I saw a recent Trip Report which revealed the presence of Candystick on the trail. (Thank you AlpsDayTripper!) Ever since 2018, when I sought out saprophytes on the Elbo Creek Trail, but did not find Candystick, it has been a goal of mine. Could there really be Candystick in August? AlpsDayTripper provided photographic proof!

So I hiked this trail just to find Candystick. They weren’t plentiful, but I found enough of them to make my day. There were a good number of Pinedrops also. All were past their prime; those at higher altitudes were in better shape. At 2.6 miles, I found a nice cluster of six Candysticks. I walked another quarter mile, and then decided to turn back.

The trail was in great shape, with plenty of shade. I didn’t even need my hat. The tread was a pleasant carpet of needles, with few rocks.

My new goal? To return to this trail next year, in June or July, depending on snowmelt, to see these curious plants in their prime.

We took the Ranger Creek out and back route up to Noble Knob (16 miles, 4300', caltopo link below). Except for the deteriorating switchbacks just below the intersection with the Palisades trail, conditions are great.

Wildflowers: The lower forested area is marked by woodland pinedrops, wintergreen, little prince's pine, and a large number of huge candystick in the first 3 miles (photo 2, this feeds exclusively on Matsutake mushroom mycelium, there are many of foragers on this trail in the fall). The wet portions as the trail approaches the Palisades trail are filled with flowers, yellow and alpine willowherb, sierra larkspur (photo 1), heartleaf spring beauties, and many more. Beyond the Palisades trail, the forest was completely burned by the 2017 Norse Peak fire, there are countless tiny young trees and thick fields of fireweed. I was disappointed to see that it looks like most of the fireweed is dried out and withered and will not bloom this year. There are flowers in this section, mostly pearly everlasting, you'll also see yarrow, Gray's lovage, silver-leaf phacelia, pale bluebell, sierra larkspur (a thick grove in a damp area), a few arnica, tiger lillies, and columbine hanging on, and others. The Dalles Ridge portion doesn't have too many blooms, mostly pearly everlasting, yarrow, harebells, fading silver-leaf phacelia, and a few arnica, tall bluebells, Jacob's ladder, Cascade asters (already fading, the season is really ahead of average here), and some other blooms. Leaving the ridge on the way over to Noble Knob the woods are quite flowery: magenta and scarlet paintbrush, woodland penstemon, arnica, white rhododendron, sitka valerian, and more. There are spotted saxifrage (mostly faded) on one of the rocky areas. The wildflower highlights were on Noble Knob (photo 3). There are thick areas of harebells, stonecrop, yarrow, scarlet paintbrush, Parry's campion, wild buckwheat, Gray's lovage, and more. There is an area with many orange agoseris. There were loads of pollinators (photo 4), especially butterflies. 

JJ here with the USFS trail crew,

On Tuesday, June 25th we started from the Dalles Ridge trailhead off of the 7250 road and set out to clear the trail from there to the bottom of the Little Ranger Peak trail. A few weeks before that we teamed up with Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance (EMBA) to clear the burned section of Dalles RIdge, Palisades, and Little Ranger Peak trails. We ended up cutting out over 100 trees. On the 26th we decided to focus on making sure Little Ranger was clear of blowdowns and passable. We cut out about 15 trees and re-dug some trail in a few places. There are still some rough patches that we plan to revisit in the future so be wary while you are hiking or biking.

Happy hiking,

JJ Kalina

Road conditions. Paved all the way. No issues.

Parking lot – This is a good size parking lot. I was the first car there and 12 hours later there were only 3 cars and we all left the same time

Bathroom facilities. Out house opened and stocked with paper

Trail conditions. This report is mostly to follow up with previous reports from others about all the downed trees in the burn zone. I provided a link to my Facebook page showing a lot of pictures along the trail of the downed trees.

It looks to me that there has been some tree clearing work in the burn zone of the Palisades trail, but there are still 40 to 50 trees hampering the way.

There has been both trail work and tree clearing work on the Ranger Creek side of the loop. There is only about 10 trees left to deal with.

Other than the burn zone, the trail is in reasonable condition. The falls are not flowing strongly but the Dalles Falls are still looking good. The early stream crossing going to Dalles Falls is also pretty easy to cross. It is very nice how so many rocks have been added to make this crossing easier over the past 10 years.

There were not very many flowers out this time. However, I saw a fair number of Indian paint brush along the ledges, starting with the first view point.

Most people think there is just 3 view points on this hike, but I find there are better views past the 3^rd viewpoint. I suggest that if you make it to the 3^rd viewpoint to spend a little more time and follow the ridgeline up a little higher. The photos of the 3 birds were taken just a little higher up. I talked to a hiker who said he even saw mountain goats on the cliffs as he looked down.

I am providing 2 links to 2 different Facebook posts. The first is to show what the downed trees look like. I took a bunch of pictures so you can get  better idea. It did take longer for me to get through the disaster zone.

The second post is just my normal post and will show more about the hike is general. This is a post I normally do after hikes I do.

We had a great hike on the Little Ranger Peak trail today. Parking for this hike is on the shoulder of Hwy 410 just north of the FS Road 7160. It was 35 degrees with mostly sunny skies when we pulled up at 8:50. No toilet facility or trail sign here. Once you head up the trail you intersect with the White River Trail for a 1/3 mile or so before going left uphill on the Little Ranger Peak trail. The entire trail was saturated, soft, duff soil. This trail is multi-use so evidence of mountain bikers creating their own pathway down on several switchbacks. The trail has long winding switchbacks in the evergreen understory. Several spring wildflowers are in bloom - calypso orchid, oregon grape, Douglas violets and vanilla leaf in the first couple miles of the trail. A few pine drops were still standing tall from last summer. Our destination for the day was the side spur to the viewpoint trail at 3 miles. The viewpoint is a precarious pointed rock where you need to be a mountain goat to snag more than a peak-a-boo view of the White River Valley or Mt Rainier. We were able to find spots with sun filtering through to sit down for a lunch rest break. With the dense forest this was the most sun we saw all day. If you want solitude this trail is for you. We didn’t see another hiker the entire time we were out. Helicopter activity could be heard for the last 2+ hours over at the Buck Creek airstrip. Most likely doing practice training of some sort. Wildlife sighting was limited to a wren singing close to the trailhead. We packed up and headed down at 11:50, arriving back to our vehicles just after 1:00. Another fantastic day out in nature with friends.