Last year while doing trail work on the Bagby Trail I was interested in exploring the surrounding area and found remnants of a trail heading Southeast from the Guard Station site.
According to the Mt. Hood National Forest Recreation Map from 1963 the Trail is labeled #549 which is the Dickey Lake Trail.
A later Recreational Map has the Trail relabeled as #552 and it stops at FS6341.
I'm curious if anyone has any information on Trail #552 and FS6341 which I believe sections of which are abandoned.
My plans are to do a loop hike from the Guard Station site most likely bush whacking to FS4631 heading to Pansy Lake and coming around the Twin Lakes and back up the Bagby Trail.
Any insights and information would be appreciated.
Its funny you mention this - we were just up there a few weeks ago looking for more of it. The trail coming from the hot springs is pretty much gone, but not too far out there is tread - VERY overgrown but obvious tread with decent blazes. We followed it a ways but the tread and blazes kind of seemed to stop after about a half mile. We looked and eventually bushwhacked up to 6341 - unfortunately there is an old cut in this area - it is possible the trail survived if it went a bit farther north from where we were as that does not appear to have been cut. It is pretty rough going in places down there. I will say this - if you go, make sure you stay on the north side of Shower creek - it supposedly crossed the upper stretches but if you go too far down the creek it is just rhodie hell.
Parts of the tread we found were in pretty good shape and other parts are heavily overgrown and hard to navigate. The loop you propose sounds like a multi day trip - that is a VERY LONG loop to do in one day. I would say the trail we found would be pretty difficult with a full pack.
The other thing is that 6341 in that area has a LOT of logs across it - the road isn't decommissioned but it is obvious no one has driven up that far for a while. It is about 3 miles past the Pansy Lake trailhead. I'm not sure how far past Pansy the road can be driven.
If you find more tread I'd love to know what you found.