JkbWorld

Let me introduce you to one of my new favorite hikes in Oregon, the Burnt Lake Trail to East ZigZag Mountain. It all started on a nice Sunday (8/2/2011), when I needed to give Paula some space to study, so I looked at my new Green Trails map and Sullivan’s 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon book and found a nice trail called Burnt Lake.  It was rated moderate and had some options to extend into a longer hike, so I was game.

After waking up early in the morning, heading out to the Mt. Hood forest up some sketchy gravel roads, I hit the trailhead just before 9:00am.  There were some lost hikers on Mt. Hood from the day before and the Search and Rescue teams with their orange jackets were staging at the Burnt Lake trailhead.  I asked one of the SAR members if I should keep a look out for anything while out on the trail.  He said “Keep an eye out for guys in orange jackets running up the trail, and if you see them, get out of the way!”.  We laughed and I headed out into the forest.

Burnt Lake trail starts out following Burnt Lake Creek.  The trail was very steady with a slight grade.  I was able to maintain a quick pace, mostly to stay ahead of the SAR team at the trailhead, but also since the temperature was cool and it felt great!

Next, I passed a little waterfall at the Burnt Lake Creek crossing, where you had to hopscotch across the rocks to the other side.  I was making a great pace, and thought to myself, “Is this Lost Creek Falls?”, which was about 2 miles in.  Turns out this wasn’t.

Burnt Lake was named after giant, burned-out, old growth tree trunks leftover from a huge 19th century forest fire.  Here’s one of them along the trail.  Here’s another Photo of the Burned Out Tree Trunk with a little more light.  The forest was dim, so most of my other pictures didn’t come out.  (as if there weren’t enough pictures in this post anyway…)

The burnt out trunk in the previous photo was big enough for me to walk inside and photograph the outside world, too.  Doesn’t this look like one of those pictures where the negative space is supposed to look like something?

The trail continued to ascend, and we passed out into a clearing, where I could finally see some blue sky and sun.

As I moved higher up, I saw some Devil’s Club.  I discovered this evil plant actually has thorns on the tops of its leaves!

Here’s more Devil’s Club.  It means business!

At about 2 or 2.5 miles in, there was a side trail down into a gorge where I could hear rushing water.  Looking at my map and my trusty-but-sometimes-questionable-pedometer, I figured out that it must have been the trail down to Lost Creek Falls, and I wasn’t on track to set a new speed record.

Here’s a fun video of Lost Creek Falls in action.

After taking a few minutes to feel the cold breeze off Lost Creek Falls, I headed back up to the main trail and continued my trek up toward Burnt Lake.  This was the first good glimpse of Mt. Hood as the forest started to open up.

I spotted this really cool looking fungus along the trail and had to take a picture.

…and since we were taking pictures of fungus already, I had to get a picture of this slimy looking one, too.

Finally, I reached peaceful Burnt Lake.  Mount Hood is behind the trees off to the left, so I was going to need to hike around to the far right bank to get a shot of it, hopefully reflecting in the lake.

After hiking around to the spot on the right, I could see Mt. Hood, as majestic as ever across the lake.  There was too much of a breeze, so unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the postcard-quality reflection shot. You can see some of the Douglas Fir pollen on the surface down at the bottom of the photo.  I was reading about how earlier in the month the pollen was really bad!  Good thing I’m not allergic to Douglas Fir pollen!

I ran into a nice couple along the trail around Burnt Lake, who had camped out overnight and had hit East Zigzag earlier that morning, and were on the way back down.  It was barely 10:30am, and I was feeling great, so I was going to check out the view from up top.

The snow was mostly melted, but I was able to find a few nice patches along the way up!  The trail climbed higher and higher, switchbacking to the left and to the right.

The Rhododendrons and Bear Grass were in bloom on the way up the trail, and as the path got steeper, I slowed down.

And finally, I made it to the top of the Zigzag Mountain ridge, and an amazing view of Mt. Hood!  I like this picture of Burnt Lake’s blue reflection amid the dark green forest.

From this vantage point, I could see all the way up to Mt. Adams in Washington.

I grinned triumphantly, having reached the “top”, and took a water break.  As I contemplated eating my sandwich, I looked over to the left and realized that I wasn’t even at the summit!  Well, this wouldn’t do at all!  The sandwich would have to wait, I’m taking that hill!

To get there, I had to cross a meadow full of wildflowers.  I don’t know the names of any of them…

…and the ones I think I do know the names of, I’m totally wrong.  The official botanist of my expedition was back home studying, so let’s settle on “wildflowers”.

As I got higher and higher, and could see to the south, Mt. Jefferson joined the view.  A few other peaks crept into view, although I couldn’t identify them.

This was the marker I found on the East Zigzag summit. It reads something like:  “Reference Mark U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey” with details on who to contact if you have questions.  Here’s another angle on the summit marker.

Those rocks are the highest point on the East Zigzag summit, so that’s exactly where I was going to have lunch!

And here I am, on the highest point, having lunch!

The view from the top.  Best seat in the house.

On my way back down the mountain, I noticed another hill off to the south that I hadn’t noticed before.  I think this might be Cast Mountain, near Cast Lake, or possibly one of the other peaks on Zigzag mountain.  This is likely another hike for another day.  Stay tuned.

When I arrived back at Burnt Lake, the sun had moved a few degrees to the West, so I tried to get the reflection shot again, but it was still a little choppy.  This one came out a little better than the first try.

Then, I hiked around to the other side of the lake to the rocks to the right on the previous photo to take a photo of East Zigzag from Burnt Lake.  The wind was blocked by the trees behind me, so I was able to get a nice reflection shot here.  From here, I headed back down the trail, completeing about 11 miles total with all my side trips and exploring.

I’m also happy to report that on my way down, I passed the SAR team, who appeared to be in mid-rescue just below Lost Creek Falls, preparing to bring what looked like weary-looking hikers back to the trailhead.  Nice work to the Search and Rescue Team!

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Hiking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.