A bit of a wonky memorial day weekend ramble in the Tucannon-Wenaha where my goals were to see the upper Wenaha River and hike the central portion of the Crooked Creek trail. The roads to the high trail-heads are still snow covered which made for a bit of road walking from Godman Camp.
Road conditions:
Skyline road: Snow free from the North to within a couple hundred yards of Godman camp. Patchy snow from Godman to NF-300 intersection. Friday I high-centered myself trying to take the road around Bluewood ski area but with adventurous memorial day weekend traffic it may now be passable.
NF-4608 (to Teepee TH): ~1-3 feet deep continuous snow from the Skyline road to Teepee TH.
NF-300 (to Twin Buttes/Slick ear TH): ~1-3 feet deep mostly continuous snow for about a mile from the Skyline road. Upper portion of road near TH is melted out.
Trail conditions (There are two Grizzly Bear Ridge trails in the Tucannon-Wenaha called by different names ... confusing ... I use the NF trail #'s below):
Mt. Misery trail: Mostly covered in 0-3' deep snow from Teepee TH to Oregon Butte.
Grizzly Bear Ridge (#3121): A primitive ridge line route from Oregon Butte to Crooked Creek. There is no sign for this trail Jct at either end and I saw only a few patches of tread.
Crooked Creek trail: I met Crooked Creek Trail at 3600' after heading downhill from a saddle on Grizzly Bear Ridge. From this point the trail is somewhat overgrown and brushy to where it crosses Crooked Creek at about 3200'. From here the trail is sparse and badly overgrown for about a mile. It gets better as it climbs the hillside but has plenty of downed trees to hop over. The trail crosses the creek twice then Melton Creek. All knee deep fords. Trail is well maintained from Melton Creek to the Wenaha River.
Wenaha River trail: From Crooked Creek to Butte Creek the trail is over grown but easy to follow through burned terrain. Crooked Creek can be crossed on logs. From Butte Creek to the Jct with Grizzly Bear Ridge trail (#3103) the trail is faint, brushy, and disappears at times. You leave the burn and enter lovely forest about a mile west of Butte Creek (which was a mid-thigh ford). From Grizzly Bear Ridge trail (#3103) Jct to Slick Ear Jct the tread is good and easy to follow with only a few downed trees. Rock Creek at the Grizzly Bear Ridge Jct was a knee deep ford. I met a lot of rattlesnakes along the Wenaha and accidentally stepped on one in an overgrown part of the trail. Both parties were surprised and alarmed.
Slick ear trail: Upper portion is in good condition. Through the forest there are frequent small blowdown. Near the Jct with the Wenaha River Trail there is a large difficult section of blow-down that you have to work around for about 100 yards. The trail fords Slick Ear Creek six times, all were wet feet today.
Grizzly Bear Ridge trail (#3103): Up high the trail follows an old road bed that is well maintained. The road ends in meadows at which point you follow trail that becomes faint but followable as you move in and out of burned forest. The trail then drops to the Wenaha River on well graded switchbacks that were overgrown along Rock Creek.
Comments
Loren Drummond on Mount Misery, Oregon Butte, Crooked Creek, Wenaha River Trail, Grizzly Bear Ridge
Great report. It is SO green there right now. I cannot believe you accidentally stepped on rattlesnake. Yikes!
Posted by:
Loren Drummond on May 31, 2017 12:13 PM
BYOC on Mount Misery, Oregon Butte, Crooked Creek, Wenaha River Trail, Grizzly Bear Ridge
That was an epic hike. I've hiked the 3103 Grizzly Gear once and the Slick Ear a couple times. I think the 3103 has the best views of the Wenaha I've ever seen. The last mile or so (if heading towards the Wenaha) is pretty much just straight down. Intense switchbacks that only traverse about a linear 1/4 mile. There's some serious cliffs up there. But the view is amazing.
The Grizzly Bear and the Slick Ear are kinda like ying and yang. Or two out of phase waves. They run parallel, but the Slick Ear descends really quickly at the beginning, and the Grizzly Bear descends really quickly at the end.
Anyhow...What happened after Grizzly Bear 3103? If I'm following correctly, you got to the Wenaha, but then the story ends. I'd love to hear the rest.
