Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/30

This forum is used to share your experiences out on the trails.
User avatar
Guy
Posts: 3333
Joined: May 10th, 2009, 4:42 pm
Location: The Foothills of Mt Hood
Contact:

Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/30

Post by Guy » December 1st, 2014, 5:46 pm

Image
Opening pic

We set out to hike the Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek loop last Sunday. I'd only been up Nick Eaton as far as the Deadwood Camp junction before & never hiked the Casey Creek Trail so we got to cover some new ground too.

Arriving at Herman Creek at about 8:30am we found the gate open & 3 cars already at the trailhead! Oregonians are hardy souls!

Most of the time we were quite sheltered from the wind with only the occasional gust making it through the trees. We soon found ourselves at the Nick Eaton - Herman Creek Junction & began our climb up.

Nick Eaton is a no nonsense trail the first mile climbs over 1200', you finally break out of the trees at the 3 mile mark from the TH.

Image

Image

We hit snow at about the 2000' mark, it was easy to see the windy spots versus the Sheltered spots in the Herman Creek drainage by looking at where the snow was blowing!

Image

We continued to climb & were mostly sheltered from the wind.

Image

Image

The temperature continued to drop & sometimes the wind would make it across the ridge & give us a battering!

http://youtu.be/VarfRU6DoVc

Image

Things got a bit tougher after the Deadwood Camp junction. The ridge steepens again there & the trail moves to the East side out of the sun but in the wind! It was a tough slog up to the Casey Creek Junction at 4100'

Image

At the Casey Creek junction there are some good views of Mt. Defiance to the East.

Image

Image

We had planned to have lunch up here but we were too cold & so began our decent of the Casey Creek trail to get out of the wind. The ladies were not best pleased ;)

Image

We finally stopped about a quarter of the way down the trail in a sheltered Sunny Spot & warmed up with some hot Tomato soup before continuing our decent of Casey Creek.

Image Image
Kazuko checking out some fresh Bear Prints in the snow.

The snow slowly disappeared as we hiked down the trail & we soon found ourselves down on the Herman Creek Trail.

Image

Image

From here it was just a walk back out on the Herman Creek Trail with a stop at Nick Eaton Falls.

Image Image

The hike came in at 11.5 miles with about 4500' of EG.

A few more pics of the day here & a map below.

Image

Image
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

olderthanIusedtobe
Posts: 488
Joined: January 2nd, 2014, 10:45 am

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by olderthanIusedtobe » December 1st, 2014, 7:33 pm

Cool. I did almost the same loop on Saturday, but I took Gorton Creek to Deadwood Camp area before connecting to Nick Eaton Ridge. You must've encountered my tracks up there starting at the Deadwood Trail/Nick Eaton junction. There were plenty of critter tracks, deer, bear and I think cougar. Nice pics, looks like a beautiful day.

User avatar
Guy
Posts: 3333
Joined: May 10th, 2009, 4:42 pm
Location: The Foothills of Mt Hood
Contact:

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by Guy » December 1st, 2014, 7:43 pm

Yeah, we followed your footprints up the final section of Nick Eaton & down Casey Creek. Thought it was pretty funny because I bet there are lots of sunny summer weekends when the Casey Creek trail doesn't see a soul & yet it was hiked both Saturday & Sunday on this cold snowy weekend!
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

User avatar
obera
Posts: 202
Joined: March 15th, 2013, 6:46 am
Location: Bend, OR

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by obera » December 1st, 2014, 8:21 pm

Mars and I hiked up the PCT out of Herman Creek that day! We were first at the TH around 7:30. We both expected to not be the first - and were quite surprised at how many cars were overflowing from the lot when we finished! So many cold weather hikers!

It sure was pretty on your hike! And it may have been less 'gusty' than the plateau - thanks for the pictures!!
oh-beer-ah

User avatar
Sean Thomas
Posts: 1647
Joined: February 25th, 2012, 11:33 pm

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by Sean Thomas » December 1st, 2014, 8:44 pm

Great TR Guy! I haven't been on the Casey Creek trail in a long time but I remember it being a steepy too. Cool find on the bear tracks too, I wonder if its the same one Jo and I saw a couple weeks ago?

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

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by Splintercat » December 1st, 2014, 9:15 pm

Fresh dusting of snow, bright blue skies, view into untouched wilderness... can't go wrong there, Guy! I had to look at my map to see why you didn't just plug along to Greenpoint, but then realized that your 4,100 high point suffered from the "plateau effect" in that it is still a fair hike across the plateau to the summit! Plus, the snow was probably getting exponentially deep at that point, too... good call! :-)

Thanks for posting!

Tom :)

olderthanIusedtobe
Posts: 488
Joined: January 2nd, 2014, 10:45 am

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by olderthanIusedtobe » December 1st, 2014, 10:11 pm

On Saturday the snow depth wasn't more than about 2 inches along Nick Eaton Ridge. Really dry and powdery. Conditions might be different now.

User avatar
Eric Peterson
Posts: 4097
Joined: May 11th, 2009, 5:39 am
Location: Oregon
Contact:

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by Eric Peterson » December 2nd, 2014, 6:54 am

Picture of the 3 ladies is great but I have a sneaking suspicion the gal under the mask is really smiling :D

How did they like going down Casey(crazy) Creek trail?

User avatar
Peder
Posts: 3401
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: Lake Oswego

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by Peder » December 2nd, 2014, 9:50 am

Eric Peterson wrote:Picture of the 3 ladies is great but I have a sneaking suspicion the gal under the mask is really smiling :D
No! Her left thumb is down! :( She is just a whiner, it looks like a great hike for anybody used to a bit of suffering!
Some people are really fit at eighty; thankfully I still have many years to get into shape…

User avatar
roadtripmom
Posts: 304
Joined: March 3rd, 2010, 9:20 pm
Location: Vancouver, WA

Re: Nick Eaton - Casey Creek - Herman Creek Loop - 2014/11/3

Post by roadtripmom » December 2nd, 2014, 11:21 am

Your pictures are great ! What size are they when you upload them ? I can learn a thing or two from your fantastic trip report !
Filling my bucket, one hike at a time.
Amanda

Post Reply