7.7 hr
Overview
The old Skyline Trail was a precursor to the Pacific Crest Trail, but was often routed through country that became accessible to loggers and was eventually abandoned. The trails you will hike on this excursion are all abandoned routes, part of the Skyline corridor, that have been kept in a modicum of order by volunteers. The Burnt Granite Trail #595 follows the route of the Skyline Trail; the southern section, below the Tarzan Springs Trail, then became part of the Rho Ridge Trail #564. The diversion to Tarzan Springs follows part of the route of the abandoned Trail #568, which joined the Rho Creek Trail below Fadeaway Spring. This area has other claims to fame as well and is considered prime Bigfoot country. Tarzan Springs was apparently named for a prospector who resided in the woods near there with a family of “ape-like” creatures. The rock pile at the Granite Peaks Viewpoint was the site of the 1967 witnessing of a small family of Bigfoot by Glen Thomas. According to Thomas, the creatures were vigorously turning over rocks and grabbing and eating small rodents that they found. It’s advisable to bring a small saw and some pruners. You will encounter blowdown along the way and the rhododendrons are a force to be reckoned with on the lower section of the trail: if it’s wet, be sure to don full rain gear or you’ll be soaked by dripping vegetation! The original trail crossing of FR 4650 was about half a mile west of this trailhead, and that is where you’ll find the remnants of the northern section of the Burnt Granite Trail heading down to the Clackamas River. The section described here heads up an old road bed past a clump of Sitka alder. Pass an old trail signboard and continue to rise on the rhododendron-lined road be under secondary-growth mountain hemlock, Douglas-fir, silver fir, and western white pine. The trail splits off the road bed at a fallen tree and resumes the route of the old Skyline Trail. Switchback and begin brushing through the rhododendrons overhanging the trail. Soon reach a dense, you
Trail Stats
19.0 km
1007 m
1478 m
0 m
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