{"id":4113,"date":"2021-11-23T23:26:37","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T23:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=4113"},"modified":"2021-11-23T23:26:37","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T23:26:37","slug":"upper-wenaha-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2021\/11\/23\/upper-wenaha-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper Wenaha River"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, October 16, 2021<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The second hike I did while staying at the <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2021\/11\/11\/fry-meadow-guard-station\/\">Fry Meadow Guard Station<\/a> was the Upper Wenaha River. On the way I stopped to check out Lookout Mountain. The spur road to the top was closed so I parked on Road 62 where I had this amazing view of larches in color:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51609773237_1cf17710af_c.jpg\" alt=\"Larches!\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Although the fire lookout is off-limits to visitors &#8211; even now when it&#8217;s unstaffed &#8211; I could still see nice fall color from the ground:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51615719390_03d3860e38_c.jpg\" alt=\"Lookout Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618100906_fa91f2d4a2_c.jpg\" alt=\"Lookout Mountain\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I drove 6413 to 6415 to approach the trailhead from the east. The information I had only described the approach from the west so I didn&#8217;t know what to expect. The first two miles of 6415 weren\u2019t bad, but after that it got rougher. There were some nice larches to see along the way! It was a dirt road, not a gravel road, and idiots had driven it when conditions were muddy, creating deep ruts in several spots. At least there were only a few of those. There was lingering snow in a few spots, and some deep puddles, but the Outback was able to handle it. I wouldn\u2019t want to drive this in late spring or early summer soon after snowmelt because I\u2019m sure it\u2019s muddy as heck. Finally I arrived at the Timothy Springs Campground:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51619003435_d2a28e5d4c_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The old Timothy Springs Guard Station is behind the campground. It&#8217;s much smaller than the two-room Fry Meadow cabin where I was staying!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618121996_744a75b2be_c.jpg\" alt=\"Timothy Springs Guard Station\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618775154_73cb3fe4d9_c.jpg\" alt=\"Timothy Springs Guard Station\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618348783_77ae900c66_c.jpg\" alt=\"Timothy Springs Guard Station\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I set off down Wenaha River Trail #3106:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618991670_cf0c200851_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The sign said 31 miles to Troy. In 2019 <a href=\"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2019\/05\/07\/wenaha-river-hike-and-troy\/\">I hiked in<\/a> a 3.5 miles from that end, but there&#8217;s a LONG stretch of the middle that I&#8217;ve never seen:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618990470_b45f1aca52_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It was a very windy day and as I hiked I could occasionally hear branches crashing down in the forest. I hoped none would fall on me!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51619006890_e5b126e7ab_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The trail was entirely in the trees except for this one opening with a &#8220;view&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618790239_8b25864a33_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s downhill all the way:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618364163_bdfcb67afd_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I passed this little trickle of a side stream:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51617311802_a21eea8f83_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then at 2.3 miles I reached the South Fork Wenaha River. The trail crosses here but this was my turnaround point so I sat on a log and had a snack:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51618145716_3ae7d28b01_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51619016055_8e4e3f9940_c.jpg\" alt=\"Upper Wenaha Hike\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Then I turned and climbed back up out to the car. I saw no one on the trail. I drove 6415 out to the west this time and that stretch was really good, not rough at all. As I made my back to Fry Meadow I passed lots of beautiful larches. Finally at this spot I stopped the car and took a few photos:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51622297632_f9fde8a189_c.jpg\" alt=\"Western larch\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51623128021_b03aa1bbf2_c.jpg\" alt=\"Western Larch\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Beautiful, but windy, day!<\/p>\n<p>Gaia stats: 4.7 miles, 960&#8242; elevation gain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday, October 16, 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4114,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[159,218,242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4113"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4147,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4113\/revisions\/4147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}