Clatsop Towers-Plus…
Another trip up to the Clatsop Towers and beyond. This time I wanted to do a loop above the towers, through the small square of Clatsop State Forest that is completely land-locked by the big timber company, then north to a large saddle above Grassy Lake where I’ll thrash my down and back to the road. Originally, I was looking for a pinnacle that we had seen last time we hiked up to South Sugarloaf. Unfortunately, because of time constraints, I hit my turnaround time before I got to my turnaround…thus not having enough time to find the Pinnacle. Next time…
After looking at my track, lidar, and Google Earth…I now know where the pinnacle is, and I wasn’t very far from it.
Fun trip. 8.5 hours car to car. 13 miles and about 3100’ gain. Good day out exploring.
At the car…7:25am looking up at where I’m headed…UGH!
I can feel the cloud layer thinning and the sun burning through…
Then as I round the corner, a fogbow appears…No rain, so it must be a fogbow (for the lack of a better name) 🙂
Pretty cool! That’s Onion Peak in the distance.
The X-Tower on the right…
Where I came from…
The old abandoned roads in this small square of the Clatsop State Forest make it easy going…
This is the east side of Onion Peak. A future goal is to take the east ridge to the summit…
Weyerhaeuser tree farm…what a mess!
Boundary markers from when it used to be Willamette Industries…
Best view of the day… I can see Sugarloaf Mountain, Saddle Mountain, Humbug Mountain, Kidders Butte, and more…
Sugarloaf Mountain. Zoom in and you can see remnants of the old lookout.
Saddle Mountain complex…
Time to find a way back down to the road…
It’s getting late…I’m hoping this goes…
Worst part of the descent…
Before the final drop, I’m thinking I’m seeing the pinnacle I was hoping to explore today…Next time.
Just gotta make it to that road…
After some thrashing through timberland reprod, it was nice to finally hit the road…
Looking up at Island Rock…
Silhouette of the Clatsop Towers…an ongoing project.
The massive Onion Peak…
This morning this view was fog…
Today’s route…
