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# 2017-08-17 - Chimney Peak Trail Musings |
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Last weekend i hiked from McQuade Creek and camped a night at Donaca |
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Lake. The trail challenged me, especially when it rained the next |
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morning. |
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Years ago forest service road 1142 was impassable, as i vaguely |
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recalled. Last weekend i found the road clear all the way to the |
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trailhead. The trail itself is in poor repair and badly overgrown, |
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but i found a surprisingly clear section about 5 or 6 miles in. The |
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blog post below shows a photo of the formerly blocked road. Also, i |
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believe its author is responsible for the surprisingly clear section |
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of the trail. If i had all the time in the world, then i would also |
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like to pack a pair of loppers out to do volunteer clearing on the |
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McQuade Creek/Chimney Peak trail. |
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Rocks fall from the sky, the party dies |
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Below is an amusing photo from the nearby Swamp Creek trailhead, |
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captioned "not feeling the love." |
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Not feeling the love |
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Van Marmot post |
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Note that there is a large landslide just west of Fitt Creek. There |
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the trail is easily lost and it is advisable to hike during daylight, |
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good weather, and with a walking stick. |
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Also of interest is McNabb Falls, described briefly in the post below. |
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"If you have 2-3 extra hours you can even hike down stream to the |
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waterfall, but it's a pretty tough hike and I wouldn't really |
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recommend it unless you have a whole day to do it. There is no |
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official trail down, just follow the creek bed down stream and you |
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will eventually reach the falls. The falls are called McNabb falls |
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and I would guess they are 100+ feet high. I've only been there once |
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about 25 years ago and they looked pretty cool from the top but also |
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a bit dangerous." |
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An old-timer at the trailhead told me that the Chimney Peak lookout |
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is historically significant because it was an early Oregon fire |
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lookout dating back to the 1800's. He said the cast-iron supports |
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still stick out of the rocks. |
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The following web page mentions this lookout being added to patrol |
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service in 1931. So far i have not been able to find any record that |
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the lookout existed in the 1800's. |
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Old lookout photo |
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Chimney peak lookout page |
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tags: bencollver,outdoor,photo |
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# Tags |
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bencollver |
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outdoor |
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photo |
