Owl Point & Old Vista Ridge (Oct 19)

[Splintercat]

Lovely day along the Old Vista Ridge trail today - lots of hikers (six groups and a total of 14 hikers, not counting us!), and the trail is looking great. At least 70 groups have made the hike to Owl Point this season, so lots of love being shown for this little gem! One big log down midway along Vista Ridge, but easily negotiated, so it will remain there for awhile...

The mountain was out most of the day, with a mesmerizing cloud cap that changed by the second -- the valleys below were foggy. Some photos from the trip, starting with Katsuk Point and the Upper Hood River Valley cloaked in fog from one of the viewpoints:



The larches just starting to turn if you know where to look down there...!

Jamie and I did some off-trail exploring to visit some unique Indian Pits located in a small talus field along the crest of Vista Ridge. Unlike the typical pits you might see in the Gorge, these are very deep and the large rocks excavated from them stacked like cairns. They're very hard to find unless you know where they are... and for the sake of keeping them intact, I won't get into more detail. These are always fascinating to me! There are five pits in a row, three visible in this view:



Looking into one of the pits:



They're deeper than you'd guess, as the talus is very large here. Jamie is standing up in this pit:



(...we were very respectful here -- Jamie made sure not to budge a thing, and we thanked the spirits that reside there for putting up with us..!)

Another view of the pits -- like most, these are situated to provide an inspiring view. I only wish we knew more about their origins and purpose!



We made a stop at The Rockpile, and the clouds were starting to stack up on the mountain at this point:



By the time we got to Owl Point, a band of heavier clouds was closing in, and soon had the mountain totally blanketed for the next hour or two.

Lots of weird fungi up there this time of year, and here are a couple of my favorites -- this one had emerged midway up a standing snag, and seemed to be designed by Antoni Gaudi:



This little group had emerged from the base of another snag -- I really liked the pattern on the tops, as they split and curl:



With the rain starting up tomorrow, it was really great to be up on the mountain today -- and especially to see so many people enjoying this trail! We came home tired and happy..!

Tom

[Sean Thomas]

Great pics of the old Indian pits, splint. I've always heard one of the explanations was that these kinds of pits were constructed by young persons who were on a quest to gain their spirit animal. Upon a certain age or level of maturity one was expected to spend about 5-7 days on a quest, which seemed to always involve climbing up to an exposed highpoint and/or mountain top and doing extremely taxing physical work, such as building big rock pits after climbing a mountain! No food or water was to be consumed during the journey and the vision(or visit from ones spirit animal) was usually expected on the third night of the quest. I just assume that by the third day of exerting oneself like that without food or water the hallucinations would probably get pretty intense, thus the visit from the spirit animal But ofcourse different groups of people have believed this for thousand of years, so maybe im wrong and maybe thats why we all like to go hiking so much, were just trying to find our spirit animal

[Splintercat]

That's pretty much what I've read about them, too, Sean. It's surprising to me that the local tribes don't have a more detailed oral tradition, but some of their ceremonial sites do correspond to places where pits are prominent. I used to call them "vision quest pits" but have reverted to "Indian pits" more recently, as there does seem to be some debate about their origin.

The other prominent explanation is that they were used as hunting blinds, and that has never made sense to me, simply based on their location -- most being at the top of talus slopes and away from wildlife trails (Wind Mountain is a great example).

There are several sites around the Owl Point area, with some fairly elaborate pits. It makes sense to me, as the area rises immediately above the Hood River valley, which was long inhabited by native people before European settlers arrived in the 1800s. It makes sense to me that young people (presumably young men, in a rite of passage) would be sent up to a place that basked in the presence of WyEast to make a spiritual journey, as there are many cultural precedents for this that combine physical stress, fasting and in some cases hallucinogens to reach a deeply spiritual state.

Like nature, itself, ancient human traces like these have a nice way of keeping me humble as I walk through the mountains! We're pretty insignificant…

Tom

[BrianEdwards]

Glad you got to get up to one of your favorite haunts, Tom. How were the signs fairing?

[Splintercat]

All systems normal, Brian..!

[mcds]

Related threads:

Old Vista Ridge Trail to Owl Point and Perry Lake

Golden age of hiking in the Oregon side of the Gorge

[pdxhikerguy263]

Great running into you at the trailhead. Owl Point was amazing once again... didn't take the time to go on to Perry Lake...another time!

[Splintercat]

Great to meet you, too! Beautiful day on the mountain..!

Tom

[Grannyhiker]

Glad to hear that "our" trail is alive and well!

[miah66]

Another theory about the vision quest pits was that they are "sasquatch" burrows? I read an account I think you posted, Tom. Wasn't it some guy in the 70's who claimed to come upon a family of them in the Clackamas river area? Creepy story.