Journalist By Nature: Circumnavigating Larch Mountain Crater

Sometimes you just don't know until you get there. The weather prediction included everything from partly cloudy to thunder storms and rain. We pack for most contingencies when hiking so adding and subtracting layers all during the day is routine. Pursuing our plan to hike a wider variety of trails this year we selected Larch Mountain with its scooped out volcano crater. Larch Mountain is barely into the Mt. Hood National Forest east of Corbett and drains into the Bull Run watershed. We often follow William Sullivan's trail guide book so were prepared with his map and hike description.

Trail guide for the day

Taking our lead from a fellow hiker very familiar with this area we found ourselves not at the base of the crater as planned but at the top of it. The trails all interconnect eventually but our leader knew from many hiking and trail biking trips here that a circumference route would be the best. Carrying but not following Sullivan's map we headed down the western rim of this now forested crater on a smooth and wide needle-strewn path into old growth timberland.

Tiny hemlock seedlings crowd parts of the verdant forest floor in the shadow of their giant elders: Douglas fir, Sitka spruce and hemlock. Common mosses thickly carpet the soil, rocks and downed trees here in the form of glittering wood-moss (Hylocomium splendens), big shaggy-moss (Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus) and common haircap moss (Polytrichum commune). Out of this mossy base spring pink and white trilliums, sword ferns, Oregon grape, yellow violets, and the newly opening snowy white Avalanche lilies. Wind-damaged trees lie piled at odd angles like pick-up sticks on a game table and those that fall over the trail are sawn in pieces which are then rolled helter-skelter away from the path. In both cases mosses take a quick foothold on them while insects begin their work of decomposition. Seedlings often grow from this forest fodder to launch a new generation of trees. The airy vine maples spread their thin branches throughout the lower story, popping new green palmate-shaped leaves which will turn to brilliant reds in the fall. We'll return to see this display of autumn color in October.

Pink trillium

Birds flit unseen through the high upper story, calling joyously to one another, avian trills and chortles echoing through the woods. There is reportedly a phone app that will identify a bird call by "listening" to it. You can pack a bird identification book on your hikes if that is a significant purpose of your journey. Be sure to bring binoculars. In any case, the birds add a sweet dimension to the otherwise quiet forest ambiance until the occasional roar of an approaching airplane crackles the air. This hike is near the eastern approach to the International airport at Portland. Lest I digress, the forest retains a juxtaposition of sounds, sometimes peacefully quiet while at other times clearly transmitting hikers' melodic conversation cadence. The curves and hills of the trail determine which sound effects are heard.

The Larch Mountain trail narrows in places as the ground growth of oxalis, wild ginger, bunchberry, bleeding heart, bear grass clumps, deer fern, manzanita, red-flowering currants, salmonberries and snowberry creep onto the trail in their spring awakenings. Other parts of the trail resemble a dry stream bed, rocks askew amid traces of water-carried soil. Tree roots form crude steps in many places, all making for a dramatic and bumpy mountain bike ride but a trip and stumble hazard for the foot traffic. Soggy parts of the path make for creative stepping but keep the trail from being dusty, a state that will occur later in the dry part of summer. The high branches of the evergreens stretching for sunlight keep the summer hiker cool and shaded. The air has a remarkably clean and pure sense to it, perhaps due to the river-facing orientation of the crater which catches the Gorge winds as they blow upriver, scouring out any unpleasantness of nearby city odors.

After accomplishing the nearly six and a half mile rim tour we pushed onward to the 4,056 foot elevation of Sherrard Point, the solitary viewpoint on this hike. A paved quarter mile path from the upper parking lot leads to 117 steps that bring visitors to a lookout station where heavy wire fencing keeps people from slipping into the crater but does not hinder the view of four Cascade peaks and the intermediate green vista of the National Forest. Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson are visible on a clear day. Some visitors report they have hauled dinner up the stairway to host a sunset party in a very dramatic setting. Food for thought, eh?

If you take this hike be certain to bring a well-defined map with trail descriptions. Pack the ten essentials as usual, bring trekking poles and be safe as you explore yet another enjoyable Pacific Northwest trail.