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Fantastic trail. Very entertaining and beautiful even with the Burn. You can actually see the rock formations that the trees had hidden. Highly recommended. Lots of wildflowers & waterfalls. Still snow patchs and waters running high. Sturdy shoes w/ankle support for the rocky patches.
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A few improvements sense my last visit. Brought the wife this time. An enjoyable afternoon.
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Hiked at the end of April up to Twister Falls. Beautiful hike. Waterfalls were raging from recent rain and snow melt. Early flowers in bloom.
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As always, Mt. Defiance delivers. Wonderful hike up defiance down starvation.
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Such a great hike. Tunnel falls is a great turn around. Stop at the spot by the middle bridge and take a dip. Hike back and take a dip in Punchbowl. Great on hot day.
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This is a quick and easy hike to
Do with great views of 5 mountains. It couples well with a weekend stay a Wahtum lake campground and a swim in the lake after.
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Beautiful waterfalls down low, large burnt area, choss rail up top with lots of snow- about a mile to the top. 5k in 5 miles
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Casey creek portion of the hike was on no trail and a lot of blown down trees. I think this trail was not beaten in 5 years since the fire from 2017… and hour descent was done in 3 hours :-)
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This was a difficult hike but great for not seeing many other people and getting in shape. The bear grass was stunning and Warren Lake was beautiful .
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Hiked on 8/8/20. Trailhead still closed. Started from Wyeth street. Gravel forest road. Then Off to the right, is a path that will get you to the trail. From car to split of loop is about 1.5miles or so. Clocked about 11 (23,000 steps anyway lol) miles RT. Did a lot of “lookouts”. I did the little peak and also climbed to the top of Indian point. Just be careful. Went right at the split. Took me 3.5hrs to get to “top”, including the 3100 peak. Could t get through the deadman part of loop. Trail is overgrown. But way overgrown there. Pretty views. The route back down was way less steep. Or more gradual anyway. Ran back to car. Took me an hour. Only saw 1 other person.
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Enjoyable day in the woods. Did the main hike and then some exploring.
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Loved this hike. We’re training for Mt.Baker and wanted some elevation gain. This gave us 3,000 feet in relatively short hike. We went counter clockwise as the ground was more dirt and pine needles which made it easier on the knees. The summit to Nick Eaton was no view at all. So many trees everywhere. Overall nice hike but tough for anyone not used to going straight up.
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Tried to go further up Nick Eaton, but it was extremely overgrown. Recommend sticking to the smaller loop.
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Herman Creek Trail #406 to Gorton Creek Trail #408 to Ridge Cutoff Trail #437 to Nick Eaton Trail #447.
Took us approx. 5 hrs round trip with breaks and hanging out at the point. Beautiful color/texture contrast with burnt trees and new foliage/wildflowers. Amazing gorge views throughout. Fairly challenging for us novice hikers, but nothing undoable for newbs. Going up on the steep, switchback-y Nick Eaton might save your knees vs going down it.
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Took us approx 5 hr round trip via the Ridge Cutoff Loop. Beautiful contract of burnt trees and new foliage/wildflowers. Amazing gorge views throughout. Fairly challenging for a couple of novice hikers, going up Nick Eaton to start the loop might save your knees.
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Super challenging hike. Great if you want a challenge and to cross Mt Defiance off the bucket list. We did is as a training hike for a longer backpacking trip. There are better view hikes around and the TV antenna campus at the top is not the tranquil, wilderness experience I was looking for. Trail surface is very loose and coming down was precarious. But super satisfying to have done.
Note: the very bottom of the Starvation creek trail was closed due to a slide, so you can either do an out and back on Mt defiance trail, or we cut across to rejoin trail above slide.
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I intended to hike a ways up the Mt Defiance trail but took a wrong turn. Near the top the trail narrows and is overgrown with young trees. I went as far as my stamina would let me. All in all I would say it was a good effort for the first hike after several years.
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Hiked up to Green Point Mountain summit on May 12, 2019 from the Herman Creek trailhead and continuing on #406 until forking off onto the Nick Eaton Trail #447. As was the case last year, much of the trail on Nick Eaton ridge is filled with dry needles, burnt bark, and downed limbs making the trail easy to lose if you're not focused. Once you hit the Gorton Creek trail #408, you enter the unburnt forest which has preserved much of the trail until you get to around 4,200' of elevation. At that point, it's snow up to the summit.
