Overnight in the Tillamook Range
When I first moved to Oregon, I was
drastically overweight and out of shape. But I didn't really know it.
I started to do some hiking with my company's hiking club and right
away found that my limits were much closer to the car than I had
thought. One particular hike sticks in my mind. The club had gone out
to Elk Creek Trail and had elected to climb up the trail to “The
Waterfall” instead of going along the Wilson River trail to Dog
Creek. I had thought that the waterfall would be sort of neat to see
and had started up the Elk Creek trail with a majority of the 40 or
so hikers. At first I was doing just fine and having some good
conversations with the other slightly slower hikers, but when we got
to the intersection of the east and west branches of Elk Creek,
things changed. The trail started a rather steep incline up the old
logging trail and I started sweating and panting. I didn't make it
even 15 more minutes up that trail when I had to stop, barely able to
breath, lean over and put my hands on my knees and admit that I just
couldn't make it another step up that hill. I had to turn around.
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| I was so out of shape that it always felt like I was hiking through snow |
That was my wake up call. I started
going out hiking every week at the Vernonia Linear trail. Soon I was finding
harder and harder hikes to do. I quit smoking and started watching my
weight. When the Linear trail got too easy, I started doing the Elk
Creek Trail again. Pretty much every Saturday, without fail, summer
and winter, I would hike this thing. Getting further and further up
the slope. One winter there was a big snow fall and it took down a
lot of trees and blocked the path in many places. For 2 months I
brought a bow saw out with me every week to work on clearing the trail
and working my way up. I was eventually rewarded by being able to
make it up to the ridge line. I remember thinking “2 hours up. 2
hours down, maybe 2 hours to play at the top”. And so I explored.
That is when I found this nice little
unnamed mountain top on this trail that you can sort of see on Google Maps. I even added the trail to google maps (it was there for a while
but seems to be gone again now). If you look at the Google Maps
pictures in that area..... You will see that they are just about all
mine. Of course, that was before Facebook, when Google Maps was the
happening social media site.
About that point in time, I start thinking that it
would be pretty cool to come up and spend the night on the summit.
Sleep out and enjoy the stars. Do a solo overnight. The main issue in
my mind? Water. It would be hard to carry enough water up the hill and the
chances of finding water up there anytime except in the spring (when it
could be too wet or too cold) are iffy. However, this goal was firmly
on my bucket list.
And that is where my Partner found it,
took it out, and dusted it off. “You want to go to this place
backpacking, and we want to try backpacking, so let's go”. And we
did.
Did I mention that it is sort of steep?
Around 900 feet to 3500 feet in around
5 miles.
But it is very pretty, and it doesn't
get slippery when it rains (as it is mostly rock). There is usually
water at the 2 mile mark and occasionally water at the 4 mile mark.
In late summer there is no water anywhere.
And how much does water weigh? Well,
1Kg per Liter (duh. I can't believe I looked this up on Google.
Perhaps the internet IS making us dumb). 1KG is around 2.2 pounds. I
think we need about 2 liters of water (each) just to climb the
mountain. Once up there, we need another 2 liters to cook and
probably 1 liter each to come back down the hill. So around 4 liters
each at a minimum. I would rather have 6 liters each. 15 pounds of
water. Hmmm.
We decided to try climbing with 3
liters each and hoping there was water up there (and just rationing
if there was not). Ok. We have all of our other gear? (Stick stove?
New REI folding camp chair?)
I got all of my gear together and had 2
problems:
My gear weighed too much.
My pack wasn't big enough to hold
the gear I wanted to bring.
Clearly my issue was wanting too much
gear. Any reduction in gear would save me in weight and in volume. I
did finally figure out out how to get my gear in my pack (it is a 68 liter Osprey, for gosh sakes), but I didn't get it to be any lighter.
Getting rid of a couple liters of waters would have helped..... But I
need that camp chair. I am going to have to weigh everything and
make a spreadsheet before the next outing. And perhaps get an
external pack frame backpack like I had in Scouts....
We started up the Hill on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, the official start to the summer season for most folks. I thought that the campsite at Elk Creek would
be loaded with people, but it seemed to be only half full. That was
OK with me because I didn't want to share our mountain top camping
spot with too many people. I figured if the bottom wasn't full then
the top wouldn’t be either. We left our trusty Subaru in the trail
head parking area and we shouldered our packs (38 pounds?) and stared
up the trail.
I began suspecting that we were in
trouble even before we got to the previously mentioned creek
confluence, where the trail begins to get steep. I mean, those packs
were heavy. It was hard just to sling them up onto our shoulders.
And we had 4 steep miles to go yet.
The Elk Creek trail is all re-growth
after the timber and fire spurts of the early 1900's. There are a lot
of Doug Firs still making their growth, and many stands of Alders down
near the river. No really big old trees though. They were all cut
down at the same time that the Trail was first cut and all that
remains of the once stately trees is their stumps, that old lumber
road, and many miles of wire rope that can be seen snaking it's way
up the river.
