Badger Creek Wilderness 7/16-17/2011

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Koda
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Badger Creek Wilderness 7/16-17/2011

Post by Koda » July 18th, 2011, 7:19 pm

Looking as far east of the rainshadow yet a reasonable drive from Portland, I looked to the Badger Creek Wilderness for a fun weekend over nighter for my girlfriend and I. Originally, I have had my eye on a longer loop tour of this wilderness, but came up with this shorter version perfect for a weekend adventure.

Saturday from the Lookout mtn trail head we started out for the namesake itself. The weather did not look promising with rolling fog and clouds moving around us with a cold breeze. Friday it seemed the forecast changed for the worse with thunder and clouds and rain... I was hoping to find that edge of the rainshadow this far east of the crest. Slight breaks in the clouds gave me hope, along with quick views of the base of Hood, the upper reaches socked in. By the time we made it to Lookout mtn however we were blessed with occasional breaks and our fist peaks into eastern Oregon.
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A note about the trail head, which according to my old map I chose to bring for nostalgic reasons showed at the road jct of the 3 roads... has obviously been re-routed. The real trail-head, with ample parking just around the corner. I parked just out of sight of the jct so right away... I couldn't find the trail. With no plans for XC travel, I left my dedicated GPS at home.... then discovered I forgot my ABC watch, as I plotted my compass bearing straight to Lookout mtn, I decided this a good trip to test my GPS app on my Android phone and was able to record a track log of the entire weekend. In just a few minutes we intersected the trail that skirts the edge of the ridge. High Prarie meadows is lush green right now, deer prints everywhere and purple shooting stars in full force.
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The views from Lookout are outstanding even with the clouds just overhead. Views of eastern Oregon to the east, grey skies to the west rolling overhead created a beautiful ambiance. Heading east on trail 458 proved my rains shadow theory that we were right on the edge for this hike. Beautiful cliffs and vistas are found along this ridge-top trail, huge thunderheads in eastern Oregon growling in the distance.
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I made a mental note to stay away from ridge top trails with thunder in the forecast, but the occasional bass was cool to listen to for this portion of the hike. By the time we reached trail 477 it was mostly clear with a high overcast and the distant thunderhead in the east.
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A note about snow, covering large sections of the trail halfway up to Lookout and then all along the first ~3/4 mile of 458 heading east but manageable and of course prevailing only on the N/NE aspect of this ridge-line. Much of the trail along this portion is still under snow but this was the only snow we encountered on this trip. The top of Lookout Mtn where the old foundation is, is snow free.
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Trail 477 proved lesser traveled, overgrown in places but still good. Good views of the previous cliffs from below.
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By now we were getting used to the occasional blowdown, but the worst was yet to come. A few strawberries to be had along the way. Wildflowers on this entire tour were out... everything is green and blooming. Lupin in full effect everywhere.

Badger Creek trail 479 has a lot of blowdown... a lot. By now we were used to climbing over, crawling under, bushwhacking around. I felt bad since I’m 6-4 with long legs and get over things pretty easy. Camp destination, Badger Lake.
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Now for the bad news. Such a beautiful peaceful wilderness ruined for the evening by target practice from a group of car campers at Badger Lake. The shooting started about ½ hour from the lake and lasted long after we arrived. The real bad news is they were shooting in our direction. The only “logical” direction to shoot in that campground for those unaware of the trail is away from the other campsites and lake... The last 10 minutes of trail before arriving at the lake I could hear whooping and hollering at hitting targets and could tell were were right in the line of fire. My only assurance of hope was that most target shooters... shoot into ground or other backstop, but this was only an assumption. Both of us hiking in fear of a stray bullet. I’m no stranger to target practice and guns and know from the report we were easily in range of the calibers being fired. Miles and miles of forest roads far enough away from trails and campgrounds and they had to destroy the safety and solitude of the area. When we arrived I walked over to the spillway, they were tucked in the trees on the opposite side of the creek. One of the shooters came walking up giving me the opportunity to let them know their shooting was not appreciated. He did not know there was a hiking trail opposite the creek. he left to inform his friends, we left to find camp. Still, the guns continued a bit longer. Being in the line of fire pretty much ruined my mood for the evening and left a blemish on the trip.

