Calendar

Past Activity

Wassen Creek/Dark Grove

  • Start date: 07/01/2017

  • Start time: 12:00 AM

  • End date: 07/01/2017

  • End time: 11:59 PM

Description:

We will make a loop hike through the dense old growth forest of the proposed Devil's Staircase Wilderness Area in the Coast Range. There is no maintained trail nor trailheads in this area, but we will follow some faint user trails and Elk trails along a route I scouted in May, from one informal trailhead to another, with a return by a logging road.
Please be advised that this is a off-trail, bushwhack trip that requires crawling over and under countless logs, through thickets of devil's club, vine maple and nettles, and climbing up and down steep creek banks. Our progress will be slow and we will need to take extra precautions to keep the group together. There are no fine views or sights to see, but we will be immersed in the forest.

  • Event Leader: Gordon Sayre

  • Event Leader Phone: 541-515-9450

  • Event Leader Email: gsayre@uoregon.edu

  • Assistant Leader:

  • Event category: Trips

  • Area Type: Mountain

  • Departure Location: South Eugene High School, 19th & Patterson

  • Rating: Difficult

  • Roundtrip total drive miles: 125

  • Season: 2017

  • Permits Required:

  • Event Status: Passed

  • Supplies and Equipment Required: Sturdy hiking boots, heavy long pants and shirt to withstand thorns. Gloves would be useful. Also lunch, water, and ten essentials.

  • participant prerequisites:

  • Conditions:

  • Total Distance: 5

  • Member Fees: 1

  • Elevation Gain: 500

  • Non-Member Fees: 5

  • Committee: Trips

  • Junior member fees: —

Trip Report

Three years ago Oregon Wild staff Chandra LeGue helped lead an Obsidians trip to this part of the proposed Wassen Creek wilderness, a rare flat area with enormous old growth firs. This time I scouted with fellow Obsidian John Hartman a loop hike that continues past Dark Grove to the creek, then climbs up a different user trail along a ridge to a different trailhead. We began in a misty cloud, and got very wet, but the moisture did not reach the bottoms of the valleys. Our group of six was able to follow the user trail from an unmarked trail head, and then retrace a route along elk trails and through the dense vine maple and devils club. GPS was useful to confirm that we were on course. Progress is very slow but it is awe inspiring to be submerged in the forest. One can never see far, and instead looks closely at mosses, ferns, insects, and animal tracks. We saw fresh bear prints, lots of elk, and what appeared to be cow pies (?) on the roads. The next challenge would be to reach the Devil's Staircase waterfall, two miles or so downstream from the place we had lunch on the banks of Wassen Creek.