7.9 miles, 1700’ elevation gain

I’ve been struggling with some sciatica lately, so this was a fairly short day for me. I decided to go check out a couple areas on Bunchgrass Ridge, with the hopes of getting some decent photographs and exploring at least a short amount of new-to-me trail. I headed out past Oakridge and then up FR 5883. Just past the Verdun trailhead I turned off on FR 378 and drove up to the end of the road where there’s an access point for the Eugene to Crest Trail.

This was not the smartest place I’ve ever taken my car (a Kia Forte). I didn’t quite get stuck in loose muddy gravel or high-center the car, but I was pretty close, and definitely scraped bottom a few times. If you’re not drive a 4WD high clearance vehicle you might not want to drive this route. Also, there is some logging going on in the last half of this road, removing some of the hazard trees from the Cedar Creek fire. They weren’t working today but it’s pretty clear that access will be limited when they are.

Anyhow, I found the trail, or what’s left of it. I think a trail crew has used it for access recently, because there’s been some track trampled through the overgrowth, but there’s not much of a trail here. Ferns and ceanothus and other stuff pretty well cover the trail, up to hip-high, and with the recent rain I was pretty well soaked (and chilled) before I’d gone far.

This little access trail goes about 300 feet uphill in about 4/10 of a mile before merging on to the main Eugene to Crest Trail. I’d looked for it from above twice before and not found it, and today I didn’t notice when I’d joined the main trail - all of these trails are faint, and concentrating on following the track makes it hard to see other trails coming in at an angle. The join is somewhere around a post with green flagging tape tied to it, but the post isn’t all that obvious either. Anyhow, I went past the join going east nearly a mile, still heading gradually uphill, before I realized for sure that I was on the E2C trail. It doesn’t help that the Ranger District map has the trail placements from (the AdventureMaps map is much more accurate here).

My plan for the day was to go west, not east, with the hope of getting to the high point on Bunchgrass Ridge, so I turned around. Getting to the high point didn’t happen. If anything, this trail has deteriorated since I was last on it a year or so ago, through lack of traffic and brushing, as well as shrubs coming back on the slopes that were denuded by the fire. It’s still possible to follow through the meadows, but the hillsides with taller growth are problematic.

I gave up about a mile and a half west of the access trail, where, after several attempts to chart a path through the ceanothus, I couldn’t find the trail at all. Probably I could have picked it up again eventually, but I was hurting and damp and decided it wasn’t worth the effort, so I turned around and headed back east. I managed to miss the access trail yet again, and took 20 minutes or so to carefully bushwhack down a steep hill where I could see the road below. Then I road-walked back up to my car and managed to drive it back down FR 378.

It was still pretty early so I went further on FR 5883 to FR 381. This road (thankfully in good condition) leads uphill to the next Eugene to Crest access point. The trail here is in considerably better condition. I went downhill into the burn area and sat down for some lunch. Then I explored a bit - there is fresh flagging tape indicating that perhaps a trail reroute is planned here.

Back at the trailhead, I noticed another trail going uphill, which I didn’t remember from my last visit to this area. So of course I followed it, and discovered that someone has been doing serious trailbuilding here. This is not on any of the maps I’ve seen, but there is new trail headed east up Bunchgrass Ridge towards Fuji Mountain. There has been work on it in the past week, including logging and tread work, so this is a real project. I followed the new mystery trail for about half a mile from the trailhead before turning around, and there was no end in sight. Not at all sure what’s up here - I’ve been on the existing E2C route down to Deer Camp Lake, and this is not that. I’ll have to come back some day and see where it goes.

FR 378

Sunrise on Diamond Peak

Trail with burned trees and thimbleberry bushes

Fog-shrouded valleys from one of the meadows on the trail

Some of the miles of burned trees