I won't post it all here but it's on flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aircooled/ ... 139489574/
This clearing had a park-like feel
State park boundary! We are now at the edge of a steep dropoff the end of the plateau.
Back on the main drag, things got a little muddy!
The remains of a motorcycle
Motorcycle N45 33.027 W122 09.456
In the middle of nowhere, a vacuum cleaner.
A large clearing, partially overgrown in salmonberry, looked like another homestead site.
The remains of some old logging equipment?
Our trails eventually led to the Foxglove Trail, then up to Devil's rest
After a gray afternoon we were treated to some sunny views!
No snow on Table!
To return, we followed 420C to the cutover to Multnomah Basin Road, then back down Palmer Mill past the big washout and back to the cars. Total hike distance, about 10.5 miles.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3745/1161 ... 5d8d_c.jpg
