Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

This forum is used to share your experiences out on the trails.
User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by bobcat » November 7th, 2013, 5:39 pm

Sunday was a somewhat drizzly, low-cloud day in the foothills, so I chose this creek hike along the southern fringe of the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness. I hiked in to where the Eagle Creek Trail joins the Eagle Creek Cutoff at the ford of Eagle Creek, about 6.8 miles one-way and then back again.

There are some goings-on at the trailhead. The BLM road (extension of Harvey Road) leads up to the left; to the right is a new logging road that switchbacks down the slope. The old road that led down to Eagle Creek has been blocked by logs, but has been graded about 650 yards down to a landing - or is it a new trailhead?
Trailhead, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Old road bed, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
From there, you continue to descend into the valley and then take the duff trail that undulates gently long the course of Eagle Creek. There are a couple of campsites, an old cabin site on the left side of the trail, and then a narrow gorge before you drop to creek level and meander through cedar bottomlands and get close to the creek itself.
Along the Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Tributary, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Mossy verge, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
The sign for the Eagle Creek Cutoff had fallen off its Douglas-fir snag, so I pounded it back on. The weather held up pretty well, just cloudy with sprinkles here and there. Mushrooms were experiencing a second fruiting after the sunny October hiatus: grisettes, chanterelles, chicken-of-the-woods, sulfur tuft, helvellas, as well as Cascades russulas being their usual filthy selves. There are also many large old-growth trees that survived a burn about a century ago.
Ford at the Eagle Cutoff, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Eagle Creek Cutoff sign, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Cascade russula (Russula cascadensis), Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Golden chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius), Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Angel wings (Pleurocybella porrigens), Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Stropharia sp., Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Fluted black elfin saddle (Helvella lacunosa), Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
Old growth Douglas-fir, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
This is a good ramble on a low-cloud day and is usually a decent choice in fall and early spring - just moss and ferns, big trees and mushrooms, splashing creeks and no one else out there.
Eagle Creek, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg

User avatar
BrianEdwards
Posts: 2405
Joined: February 2nd, 2010, 1:32 am
Location: Oregon City, OR
Contact:

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by BrianEdwards » November 7th, 2013, 6:55 pm

Great choice of a hike. Luv the 'other' eagle.
Clackamas River Waterfall Project - 95 Documented, 18 to go.

User avatar
Splintercat
Posts: 8328
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: Portland
Contact:

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by Splintercat » November 7th, 2013, 9:27 pm

Thanks, Bobcat - nice report! Did you happen to notice if this logjam was still in place at about the 3 mile mark (below a gentle bend in the trail, where the creek is maybe 200 feet distant)?

Image

I've been thinking about a return to Chak Chak falls in 2014, and this was the crux aid in getting across a fairly deep Eagle Creek in spring.

Hopefully Barb Adams will stop by and give us the lowdown on the trailhead. The Oregon Equestrian Trails organization has done a tremendous amount of work in that portion of the Salmon-Huck in preserving trails (and trail access) that the USFS surely would have allowed to fade away (along with vital work in the Badger Creek wilderness -- they've really done invaluable work over the years to save some "quiet" trails from oblivion).

The Eagle Creek canyon has a long, ugly history of over-logging west of the national forest boundary by the timber corps. I first hiked it when I was a kid, in about 1974, and the entire road section (to the bottom of the canyon) of the trail was logged bare -- a continuous clearcut that made for a miserable, hot, dusty climb back out on sunny days (if you can imagine that now!). With much of our corporate timber industry now bought out by equity firms, I suspect we're seeing a "liquidation of excess assets" or "creative destruction" to put it in Romneyspeak. :roll:

Tom :)

User avatar
mattisnotfrench
Posts: 1318
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by mattisnotfrench » November 7th, 2013, 10:46 pm

Awesome! I love this hike and it's great that it's so close to Portland.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of shape was Harvey Road in? The last time I was up there it was pretty rough up to the trailhead but it looks like they've been doing some serious road work.
Author of Extraordinary Oregon!, PDX Hiking 365, 101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region, and Off the Beaten Trail. Website: www.offthebeatentrailpdx.com

User avatar
awildman
Posts: 918
Joined: June 6th, 2009, 5:20 pm
Location: Portland

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by awildman » November 8th, 2013, 10:23 am

I tried to get to this trail about a month ago and couldn't find it. I parked at the logging road blocked by dumped tree roots and followed the newly graded road down (your mention of the 650 yard swath to the landing area), but then I couldn't find where the old road or trail started from there. I feel like I was in the right area, but just missed where the old track ties into the new road.

We ended up going off-trail down to the creek and then looping back. Not recommended. :)
Rambling on at Allison Outside

User avatar
BigBear
Posts: 1836
Joined: October 1st, 2009, 11:54 am

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by BigBear » November 8th, 2013, 10:53 am

Wow, there's a forest at the trailhead now. It's been a number of years since I've hiked this trail. The reason it left my radar is that the loggers beat the holy crap out of the dirt road about a mile from the last paved road and my Civic couldn't get through their divots.

I really liked that trail when I did it.

How's the dirt road for low clearance vehicles?

User avatar
awildman
Posts: 918
Joined: June 6th, 2009, 5:20 pm
Location: Portland

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by awildman » November 8th, 2013, 12:34 pm

BigBear wrote:How's the dirt road for low clearance vehicles?
Vast improvements have been made in the last 9 months, I believe. We did it in a Honda Fit. It was a dry day, however, after many dry days. I don't know what it would be like in the mud.
Rambling on at Allison Outside

User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by bobcat » November 8th, 2013, 5:00 pm

@Splintercat: I didn't notice the logjam, which doesn't mean it isn't there. If it's three miles in, that means it's a little downstream from the most obvious campsite along the trail, accessed by two clearly defined spur trails.

@matt: Harvey Road is O.K. A few potholes, but nothing almost any vehicle couldn't wind in and around. There have been some improvements since the logging began in the area. I wouldn't go there during the week - a small vehicle might just get squelched by one of those trucks.

@awildman: The trail pickup from the landing I described is rather obvious, which tells me you may have wandered down the new logging road instead (It is the lowest of the roads and is also graded and blocked by log debris). Here's what the landing/trail transition looks like:
New trailhead, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg
There were also posted signs in the area saying there should be no logging, which tells me this may be an actual trailhead rather than a logging landing:
Right-of-way sign, Eagle Creek Trail.jpg

Barb Adams
Posts: 62
Joined: October 20th, 2008, 4:21 pm

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by Barb Adams » November 18th, 2013, 8:47 pm

Mt. Hood Chapter Oregon Equestrian Trails finished clearing the logs from Eagle #501 on July 14. Mike Matthews, Wilderness Stewart, helped us out by scouting the trail, taking photos, and noting location of larger logs.

For the timber cutting this summer the old road leading down to the trails (Eagle #501 and Douglas) was restored almost to the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness Boundary. Our chapter worked with the timber company to get dates when we could pull our horse trailers in and park along the entry road. We park about a mile before the small parking area for hikers.

Eagle #501 is a terrific trail...one of my favorites.

barb

User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Re: Eagle Creek (Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness)

Post by bobcat » November 19th, 2013, 5:01 pm

Thanks for the update, Barb, and for all the good work.

So I stand corrected - not a new trailhead (Wishful thinking!). The area around the cleared road down to the wilderness boundary shows no signs of logging yet. It has been ditched to take winter runoff, but perhaps next summer the operation will begin.

The trail is still pretty clear. Two trees down that I remember on the way to the ford.

I should add that the wilderness boundary was moved up the road in 2009 to the edge of USFS property.

Post Reply