I did this hike last Friday and then saw that VanMarmot had done a great write-up on it last year:
http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... f=8&t=5812 I will attempt to measure up.
Like perhaps a few of the more grizzled contributors to this site, I blooded (and bloodied) myself on hiking the area with the guides written by Don and Roberta Lowe. I’d check them out of the library or borrow from friends. The only one I bought was their iconic, rather quirky selection
50 Hiking Trails: Portland & Northwest Oregon (1986). I went through all the trails in the book and Lamberson Spur was actually one of the first that I did even though it was touted as the “most difficult.” I lived to tell the tale, but only did it once, in the summer of ’87 or 88. Now, as I am about to cross the threshold into senior citizenry, it was time to do it again.
The Polallie Trailhead is closed because of road construction, so I began from the Tamanawas Falls Trailhead. The East Fork was running murky after a morning rain, but Cold Springs Creek, which became a companion for a goodly part of the day, was cool and clear. There are numerous small falls and chutes as you head up towards Tamanawas Falls:
I passed the two junctions for the Tamanawas Falls Tie Trail (the second is unmarked) and went up the creek to get a viewing of the falls:
In the boulder field, summer blooms were evident. This is western snakeroot:
Also, many kinds of berries are now ripening. These are blackcaps:
The Tie Trail rises to meet the Elk Meadows Trail, where you go left. The trail heads along in dry forest with a lot of diseased trees to reach the junction with the Lamberson Spur Trail. This trail is designated a three-mile dead end, but only the first two miles have been maintained in any way for many years. There is some blowdown all along this trail, but it is fairly easily negotiated. The path rises into the Mt. Hood Wilderness and heads up a ridge before passing through meadows of blooming penstemon, lupine, and goldenrod. I began to get views east to Surveyors Ridge and, about two miles from the junction, I reached an open meadow at a rock outcrop:
This area has been logged even though it is in the wilderness, so (I agree with VanMarmot) it was probably used as a helipad during the Gnarl Burn Fire of 2008. Here one needs to go right on the ridgeline. The trail is lost under some blowdown, but vestiges became clear on the rocky crest as I moved along. I noticed an old trail tread winding down steeply off the ridge to the left into the bowl below. I wonder where that goes?? The trail now enters the area of the Gnarl Ridge Fire. I could see the faint tread outlined by its moss borders:
There is sporadic flagging to guide the way, but the trail keeps to the ridge crest. At this point the ridge line curves up to the left and the tread is lost. I headed uphill above a small meadow in the middle of a tongue of the burn (To the left and the right was untouched woodland). I was most surprised to pick up a trail tread again as I entered unburned forest of silver fir and mountain hemlock:
Soon all signs of a trail ended. Since this was about three miles from the junction, I assumed this was the official end of the Lamberson Spur Trail. From then on, it was a cross-country trip along or below the ridgeline. I moved over to the left side of the ridge and soon reentered the burn to ascend the crest through lupine, penstemon, and goldenweed meadows abuzz with thousands of bumblebees. From here I cold see the waterfalls on the sources of the North Fork Cold Springs Creek, and I caught a glimpse of the mountaintop:
There were fake thunderclouds forming all day, which actually made the going mercifully cooler. I was soon out of the burn but met up with the first of the “pinnacles” described in the Lowes’ account. This necessitated scrambling down the steep south slope, which is cloaked with pinemat manzanita. Davidson’s penstemon was growing in clumps among the rocks:
I went up to the the ridge crest to inspect a lava cave, and then I descended to the mountain hemlock woods below and worked my way up gulleys through hemlock/whitebark pine parklands. At this point, I deviated from the “traditional” route, and instead of following a creek to the left, which would have taken me to the south of the highest point on the Timberline Trail, I kept heading up parallel to the ridge. I had lunch in a lush meadow blooming with red and yellow mountain heather, refilled my water bottle, and headed up snow slopes with views of Lookout Mountain, the Hood River Valley, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Rainier. Tundra plants, such as cushion buckwheat, were in bloom :
Soon, I looked up to see the posts demarcating the Timberline Trail. In distance, the hike was only about half over when I reached the highest point on the trail at 7,330’, but it was mostly downhill from here. Sulfur buckwheat was blooming in clusters:
I took in the view up Newton Creek Canyon and entered entered whitebark pine, mountain hemlock, and subalpine fir parklands.
I passed up the opportunity to do a quick ascent of Lamberson Butte and continued down on the back side of the Butte past the remains of the stone shelter. The trail descends in mountain hemlock parklands. New cones are popping out:
The trail drops in hemlock copses and meadows blooming with lupine, phlox, paintbrush, fleeceflower, Jacob’s ladder and wood-rush. There are three left turns at junctions before one reaches Elk Meadows. I circled around the north side of the meadows and took in the mandatory view from the shelter:
From here it’s a straight shot north on the Elk Meadows Trail along Cold Spring Creek for over four miles back to the junction with the Lamberson Spur Trail and thence home. Cold Spring Creek lives up to its name and has at least four springs pumping out good fresh drinking water by the side of the trail. A few times the Bluegrass Ridge Burn of 2006 reached this trail but never crossed it. The path is little traveled: no human prints, but lots of coyote, deer, and elk. The trail crosses Cold Springs Creek on these logs:
The gradual descent continues past the junction with the Bluegrass Ridge Trail and then rises to the Lamberson Spur Trail. From here, it was still about 2.8 miles back to the car and I kept up a blistering (literally) pace as I knew being two hours late for dinner might incur a smidgeon of wrath. However, all was forgiven as I arrived back in Portland with legs bloodied from altercations with blown down snags. The wine was poured, wounds were salved, and the war stories embellished with each telling.
Note#1: Bloom count: a round 100 species.
Note #2: 18.3 miles; 5,045' total elevation gain; 9 1/2 hours (and late for dinner)
