Clackamas River Trail

Longer than advertised, nicer than expected

I’d been eyeing this trail for a while, but I wasn’t interested in the Estacada area due to the usual issue with ‘locals’ (trash, target shooting, etc.). Since it was unlikely that many locals would out on a ~~Tuesday~~ Wednesday afternoon in January, we headed chose this spot.

We started at Fish Creek and headed upstream towards Pup Falls. The temperature was an unusually mild 54°F with a light breeze. There are no grand vistas on this hike, but there are plenty of waterfalls, creeks, seasonal seeps, old-growth, and river access points. Be advised that there are a number of areas where there is a falling hazard and some of these areas would be very dangerous in ice and/or snow.

About that old-growth – almost half way into the hike there is a wonderful stand of old-growth. Ancient western redcedars, Douglas firs, and western hemlocks. These aren’t the oldest or largest trees I’ve seen, however, the stand characteristics have all the key components of true old-growth, multi-storied canopy, large standing snags, and large woody debris on ground.

All the trail descriptions say it’s 7.4 miles round trip, but I run 2 GPS units and they came out 9.6 and 10.0 miles.