2012 Edition
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GETTING THERE: Start at the
Starvation Creek Trailhead (I-84 Eastbound, Exit 55) and
head along the freeway on the Mount Defiance Trail for about 0.2 miles. Turn left and
ascend the steep and rocky Starvation Cutoff Trail. 0.4 miles up this little nightmare,
you'll come to a 'T' with the Starvation Ridge Trail. Turn left here and you'll soon
come to a great view of the Columbia River Gorge. From here, the trail switchbacks up
past other great Gorge viewpoints for about a mile. After a while the switchbacks run
out and the trail steepens. It goes up and level, up and level, gaining a lot of elevation.
After about three miles, you'll come to a 'T' trail junction. Some maps call this new
trail the "Mitchell Point Trail" and some the "Warren Lake Trail", in either case, it's
numbered 417 and unsigned. Turn right here and descend about 100 feet in 0.3 miles to Warren Lake.
The traditional
Mount Defiance hike.
Our Spring, 2012 trail report can be found
HERE.
We were up here in December, 2011 but hadn't yet selected one Christmas Tree
to be our very own. It's nice up here and mostly secluded. Most of the people
doing the Mount Defiance hike go up using the traditional, knee buster route.
It's the same distance and same elevation gain this way but with waaaaaay
fewer people.
This is what it looks like up here in the Spring.
So we didn't plan it this way but as it turned out, Christmas Eve was the
only half way decent hiking day in the past several weeks. We hit the
trailhead at 09:00 which was probably a little later than we should have.
I was amazed that there was only one hiker in the parking lot and we never
saw him on the trail. Our plan was to go up and put a few ornaments
on our adopted tree (beats cutting one down and sending it to a landfill ten
days later, right?)... and take a photo op but our plans were dashed several
thousand yards before our destination when the deep snow just got to be too
much. I guess we could have done it with snowshoes, but we don't have any...
and it was getting late anyway. As it was, we made it back to the car just
as it was getting dark. Had we spent another half hour pushing forward
we would have had to do the last several miles in total darkness. Of
course I had several headlamps, beaucoup batteries and about 50# of survival
crap so that we'd be prepared if we wound up getting stuck up there for
Christmas. But... it was a nice hike, and a nice White Christmas and
Julie seemed happy (which makes me happy). Guess we'll go up in a few weeks
when the weather is better and do our decorating. Like the tree knows
how to read a calendar.
Trail report-wise, it wasn't too bad until we got to around 2,500'. The
snow drifts got deeper and the wind got stronger. I'm guessing it was below
30 degrees and with an 18-20 mph wind, it got downright frosty if we stopped
for more than a couple of minutes. The trail was mostly easy to follow
although I did lose it briefly. It was pretty slushy and slippery for a mile
or so which for me was the worst part until we started post-holing up
near the top. I'm guessing that a hike to Defiance would be out of the
question especially since they are forecasting another foot of snow up there
for Christmas.
A perfect end to a perfect day would have been Serpent Surprise and Kung Pao
at the Gorge Panda. But, they were closed by the time we got there a little
after 17:00. Oh well....
About a mile from the trailhead you'll turn South and follow the Starvation
Ridge spine for about 5 miles until you get close to Warren Lake. There's
one last viewpoint before you head into the forest... and we were treated to
this nice rainbow over Wind Mountain with a pot of gold in the middle of
the Columbia River.
About three miles from the trailhead you come out on this semi-viewpoint
looking West. Started hitting serious snow at around 2,000'. Got
downright cold and windy from here on out.
At about 4 miles from the trailhead, we hit the first of several scree
fields. The blowing snow was getting really deep by this time.
At about 4.6 miles from the trailhead, our destination was in sight.
Just past the top of this rise is where we wanted to go but the snow just
got too deep. Plus, we had burned up a lot of time postholing the last 1/2
mile or so and if we didn't turn back right away, we'd be returning in
pitch darkness.
So.... I enjoyed chomping the head off of Julie's gingerbread man and
had a little lunch before we headed back down.
Back at the power line viewpoint, about a mile from the trailhead. Julie
still looks fresh as a daisy.
We had maybe 15 minutes of daylight left when we got back to the car.
A quick visit to Starvation Falls and then off to the Gorge Panda which
turned out to be closed.
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