The depth of the snow varies from 2'-3' all the way to the top - all of it a hard, rippled snow. There is no trace of a trail to be found, so have GPS ready if you plan to do this hike since it's roughly 2 miles of snow crushing to the top. You'll also encounter bear tracks along the way although I did not spot any black bear on this day's adventure. Most of the climb is gradual until you get to the final 100' climb where you'll need to just find the safest way up to the top. Once at the summit, it's nice and clear of snow since it's been exposed to the sun for some time now. The view was spectacular and all mountains in the area were clearly visible including Mt. Ranier.
On the way down I completed the loop by taking the Herman Creek trail all the way back to the trailhead. Fortunately, going downhill in the snow wasn't too bad since the descent was gradual. After about three quarters of a mile down from the summit at the Wahtum Lake Road junction all snow was gone. The rest of the hike down included rushing creeks and waterfalls from the season's snow melt.
Awesome hike which will give your legs a good workout, especially once you start up the Nick Eaton trail. Would give this hike 5 stars if it wasn't for the condition of the trail from Nick Eaton ridge to the summit. Still, if you have a GPS unit, this is definitely a hike to put on your list.
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Hiked 5/6/19 13.6 miles with 5249 elevation gain. Did a loop hike starting with Defiance trail, to Mt. Defiance summit, to Warren Lake, to Mitchel Point, to Starvation Ridge trail and back on Mt. Defiance. Took us over 14hrs to complete. I was the first car in the lot at Starvation Creek State Park at 4:15am. Mt. Defiance was a great steep switchback trail with some flat sections in the forrest up high. Lots of downed trees on the trail. There is snow right after the scree field trail junction which we opted out of and crossed the snow instead (we used our microspikes in the snow). 2 to 4ft of snow in places. 2 miles or more of snow. Views were amazing the day we went. Couple good camp spots at Warren Lake. Mitchell point had OK views. Starvation Trail was super hard with very few switchbacks, so you're almost always going straight down. Poison oak on the trail, so make sure you cover up your skin. Lots of beautiful flowers and amazing view points.
Visited 12/8/18. Beautiful area to stop at for hiking, sightseeing and a great lunch spot with a couple picnic tables next to Viento falls. Paved trails look very new. Bathrooms were flushing toilets and very clean inside, but only have air dryers, no paper towels for drying your hands. I've seen this place a bunch of other times while visiting the gorge and have always wanted to stop by and check it out. I came here to hike mt defiance trail. The trailheads are easy to find. Mt defiance, starvation ridge and a couple others are on the 14 going west when you walk on the paved path. Starvation ridge from historic trail paved path is closed but you can reach it on mt defiance trail. I did not complete trails because there were creek crossings on both mt defiance and starvation ridge that had no bridges, I was wearing my summer hiking boots (not wanting to get them wet in the water), it was cold out and I was hiking alone. This area is a must stop if you have the time to check it out. I will definitely be back to hike again. Counted 4 waterfalls.
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First one on the trail and in the parking lot at 7:05am on 12/24/18. Hiked 8.9 miles counterclockwise from Herman Creek to Gorton Creek to Nick Eaton trail and back to Herman Creek. ( I had a pre recorded map, very helpful to have.)
I tried this trail a couple of years ago before I got into shape and I could not finish it, it was brutal and I was, barely move sore for days after. I've been hiking practically every weekend this year and I finally was able to finish this trail!!!
I did this trail counterclockwise, starting with Gorton creek was long (when you get close to the top the snow begins and much of the flat trail on Nick Eaton is covered in snow, it was not icy, so no microspikes needed 12/24/18.), with lots of switchbacks and a creek crossing and on the way down on Nick Eaton trail was brutal, my toes were smashed against the tips of my boots with every step, there are steep switchbacks on the tail end for me of this hike. My feet were so sore when I got to the Herman Creek, Pct trail, otherwise I would have gone down to check out the Herman Creek Bridge (next time!). Finished the hike at 1pm and was hiking for around 6hrs. Most of the trail is really steep so be prepared! When I got back to my car there were 4 other cars in the lot. The parking lot holds 10 cars. You must have a NW forrest pass or pay $5 day use fee. There is a pay box here. The campground when I came here is closed. The bathroom is vaulted toilet and was clean when I got there in the am, but on the smelly side when I left in the PM. I saw 6 people on the trail and all were on my descent, so after 11:30am or so. All of this trail above the power line road was affected by the eagle creek fire.
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We did this about a year after the fire at Eagle Creek and had a good look at the damage done as well as how the forest is recovering. The trails showed evidence of maintenance and there was only one small tree on the trail to go over. It was impressive how far up the tree the fire went yet how many of the larger trees survived.
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