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Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: April 14th, 2012, 9:57 pm
by Splintercat
This is a neat trail, but dense with poison oak in several sections -- so it might make for a good off-season project next winter? I haven't hiked it since 2008, but it was quite brushy in sections then (although the slide hadn't occurred on the Chetwoot yet).

With the HCRH project moving ahead full steam, it seems like this is a great opportunity to "rediscover" this trail, officially. At one time, there was a state highway wayside at Perham Creek (the stone foundation of the signpost supposedly still exists), so who knows, maybe a little loop from that spot is even possible, using the Chetwoot?

Tom

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: April 16th, 2012, 1:18 pm
by Ryan Ojerio
According To Edan its Oregon State Parks land so I put a call into them to see what can be done there.

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: April 17th, 2012, 3:21 pm
by Stevefromdodge
Splintercat wrote:With the HCRH project moving ahead full steam, it seems like this is a great opportunity to "rediscover" this trail, officially. At one time, there was a state highway wayside at Perham Creek (the stone foundation of the signpost supposedly still exists)
I've seen the signpost; it's still there. The road there is completely buried under a couple of feet of river rock. It looks like a mudflow buried every speck of the road other than the signpost.

Steve

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: April 21st, 2012, 6:39 pm
by Chase
Somehow I missed this thread and headed to this trail today. No exaggeration on the extent of the damages to this trail. Blowdowns everywhere, uprooted trees, general trail damage. I spent four hours and didn't make it half way up Wygant before I had to turn back.
The option of just going straight up the mountain or switchbacking your way off-trail is not a good one. Poison oak is everywhere.
Bummer.

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: April 29th, 2012, 2:18 pm
by trailupdater
Wygant and Chetwood are Oregon State Park trails. I'll drop them a note to let them know if they don't already. Thanks for all your reports...really helps us triage. Edan

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: May 27th, 2012, 5:42 pm
by Gritchie
Wish I would have seen the trip report. A lesson learned to check first. Headed up to Wygant Peak yesterday and made it past the power lines and switchbacks hoping that eventually the trail would get better. It was only getting worse and my dog no longer wanted to keep going since we were primarily climbing over/under trees. It was disappointing that the trail was so bad.

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: May 29th, 2012, 6:09 am
by Ryan Ojerio
I talked with the park manager a few days ago and they aren't ready to send in volunteers to restore the trail yet. They have been busy dealing with other winter-storm damaged areas. They also want to assess the downed trees to see if there is a possibility of timber salvage (which they would do through a contractor) and she also said the P-oak can be really bad and they want to come up with a plan to manage that before hosting volunteers. She said they'd assess the trail and let us know if they'd like to host a TKO work party. But it may not happen until later this fall.

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: May 30th, 2012, 8:08 am
by mcds
Ryan Ojerio wrote:...and she also said the P-oak can be really bad and they want to come up with a plan to manage that
I'm curious about that. Makes sense to address that first. What would be the management methodology?

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: May 30th, 2012, 9:08 am
by Ryan Ojerio
good question about the P-oak, I'm not sure what their plan might be. I didn't talk to them in detail about that. But I'd guess at a minimum they'd have someone cut out the worst P-oak areas before sending in a volunteer crew to do tread work or other brushing. Its a lot safer to have a couple people with proper protective gear dealing with P-oak than exposing a whole crew to it.

Re: Wygant-Chetwoot Trail loop... totally destroyed

Posted: May 31st, 2012, 8:07 am
by mcds
that would make sense, rather than try to eradicate the poison oak, just cut it back to allow a couple month window of low risk exposure for the volunteers.

FWIW, this snippet is from a modified article in Herbalgram (American Botanical Council)
Volume 34: 36-42, 1995 by W.P. Armstrong and W.L. Epstein, M.D.

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0802.pdf

Poison oak and poison ivy account for an estimated ten percent of lost work time in the U. S. Forest Service. In fact, hundreds of fire fighters who battle summer and fall blazes in California's coastal ranges are so severely affected that they are unable to work. People who breathe in the smoke and soot may develop serious inflammation of respiratory mucous membranes. Because of the serious economic impact due to lost employment time, poison oak "injuries" are covered by Workers' Compensation Insurance in California. The monetary cost of this affliction is approximately one percent of the state's workers' compensation budget (Epstein, 1994).