Elk Mountain via the Bluegrass Ridge Trail

[bobcat]

I don’t think anybody has the Bluegrass Ridge Trail on their Top 20 wish list, but I hadn’t hiked it in 25 years, so I did a little ramble up there last weekend to check out the condition of the path. The USFS web page for the trail announces it is “maintained”; I found out, via a series of bloody gouges, that it is anything but.

I began at the Polallie Trailhead (Forest Pass required) and took the Elk Meadows Trail up along the ridge between Polallie and Cold Spring Creeks. After passing the junction with Lamberson Spur Trail, another semi-abandoned path that still appears on current USFS maps, I dropped to the Elk Meadows-Bluegrass Trail junction, partially concealed under much dead wood and a harbinger of things to come.

The trail drops to cross a mossy creek and then reaches Cold Spring Creek, flowing briskly towards Tamanawas Falls and about 18” deep at this point in the summer. There hasn’t been a bridge here for decades, but about 50 yards upstream there was one of those nice parallel log crossings that I could effect without getting my feet wet. From here, the trail rises up the dry ridge through an understory carpeted with downed trees. At first, I applied myself industriously with my little handsaw and got through about 15 logs before I realized that time was running short and someone else would have to deal with the other 378 logs that obstructed the trail in the 5.6 miles to Elk Mountain (In truth, most logs were easily stepped over or bushwhacked around, but it all took some time).

In places, elk had made detours around piles of blowdown and I could follow those. I saw no human tracks. There had perhaps been some maintenance on this lower section of the ridge, maybe in 2011 as the web page says. Higher up, it doesn’t look like anything has been done for years. Along the high point of the ridge, you get into a series of meadows carpeted with penstemon and rainiera and later also with the grass that gives the ridge its name. Also at this point, you reach the 2006 Bluegrass Ridge Burn. Vistas begin to open up east across to Surveyors Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Gumjuwac Saddle, and Gunsight Butte. Mount Hood becomes visible through the snags. The trail can be harder to find in the meadows and areas of the burn, sometimes being taken over by dense growths of fireweed and larch seedlings.

The trail traverses along the east side of the ridge on grassy slopes, at one point passing a gushing, alder-cloaked spring where elk bed for the night. There were elk wallows right on the trail and it is the elk, essentially, that maintain any kind of tread. Back on the ridgecrest, the best viewpoint of the hike allows you to gaze down into Elk Meadows, 500 feet below, and across to Lamberson Butte and the southeast slopes of Hood. From here, the trail is marked by cairns. Eventually, you pass the junction with the Bluegrass Tie Trail and then head up to the Elk Mountain Vista Trail, still negotiating some blowdown.

Out at the vista, there’s a view south to Bonney Butte and Mt. Jefferson and the remnants of the old lookout. The Elk Mountain Trail also marks the southern edge of the burn, so I ambled down to the junction with the Elk Meadows Trail in unburned mountain hemlock woods and then switchbacked down to Newton Creek and out to the Elk Meadows Trailhead.

I had a bicycle stashed there and coasted the 9 miles back to Polallie on a balmy afternoon.

[Splintercat]

I had a bicycle stashed there and coasted the 9 miles back to Polallie on a balmy afternoon.

Well, isn't that a cool idea, John! Now you've got my wheels turning (pun unintended) for other one-way bike stash options..!

I hiked up there in 2007 and 2008 to check out the fire, but only hiked down Bluegrass Ridge as far as the point where the trail drops onto the east slope of the ridge -- and at that point, the trail restoration done by the fire crews abruptly stopped! The trail from that point south to Elk Mountain was in the best shape I've ever seen it, so I was kinda hoping we'd see the crew work their way all the down the ridge.

Neat to see those larches bounding up from the soil -- fire forests in action! I'm looking forward to watching a similar renewal unfold on Vista Ridge.

Thanks for posting, John!

Tom

[pablo]

Thx for the TR, nice and the hike 'n bike thing you did is pretty neat. I've been eying this Bluegrass Ridge Trail as part of loop with Gnarl Ridge and that Lamberson Spur Trail you mention. If I do this, I'll be sure to bring my hand saw.

--Paul

[bobcat]

@Splintercat: There are a few hike and bike options along Highway 35, Dog River -Zigzag being one. You can probably figure the others out . . .

@pablo: The south part of Bluegrass Ridge strongly resembles parts of the Lamberson Loop: burned forest, grassy meadows, blowdown, some views. Lamberson is a great loop although doing it via Bluegrass might be too much for me given the blowdown. I have done it a couple of times returning via Cold Spring Creek.

[kepPNW]

I had a bicycle stashed there and coasted the 9 miles back to Polallie on a balmy afternoon.

Well, isn't that a cool idea, John! Now you've got my wheels turning (pun unintended) for other one-way bike stash options..!

I think the eastern half of the Klickitat Rail Trail would be another wonderful place to do that, although it'd add over an hour of driving time to drop the bike off.

[aircooled]

LOL, it's actually on my top 20 list of not-done-yet hikes. Thanks for the TR!

[viking]

My favorite hike/bike is, Angel's rest over to Multnomah/Larch trail. Up to the top of Larch where you have previously hidden (and locked) a bike. Ride down Larch Mt. road to Palmer mill road to your car. If you start early you can be in front of the masses and see almost no one. Good exercise up, no knee damage coming down.
Keith

[woodswalker]

Hi all. I'm curious if the Cold Spring Creek Trail was in any better shape tread wise than the Bluegrass ridge trail when you went. Of course any more recent info on that loop from anyone, particularly the Cold Springs portion would be super helpful.
Thanks in advance, Woodswalker

[bobcat]

@Woodswalker: Yes, Cold Spring Trail is usually kept in decent shape. Bluegrass Ridge is still a goner - waiting for some trail angels to hack through all that deadfall. Maybe, since it runs along the border of the wilderness, an authorized party could come in with chainsaws and deal with it in fairly short order . . .

[woodswalker]

@Woodswalker: Yes, Cold Spring Trail is usually kept in decent shape. Bluegrass Ridge is still a goner - waiting for some trail angels to hack through all that deadfall. Maybe, since it runs along the border of the wilderness, an authorized party could come in with chainsaws and deal with it in fairly short order . . .

Thanks Bobcat! So very helpful. if I go I will post current conditions.
Woodswalker