Mazama Hike Prospectus
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Mazama Hike Prospectus
General information:This 11 mile hike with 4600ft total elevation gain can be exceptionally challenging merely because after climbing one peak, you have to go down, down, around, down some more, and then climb another peak. Note: cell phones do NOT work in this area, nor within about 30 miles of the trailhead. It’s sometimes possible to get a signal on top of Elk and King – great for those “we made it!” summit calls that I’m sure you’ll all be eager to make. If you have a GPS and you’d like to play with that in this environment, bring it along! Maps and References:Maps: To get the entire hike, you need, wouldn’t you know it – FOUR USGS 7½ minute series maps: Oregon Quadrangles: Cochran, Jordan Creek, Rodgers Peak, and Woods Point. Or, you can print out the attached jpeg provided by Monty. Books: Pacific Northwest Hiking, by Ron C. Judd and Dan A. Nelson Meeting time and driving directions: You can carpool to the meeting spot, if you’d like, but you have to arrange, yourselves. Meeting place is at 8am at Target at 185th off of HWY 26: from the Mazama website: Go to http://www.mazamas.org/, put the mouse over “resources” and click on “Maps to Carpool Meeting spots (and more)”. You can click on the “Target & SW 185” at that place, or below, to get the map. Target & SW 185th 18101 NW Evergreen Pkwy, Beaverton Meeting place for hikes along the Oregon and southern Washington coast and in the coastal range. Park in the SW corner of Target’s parking lot just across the street from the coffee shop. Roundtrip mileage from Target is about 66 miles. The Mazamas have a suggested auto reimbursement contribution of $.10/mile which turns into $6.60 per person to a maximum of $19.80 per car. One way drive time from Target to the trailhead is about 45 minutes. From the Target carpool place, take either NW Tanasbourne Drive or NW Evergreen Parkway west a couple hundred feet to NW 185th, and make a right (north) onto 185th. Take a LEFT to merge onto US-26 West toward Ocean Beaches. Take this 10.7 miles to Oregon Highway 6 (Wilson River Highway) to Tillamook & Ocean Beaches. The Glenwood store will be roughly 13 miles from there. Monty’s car will be picking Leora up at the Glenwood store (just after the sign warning of Timber Junction being ¼ mile away, and just beyond milepost 40) at approximately 8:30am. Everyone will continue on another roughly 17 miles to roughly milepost 25, and park at the King’s Mountain Trailhead on the right (north) side of the road. (This is about 3.2miles beyond the Elk Creek Forest Park campground.) Permits / Fees (Trail, entrance, parking): No permits/Fees required (Hurray!!!) Weather:Early Tuesday morning, I’m seeing a forecast of overcast, but slightly warming temperatures (high of 61 degrees Fahrenheit). Be prepared for rain, just in case.Hiking Skills Required:Orienteering and hiking. Be ready for craggy steep ascents and descents (touch rocks with your hands).Hike expectations: We should be ready to go at 9am at the trailhead. We’ll proceed roughly east on a gentle traverse from the King’s trailhead to roughly the Elk’s trailhead. This 3 mile hike should take 1 to 1.5 hours. We’ll break for a snack – energy for the next chunk, which is about a 2 mile hike with roughly 2300ft elevation gain to the peak of Elk. This will likely be our lunch spot, unless it’s unbearably windy. From here, we’ll have a brief, but steep descent on the backside of Elk, and then more gentle descent followed by some gentle trails leading to a road. We’ll take the road to the left, toward King’s mountain, and after a very brief walk by a rock fall area (no, we won’t wear helmets, here), we’ll make another couple of steep descents, followed by a continuous climb until we break out of some trees and arrive on a gentle false summit, dive back into the trees for the final short ascent to the King’s Mountain summit where we’ll sign the log book, walk a just a little farther and take another longish break, and, if it’s a clear enough day, look at Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Jefferson to the east, and the ocean to the west, and other peaks of the coastal range to the north and south. If it’s miserable, we won’t dally too long, and just hunker down for the steep upper part of the descent, followed by a gentler descent. If we’re lucky, the Maiden Head fern will start to come out, and if we’re really lucky, besides Trillium flowers (which turn colors as they age), you’ll see some tiny lady slipper orchids. You’ll be sure to stop and oooh and ahhh at the tremendous trail tending work your leader did on the lower ½ of the King trail about a month ago. And if you’re really ambitious, you’ll return the next day (4/15), and help the Mazamas by joining the trail tending work on the Elk Peak trail. Hike Party Members
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