We didn't take very many pictures on
the way up. Why? We were concentrating too hard on making it up that
fraking mountain. The little waterfall at 2 miles was almost dry. We
filled up 2 liters of water. I hated to top off and carry all of that
weight up the hill, but with the water so dried up here, I didn't
hold out much hope for water on the top. We were moving very slowly,
but steadily. We had passed my original out of shape turn around long
ago. I remember trudging by it and thinking, “This is hard, but I
am breathing fine and and muscles are not screaming and I am carrying
a heavy pack. I am in significantly better shape than I was 10 years
ago. Just image how buff I am going to be when I am 80 !!”
At 3 miles we dropped our packs and had
our lunch. My partner is all game for this kind of hiking adventure,
but she is very leery about carrying dehydrated hiking food. She
wants good meals. The way I figure it, if you are carrying all of
your water, then dehydrated food doesn't really save you much in
weight. So we had pretty decent meals planned. For lunch we had
Sandwiches and fresh fruit. For Dinner were were having brown rice,
carrots and sausage. Well, if we made it up the hill.
All along here, we were checking with each
other and trying to make sure that we didn't go past that “Can I
make it back to the car today?” point. But slow and easy. Slow and
easy.
Our lunch stop was at this relatively
flat section of the trail right after the second set of steep switch
backs. This is my favorite section. You have just managed 2 steep
parts and have rounded the curve out of the sun into this lovely
shaded and protected section of forest. You are now far enough up the
trail that the casual family hikers are gone and you can enjoy the
coolness and subtly different flora of the area. Some big old tree
stumps are here as well. After you turn the corner you start getting
sun and there is a place where cutting the old logging road has
exposed a few hundred yards of cliff and rock that are festooned with
Paint Brush, Foxglove, Hare Bell, and Bear Grass. The Foxglove wasn't in yet for us, so no pictures this time, but trust me on this one.
This flat span ends at a nice little
view down elk creek drainage. On many of my weekend hikes, this is
the spot that I stop and rest before heading back down. Why do I stop
here? Because the next section is really steep. Today we climbed on.
This is also where we passed this strung out group of around 15
hikers that were coming the other way. They were carrying varying
loads, one guy with a pack, one woman with nothing. They were also in
varying states of happiness. That one woman gave us a very “not
happy” look. If she had no warning for the hike she just did, I
certainly understand that look. If you are coming down Elk Creek
trail then either you are doing an up and back or you are doing one
of the 2 loops. Elk Mountain Loop, or King's Mountain Loop. Both of
these trails are killers.
Elk Mountain Trail starts at the same
trail head where our car is parked. It also has approximately the
same elevation change that the hike we are doing has. The difference
is that the Elk Mountain trail does the 3000 foot elevation change in
1.2 miles instead of 4.5 miles. Makes a huge difference. I have done
the Elk Mountain trail a couple of times and each time I swear that I
won't do it again. Going up that trail I find myself taking about 10
steps and then resting for 2 minutes. Repeat 1000 times. One part of
the trail has a rope to help you get up. Trekking poles are useless
because you have to use your hands to climb most of the time. Going
down that way isn't much easier. However, you are hiking right up the
ridge of the mountain, so you have great views down into the Wilson
River valley. And the view from the summit is very grand. I also
really like the part of the hike from the summit along the high ridge
to the main part of the King's Mountain trail. Once again, different
flora up there. Lots of things that grown on rocks. For a while you
are walking along large bolders and rock outcroppings that are the narrow top of the ridge. It is steep down on both sides of you into different drainages.
You can pee into 2 rivers at the same time !! Was that over the top?
Sweat, you can Sweat into 2 rivers at the same time !!
Pictures from the Past:
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| Elk Mountain |
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| Looking down from halfway up Elk Mountain Trail |
King's Mountain trail starts a couple
of mile further down the road from Elk Creek Campground. It is a
trail that is maintained by the Mazamas club. The Mazamas is a real
“you have to get sponsored and be a serious hiker” sort of club
that does a lot of summitting of big peaks. They also come out a
couple times a year and work on this trail. Kings Mountain is a
pretty tough climb. A little harder than the trail my partner and I
are doing right now. It is also a lot more dusty and dust-slide
slippery. But, once again, killer views from anywhere near the top.
Some good camping and resting places at the top (no water, but there
is a picnic table just before the summit). And, if you are crazy, you
can continue your hike by going down the other side and challenging
“The Traverse”. I don't find the name very informative. What is really there are these cool spikey tall rocks right on the ridge, maybe
100 feet tall sticking up out of the spine of the mountain. You have
to go around them by going straight down a few hundred yards to the
base of the rocks, hike along the base, and then come straight back
up. It wouldn't be so bad if you hadn't just done that 5 mile climb up
Kings (or up Elk, which is how I have approached it).
