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Past Activity

Gold Lake—Fuji Shelter—Salt Creek Falls Explora

  • Start date: 02/18/2019

  • Start time: 12:00 AM

  • End date: 02/18/2019

  • End time: 11:59 PM

Description:

I AM GOING TO CONVERT THIS TO FUJI SHELTER AND BACK. IF WE CAN GET TO FUJI SHELTER, WE MAY TRY TO GO FURTHER UP THE TRAIL OR INTO THE BIRTHDAY LAKES AREA. SEVEN INCHES OF SNOW FELL LAST NIGHT UP ON HIGHWAY 58 AND THAT ALONE WILL MAKE GETTING TO FUJI SHELTER A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF WORK.
I have done all of this but the last mile between Fuji Shelter and Fuji Mt Trail on the Tie Trail)
NOTE: If snow conditions are unfavorable, the hike will be changed or cancelled.
NOTE: If there is only one car, the route may be to the shelter and back or some other change, since we can't do a shuttle.

From Gold Lake Sno-Park, we climb slightly then descend to the shelter, cross Salt Creek, and climb to Waldo Road. We cross the road and climb on Fuji Mtn Trail 1.6 miles and 800' vertical to the Tie Trail. There is some more climbing on the first part of the Tie Trail, but from there to the Shelter is up and down. I’ve gone about 1/3 of the Tie Trail. From the Shelter, we have a long 3.7 mile descent to Salt Creek Falls. Cars will be at both ends. We are descending more than we are climbing, but there is a long climb from Waldo Road, and if we are breaking through deep snow we may have to abort and go back to Gold Lake. It is 5.1 miles from Gold Lake to where I stopped on the Tie Trail and it took me about 2h45m and I had to break trail all the way from Waldo Road. The climb itself was not bad.

Not everybody has to break trail, but effort is always appreciated!!

  • Event Leader: Mike Smith

  • Event Leader Phone: 520-488-9569

  • Event Leader Email: mssq@comcast.net

  • Assistant Leader:

  • Event category: Trips

  • Area Type: Mountain

  • Departure Location: Lane Community College, parking lot nearest stoplight

  • Rating: Difficult

  • Roundtrip total drive miles: 130

  • Season: 2019

  • Permits Required:

  • Event Status: Passed

  • Supplies and Equipment Required: Bring plenty of snacks, water, layers, sunglasses, pads to sit on, usual snowshoe accoutrements. We need 3 cars for 6-8 people, 2 for 5 people and we need Sno-Park passes. I have one. Gaia GPS is accurate; Garmin 550t GPS is not accurate.

  • participant prerequisites:

  • Conditions:

  • Total Distance: 10.5

  • Member Fees: 1

  • Elevation Gain: 1200

  • Non-Member Fees: 5

  • Committee: Trips

  • Junior member fees: —

Trip Report

Four of us had a good snowshoe up to Fuji Shelter and back. It was the right decision NOT to try the loop. From Fuji Shelter the Tie Trail had unbroken 2-3 feet of heavy snow. We tried walking in it, and we would have had trouble going a mile, let alone five. Some other time!!

The trail was broken and easily hiked. We made good time on a clear, sunny day up to Fuji Shelter, where we had lunch. While there, clouds rapidly moved in and obscured Diamond Peak. While we were all warm enough going uphill, it was cold at the shelter and we were a lot cooler descending.

We will post a picture of some sort of track that we open to discussion as to what it might be. A bear sliding downhill was one thought. Whatever it was had to have come downhill, crossed the trail, and dropped to the woods on the other side, where it wasn't clear what happened to it.

People were parked along Highway 58 when we finished. While there were a lot of people there, we saw only two people (backpackers) descending as we went up to Fuji. Nice quiet day to be on the north side of 58!