To add a little insult to the scene... pretty painted rocks at a lakeside campsite gave me the feeling of camping in the city. At least it was an artistic attempt at graffitti.
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The next morning was peaceful. It rained overnight and grey morning skies told me we had no eluded the possibility of rain. A nice leisure breakfast and I caught my first trout in 20 years. :) I let him go... he was legal but still had some growin to do. Packed up and hit the trail about noon...

Trail 458.... more blowdown but manageable. A steady climb. Gumjuwac saddle came with a cold breeze, fogged in. The cool thing about the grey skies on this hike though was the ambiance and that even though it was foggy and grey clouds the views were still good, albeit all easterly views.
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The breeze and the distance helped mask the sound of guns that had started up again back at the lake. I feel bad for all the other car campers and I think at least 1 solo backpacker... imagine a whole weekend of gunfire in your camp. …..The real climbing on this trail begins here, more blowdown. The wildflowers along this portion were the best, again Lupin in full force made this climb enjoyable. Only a drop or two of rain, it did not start raining for real until we returned to the Jeep.
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I really enjoyed the scenery and solitude of this wilderness area. If only they would close that road leading to the lake. It’s now a sore intrusion into the heart of the wilderness in my eye.

(edited 11/5/2014 to fix broken link)
Last edited by Koda on November 5th, 2014, 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mcds
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Re: Badger Creek Wilderness 7/16-17/2011

Post by mcds » September 18th, 2014, 10:05 am

Now for the bad news. Such a beautiful peaceful wilderness ruined for the evening by target practice from a group of car campers at Badger Lake. The shooting started about ½ hour from the lake and lasted long after we arrived. The real bad news is they were shooting in our direction. The only “logical” direction to shoot in that campground for those unaware of the trail is away from the other campsites and lake... The last 10 minutes of trail before arriving at the lake I could hear whooping and hollering at hitting targets and could tell were were right in the line of fire. My only assurance of hope was that most target shooters... shoot into ground or other backstop, but this was only an assumption. Both of us hiking in fear of a stray bullet. I’m no stranger to target practice and guns and know from the report we were easily in range of the calibers being fired. Miles and miles of forest roads far enough away from trails and campgrounds and they had to destroy the safety and solitude of the area. When we arrived I walked over to the spillway, they were tucked in the trees on the opposite side of the creek. One of the shooters came walking up giving me the opportunity to let them know their shooting was not appreciated. He did not know there was a hiking trail opposite the creek. he left to inform his friends, we left to find camp. Still, the guns continued a bit longer. Being in the line of fire pretty much ruined my mood for the evening and left a blemish on the trip.
Yikes !!!!!! I guess another options is, like fording a storm flooded crossing, to wait it out.

By the way, for what it is worth, the hillmap link still works, but the GPS track is not overlayed on any map.

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miah66
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Re: Badger Creek Wilderness 7/16-17/2011

Post by miah66 » November 5th, 2014, 2:41 pm

mcds wrote:
By the way, for what it is worth, the hillmap link still works, but the GPS track is not overlayed on any map.
I was able to get that link to show by clicking "add overlay" and picking a map to put it on. By the way, theoretically, wouldn't this be a good time to add the road to Badger Lake to the pile to be decommissioned? I noticed several recent discussions about this.
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mcds
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Re: Badger Creek Wilderness 7/16-17/2011

Post by mcds » November 5th, 2014, 2:48 pm

miah66 wrote:
mcds wrote:By the way, for what it is worth, the hillmap link still works, but the GPS track is not overlayed on any map.
I was able to get that link to show by clicking "add overlay" and picking a map to put it on.
didn't know that, thanks! worked here too!

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Koda
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Re: Badger Creek Wilderness 7/16-17/2011

Post by Koda » November 5th, 2014, 3:21 pm

3 year old thread exhumed... :)

there shouldnt need to do anything to get a hillmap link to display correctly, since the thread is old there must have been an update to Hillmaps code. I was able to download the track from the defunk link, so in a minute I will edit the OP to update the link to correctly display that as intended.... however, the link contained a track I hand drew using the Hillmaps draw feature so to add to this thread here is the actual GPS track data recorded from my LG Ally phone I was using at the time...

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