With either of these loop hikes you will meet the other trails at this cross roads of King's Mountain
Trail, Elk Mountain Trail, and Elk Creek Trail. There is a cool sign
post there. It is located pretty much straight downhill from the
summit that we are going to camp on tonight.
If we get there.
At this point I would like to encourage
all would be hike planners who are taking their partners and editors
on a significant jaunt to explore their memories of the hike they are
doing. Perhaps take a topo map with you on this exploration. Make
sure that when you tell your partner that “It is pretty much level
once we hit the ridge at 4 miles” (for instance), that your statements are accurate. Otherwise you risk mutiny. Or perhaps
defenestration. At the very least, some not happy looks. Truth be
told, I was giving myself some unhappy looks. I was sick and tired of
going up. I wanted to stop and be done with it.
Just. One. More. Push.
At the 4.5 mile mark, there is a half
hidden side trail going up. It is not often hiked and is getting
overgrown, but it is before you get to the crossroads with the other
2 trails. Watch your step. Watch the over hanging branches.
Persevere. If you are lucky, you will do what we did and emerge
from the trees into the bright sunshine in a wonderful warm clearing
with an awesome view of Kings Mountain, the mountains to the west,
and the place where you know the ocean must surely be. Oh, it felt
good when that backpack hit the dirt.
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| A very tired Partner makes the final ascent |
I set up the tent and gathered some
sticks for my stick stove. I was going to cook brown rice (real brown
rice) so I needed to keep the water boiling for about an hour. We had
found some water right at the 4 mile mark on the summit. It was a
little trickle of a stream but my partner had managed to scoop out 2
liters of water which we ran through our Sawyer filter and topped off
our platypus bladders and water bottles. We had water to Burn !!.....
or perhaps make tea.
While I was cooking (which means
feeding sticks to the stove to keep the water boiling, which
I really like to do) my partner was keeping an eye on the weather. A
bank of low clouds had built up on the mountains over next to the
ocean and had started to spill over the top into the valley between
us. It was like watching a slow motion tidal wave coming our way. We
had a hot sun and blue skies. Then the sun dipped down into the
oncoming clouds and it got a little colder, and then the clouds
filled up the valley and spilled over the top of our little ridge.
The temperature dropped like 20 degrees in 30 minutes and things were all
of a sudden starting to get wet. I was really glad we had a good
solid REI tent and rain fly set up. We were ok out in the open right
now but it was going to get a bit chilly and damp this evening.
But...... I admit to being very tempted
to try out a lighter tent. The Six Moons Lunar Duo, for instance, is
about half the weight and claims to provide the same weather security
and perhaps even slightly larger size. The trick? It uses your
trekking poles to set up (like my one man tent) and it has a hybrid
dual wall (which means the top of the tent is single wall and the
bottom is bug netting and outer wall). I don't know how well that would
work keeping the inside condensation off. We'll have to try it sometime.
This is where I wish I was a big time equipment reviewer and people
just sent me stuff to try out. Hey people, why don't you send me
stuff to try out? I will write about it in my blog.
Just before we called it quits and went
into the tent the fog had engulfed us pretty completely. We couldn't
even see up the little hill next to us and the surrounding hills were
all completely invisible. We could see the moon through the whips
over our head as well as the brighter stars that were right overhead.
I got up a couple of times during the night (ostensibly) to look at
stars. The first time things were pretty much burned out by the moon
and the fog, but the second time the fog was lighter and the moon was
lower and the stars were pretty nice. I could clearly see Scorpio and
Cygnus (up there in the just visible Milky Way) along with the usual
crew of Big and Little Dipper. The third time I got up we were
engulfed in cloud again which stuck with us until the sun came up.
It got down to about 46 degrees that night. I had brought my warm season Golite bag (whatever happened to them?) and I had to put on some extra clothes to stay warm but I was pretty toasty that way. What I really found that I missed was a pillow. Say, didn't I say that on my last camping outing? I should probably read my blog before I go out again....
We slept in the next morning. Hey, we are on vacation. And we were waiting for the sun to warm things up a bit, which it did with alacrity. By the time I got around to lighting a fire for breakfast things had warmed up to around 60 and the fog was starting to burn off.
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| Big Old Ants |
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| Tiny Little Flower |
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| Bear Grass |
Going down the hill was certainly
easier than going up. I find that going down you have to pay extra
care just to stay alert. If you lose concentration and start enjoying
yourself too much you will go too fast and hit a little rock and wham!! find yourself on the ground with a twisted ankle and wondering if
your arm is broken. So don't do that. I don't think we went much
faster downhill than up hill, but you don't have to stop as often to
catch your breath and you don't use as much water.
