Eagle Creek Trail

Tunnel Falls

 I had big plans for this past weekend that I was really looking forward to so I am happy to say that everything came together pretty well. I know that for a fact because I am still very sore and tired, sitting here at my desk on Monday morning. My plan was to check some things off my adventure to-do list: trail run up Eagle Creek to Tunnel Falls in the Gorge and mountain bike the Storey Burn/Rogers Camp figure 8 in the Tillamook State Forest. While I completely accomplished my trail running plan, I only managed to partially complete the mtb ride (Storey Burn/Gales Creek loop). (I'll break this into two posts.)

Saturday morning, I got up an early start (for me at least, especially for the weekends) at 8am and was at the Eagle Creek TH by 10:30ish. (roughly an hour drive from my house with no traffic). The TH parking lot was almost full as this is one of the most popular trailheads in the entire Gorge. In typical Gorge fashion, I suited up and headed up the trail in light fog with a misty breeze.  This trail has numerous waterfalls, sketchy cliff slide traverses and a few canyon spanning bridges, along with a handful of good primitive campsites and LOTs of people (ie most popular trailhead in the gorge). The trail conditions were alright, slightly muddy in spots, but the most important thing to note is that the trail is VERY rocky and uneven almost the whole way. 

I took my time on the way up, stopping and photographing almost all the major waterfalls. The scenery was absolutely amazing. I haven’t really spent all that much time hiking/running in the Gorge so I am now trying my best to experience all that it has to offer and will be coming back as often as I can. I hope to use the Gorge Waterfall 50k as a training run for the upcoming Peterson Ridge Rumble 40M in April. This 50k will be the best way to experience a lot of the Gorge and get a long, supported training run in. 

Punchbowl Falls

I got to Tunnel Falls and was able to experience it alone for a few minutes before some day hikers came up behind me.  I continued on past Tunnel Falls to Crossover Falls and another unnamed falls roughly a quarter mile up the trail. I ate a snickers under a rock overhang next to the falls then donned my shell and bombed back down to my car without stopping.  All in all it was an excellent run in decent weather. It’s now one of my favorite trails, however I would only do this again on a weekday when there are less people. Maybe I can get Adam to accompany me...

The "potholes" and the "trail"

UNT

Bryan

Around 30 rock cairns