Coldwater Lake Loop, MSH

It had been years since I had travelled up to the Johnson Ridge Observatory or the Coldwater Lake area. Last year, I spent some time up towards Ape Canyon volunteering at the Volcanic 50k and was amazed by the quality of trail and beautiful scenery. The following winter, I spent some time pouring over maps of the area trying to determine where some good training runs would be and waiting for the snow to melt.

 

My route took me down the the lake, around to the backside, then up around the peaks on the right

The opportunity finally presented itself a couple weeks ago so I made the 2 hour trip North to check out the Coldwater Lake area of the National Volcanic Monument. The weather was supposed to be hot, and while it was over 90 degrees in Portland, it probably only hit 75ish in the mountains. Despite that, it still seems very hot and most of the run was exposed with little tree cover.

 

Mt. Margaret Backcountry

 

Old tractor up ended by the volcano.

I got the the top of this trail and ran into 12 mountain bikers. At first I thought that they were poaching trail, then I realized that they were doing trail work. I stopped and talked to one of the guys and he told me that they were a group from Castle Rock and had made a deal with the Forest Service that if they maintained the trails then they could have access to those areas. While they can't make the loop all the way around to the Observatory due to sensitive areas, they have already cleared path around the lake and up and beyond tractor junction. I'll have to remember this so I can come back and ride it. The views are insane and the downhill looks like lots of fun.

Coming up to the pass

My proposed route would follow Coldwater Lake trail from the old visitor center then climb up and around to the Coldwater Peak Pass and St. Helen’s Lake. I had the goal of trying to summit Coldwater Peak, but some minor snow fields, the fact that I was by myself and the fact that I couldn’t exactly determine the correct route, pushed me towards the more attainable goal nearby. From there I wound by way down to Johnson Ridge then down towards the Hummocks and back to the old visitor center.

   

The road to Johnson Ridge. I came from over the second ridge

St. Helens Lake pano

Tough Trail

Famous Rock Arch

MSH had a hat on for most of the day

Looking back the way I had came

Johnson Ridge is on top of that hill in the middle

Trail on the left of the ridge face

Hordes of people

Other than the hordes of people around the visitor center, there were only a few people on the trails since made it pretty nice. I would have to say that this was one of the most enjoyable runs that I’ve ever done. Pretty tough, but very beautiful. After looking over towards the Mt. Margaret Backcountry, it confirmed the fact that I would love to run the loop around St. Helen’s Lake through that wilderness area. I would also love to run around MSH via the Loowit Trail this fall if my body holds up. As of now, I have a permit to climb MSH the first weekend in August so I am looking forward to that opportunity.

 

After the Observatory, the wildflowers exploded. Lupine and Indian Paintbrush

In total, I ran 24 miles in 4:46:29 and covered 5,217ft in elevation gain. Not a bad training run considering all the time spent taking pictures.

UNT

Bryan

Redwood National Park

Stout Grove

Well I've been pretty bad at posting recently, but I have been up to a few up to a few fun adventures. Kerrie and I headed down to the redwood national park for her birthday. On the way, we also stopped at Oregon Caves National Monument.

It's hard to take good pictures in a cave.

Spiral Staircase to the underworld

Heart of the cave

Monster Column

We had a four day weekend so we took our time and enjoyed the vacation and the road trip. The partially crappy part and good part was that it was a rest week for me training wise, but I still had to put in a few longer runs.

The first night we camped on the side of the road up by the Oregon caves. Our campground was closed and we didnt feel like driving all the way back down the winding road and pay $25 for less than a half a day of camping. It worked out, but would have been nice to have the rocket box.

The seat in the Element hold almost completely flat. Super nice for car camping.

All packed up

The next day we headed down to Crescent City and checked out Stout Grove and Boy Scout Tree in the Jedediah Smith State Park. This was our first experience with the big trees and it was breath taking. The road in and out of the area was also super cool. It was a cross between Jurassic Park and Return of the Jedi.

From there, we carried on to Mill Creek Campground and promptly crashed due to being so tired from the night before and not eating enough that day.

The next day we got up and headed down the coast. We stopped at Klamath Overlook to check out some whales and also made our way along the coast on a back gravel road which was right next to the ocean. I'd say that except for the trees, driving these cool back roads were pretty cool

Hard to make out the spray from the whale on these photos

Cool backroads

Old WW2 covert radar station.

Eventually we made it to Prairie Creek Campground, which was definitely a cool campground, although the Stellar Jays were particularly annoying with their scavenging traits.

Kerrie likes marshmallows

I was able to get out for a 16mi run and covered a good section of the park, but it was pretty cool to be out there all alone with all those massive trees. It was a little spooky though not seeing anyone out on the trail till the very end towards Fern Canyon. The trails were in great condition and it would have been lots of fun to explore the area more thoroughly.

That night Kerrie and I went out to try and spot some elk. We barely made out of the entrance of the campground and there they were right in front of us. It was pretty cool to see them up close.

The next day we went and checked out Fern Canyon and the beach on another sweet dirt road. Fern canyon was pretty spectacular with all the bright green ferns and cool creeks. We also spent a good amount of time checking out the beach before heading down to Eureka to check out a few breweries. In the end, we went to Lost Coast Brewery, Redwood Curtain Brewing and Six Rivers Brewery.

Late night fireside Scrabble game

All trip must come to an end so on Monday morning we packed up the car and headed up 101 towards Reedsport, OR. Our goal was to check out the Southern Oregon coast as neither of us had ever been there. We stopped at a few roadside trails, Cape Blanco, and Oregon Dune National Recreation area before heading East to I-5.

Arches. Sam Boardman Scenic Highway

Towards Cape Blanco lighthouse

UNT

Bryan