I headed a bit south from Eugene this time on a foggy morning, crossing into the Umpqua National Forest just at dawn with the temperature just below freezing. In another mile I was at the (huge) parking area for the West Brice trailhead, which marks the western end of the Brice Creek trail. The trail itself starts just across the road from the parking area; if you cross the bridge over the creek, you've gone a bit too far.
The trail generally follows Brice Creek up its gorge, and almost immediately one thing is clear: this area has had some darned big storms. There are thousands of trees down above, below, and across the trail. The Forest Service has also done a heck of a lot of work to keep the trail clear, and out of the entire 14 miles I walked today I only ran into 4 blowdowns that hadn't yet been cleared.
- Pick-up sticks anyone?
Brice Creek trail is sometimes right next to the creek, which was running well with exceptionally clear water and swimming-pool blue deeper spots, and sometimes a few hundred feet up above the creek. The other side of the creek hosts Brice Creek Road, NF-22. In the early hours of the day, as I was heading upstream, there was almost no traffic on the road, so the major sound was of the running water. The trail never gets far enough from the creek to be out of earshot. The grade is for the most part very gentle.
- Looking down on Brice Creek, with a less-than-effective safety rail
For the most part the trail surface is hard-packed and solid due to plenty of traffic. In a few places high above the creek things have slumped though, and there are rather long off-camber sections. Nothing too narrow or dangerous though. The trail comes back down to creek level at Cedar Creek campground, which features another trailhead with a large parking area on the north side of the river and a wooden footbridge across.
- Bridge at Cedar Creek
From this point the next quarter mile or so upstream is wide and flat (though still uphill) accessible trail. This ends at a viewing area and trail down to a big swimming hole, that I'm sure gets a lot of traffic on summer days. At the upper end of the falls is a relatively short cascade. This isn't labeled on the ranger district map, but the
recreation guide says it's Brice Creek Falls.
- Brice Creek Falls
The trail climbs back up to cliff level for a few miles, before coming back down opposite the Lund Park campground and trailhead.
- Fun exposed section
Lund Park too was deserted when I went by late in the morning, though when I came back early in the afternoon there were quite a few cars there. I spent a few moments just enjoying the river view and sunshine here.
- Bridge at Lund Park
A mile past Lund Creek comes the intersection with the Upper Trestle Creek Trail. I always like to get all the climbing done as early in a hike as I can, so I took a left here and headed up the hill.
- Side trail to Upper Trestle Creek Falls
This trail is less trafficked, less improved, and less maintained than the Brice Creek trail, as well as considerably steeper. The mile or so to the upper falls was the best workout I got all day. It's about 800 feet of elevation gain in that mile. Along the way the trail passes a couple of smaller falls, and eventually you're just around the corner from Upper Trestle Creek Falls. The actual fall comes almost as a surprise; the trail rounds a bend and then you're right there. This was definitely the dramatic side to approach from.
- Upper Trestle Creek Falls
There was a faint and scrambly herd trail to the top of the falls, which I had no interest in following. Instead I stayed on the official trail, which drops down a little and passes behind the main cascade before going the rest of the way around the bowl that the water falls into. This section had some pretty dodgy footing and I took it slow. I probably would have turned around if I'd not brought hiking poles and good vibram soles with me.
The trail continues down the far (southeast) side of the Trestle Creek drainage. Here I hit the only two really challenging blowdowns of the day, a couple of four-foot-plus diameter trees down on the trail. The first was passable on its downhill side where the tree had bashed into the soft ground, though a misstep would have had me a ways down the slope. The second was a crawl-under for a skinny guy like me, though other hikers were balancing precariously on top of the trunk for twenty yards or so to get past it. By this time I was running into multiple other hikers on the trail, as well as their dogs. By the time I got back to my car later in the day I'd passed about 30 people.
Back at the creek, a right turn put me back on the Brice Creek trail at the Champion Creek trailhead. After a mile and a bit the Lower Trestle Creek trail takes off back up the drainage. There's a sign warning of dangerous storm damage to this trail, which you can ignore; the damage has been cleared even if the sign has not.
- Lower Trestle Creek Falls, with hiker
After seeing the lower falls (not nearly as impressive as the upper falls, but a much easier hike) and swapping cameras with some of the other folks there, I went back down to the Brice Creek trail and hiked on downstream to where I'd parked. Along the way there's a section where the trail runs atop an earthen dike that was built as part of creating a flume to bring water to Lund Park where there was previously enough civilization to warrant some hydropower. Both the civilization and most of the flume have vanished by now.
- Trail beside old flume
This ended up being a good way to spend a spring morning in February. I was very happy to have gotten an early start. I expect I'll end up back in the area to explore some of the side trails that head up into the hills here.