My wife and I tried to make a loop out of the 3121 Grizzly Bear last year. We had to throw in the towel though, and head back out the way we came in. We never made it to 3121. We took a "trail" off of Mt. Misery Trail at Danger Point. I don't remember the number. It was supposed to meet up with 3121 at the convergence of Cougar Creek and Crooked Creek (I think). When we got to the bottom of the ridge the "trail" seemed to follow, it was just too overgrown to get through. It was like a jungle down there...seriously. I've never seen vegetation that dense anywhere else in the Blues.
Posted by:
BYOC on Jun 09, 2017 04:18 PM
Froof_D_Poof on Mount Misery, Oregon Butte, Crooked Creek, Wenaha River Trail, Grizzly Bear Ridge
I agree. Grizzly Bear 3103 is really scenic! My hike was such that I went down it Sunday evening (walking the steep switchbacks in the dark) and then back up it Monday morning.
The trip ended up being Godman camp -> Teepee TH -> Oregon Butte -> Crooked Creek via Grizz 3121 (this "trail" hits crooked creek at the same place as the one from Danger Point but I took a route through some burned area to look for mushrooms and hit Crooked Creek about a mile upstream of that Jct. I didn't see much trail on 3121 but since it's on a ridge the route is mostly clear walking with good views before you route-find through the forest down to Crooked Creek at the end) -> camp at Wenaha/Crooked creek jct -> Wenaha River trail -> Slick Ear trail -> Sawtooth TH -> Grizz 3103 trail (down) -> camp at the wenaha river -> Grizz 3103 trail (up the 2nd time around) -> Sawtooh TH -> road walk to Godman camp.
The 3rd day I had planned to do smooth ridge from the Wenaha back to Godman but pretty much every trail had been tougher (i.e. more brushy/bushwacky) than expected and I was pooped so took the path of least resistance back to Godman.
I had considered the Danger Point trail down to Crooked Creek rather than 3121 while staring at my map at Oregon Butte. Glad I didn't add that to the schwack-fest. :)
Posted by:
Froof_D_Poof on Jun 09, 2017 05:13 PM
BYOC on Mount Misery, Oregon Butte, Crooked Creek, Wenaha River Trail, Grizzly Bear Ridge
My wife and I hiked up 3121 Grizzly Bear this weekend. Wow. That was a tough hike. We started at TeePee TH to Oregon Butte. Then south towards Lodgepole. Camped at Twin Springs just past Weller Butte. Next day took Packer trail down to Crooked Creek and came back up. Stopped for the night about halfway up Third Creek. The third and last day, we went the rest of the way up Third Creek to the confluence with Cougar Creek at the base of 3121, had lunch, and then up up up. 3300' up to 6100' in just 5 miles! There wasn't much of a trail to speak of. And when we did find what appeared to be the trail, it end up stranding us in places that were hard to get out of, so we mostly just stayed right on top of the ridge line. It was easier to just climb the rock walls than to side-step across the scree. At some points, we were literally, no joke, rock wall climbing. It was pretty awesome and hardcore, but I don't think I would want to do it again or recommend this trail to anyone. The casual backpacker could get seriously hurt on it. And there's no water. And the Sun bakes you pretty good up there. So if you're going up, that's a pretty long hike. It took us 7 hours to get up it. And if all you bring with you is a single nalgene bottle, you're going to be in bad shape. We took a total of 6 liters for the two of us, and still ran out. The USFS doesn't list it on their updated maps. It's a shame too, because that is a really nice 3 day loop, and you need 3121 to complete it. It's just that 3121 is way too hard without a trail. I also thought the Crooked Creek trail was in decent shape considering some of the "trails" I've been on in the Wenaha Wilderness. It was very overgrown, and there were a couple places where it was hard to find the trail again after a creek crossing, but at least it was a very well packed down and easy to follow trail despite being pretty badly overgrown most of the way and many many downed trees.
Posted by:
BYOC on Jul 03, 2017 09:26 AM
BYOC on Mount Misery, Oregon Butte, Crooked Creek, Wenaha River Trail, Grizzly Bear Ridge
So you went down off the southern side of 3121 to look for mushrooms? That path would make more sense - if you start at the little campsite at the top of the ridge that has the nice log bench, and then work you way down more directly to the creek rather than trying to follow the ridge line the whole way down. If I was more of an activist, I'd cut that trail.
Posted by:
BYOC on Jul 03, 2017 09:42 AM