April 10, 2021
Today we did the Lyle Cherry Orchard hike. It’s been four years since I last did this hike so it was nice to revisit.
The weather was a mix of sun and clouds as we headed up the trail:
Bi-colored cluster lily:
Lupine:
There is this nice meadow early on in the hike where panicled death camas bloom this time of year:
The slope above us was covered in balsamroot:
The oaks hadn’t leafed out yet:
A weird day for weather, with sun and clouds at the same time for much of the day:
Greg admiring the view:
The trail traverses that big balsamroot slope we saw earlier, although it has been re-routed from it’s previous alignment since I was last here. This stretch is quite scenic:
Passing through some oak forest:
Ballhead waterleaf:
We reached a junction where the trail has been re-routed again. Now there is a lollipop loop at the end of this hike instead of the trail ending. There’s a viewpoint looking east upriver where we have traditionally stopped for a break, but it was SUPER windy and we didn’t even stop for a picture. We hurried on for the protection for the trees:
I have no idea what this line of posts is for:
On the way back at the top of the descent we could see rain coming our way. Fortunately it passed by to the south and we didn’t get rained on:
Back down through the balsamroot:
Tiny Greg on a big viewpoint:
We walked back through the death camas meadow. Note the balsamroot on the slopes beyond:
Beautiful hike, but SO MANY PEOPLE. We saw more people on the trail today than we have on all our previous visits combined. The trail re-route takes you through the balsamroot far more than the previous alignment so I think that has a lot to do with it. Not to mention that there are still some closed trails from the Eagle Creek Fire and people are looking for other places to go.
Gaia stats: 5 miles, 1,100′ elevation gain
