Opening pic...
The Salmon river trail is one of the closest trails to our home & yet it had been quite some time since I last hiked it, 1986 in fact
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We also wanted to check out the old Salmon River Trail and so Chiyoko, Shelly & I started there at the lower trailhead & headed up stream! I wasn't too excited about hiking this section, I just wanted to "tick it off the list"! After all how good can a trail that parallels a road be but in fact it turned out to be a nice surprise. If it's green mossy temperate rain forest you are looking for then I think this section of the Salmon River trail is better than what comes after the main trail head.
There were two minor obstacles along the old Salmon River Trail, the first was a slightly wider than usual creek crossing without a bridge that required either nimble rock hopping or good balance skills if dry feet were desired.
The second was an old growth Doug Fir that seems to have only recently fallen.
We passed through the empty Green Canyon Campground (Kudos to the Forest Service for leaving the Restroom unlocked) & on to the salmon River TH at the Bridge that crosses the River.
After a couple of miles we spotted this decaying picnic table from the trail & went over to have a look. I thought this was a bit odd but learned on reading the field guide (after the hike
) that this was the site of the once more formal Rolling Riffle Camp Ground.
Trail Bridge after Rolling Riffle Camp
The trail began to climb slowly after Rolling Riffle until about mile 6 (from where we started) when we came to the junction where the main trail heads to the left & a user trail heads to the right around the bluffs with a few more views.
If I had bothered to read the Field guide before the hike then Shelly & I would have known that there were no better views to be had by taking the sketchy use path to it's end
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We regained the main trail & were thinking about how much further we wanted to go when two runners who had past us earlier came back down the trail. I asked them how far they had been I they told us about the scramble trail down to the view point for Frustration Falls! Cool now we had a destination for the day.
The Scramble trail down to Frustration falls drops about 350' in 2 tenths of a mile & was a bit slippery in places, it just requires the usual level of "off trail" caution! Once at the end you are treated to some spectacular views of the Falls.
Here's a short video:
http://youtu.be/XQkbp8ADXec
After lunch taking in the view we climbed back up to the trail & began the hike out. We passed a few more people heading up the canyon on our way down.
Even more people were hiking the Old Trail segment on our return.
Shelly ended up thinking twice on this photo op
Almost Home!
We clocked 14.6 miles & 2250' of EG and were back at the car by 2:45, plenty of time for a beer in Sandy!
A few more pics of the day here & a map below.
