Panjab Trail, Mount Misery, Smooth Ridge & Crooked Creek — Saturday, May. 28, 2022

Oh wow. No. I tried to hike a loop in the Wenaha-Tucannon and had the most miserable time of my life. 

Gaia GPS Map shows three trails that link the Mount Misery Trail/Smooth Ridge Trail in a shorter loop: 1) Danger Point Trail; 2) Crooked Creek Trail; and 3) Miner's Ridge Trail. THESE TRAILS DO NOT EXIST. Danger Point Trail doesn't exist. Crooked Creek Trail is just a ghost of a memory of a trail. And Miner's Ridge Trail is so scarily NOT a trail it's like a joke. I bushwhacked for my life.

I started at Panjab Trailhead, climbed up to the butte, and went south on Mount Misery Trail. I started to hit snow patches and then had to navigate on a somewhat steep slope for Smooth Ridge Trail through larger fields of snow. That side of Oregon Butte doesn't get a lot of light and is last to melt out in the spring.

Then I spent the most excruciating time falling down 1500 feet of crumbilng volcanic rock and fighting through thick overgrown bushes for Danger Point Trail. I spent a night at an odd, decrepit backcountry camp just about a mile west of the confluence of Cougar Creek and Trout Creek. There was a huge rain storm that night.

The next morning I crossed Trout Creek, hoping to find a well trod Crooked Creek Trail. Instead there was a lightly used meandering of animal trails and some neon ties in trees to at least let you know that you that someone would find your body, someday. 

Miner's Ridge Trail is essentially the same issue - there is no trail and no markings either. You have to cling to ridges, scrambling over volcanic rock, and just pray until you get to the butte. Eventually I hit Mount Misery Trail on the top of the butte (again, in snow) and started hiking north west. On my hike it began to rain, turn to driving rain, and, as I set up my tent, turn to sleet. 

Did I mention I brought a small wood stove to cook on and there was no dry fuel to be found?

It snowed a few inches overnight and I made my way through snow back on Mount Misery Trail to Panjab Trail and then Panjab Trailhead. I cried. I will never trust Gaia GPS again.